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Nei Jia Quan: Internal Martial Arts Teachers of Tai Ji Quan, Xing Yi Quan, and Ba Gua Zhang
Using an interview format, this book brings out the many different facets of the Nei Jia Quan, the umbrella name for Tai Ji Quan (Tai Chi), Xing Yi Quan, and Ba Gua Zhang. Each teacher gives a sense of the history of their art, its philosophical and spiritual underpinnings, and their training philosophy, giving students strategies for incorporating a wide range of approaches into their own studies. Included is additional commentary on these traditions, along with biographies of each of the teachers. Nei Jia Quan also features interviews with Tim Cartmell, Gabriel Chin, Gail Derin-Kellog, Bruce Kumar Frantizis, Paul Gale, Fong Ha, William Lewis, Luo De Xiu, Allen Pittman, James Wing Woo, Tony Yang, Zhao DaYuan, and Albert Liu.
- GenresMartial Arts
300 pages, Paperback
First published October 26, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 24, 2015
Be a professional student always. Learn everything you want, you can always discard it. Only believe half of what people say.
From posture to posture the internal energy is unbroken.
Eventually you have to figure out what you're doing so you can teach it to someone else.
When one part moves, all parts move; one part stops, all parts stop.
Training is a way to express what you think a human being is, to move like a human being. To feel yourself as a human being, and what that means. Whatever you think the human species is supposed to be, you're it. Training is a way to figure out what it is to be a human being, and to move as a human being. To express that humanity. We're the only ones that can do it! It's not that we're humans trying to be animals; we're animals trying to be human. Training is a way to figure out what that means.
Do Nei Gong work to be able to get qi to really energize your body, so your body can properly work so that if you mentally ask it to do something, it does it.
Within the mundane is the extraordinary, if you seek the extraordinary within the mundane.
It just takes longer to build good basics than it does to learn a few techniques. The secret is all in the basics.
Don't be closed minded because something doesn't fit in your personal world view. Human beings are usually set up to operate within the parameters of their particular group. It makes them feel secure.
Definition of coordination = correct rhythm.
The idea of being in the world but not of it. You develop something that no one can take from you.
The more physically fit I am, the better I am at helping others.
Coordinate hips with shoulders, knees with elbows and hands with feet - practice the six harmonies.
What you practice you become. Practice becoming tense = tense. Relaxing = relaxed.
If you seek the truth outside yourself it just keeps getting further away.
The foot is the root, the leg is the power, the waist is the control, meaning it releases all that power. The arm and hands are just expressions. That what the Tan Tien means - it's just the command center.
Nobody can say anything about me that I don't already know!
Teaching is really about linguistics. You have to find the language that works for somebody. Sometimes the language is study of anatomy or kinesiology, sometimes it's a story, sometimes it's a metaphor - it's different for each person.
What is a teacher? What is a sifu? You are supposed to transmit knowledge to people who are ready to accept it and cultivate that with them so they can be as good or better than you.
I always breath from my lower abdomen. You do patterns of things over and over until they've become reflex.
The important thing is loving what you're doing and becoming a part of what you're doing, then it's not so hard anymore.
Smile inside to relax deeper. Your teacher will always check your level of relaxation.
Feel as if you are under water.
You just need to follow the process and create the structure from the outside to the inside. That is the first step.
It's one thing to know an art, another to be a person.
Always use the legs to activate the movement.
The poor people study the books, the rich people play the martial arts.
Without character building, all the fighting techniques are pointless.
From posture to posture the internal energy is unbroken.
Eventually you have to figure out what you're doing so you can teach it to someone else.
When one part moves, all parts move; one part stops, all parts stop.
Training is a way to express what you think a human being is, to move like a human being. To feel yourself as a human being, and what that means. Whatever you think the human species is supposed to be, you're it. Training is a way to figure out what it is to be a human being, and to move as a human being. To express that humanity. We're the only ones that can do it! It's not that we're humans trying to be animals; we're animals trying to be human. Training is a way to figure out what that means.
Do Nei Gong work to be able to get qi to really energize your body, so your body can properly work so that if you mentally ask it to do something, it does it.
Within the mundane is the extraordinary, if you seek the extraordinary within the mundane.
It just takes longer to build good basics than it does to learn a few techniques. The secret is all in the basics.
Don't be closed minded because something doesn't fit in your personal world view. Human beings are usually set up to operate within the parameters of their particular group. It makes them feel secure.
Definition of coordination = correct rhythm.
The idea of being in the world but not of it. You develop something that no one can take from you.
The more physically fit I am, the better I am at helping others.
Coordinate hips with shoulders, knees with elbows and hands with feet - practice the six harmonies.
What you practice you become. Practice becoming tense = tense. Relaxing = relaxed.
If you seek the truth outside yourself it just keeps getting further away.
The foot is the root, the leg is the power, the waist is the control, meaning it releases all that power. The arm and hands are just expressions. That what the Tan Tien means - it's just the command center.
Nobody can say anything about me that I don't already know!
Teaching is really about linguistics. You have to find the language that works for somebody. Sometimes the language is study of anatomy or kinesiology, sometimes it's a story, sometimes it's a metaphor - it's different for each person.
What is a teacher? What is a sifu? You are supposed to transmit knowledge to people who are ready to accept it and cultivate that with them so they can be as good or better than you.
I always breath from my lower abdomen. You do patterns of things over and over until they've become reflex.
The important thing is loving what you're doing and becoming a part of what you're doing, then it's not so hard anymore.
Smile inside to relax deeper. Your teacher will always check your level of relaxation.
Feel as if you are under water.
You just need to follow the process and create the structure from the outside to the inside. That is the first step.
It's one thing to know an art, another to be a person.
Always use the legs to activate the movement.
The poor people study the books, the rich people play the martial arts.
Without character building, all the fighting techniques are pointless.
October 23, 2008
If you have ever been really interested by internal martial arts (classically: tai chi, bagua, xingyi), but haven't really been able to get a good handle on the hype versus the facts, this book could be an entertaining and informative resource for you.
In this book the author interviews many prominent internal martial artists in the community, and confronts them with many of the issues that occur in the mind of the practitioner.
In this book the author interviews many prominent internal martial artists in the community, and confronts them with many of the issues that occur in the mind of the practitioner.
October 5, 2012
This was a really great book, and helps give proper perspective to a lot of the myth and magic that generally comes along with the so-called "internal" styles of Chinese martial arts -- Taiji, Bagua, and Xingyi. This book is not an encyclopedia of techniques, nor is it some sort of reference book. Put simply, this is a collection of short essays by modern masters sharing candidly about their arts' evolution, philosophy, and practice. This is one I keep on the nightstand.
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June 18, 2008Some really great insights or at least great expressions of their insights and some lame and dull people talking about themselves.
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July 23, 2009fabulous. a series of interviews with chinese internal martial arts teachers around the bay area.
November 16, 2009
Interviews/profiles of the mostly California and Chinese teachers, also inculding Frantzis and Pittman.
September 8, 2014
Pretty good book. It is just filled with interviews from different internal martial arts teachers. A lot of the interviews were the same as far as the information but it was an interesting read.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews