Recommended Books for Taiji Study:

Since Taiji is about developing an attitude toward life as well as learning an “exercise form,” some knowledge of its philosophical and cultural underpinnings will greatly enhance your study and understanding.

Since we live in a most “un-Taoist” culture, some reading of Taoist classics and other works will greatly enhance your feeling for Taiji and related practices. For it is the philosophy of life (the Taiji Master’s “secret strategy”  which is every bit as important to your development of health and longevity as are the exercises.

One essential supplementary “study” which you may enjoy is Chinese poetry that conveys more than anything else the spirit of China, and “Tao” of Taiji.  Whitter Bynner’s The Jade Mountain is a good place to start….Chinese Poems by Arthur Waley is also excellent.

                  Reading List for Taiji and Taoist Studies:

Taoism in General, Primary Sources

Lao Tze, Tao Te Ching, the best known Taoist classic, over 70 translations in English to date.  My favorite is Arthur Waley’s The Way and Its Power. It conveys excellently and with impeccable style the feeling for Lao Tze’s timeless classic.

Wing Tsit Chan: The Way of Lao Tze, uses one of the Taoist commentaries, whereas most translators have used the Confucian commentaries.

Cheng and Gibbs: Lao Tze, My Words Are Very Easy to Understand  Best translation to date with complete Chinese text and commentary by one of the great Taiji masters and scholars of this generation, and T.T. Liang’s main Taiji Quan teacher.

This leaves about 67 other versions; take the one that speaks most deeply to your own heart and spirit.

Burton Watson, tr: Chuang Tze,  the best modern translation of the second great Taoist classic. 

Lin YuTang , partial tr: The Wisdom of China and India. Lin’s style is especially racy and elegant.  He has a very interesting translation of the Tao Te Ching, as well as some of the Chuang Tze  

Lieh Tze:  Another great Taoist writer, stories even zanier and crazier than Chuang Tze.  Only one complete English version by A.C. Graham.

Huai Nan Tze:  a Taoist prince, writing on inner cultivation, as well as statecraft and other matters translated as Tao the Great Luminant by Hughes.

James Legge tr: The Texts of Taoism, Victorian style and now quite dated, but some interesting insights.  Complete Lao Tze and Chuang Tze texts, as well as some ritual texts.

There are now some updated translations of the Tao Te Ching based on recently excavated manuscripts from the Ma Wang Dui tombs

Taoism--Secondary Sources:

Works of John Blofeld, especially convey the Taoist attitude and spirit, so important to the study of Taiji -- Entertaining style and easy reading.

Blofeld, John E.: Taoism, the Way to Immortality, best for historical information.

                  Taoist Mysteries and Magic, stories and personal experiences.

                   Gateway to Wisdom, guidelines to Taoist and Buddhist practices.

                  Beyond the Gods, some good stories of Taoist life in the late 1930’s.

Holmes Welch: Taoism: the Parting of the Way, interesting observations on the Tao Te Ching, some good scholarly material, misses the point when it comes to Taoist practices.

Taiji Quan master Da Liu: The Tao of Longevity,

The Tao of Chinese Culture

Peter Goullart: The Monastery on Jade Mountain. An out of print classic, sometimes available on Amazon. Fascinating account by a Russian scholar who is fatefully brought to a real Taoist monastery in the 1930’s.

Bill Porter:  Road to Heaven, Encounters with Chinese Hermits. An account of how Taoist and Buddhist hermits actually live in present-day China.

Deng Ming-Dao:   Scholar Warrior.  Excellent and detailed description of what Taoist training is really all about.  Most books on Taoism on English are primarily philosophically oriented; Scholar Warrior  is about practice.

I Ching

The central source book for all Chinese Philosophy and Science.  Many English versions of varying quality.

Wilhelm/Baynes tr.:  I Ching.  The standard English translation now, but with many small defects.  Rather heavy Confucian-Germanic tone, but still worthy of deep study.

Chu and Sherill:  The Astrology of the I Ching, contains a translation, somewhat more readable than Wilhelm, as well as numerological and astrological information.

R.L. Wing:  The I Ching Workbook

                   The Illustrated I Ching 

The Workbook has more commentary, the Illustrated more art reproductions. Not a translation, but a paraphrase; still this may be the most understandable to those not already familiar with Chinese philosophy.  Also probably the easiest text to use for first attempts at divination.

