Chinese Martial Arts

The themes in this book—drawn from Chinese history, culture, and martial arts experience—are entwined in a fictional narrative to animate events envisaged to have occurred during the mid-eighteenth century. From the outset, a thin veil separates fact from fiction. Our story starts with a discovery. While conducting research at the Vatican Library on the Jesuit missions in China, two scholars find a folder of papers written in Chinese among documents belonging to Giuseppe Castiglione (1688–1766), a painter at the royal court in Beijing. The papers turn out to be written by a fellow ...

The heavenly defenses struggle to hold against the combined might of the Eastern and Western demon hordes. The god of War Xuan Wu is now at full strength - but is his might enough to safeguard the realm when half the heavens are already in their hands? John and Emma fight a last-ditch desperate struggle to conserve their kingdom and their protect their families.

When we think of martial arts in “old China,” we get visions of violent convulsions of dynastic change, devastating rebellions, civil wars, and banditry. Throughout the centuries there was a need for masters who possessed highly effective martial skills for positions in the military, protection services, and law enforcement. Out of this historical reality emerged a national treasure we call taijiquan. Chen t’ai chi's mystique remains fundamentally a true fighting art, including bare-handed forms and applications, plus an arsenal of weapons that includes the spear, straight sword, ...

In the grand sweep of Chinese history, the woman warrior is both ever-present and curiously obscured. She appears in poems and operas, in dynastic chronicles and martial folklore, yet she is rarely centered in the official narratives of empire. She is often remembered not by name, but by role: the filial daughter, the loyal wife, the grieving mother, the rebel widow. And yet, she endures. From the legendary Hua Mulan to the pirate queen Ching Shih, from the drum-beating general Liang Hongyu to the revolutionary matron Mother Lü, Chinese history is threaded with women who took up arms—not...

When we think of martial arts in “old China,” we get visions of violent convulsions of dynastic change, devastating rebellions, civil wars, and banditry. Throughout the centuries there was a need for masters who possessed highly effective martial skills for positions in the military, protection services, and law enforcement. Out of this historical reality emerged a national treasure we call taijiquan. Chen t’ai chi's mystique remains fundamentally a true fighting art, including bare-handed forms and applications, plus an arsenal of weapons that includes the spear, straight sword, ...

In Chinese martial arts, esotery, religion, pseudo-science and elements of cult like behavior are norm, especially when it comes to anything that has word “gong” in it. Qigong, Weigong, Neigong, are the most exploited terms by martial teachers through which they explain their martial theories. Since early 2000’s the prevalent fashion in Chinese Martial Arts is that theory and practice is moving in the direction of pseudo-science and esotery. Martial theories over time change, and last two decades have seen extremely rapid change, becoming extremely complex with a clear intention to ...

Tai Chi is a mystical art that promises martial power, as well as good health. But sometimes, it is just too abstract to know if we are doing it correctly. This book is for practitioners who wish to get on the right track and aims to explain Tai Chi with no abstract concepts, scientific concepts, and even styles-specific concepts.

A needle may draw a thread through printed pages to bind a book. In this little memoir, I feel like a needle that drew a common thread though a segment of martial art history. This book details three interrelated activities: (1) martial art studies, (2) involvement as founder of Via Media Publishing, producing a quarterly journal and books, and (3) teaching martial arts. Publishers, writers, researchers and serious martial art practitioners will benefit with the detailed overview of Via Media and its publications. Via Media produced the Journal of Asian Martial Arts, known for its high ...

For what cause would a person decide to sacrifice their time, money, and perhaps their own life blood? Surely any vital decision would be made for good reasons. In the new book Wuxia America the story of a Chinese American doctor illustrates what it truly means to be a hero. Dr. Jason Lou represents a medical tradition transmitted over centuries through his family lineage. In 1857, his ancestor brought their medical arts to California from China to serve the growing Chinese population who arrived during the gold rush and railroad building period. In today’s social atmosphere of hate-...

Anyone who has studied taiji long enough to gain proficiency in the fundamental practices, probably has read enough to also grasp the general history and theory of the art. What we read influences our ideas about what the word “taiji” represents as a practice. For this reason, it is beneficial to look outside the mainstream writings to gain a broader view of the rich tradition taiji encompasses. A look at some of the lesser-known lineages can illustrate fascets of taiji that would have otherwise been overlooked or under appreciated. In the first chapter in this anthology, Wong Yuenming ...

A praying mantis insect faces any danger regardless of it’s opponent’s size and strength. If you’ve seen their parade of innate fearlessness, it is easy to see why they have inspired the creation of a Chinese martial art style. This anthology assembles the work of four highly qualified authors who present rare information about praying mantis boxing. In the first chapter, Dr. Martin Eisen interviews Gin-foon Mark, a noted fifth-generation master of Guangxi Province Bamboo Grove Praying Mantis. Mark discusses training in Chinese temples and compares it with the common training methods ...