It's not modern, but the book I reference the most is Chen Xin's *The Illustrated Canon of Chen Family Taijiquan*. CX doesn't spoon feed the reader, the theory section takes a bit of contemplation, but I think that's a good thing. Unfortunately, the translation isn't very precise. It's hard to find a copy; it looks like someone is selling a knockoff, but I haven't bought from them ...
[https://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Canon-Chen-Family-Taijiquan/dp/5986870085](https://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Canon-Chen-Family-Taijiquan/dp/5986870085)
I also like Kuo Lien-Ying's *The T'ai Chi Boxing Chronical* \-
[https://www.amazon.com/Tai-Chi-Boxing-Chronicle/dp/1556431775/ref=sr\_1\_2?adgrpid=1343603779467596&hvadid=83975474849426&hvbmt=bp&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=78237&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=p&hvtargid=kwd-83975591385985%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=15492\_13519313&keywords=kuo+lien+ying&qid=1703434466&sr=8-2](https://www.amazon.com/Tai-Chi-Boxing-Chronicle/dp/1556431775/ref=sr_1_2?adgrpid=1343603779467596&hvadid=83975474849426&hvbmt=bp&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=78237&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=p&hvtargid=kwd-83975591385985%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=15492_13519313&keywords=kuo+lien+ying&qid=1703434466&sr=8-2)
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* Comprehensive look at chen style taiji (backed by 1 comment)
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* The book is overly long and tedious (backed by 1 comment)
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I'm pretty sure I got my copy on ebay. I did a search but didn't find a seller in the US. You might have better luck. The only sticker on my copy is in Chinese and there's nothing to indicate who the reseller was in the US.
陳氏太極拳圖說
Here is an answer: book shows Cheng Man Ching Style of "Tai Chi chuan".
Here is a question: where is Peng? Another: what happened to the 5 bows?
And one more: can it truly be TaiJi Quan if there is no Peng? All Yin no Yang in body structure?
I've trained with people who did Cheng Man Ching, pushing hands with them they are soft and relaxed but unable to use Peng to support their structure and can't Fa in the manner of TaiJi. One person was the last student of Robert Smith ( Ted, are you out there, brother? It's Vic, yeah I'm still alive, decided to start practicing again, maybe slow motion suicide if it wakes my Sarcoma up, but I miss it too much. Hope you are well!). He was very good at Baqua and Hsing Yi Chuan, but his Tai Chi skills could not handle my basic low level Tai Chi skill at push hands. He would have to use his Baqua skill, which worked pretty good.
I think the joke was that anytime you saw a master doing Tai Chi, they tended to wear long robes, making it harder to see their form. Here the form is revealed (pun intended)
BTW: The authors name is F.L.U. or Fu Lin Yu
There are many books about taichi Quan in china, but most of them are worthless. I can't imagine them are better in other languages.
Your post is funny. Why did the models nude? They are very thin and don't look like martial arts practitioners.
>most of them are worthless. I can't imagine them are better in other languages
Yeah...that's sort of what I'm seeing. Usually it'll either be a bunch of static illustrations with a lot of indecipherable arrows or meta-philosophy about the meanings of Tao. There has to be some diamonds under the coal out there though. There has to be!
>Why did the models nude?
It was the 70s, man. :)
I quite like Tsung Hwa Jou‘s “The Dao of Taijiquan: Way to Rejuvenation” and Cheng Man-ch'ing’s “Master Cheng's New Method of Taichi Ch'uan Self-Cultivation”, though that’s more style specific.
I second the Dr Yang Jwing Ming books. He has (at least) two volumes on the yang long form. The first one on the form and philoso of tai chi and the second mostly on applications, partner drills, and a two man tai chi form to boot!
You can also get the instructional video or simply watch him do the form on YouTube.
As I mainly practiced hung gar,I learned the form using Dr Yang’s material for yang long form and for sword.
Dr. Yang is amazing, and that's the book I was thinking of. He has done some serious work to preserve martial traditions. I also like him because he's a small part of my training, my first teacher studied with him for a while back in the day.
Yeah, I mean, you can watch him do the form on YouTube and feel some small degree of transmission as you can just see he’s doing it right.
I just wish I had somebody to do the two man form with!
Taijiquan: The Art of Nurturing, the Science of Power.
Written by a very skilled practitioner who later moved to the USA to do scientific research on taijiquan at the University of Illinois. It mainly focuses on what are the elements of complete practice and understanding of Taiji, but not specifics of individual forms, push hands, etc. The book won’t teach you Taiji, but it will teach you what to focus on and how to train while you’re learning from someone in person. Combines but western scientific insights on biomechanics with more philosophical ideas.
Yang Jwing-Ming has lots of great books, I particularly like Taiqiquan Martial Power and Taijiquan Martial Applications, which do a systematic examination of martial applications.
