Tai Chi: The Chinese Art of Healing and Self Defense

I actually never knew this book existed. I First began to study Taiji from Erle Montaigue a couple weeks ago by video instruction. But Yang Cheng Fu's Taiji form is a moving Qigong (Chi Kung). So breathing in and out with/during each individual flowing movement is important or its useless. Just as if you had the breathing down perfect and you're postures were wrong it would be useless. I can see on the excerpt pages that he tells you when to breath in or out. He tells you these things in the video but more time is spent describing the postures and movements. And I can tell you it's the original Taiji. If you get Erle Montaigue's book "Encyclopedia of Dim Mak ,Volume 1" He will go into the history of Taiji. See his instructional videos at " Taichiworld.com".

This book contains a wealth of information for serious Tai Chi practitioners. It may feel a little difficult to learn the complete long form from this book alone , but it can act as an useful companion to the author's beginner's tape on Taijiquan (MTG1). Tai Chi is being constantly abused by con masters many of whom happen to come from the land of its origin and as a result myriad short forms are being devoloped to make it easy and accessible. But, there is no substitute for hard work. As someone who had been practicing the complete long form for sometime now and greatly benefited from it, my advise to beginners would be to learn from authentic materials such as this. Begin slowly. After one learns the 'opening form' and 'grasping sparrow's tail', even repeating these two forms perhaps a dozen times on both sides would give one actual tangible benefit. And, don't rush to the next until you truely master the previous form. May you realize the Tao.