Recommended Reading
The following books are highly recommended as supplements to the Chinese Shao-lin Center training manual. They have been selected on the basis of content, and the ability to convey some of the color and drama of the Chinese martial arts heritage.
The Art of War
Sun Tzu
A classical manual of Chinese military strategy, expounding principles that are often as applicable to individual martial artists as they are to armies. You may also enjoy Thomas Cleary’s Mastering The Art Of War a companion volume featuring the works of Chu Ko-Liang, a brilliant strategist of the Three Kingdoms Period.
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China – Lonely Planet Country Guide
Damien Harper
Nobody knows China like Lonely Planet. Whether you want to sip cocktails in Shanghai, trek Tibet’s holy Mt Kailash or contemplate history at Xu’an’s Army of Terracotta Warriors, our 11th edition will guide you through the best of this jaw-dropping destination – and reveal more of it than any other guide.
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Chinese Boxing: Masters and Methods
Robert Smith
A collection of colorful anecdotes about Chinese martial artists in Taiwan.
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Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals: A Historical Survey
Brian Kennedy, Elizabeth Guo
Secret training manuals, magic swords, and flying kung fu masters—these are staples of Chinese martial arts movies and novels, but only secret manuals have a basis in reality. Chinese martial arts masters of the past did indeed write such works, along with manuals for the general public. This collection introduces Western readers to the rich and diverse tradition of these influential texts, rarely available to the English-speaking reader.
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Chronicles of Tao: The Secret Life of a Taoist Master
Deng Ming-Dao
Combines The Wandering Taoist, Seven Bamboo Tablets of the Cloudy Satchel, and Gateway to a Vast World into one volume chronicling of the life and training of a Hua Mountain monk.
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A Complete Guide To Chi Kung (Harnessing The Power Of The Universe)
Daniel Reid
Chi-gung, which literally means “energy work,” is a system of cultivating health, vitality, and longevity that is based on the fundamental principles of Taoism and the laws of nature. Practiced by the Chinese for thousands of years, chi-gung works with the energy found in all living things to help rid the body of the imbalances that sap our strength and give rise to disease. The simple, meditative movements, breathing exercises, and massage techniques that are the basis of chi-gung can be practiced by anyone, regardless of age or physical fitness.
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Iron and Silk
Mark Salzman
Salzman captures post-cultural revolution China through his adventures as a young American English teacher in China and his shifu-tudi (master-student) relationship with China’s foremost martial arts teacher.
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Journey To The West
Cheng’en Wu
Journey to the West is a classic Chinese mythological novel. It was written during the Ming Dynasty based on traditional folktales. Consisting of 100 chapters, this fantasy relates the adventures of a Tang Dynasty (618-907) priest Sanzang and his three disciples, Monkey, Pig and Friar Sand, as they travel west in search of Buddhist Sutra. The first seven chapters recount the birth of the Monkey King and his rebellion against Heaven. Then in chapters eight to twelve, we learn how Sanzang was born and why he is searching for the scriptures, as well as his preparations for the journey. The rest of the story describes how they vanquish demons and monsters, tramp over the Fiery Mountain, cross the Milky Way, and after overcoming many dangers, finally arrive at their destination – the Thunder Monastery in the Western Heaven – and find the Sutra.
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Outlaws Of The Marsh
Shi Nai-An
China’s great classic novel Outlaws of the Marsh, written in the fourteenth century, is a fictional account of twelfth-century events during the Song Dynasty. One by one, over a hundred men and women are forced by the harsh feudal officialdom to take to the hills. They band together and defeat every attempt of the government troops to crush them. Within this framework we find intrigue, adventure, murder, warfare, romance … in a connected series of fascinating individual tales, told in the suspenseful manner of the traditional storyteller.
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Romance Of The Three Kingdoms
Guanzhong Luo
“The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been.” Echoing the rhythms of Chinese history itself, the monumental tale Three Kingdoms begins. As important for Chinese culture as the Homeric epics have been for the West, this fourteenth-century masterpiece continues to be loved and read throughout China today. Three Kingdoms portrays a fateful moment at the end of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220) when the future of the Chinese empire lay in the balance. Fearing attacks by three rebellious states, the emperor sent out an urgent appeal for support. In response, three young men – the aristocratic Liu Xuande, the fugitive Lord Guan, and the pig butcher Zhang Fei – met to swear eternal brotherhood and fealty to their beleaguered country. Their vow set in motion the series of events that ultimately resulted in the collapse of the Han. Writing centuries later, Luo Guanzhong drew on, often-told tales of this turbulent period to fashion a sophisticated narrative of loyalty and treachery, triumph and defeat, that came to epitomize all that was best and worst in the life of his country. Illustrated.
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Shantung Black Tiger: A Shaolin Fighting Art Of North China
Leo Budiman Prakarsa, Khek Kiong Tjoa, Donn F. Draeger, Quintin T. G. Chambers
This manual presents the centuries-old fighting art of North China known as Shantung black tiger. Text and illustrations assist the reader in understanding and learning about this martial art.
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Shaolin-Do: Secrets From The Temple
James R. Halladay and Grandmaster Sin Kwang Thé.
A history of the Shao-Lin and profile of Grandmaster Thé.
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T’ai Chi Touchstones: Yang Family Secret Transmissions
Douglas Wile (Translator)
The T’ai Chi Classics, songs (instructional poems), discourses, and old photographs make this collection of fragments a colorful and instructive addition to your library.
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There Are No Secrets: Professor Cheng Man Ch’ing And His T’ai Chi Chuan
Wolfe Lowenthal
“Wolfe Lowenthal’s quiet little memoir will with window-opening wisdom reinforce, I think, my view of how Cheng stood on Tai Chi. It tells how a young writer reacted to this strange Chinese man when he appeared in New York City in the mid-1960s and stayed there for a decade before returning to Taiwan to die in 1975. In a nickel town where neurosis is a cardinal virtue, the Tai Chi center established by Cheng soon became an oasis of learning. In my visits there I was invariably approached by a quiet fellow with a ready smile and loads of questions. His form and sensing hands improved but he never lost his kindly ways. This led me once to tell the three seniors that the one person in the club who best exemplified Tai Chi was this junior. That man who has since become a teacher of the art is the author if this book.”
-Robert W. Smith, from the Preface
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The Xingyi Boxing Manual: Hebei Style’s Five Principles and Seven Words
Jin Yunting (Editor), Yunting Jin (Editor), John Groschwitz (Translator)
Famed for its clear-minded, unstoppable practitioners, the martial art of Xingyi is known for both its street fighting quality and its spiritual practice. Written in China before World War II and never previously available in English, this is an invaluable illustrated guide for today’s practitioner of this traditional martial art.
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