Formosa Neijia

Awesome article from Li Ya-xuan, one of the top disciples of Yang Chen-fu. Unfortunately, he isn’t widely known, but he should be. This man’s taiji seems like it was top notch. I have some of his books, which I talk about below, and his form is great. Large, strong movements that are sure to build power. From the article:
When people first learning the boxing frame, within a few days they will feel muscle pain in their legs. After a month, they may feel knee pain. After that they may feel some shoulder soreness. Learners should not be surprised with this. This is a natural process. This also is how a good teacher gives correct guidance. Continue the practice and the soreness and pain will heal. Later, your skill will be much improved. If people fear soreness and pain and then stop practicing, only to re-start after the pain goes away, thus are only doing a sporadic, start and stop practice, they are really wasting their time. If you learn taiji boxing but never feel any leg pain, knee pain, or shoulder soreness, then the teacher is not giving correct guidance. You must select another teacher, a good teacher.

If you like this article by Li Ya Xuan, then you will love his books. They were recently published by Lion Books here in Taiwan and they set a new standard for Chinese language books on taiji IMO. Even if you don’t read Chinese, the books are filled with pictures of Li and his students doing the material from many different angles. You can pick up stuff just from the pics. And each facet of the Yang style gets its own book: long form, push hands, sword, saber, long pole. The long pole book is fantastic. It’s big and 175 pages long. Plus, most of the books come with a huge poster of the book’s material suitable for framing.
Check out some of the books here:
http://www.plumpub.com/sales/lionbks/lb_taichi1.htm

BTW, Lion books is going out of busniess. I could talk about why, but perhaps I shouldn’t say more. Anyway, if you want any of the Chinese books from them that Plum carries, you had better get them now. Lion has done some awesome reprints of old Chinese MA (martial art) manuals. Too bad that won’t continue.

However, be prepared for a different take on Yang style, especially if you’re a Chen Man Ching (CMC) fan. This is Li’s comments on one of CMC’s books:
“He (Cheng Man-ching) said to embrace the opponent, then said if embracing doesn’t work, then to push, then to roll-back, where was his mind at? It is nonsense!
It was supposed to be “Leopard and Tiger Return to Mountain” (Note by David: “Leopard” and “Embrace” are sharing the same pronunciation in Chinese.), where was this “Embrace Tiger” come from?
This movement is to depict the turning head and step action, which was similar to leopard and tiger returning to mountain.
Its application is identical to Xingyiquan’s Tiger Pounce, only in Taijiquan we practice it in a slow manner in order to describe its inner meaning; now people misinterpreted “Leopard” with “Embrace”, it is a big mistake, plus, the beast such as tiger how can anyone “embrace” it?
He (Cheng Man-ching) said the embrace followed by 3 movements from Grasp The Sparrow’s Tail-Rollback, Press and Push, but where’s Ward-off?
Obviously he doesn’t know what the Ward-off is.”

Not exactly a glowing endorsement of CMC, but then that’s hardly surprising. CMC, IMO, is vastly, vastly overrated both in the U.S. and here in Taiwan. I see lots of structural defects in the people that practice his material long term.

I hope that the publication of Li’s books here in Taiwan might open a few people’s eyes to the real world of Yang style that they’ve been missing.