Hellmut Wilhelm:  Eight Lectures on the I Ching;

                      Heaven, Earth, and Man in the Book of 

             Changes;

                     Lectures on the I Ching , Constancy and Change

Each of these three series of lectures on the I Ching is done with impeccable scholarship and insight. The books are unrivalled for providing interesting historical insights.  Often understanding the historical allusions behind a certain Hexagram line’s commentary will reveal a whole new vista of meaning.

Richard John Lynn:  The Classic of Changes, A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi.

This is a very good, traditional translation of the I Ching.

Wang Bi was the primary commentator on the I for many centuries and provided the Confucian framework from which the book was largely interpreted. (Wilhelm’s translation is also from a Confucian standpoint).

  Still, this is an accurate and readable version.

Alfred Huang:  The Complete I Ching. Beautifully laid out and arranged. Very clear, epigrammatic translation. Excellent commentary.

Wu Jing-Nuan:  Yi Jing.  My own personal favorite. A “Shamanic” translation, based on real scholarship. The ancient Diviners who put the I Ching together were not Confucian scholars. They were people of profound insight who could “divine” simply by looking at “oracle bones”---bones or later shells that were cracked by applying heat—or object of nature. This version of the I helps the reader to develop his/her own insight on the lines themselves.

Da Liu:  I Ching Numerology.  Fascinating book showing “alternate” ways to divine using the I Ching. Ways to get messages simply by looking at real-life events and interpreting them via the Trigrams.

T.T. Liang and Paul B. Gallagher (Editor): T’ai Chi Ch’uan for Health and Self-Defense, Random House Paperback.  Complete translation of the major Taiji writings with excellent commentary, Taiji stories, and much more.

Sifu Ray Hayward:  T’ai Chi Ch’uan—Lessons with Master T.T. Liang. Ray Hayward studied with Master Liang for 20 some years and took copious notes of all his training sessions. This remarkable book reveals some real “secrets” of the art, which you will not find in any other book. Profound principles many teachers don’t even know about and most will never teach.

Sifu Ray Hayward (Editor):  String of Pearls. Memorial volume on the tenth anniversary of his school in Minneapolis. Numerous essays by T.T. Liang, Sifu Hayward, and Paul Abdella (the two formally-designated Disciples of Liang), Master Wai Lun Choi, and students. Beautifully done with many photos, and the essays are superb. See www.tctaichi.com.

Jou Tsung Hua:  The Tao of Taiji Quan.  Excellent source book on all aspects of Taiji philosophy, history, and practice.  Translations of Classics, stories, training guides. Not a “how-to” book for learning Form, but a very complete overview.

Cheng Man-Ching/Robert W. Smith: T'ai Chi. One of the earliest Western Taiji books, photos of the Master a valuable resource.  Over priced, but well-produced text, now quite dated.

Cheng Man-Ching: Thirteen Chapters, translated by Prof. Doug Wile.  Essays by Cheng from the 50’s, superb blend of Taoist philosophy, medicine, and Taiji.

Douglas Wile: T'ai Chi Touchstones, Yang Family Secret Transmissions.  Ideal for the more advanced student, translations of essays by Yang style masters.  Photos of Yang demonstrating applications.

Douglas Wile:  Lost T’ai Chi Classics from the Late Ch’ing Dynasty. A book for advanced students and scholars of Taiji Quan. Copious scholarly information on Taiji history, lineages, classic writings, etc.  Classic writings printed in Chinese in the Appendix.

Scott Rodell: Taiji Notebook for Martial Artists. An excellent book on the martial training aspects of Taiji Quan—and why they are essential to gaining the health and meditative benefits of the art. See www.grtc.org

Ron Sieh:  T’ai Chi Ch’uan, the Internal Tradition. A student of Peter Ralston, Sieh teaches how to learn Taiji Quan from the inside, by feeling, rather than as an external set of movements.

Trevor Carolan:  Return to Stillness: Twenty Years with a Tai Chi Master.  Evocative story of a student seeking and finding his “master.” Beautifully written with a sincere and touching love for his teacher. Many valuable insights.

Yearing Chen: Taiji Quan, Its Effects and Practical Applications.  One of the earliest and best complete source books.  Partial translation of his complete compendium on all aspects of the Yang Style. 

