Preface

As one of China’s renowned martial arts, Taijiquan or Tai Chi takes its name from the ancient Chinese philosophy for understanding theories of boxing. At present, five major schools of Taijiquan have been passed down– the Chen style, the Yang style, the Wu style (吳式), the Wu style (武式), and the Sun style. Among them, the Yang style exemplifies softness, slowness, agility and broad universality, making it popular with more and more people.

A Yang-style Taijiquan Course (Chinese-English Bilingual Edition) (hereinafter referred to as “Bilingual Course”), adopts the content of the Yang style of Taijiquan from the Chinese Wushu Duan System Tutorial Series, and compiles it in both Chinese and English, aiming to further disseminate Yang-style Taijiquan, to enhance its universality, and to promote its healthy development.

On the basis of traditional methods of passing down martial arts and its modes of skills training, the Bilingual Course classifies the basic techniques of Yang-style Taijiquan into five technical elements. From beginners to intermediates, this technical system builds up gradually according to its technical elements, number of movements, and difficulty levels. The techniques at each level may be practiced individually or in pairs. They can also be practiced step by step through actual combat. This method emphasizes a combination of actual combat with practice in traditional martial arts, conforming to the rules for teaching the heritage of the martial arts.

The Bilingual Course is suitable for college students majoring in martial arts or China’s traditional ethnic sports, including for international students and martial arts enthusiasts locally and abroad. It could also be used as teaching materials by Confucius Institutes.

The compliation of the Bilingual Course has received support from Guandong Province’s Education Department and Sports Bureau, Guangzhou University, and the Foreign Languages Press, among others. The illustrations were done by the international athlete Zhang Fang from the School of Physical Education and Sports Science of Guangzhou University, as well as national athletes Sun Ying and Zhan Dongxu, Han Yilin, Cheng Zijie and others from the Ersha Sports Training Center of Guangdong Province. We express our gratitude to all these people and organizations.

Due to the varied level of the contributions, the Bilingual Course might contain some inapplicable features. It would be greatly appreciated if readers including experts and scholars, point these out for the purpose of future revisions.

The authors

December 2017