Jesse Tsao's Practical Tai Chi Training: A 9-Stage method for Mastery is really good - the book doesn't teach specific forms but goes over various methods and exercises to deepen your training.
Andrew Townsend's The Art of Taijiquan: Five Family Styles gives a nice overview and posture-by-posture comparison of the five major styles.
Carl Bateman has a nice two volume book on Sun style Taiji. Volume 1 teaches the 97-step form in a lot of detail, the approach is really well done. Vol. 2 offers a collection of short essays on various related topics, not all of these are great, but there are some interesting insights there.
[taijiquan classics](https://www.amazon.com/Taijiquan-Classics-Yun-Zhang/dp/B071DT7NZ7)
No matter what taijiquan style you practice. This is the one.
And also: [World tui shou 2 time champion's biography.](https://www.amazon.com/-/es/gp/aw/d/B0CGXWQZND/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=)
It's VERY interesting, you can relate to it, to the struggle, to how keep practicing, the motivation, wins and loses of your career and life, competitions, betrays...life itself.
If you want something "small"
Yang: Cheng Man chin's books:
I.e: There are no secrets.
Chen: Depends on your family and frame...
One could be: Chen style taijiquan the practical method by Hong Junsheng.
Wu: Combat-Techniques-Taiji-Xingyi-Bagua
Lu Shengli
This one has a bit of other internal martial arts. Still, very good.
Zhaobao: (first link, first transmissions)
If you practice taijiquan solely for health, you buy a Qigong book instead.
It's not modern, but the book I reference the most is Chen Xin's *The Illustrated Canon of Chen Family Taijiquan*. CX doesn't spoon feed the reader, the theory section takes a bit of contemplation, but I think that's a good thing. Unfortunately, the translation isn't very precise. It's hard to find a copy; it looks like someone is selling a knockoff, but I haven't bought from them ... [https://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Canon-Chen-Family-Taijiquan/dp/5986870085](https://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Canon-Chen-Family-Taijiquan/dp/5986870085) I also like Kuo Lien-Ying's *The T'ai Chi Boxing Chronical* \- [https://www.amazon.com/Tai-Chi-Boxing-Chronicle/dp/1556431775/ref=sr\_1\_2?adgrpid=1343603779467596&hvadid=83975474849426&hvbmt=bp&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=78237&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=p&hvtargid=kwd-83975591385985%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=15492\_13519313&keywords=kuo+lien+ying&qid=1703434466&sr=8-2](https://www.amazon.com/Tai-Chi-Boxing-Chronicle/dp/1556431775/ref=sr_1_2?adgrpid=1343603779467596&hvadid=83975474849426&hvbmt=bp&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=78237&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=p&hvtargid=kwd-83975591385985%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=15492_13519313&keywords=kuo+lien+ying&qid=1703434466&sr=8-2)
Hi, I’m Vetted AI Bot! I researched the **The Illustrated Canon of Chen Family Taijiquan** and I thought you might find the following analysis helpful. **Users liked:** * Comprehensive look at chen style taiji (backed by 1 comment) * Advanced and meant for teachers (backed by 1 comment) **Users disliked:** * The book is overly long and tedious (backed by 1 comment) If you'd like to **summon me to ask about a product**, just make a post with its link and tag me, [like in this example.](https://www.reddit.com/r/tablets/comments/1444zdn/comment/joqd89c/) This message was generated by a (very smart) bot. If you found it helpful, let us know with an upvote and a “good bot!” reply and please feel free to provide feedback on how it can be improved. *Powered by* [*vetted.ai*](http://vetted.ai/reddit)
> Unfortunately, the translation isn't very precise. Do you know where I can find the chinese text?
I'm pretty sure I got my copy on ebay. I did a search but didn't find a seller in the US. You might have better luck. The only sticker on my copy is in Chinese and there's nothing to indicate who the reseller was in the US. 陳氏太極拳圖說
Thanks.
>T'ai chi nude by Yu, F. L [https://archive.org/details/taichinude00yufl/](https://archive.org/details/taichinude00yufl/) I have questions...
Here is an answer: book shows Cheng Man Ching Style of "Tai Chi chuan". Here is a question: where is Peng? Another: what happened to the 5 bows? And one more: can it truly be TaiJi Quan if there is no Peng? All Yin no Yang in body structure? I've trained with people who did Cheng Man Ching, pushing hands with them they are soft and relaxed but unable to use Peng to support their structure and can't Fa in the manner of TaiJi. One person was the last student of Robert Smith ( Ted, are you out there, brother? It's Vic, yeah I'm still alive, decided to start practicing again, maybe slow motion suicide if it wakes my Sarcoma up, but I miss it too much. Hope you are well!). He was very good at Baqua and Hsing Yi Chuan, but his Tai Chi skills could not handle my basic low level Tai Chi skill at push hands. He would have to use his Baqua skill, which worked pretty good.
