Introduction
Before I began T’ai Chi and QiGong classes, my stress was unbearable, and depression and anxiety were almost a way of life. I actually thought at the time that that’s just the way life was. It’s funny what we’ll settle for, when all the while there are powerful and exciting opportunities to change—just waiting for us to reach out and grab them. Back then, I returned home every night from a job I didn’t like and used greasy food, overspending, too much TV, or whatever else could help me handle the stress of a life I didn’t really feel too good about. I really didn’t see much hope for finding any real joy in my life.
Then a friend suggested a T’ai Chi class. From that day, my life began to change, to loosen, to expand and open, becoming more than I ever dreamed possible. Today I travel the world, sharing the most exciting life possibilities with fascinating people all seeking to expand their lives into more than they ever imagined.
This book will demystify the esoteric aspects of T’ai Chi and QiGong so that even the more mystical sides become congruous with physics. Team U.S.A. Senior Coach and Martial Arts Hall of Famer Dr. Michael Steward Sr., after reading this book several times over, called it “visionary,” and “life changing.” Why?
This book’s combination of highly effective how-to instructions, augmented with a treasure trove of Web Video Support, is unequaled. However, what sets this book apart, and what makes it popular with even long-time T’ai Chi and QiGong teachers and professionals, is its insights into the deeper inner aspect of these arts. The inner aspect is most profound, because T’ai Chi and QiGong are considered Internal Arts. The profound health, performance, and sports improvement benefits these arts will give you will only be reflections of the deep internal changes you will be achieving beneath the surface. Teachers worldwide have used this book as a teaching tool to help them enable their students to dive deep into these inner realms, which vastly expands their grasp of the physical aspects of T’ai Chi and QiGong as well.
This book has been acclaimed by many of the world’s top T’ai Chi and QiGong masters as well as by those who are new to these ancient arts, for one simple reason: In the words of U.S. T’ai Chi Forms Grand Champion Sifu Hong Yijiao, “Sometimes Chinese culture can be difficult to explain … [The Complete Idiot’s Guide to T’ai Chi & QiGong] successfully uses American culture to explain the art of T’ai Chi Ch’uan … simplifying difficult concepts, making them easier to understand.”
Here’s an example. You might be surprised to know that even if you have never heard of QiGong (pronounced chee gong), you have been practicing a simple form of it for years. Each time you yawn, you are practicing an effective QiGong, or breathing, exercise. You feel better after you yawn, right? Imagine how good you are going to feel as you delve deeper into these ancient gifts from the East, providing life-tools that will rock your world so intensely as to appear magical.
T’ai Chi enabled me to let go of my tight, rigid grip on what I thought was possible in life. As it taught me to breathe deeply and allow my body’s rigid muscles to let go and relax, my mind and heart began to do so as well. An open mind and open heart expanded outward into an open world. When we begin to live for what we love, the world begins to love us for it. T’ai Chi and QiGong help us loosen up so the love within us can expand outward into all aspects of our lives. This is how we become “lovely” in the truest sense of the word. There is such beautiful potential awaiting all of us, and I am so proud and so grateful that this book has been a part of so many people’s expansion—just as T’ai Chi and QiGong have been a part of mine. Enjoy!
How This Book Is Organized
Although some chapters of this book use particular T’ai Chi styles to give readers an experience of T’ai Chi and QiGong, the majority of this book and its Web Video Support are profoundly useful to anyone interested in any style of T’ai Chi or QiGong and are used by teachers worldwide, from many different styles, as a primer and textbook for their students. Its easygoing, accessible style has helped T’ai Chi and QiGong teachers find fresh, user-friendly explanations to help students “get” T’ai Chi or QiGong more quickly and easily by relaxing into it.
This book is divided into six parts, plus the supporting Web Video. Each part’s information will prepare you for the next, opening your mind and imagination to concepts that will unlock your ability to expand your awareness of T’ai Chi and QiGong even more. The Web Video supports many sections of the book’s chapters with carefully selected visual information that text and illustrations simply cannot convey.
