The Theoretical Basis of Taijiquan (Tai Chi Chuan)

Taijiquan has a way of slipping through the fingers of even its most devoted students. In these pages,Robert Amacker offers his unifying view as directly as possible, not as an argument to win, but as ideas to test in the body, where Taiji is ultimately proved. Writing with the confidence of long experience, he is less concerned with persuading you than with giving you a method that, given time, can persuade you for yourself. If you’ve ever suspected that Taijiquan’s paradoxes must resolve into an elegant underlying logic, this book is for that hope — and for the moment you feel it in practice.Robert Amacker (1944–2021) devoted more than fifty years to studying, practicing, and teaching Taijiquan, seeking what he called its deepest structural and philosophical principles. He was fortunate to start his Taijiquan training at the age of twenty-one with Professor Zheng Manqing (Cheng Man-ch’ing), and later with William Chen and Ben Lo (Professor Zheng’s most advanced students), and continued Yang Family training under Chu Chufang (a student of Yang Chengfu), mastering Three-step, Da Lu, and Sanshou. He brought the Taijiquan Classics to English readers as co-author of The Essence of T’ai Chi Ch’uan: The Literary Tradition. Read more