Tai Chi Chuan- 24 & 48 Postures With Martial Applications - Book Review

Tai Chi Chuan- 24 & 48 Postures With Martial Applications
by Master Liang, Shou-Yu & Wu, Wen-Ching

As part of our efforts to revitalize the blog I'll begin periodically recommending some helpful books. To begin I've chosen one of the first Tai Chi books I read. This book by Master Liang is a great reference tool and is especially helpful for beginners who want to perfect their stances and get a basic idea of some of the applications for the form movements.

Initially the book gives a brief, overall description of Tai Chi theory. It covers basic breathing methods and includes several illustrations of some basic energy channels and accupoints. It then goes on to give a brief history of the art and its development. It then goes on to give some basic guidelines for practitioners to follow. They're very general pointers that mostly echo the Eight Body Methods and the Song of the Thirteen Postures, but a reminder is never a bad thing.

After this the author gives detailed explanations of the many body postures employed in Tai Chi's forms including several photographs to help students get a full understanding of how to adopt the posture, and then how to transition from one posture to the another. This is easily one of the most valuable parts of the book since one of the most important (and most difficult to grasp) parts of Tai Chi are the transitions between the postures. Transitions between postures are never easy to display and are especially difficult to show in a book. That said the author does an admirable job in giving detailed written explanations of how to execute said transitions.

Lastly, the book offers some basic applications for the movements in the 24 form. The transitions have fewer pictures and the applications are very basic, but for beginners it helps to offer them some simple examples of what they can do. Sadly Tai Chi Chuan is rarely taught with any emphasis on its martial aspects. This is a major problem not only in that it greatly reduces depth to which the student can learn, but it also castrates the form, making it impossible for students to learn how to defend themselves. While some students (and sadly many teachers) are willing to forego any knowledge as to the arts martial aspects they fail to appreciate how detrimental this lack of knowledge is to the performance of the form. Knowing the applications that the movements are designed to execute is precisely what dictates how the movement must be performed during form practice. Without this knowledge the movements will invariably be clumsy, incomplete and possibly detrimental.

I've personally borne witness to instructors who've practiced the form for years without ever developing any knowledge as to the applications those movements are designed for. As a result they tend to have problems establishing a firm root and correct body alignment. When they and their students perform the movements incorrectly they torque their knees, wobble on misaligned hips and ankles, have poorly distributed weight causing them to be unbalanced (and sometimes fall), etc. In essence their lack of understanding results in incorrect movements that harm rather than help the practitioners. For this reason alone this (albeit brief) portion of the book alone makes it a very worthwhile read, especially for beginners.

In summary it's a great read. It offers the beginner a good introduction to several aspects of the art and it offers more advanced practitioners a quick reference to some of the basic aspects and movements of the art.