Here’s what you get:
The Web Video Support, Visual Support for This Book’s Instruction, is a powerful new addition, with exhibitional inserts to support the text and illustrated instruction and general information throughout this book. The Web Video Support is created from excerpts of two of my acclaimed, fully instructional DVD programs that total well over five hours in content (Appendix C). Carefully selected excerpts were chosen to powerfully augment the information and instructions provided within the book. As you read through the book’s six parts, you’ll be directed at appropriate points to view the Web Video Support provided with this book to expand your understanding of the book’s instructions and information. As various sections of the book refer you to these video excerpts, you’ll discover a multidimensional quality to the Web Video Support, encouraging you to see T’ai Chi and QiGong’s many subtle aspects and qualities.
Part 1, T’ai Chi: Relax into Raw Power, explains how T’ai Chi and QiGong can change every part of your life for the better, with visual enhancement of the Web Video Support. Part 1 concludes by explaining how T’ai Chi and QiGong work by introducing you to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and explaining how modern Western science is now beginning to understand how this ancient wisdom works.
Part 2, Suiting Up and Setting Out, prepares you to dive into T’ai Chi and QiGong big time or little time, depending on how much of T’ai Chi’s magic you want to experience. In this part, you learn the nuts and bolts of how classes are taught (with Web Video visuals), along with T’ai Chi etiquette, terms, wardrobe, and all the things that will enable you to choose the best class for you. You also discover the underlying tenets of T’ai Chi and QiGong, which will dramatically enhance the benefit you get from class or video instruction beyond this book’s voluminous resources.
Part 3, Starting Down the QiGong Path to T’ai Chi, explains how QiGong works and then leads you into an experience that is exquisite beyond words. Part 3 ends with an introduction to Moving QiGong exercises, including the warm-ups that prepare your mind and body to dive into an ocean of T’ai Chi experience (with references to the Web Video Support). T’ai Chi literally means “the supreme ultimate,” so hold on for an incredible ride!
Part 4, Learning a T’ai Chi Long Form, illuminates the history of T’ai Chi and how the Kuang Ping Yang style was brought to the West by Master Kuo Lien Ying. Then you are led through the entire 64 postures of this powerful, ancient form (with video support for each one of the 64 postures’ instructions and an entire exhibition of the T’ai Chi long form with a QiGong Breathing tutorial). Instructions include the specific benefits of some movements, and rich details on weight shift, energy flow, and more. Yet remember, the benefits are endless, and because this book is bound by its covers, to discover them you must experience them yourself as they unfold beautifully within you every day for the rest of your life.
Part 5, T’ai Chi’s Buffet of Short, Sword, and Fan Styles, exposes you to the many incredibly beautiful forms of T’ai Chi (with Web Video Support) available to you today. Remember that only about 30 years ago, these arts were secrets of China, so we are very lucky to have these exquisite art forms available to us now in our lifetimes. Part 5 gives you a small yet delicious taste of what is available. If you seek, ye shall find.
Part 6, Life Applications, shows that T’ai Chi is much more than just a “physical exercise.” T’ai Chi can help heal every aspect of our lives, our relationships, and our world (Web Video Support complements these points). To that end, Part 6 explains how T’ai Chi and/or QiGong can be used to help treat almost any illness or physical malady. It also explains to what extent T’ai Chi can be a powerful adjunct therapy for many mental or emotional problems, as well as a powerful tool that helps you increase your productivity and creativity in your professional life. But even beyond healing, you will see how T’ai Chi can help the world realize a much more expansive vision of possibility for our ever-evolving future.
Extras
Throughout this book, I’ve included five types of extra information for your enlightenment:
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OUCH! |
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KNOW YOUR CHINESE |
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A T’AI CHI PUNCH LINE |
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T’AI SCI |
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SAGE SIFU SAYS |
But Wait! There’s More!
