T.T. Liang

T.T. Liang is one of the most revered living masters of T'ai Chi Ch'uan. Now in his nineties, he has studied and tought T'ai Chi for over fifty years. As senior student to Cheng Man-ch'ing and as author of the best selling T'ai Chi Ch'uan for Health and Self-Defense he helped introduce T'ai Chi to America. Having sutdied with fifteen of the greatest T'ai Chi masters, T.T. Liang's teachings have a formidable authoritiy.

This book presents the very heart of Liang's teachings, including his own version of the Yang style 150 posture solo form. Taken from T.T.'s own notes, this is the most comprehensive description of the form ever presented. Rare interviews and articles by T.T. Liang explore the basic principles and deeper meaning of this increasingly popular martial art.

The remarkable photography both captures the full power, grace and subtlety of T'ai Chi while providing a detailed count by count presentation of each posture.

T.T. Liang's long-time protege, Stuart Olson, author of Cultivating the Ch'i, compiled the material, contributes a special introduction of the role of imagination in T'ai Chi and appears with T.T. Liang in the book's photography.

'Master T.T. Liang is a Chinese martial arts treasure in western society. He was a true pioneer in the development of T'ai Chi Ch'uan in the United States of America. With his translations of ancient T'ai Chi documents, western T'ai Chi practitioners are able to find an accurate guide and path for their training.'-Dr. Yang Jwing-ming author of Yang Style T'ai Chi Ch'uan and Ch'i-Kung: Its Roots and Origins.

Introduction to the first edition by Jonathan Russell
Introduction to ssecond edition by Stuart Olson
A biography of Master T. T. Liang
Chapter One Interviews with Master T. T. Liang
Chapter Two Anecdotes of the Yang Family
Chapter Three Three classics of T'ai Chi Ch'uan
Chapter Four The process of attaining T'ai Chi Ch'uan
Chapter Five Why I adopted music to T'a Chi Ch'uan
Chapter Six A lecture by Cheng Man-ch'ing
Chapter Seven The 150 posture solo form
Appendix A-Posture reference guide… (lisätietoja)

This is a book for both the student of T'ai Chi who has already mastered the basic postures and for the growing number of Americans who would like to find out just what T'ai Chi is and why it has recently become so popular. Not a primer to teach the beginner, T'ai Chi Ch'uan for Health and Self-Defense addresses itself to the philosophy behind the system of movements and to the variations that are possible once one has learned the fundamentals.

The author, who has practiced T'ai Chi for thirty-five years and taught it in New York Citiy; Dublin, New Hampshire; and Boston, supplements discussions based on his own experience with his own translations of the classic writings about T'ai Chi and the famous commentaries on those writings. Althought the emphasis in this book is on T'ai Chi as a way to achieve health and peace of mind, the 'practical' use of the art as a means of self-defense are fully explained.

Contents

Foreword
Preface
1 T'ai Chi Ch'uan and te fundamental princoples
2 My experience
3 My personal view
4 The complete set of t'ai chi exercises
5 The t'ai chi classics
T'a chi Ch'uan Classic
The Mental Elucidation of the Thirteen Postures
T'ai Chi Ch'uan Treatise
Song of the Substance and Function of the Thirteen Postures
6 The essentials of T'ai Chi Ch'uan
7 The ten guiding points of T'ai Chi Ch'uan
8 Discussion of the mind-intent and the ch'i
9 Slowness and non-exertion of muscular force
10 Secrets (the secret technique) of the eight postures
11 Detailed explanation of the essential meaning of the five elements
12 (T'ai Chi Ch'uan) Song of Pushing Hands, with explanatory comments
13 Other short texts
14 Stories of the masters
Te deflection of a thousand pound momentum by a trigger force of merely four ounces and an old man's defeating great numbers of young ones
A short biography of the Yang Familiy
The secret bitterness of Yang Famiy T'ai Chi
15 Similar philosophical points: Lao Tze and T'ai Chi Ckh'ua… (lisätietoja)