Yang Jwing-Ming:  Yang Style Taiji Quan.  Good source for applications, two-person set and sword techniques.  More a “kung fu” sense of applications. See Professor Yang’s other books on Taiji Applications, Classics, etc.

Benjamin Lo/Martin Inn (tr). Cheng Tzu’s Thirteen Treatises on T’ai Chi Ch’uan (North Atlantic Books, Berkeley). Same material as Douglas Wile’s book, referenced above.  Excellent photos of Professor Cheng in his heyday.

Kenneth Cohen:  The Way of Qigong. By far the best general book on qigong in English. Impeccable scholarship, but very readable and informaive in a broad range of topics: qigong, neigong,  history and philosophy which underlies the practices.

See www.qigonghealing.com  

Fu Zhongwen, Louis Swain (tr.): Mastering Yang Style Taijiquan

Excellent, fully illustrated translation of Yang Ch’eng Fu’s Yang Shih TaijiQuan, the standard-setting book on modern Yang Style Taiji Quan.

Sophia Delza: T’ai Chi Ch’uan, Body and Mind in Harmony, The Integration of Meaning and Method. For those interested only in the health and meditative benefits of Taiji, this is an interesting book. Much historical and philosophical information. Line drawings illustrating the “108” Wu Style Solo Form. Part Three of the book discusses at great length some of the principles summed in Chapter  2  “Reflections” in this book.

Arthur Waley:  Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China.  Taoist, Confucian, and Legalist Sections.  Very good rendition of Chuang Tze excerpts.

James Legge tr: The Four Books.  The very heart of Confucian tradition.  Although these books probably seem very quaint and “stuffy” today, I remember being at a lecture in which Cheng Man Ch’ing said the Four Books were absolutely essential for any Taiji student.

Ilza Veith tr.: Yellow Emperor’s Book of Internal Medicine, Partial and somewhat incorrect translation, but still worthwhile for its emphasis on health cultivation as way to union with Tao.

There are also a few more modern translations which you might want to look at.

Joseph Needham, Cambridge University, ed:  Science and Civilization in China, A grand work, far and away, the best of its kind in English.  Impeccable scholarship, superb notes with Chinese characters and titles.  Volumes on Taoist alchemy especially interesting (V, 2.3).  Found in many large libraries. 

Seven or Eight huge volumes dealing with every aspect of the topic.

Shunryu Suzuki: Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, advice about meditation and life by a wonderful and wise Zen master.

Whitter Bynner, ed.: The Jade Mountain, Anthology of 300 famous Tang Dynasty poems.  Excellent way to acquire the feeling and poetic sensibility to Nature of scholar officials in China’s Golden Age.  Translation’s a bit “rosy”, but still very good.

Arthur Waley, tr: Translations from the Chinese by Arthur Waley, More Chinese poetry, superbly translated.

Sun Tze (Griffiths tr): The Art of War, Yin/Yang philosophy applied to military campaigns.  Over 2000 years old, still widely studied by Chinese strategists.

There are now numerous translations of Sun Tze’s great Classic. It applies Taiji strategy to military campaigns, but has a very broad applicability beyond warfare.

Ted Kaptchuk: The Web that Has No Weaver. Excellent survey of fundamental principles of Chinese medicine. Very complete and practical. Scholarly, yet very accessible.

                                                   Periodicals     

T'ai Chi, edited by Marvin Smalheiser, excellent journal of Taiji happenings, with many articles and interviews with experienced masters and teachers.  Must reading for all serious students. (Wayfarer Publications, P.O. Box 26156, Los Angeles, CA 90026)

Journal of Asian  Martial Arts:  often has excellent articles on Taiji Quan and other Chinese “internal Martial Arts.”

Pa Kua Chang Newsletter:  No longer being published, but if you can find of these, they are very worthwhile. Real, substantive articles compared to many of the “fluff” or media-sensational articles in other martial arts publications.

                                        Thoughts to Consider:

“Opening a book brings one benefit.” – Old Chinese Proverb

“If you believe everything you read in books, better not read books.”  - T.T. Liang

Often, after a class, Master T.T. Liang would say good bye to a student, and then add, “Practice every day; do your best.”  I regret to say that for a long time I took that as simply a kind of  “throwaway  line”---the sort  of parting cliché one might expect a teacher to say.  Many years  later, I realized that that simple directive was in truth the very ESSENCE of  lifetime progress in Taiji. And Master Liang was living proof until his peaceful passing at age 102.