We’ve included tons of additional Web Video Support content. Bookmark or add to your favorites www.idiotsguides.com/taichi for ongoing Web Video Support of most chapters in this book and enjoy!
Acknowledgments
A great thanks to the many dedicated Chinese creators of T’ai Chi who’ve spent lifetimes developing this wonderful art and health science the world now has access to. T’ai Chi and QiGong are great gifts the Chinese culture has provided for the world, and I offer the creators a deep and heartfelt thank you. Their efforts leave me convinced that every culture on this planet has treasures to offer the rest, and I hope we all can open our hearts and minds to truth and value, no matter where it comes from.
A profound thanks to my teacher, Master Jennifer Booth; her teacher, Gil Messenger; their teacher, Russell Schofield; and our grandmaster, Kuo Lien Ying, who made the daunting journey from China to San Francisco, as did many other courageous masters of other styles of T’ai Chi and forms of QiGong. Their courage in migrating to strange lands made it possible for millions of people in many nations to have access to the beauty and power of Kuang Ping Yang T’ai Chi Ch’uan and the other wonderful forms, including Chen, Yang, Wu, Sun, Mulan, and others. I would further like to thank my teacher, Ms. Booth, for focusing intensely on the healing aspects of T’ai Chi and QiGong and for imparting that importance to me.
My mother-in-law, Shun Oi Wong, was an integral part of my T’ai Chi journey, and my father-in-law, Bonwyn Wong, embodied the humility and infinite wisdom Chinese people are known for. My children, Isaac, Andrea, and Michael, led me to the doorway of change through their innocent examples of wisdom, and my parents, Evelyn and William Douglas, showed me that even the harshest tests can produce pearls in us beautiful creatures known as human beings.
Thanks to Mulan Quan instructors Angela Wong Douglas and Andrea Mei-Wah Douglas for their wonderful exhibitions and insights into the elegant art form of Mulan Quan basic, Fan, and Sword style. Angela has been a treasure trove of insight into understanding Chinese culture, which is woven throughout the principles of T’ai Chi and QiGong’s elegant philosophy and science.
With the modern stress plague ravaging the world, I want to thank the visionary educators beginning to incorporate T’ai Chi and QiGong into education systems worldwide. When every graduating senior is a T’ai Chi master, how much less drug and alcohol abuse, and how much less violence and fewer children in prisons will there be? Thank you all for your courage, vision, and open-heartedness, to see the profound value of these tools even though they come from another culture. Thanks to all the innovative T’ai Chi teachers who are discovering new ways to teach these ancient arts, to make them fun and contemporary so modern children (and adults) in all societies can learn to love them. All the T’ai Chi and QiGong teachers working to educate the world on the last Saturday of April each year on World T’ai Chi and QiGong Day (and all year) are pioneers whose health education work will benefit the world in ways we cannot yet even imagine.
I’d like to thank illustrator Jenny Hahn for her brilliant insightful work on the more than 200 instructional sketches and her dedication to this project. Ms. Hahn is an extraordinary artist with an ability to capture complex and even internal T’ai Chi concepts in her illustrations. Her work has set a new standard for T’ai Chi book instruction. Also, thanks to Jessica Kincaid for her computer graphics and to master photographer David Larson for his brilliant photos.
And lastly, thank you Tom Stevens, Janette Lynn, and Mark Reddin, for your clarifying insights, attention to detail, and brilliant and elegant T’ai Chi–like approach to the editing of this book.
Special Thanks to the Technical Reviewer
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to T’ai Chi & QiGong was reviewed by an expert who double-checked the accuracy of what you’ll learn here, to help us ensure that this book gives you everything you need to know about T’ai Chi and QiGong. Special thanks are extended to Master Jennifer Booth.
All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be or are suspected of being trademarks or service marks have been appropriately capitalized. Alpha Books and Penguin Group (USA) Inc. cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.