Cheng Tzu's Thirteen Treatises on T'ai Chi Ch'uan: Cheng-Tzu T'ai Chi Ch'uan Shih San P'Ien

from dust jacket

In this erudite yet practical book Professor Cheng shares the secrets of his lineage and takes us to the heart of T'ai chi Ch'uan, presenting it as a martial art, a medicine, and a means of exercise and self-development. With examples from anatomy and physics, he demonstrates

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precisely how the postures and moves work, internally as energetic principles, and externally on opponents. He makes plain the spheres, triangles, and centripetal and centrifugal forces wthin physical exchanges such as push-hands. Contrasting Western and Chinese techniques of healing, he also explores the relationships of organs to one another in pathology and the necessary dynamics of treatment. Profesor Cheng always emphasizes that disease (like an attack from an opponent) is an opportunity for training. The practitioner of T'ai Chi Chuan may serve as his or her) own doctor and, likewise, as the physician (or trainer) of an attacker. The martial arts are not a special case of unusual power; they are simply an aspect of adapting natural and cosmic law to circumstance. At this pont philosophy intself meerges with mater, physics becomes meditation, and the gravitational forces of the universe are our ally.

This special text includes:
Thirteen essays on his insights into t'ai chi ch'uan
Oral secrets from his teacher, Yang Cheng'fu
Questions and answers giving his commentary on the classics
Professor Cheng's application and function of each of the thirty-seven postures of the short form with the original set of illustrative photographs of him as a young man
Description and mechnanics of push-hands, San Shou, and Ta Lu
Prefaces by both Madame Cheng and Benjamin Pang-Jeng Lo

Contents

Introduction by Madame Cheng
Indroduction by Benjamin Pang-jeng Lo
Biography of Man-Jan
Section I
Treatise One: Explanaton of the Name and Definition
Treatise Two: Understanding the Occult and the Physical
Treatise Three: Developing the Ch'i to Attain Suppleness
Treatise Four: Changing the Temerament
Treatise Five: Swimming on Land
Treatise Six: Equal Importance of the Heart and Spine
Treatise Seven: Strength and Physics
Treatise Eight: Maintainng Life and the Original State
Treatise Nine: Benefiting the Internal Organs
Treatise Ten: Recovery From Lung Disease
Treatise Eleven: The Levesls of T'ai Chi Chu'an
Treatise Twelve: Comprehending Creation and Destruction
Treatise Thirteen: Explanaton of the Oral Secrets With Forward and Commentary
Afterward
Section II
Explanation of the Essential Points-Professor Yang's Essential Points of T'ai Chi Ch'uan ; The Respected Transmission
Important Sectrets of T'ai Chi Ch'uan Diagrams and Illustrations-Single Movements; Push Hands; Ta Lu; San Shou
Section III
Answers to Students' Questions
Song of Substance and Form
Glossary

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