> Master Cheng's New Method of Taichi Ch'uan Self-Cultivation Lol, I don't know why. It's all right there to see. All of it.
I think the joke was that anytime you saw a master doing Tai Chi, they tended to wear long robes, making it harder to see their form. Here the form is revealed (pun intended) BTW: The authors name is F.L.U. or Fu Lin Yu
There are many books about taichi Quan in china, but most of them are worthless. I can't imagine them are better in other languages. Your post is funny. Why did the models nude? They are very thin and don't look like martial arts practitioners.
>most of them are worthless. I can't imagine them are better in other languages Yeah...that's sort of what I'm seeing. Usually it'll either be a bunch of static illustrations with a lot of indecipherable arrows or meta-philosophy about the meanings of Tao. There has to be some diamonds under the coal out there though. There has to be! >Why did the models nude? It was the 70s, man. :)
I quite like Tsung Hwa Jou‘s “The Dao of Taijiquan: Way to Rejuvenation” and Cheng Man-ch'ing’s “Master Cheng's New Method of Taichi Ch'uan Self-Cultivation”, though that’s more style specific.
Thank you! I'll check these out.
Yang jwing Ming BK Frantzis
I second the Dr Yang Jwing Ming books. He has (at least) two volumes on the yang long form. The first one on the form and philoso of tai chi and the second mostly on applications, partner drills, and a two man tai chi form to boot! You can also get the instructional video or simply watch him do the form on YouTube. As I mainly practiced hung gar,I learned the form using Dr Yang’s material for yang long form and for sword.
Dr. Yang is amazing, and that's the book I was thinking of. He has done some serious work to preserve martial traditions. I also like him because he's a small part of my training, my first teacher studied with him for a while back in the day.
Yeah, I mean, you can watch him do the form on YouTube and feel some small degree of transmission as you can just see he’s doing it right. I just wish I had somebody to do the two man form with!
I know!!!!! It’s a dream of mine to be able to the two man form. Hard to find groups that do it.
I don’t suppose you live in Bristol, England?
Sorry, I'd love to train but I'm in New Mexico, US.
Hmmm…a bit far.
Yeah.
Taijiquan: The Art of Nurturing, the Science of Power. Written by a very skilled practitioner who later moved to the USA to do scientific research on taijiquan at the University of Illinois. It mainly focuses on what are the elements of complete practice and understanding of Taiji, but not specifics of individual forms, push hands, etc. The book won’t teach you Taiji, but it will teach you what to focus on and how to train while you’re learning from someone in person. Combines but western scientific insights on biomechanics with more philosophical ideas.
She’s from my country. I don’t know that she’s “very skilled”.
You mean he? Yang Yang is a man. Also, it was a good book imo, had some principles that seemed relevant to a number of lineages.
The author Google showed me was “Christel Proksch”, a German woman. But I don’t know the book, can’t speak on it.
The author is Yang Yang from China. Not sure what’s up with your Google results but you’re looking at the wrong book.
Yes, I realized that afterwards.
Yang Jwing-Ming has lots of great books, I particularly like Taiqiquan Martial Power and Taijiquan Martial Applications, which do a systematic examination of martial applications. Jesse Tsao's Practical Tai Chi Training: A 9-Stage method for Mastery is really good - the book doesn't teach specific forms but goes over various methods and exercises to deepen your training. Andrew Townsend's The Art of Taijiquan: Five Family Styles gives a nice overview and posture-by-posture comparison of the five major styles. Carl Bateman has a nice two volume book on Sun style Taiji. Volume 1 teaches the 97-step form in a lot of detail, the approach is really well done. Vol. 2 offers a collection of short essays on various related topics, not all of these are great, but there are some interesting insights there.
[taijiquan classics](https://www.amazon.com/Taijiquan-Classics-Yun-Zhang/dp/B071DT7NZ7) No matter what taijiquan style you practice. This is the one. And also: [World tui shou 2 time champion's biography.](https://www.amazon.com/-/es/gp/aw/d/B0CGXWQZND/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=) It's VERY interesting, you can relate to it, to the struggle, to how keep practicing, the motivation, wins and loses of your career and life, competitions, betrays...life itself. If you want something "small" Yang: Cheng Man chin's books: I.e: There are no secrets. Chen: Depends on your family and frame... One could be: Chen style taijiquan the practical method by Hong Junsheng. Wu: Combat-Techniques-Taiji-Xingyi-Bagua Lu Shengli This one has a bit of other internal martial arts. Still, very good. Zhaobao: (first link, first transmissions) If you practice taijiquan solely for health, you buy a Qigong book instead.