For folks interested in the history of Chinese martial arts, without all the nonsense and bullshit that goes with most Chinese martial arts history, I would immodestly recommend:
Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals: A Historical Survey and was published last year by North Atlantic Books.
The Amazon blurb is at:
http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Martial-Arts-Training-Manuals/dp/1556435576/sr=1-2/qid=1170120112/ref=sr_1_2/102-3173785-1770502?ie=UTF8&s=books

I say "immodestly" because I wrote it, well, it did get very good reviews in the Journal of Asian Martial Arts and elsewhere.

Good luck with this new Chinese martial arts sub-forum.

Take care,
Brian Kennedy

Hi Brian,

Care to send us a review copy? We've got a number of people qualified to go through it.

I've been waiting to pick up a copy of this. If you want it reviewed here, count me in.

Brian, I have a .pdf of an old General Qi 32 Stance manual that you might be interested in looking at.

Also, have you taken a look at the Muyaedobotongji?

Hey, my teacher has that book! cool.

I got tired of waiting for his ass to respond and bought a copy... it is good. I approve. Definitely in the Bullshido philosophy in that it talks alot of **** about the martial larping that goes on in CMA. Talking about how wuxia novels have turned into proof of superhuman abilities that people had back in the day and stuff like that. Very informative for me. Check out the Table of Contents at Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/1556435576/ref=sib_dp_pt/026-8844213-8312459#reader-link).

There is a lot of respect here for real martial training. He talks about how even back in the day, there have been plenty of people teaching bullshido and places that do not train hard, or don't spar much, and so on. But there is mostly a big exploration of how martial arts really developed in China and how they were used... ya know like military and security stuff.

I am a huge student of the MYTBTJ and I don't think that is any big secret.

Given the othr book on Chinese manuals, I am not sure that I got my dollar's-worth out of it. Some part of me felt that the entire content of the book could have been reduced to maybe a 2-installment magazine article as quite a few of the book's view were restated a few times in the course of its chapters.

The other piece that bothered me was the obvious promotion of LION'S BOOKS the outlet for various Chinese manuals that have been made available. There is some part of me that hears in the advertising, articles and this book a message that LIONS is a source for Chinese manuals. In my experience with them I have tried to connect and secure works such as a later copy of MAO, Yuan-I's "WU BEI SHI". Since this was repreinted as late as 1988 by the BEJING PHYSICAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT I would not think that it would be any great trick to get a copy. Instead, my sense is that LIONS has a limited number of manuals available and it is its marketing rather than reality that suggests that they have a greater range of publications than they may actually have.

If I am out of line I hope Brian will correct me.

Perhaps you can even suggest some alternate sources for the encyclopedic work I am seeking, yes? Thoughts?

Best Wishes,

Bruce

I recently ordered a new book that was reccommmended to me by someone (?) , I can't remember who. I t may well have been someone here, anyways it is entitled CHINESE MARTIAL ARTS TRAINING MANUALS : A HISTORICAL SURVEY by BRIAN KENNEDY and ELIZABETH GUO.
I like the way the book is set up . It begns with an overview of CMA , and goes on to cover almost any aspect of the arts and their history you can think of, including the big names like Sun Xi Kun , Tong Zhong Yi anf Yin Yu Zhang.
Quite good, no BS so far.

Very good book. A little longish but enjoyable. What's funny is you get some words from "masters" that mirror no bullshit.

Very good book. A little longish but enjoyable. What's funny is you get some words from "masters" that mirror no bullshit.

Can you elaborate a bit?

Hands down, the best book I've read on Chinese Martial Arts. Clears up a lot of the nonsense that Richard E Smith used to write about. My favorite part is where the author explains that the most favored weapon of Chinese "Bodyguards" in the 1800's was the Colt .38, as well as talking to the gangs in the area and paying them off to travel undisturbed.

Kind of blows the whole "Crouching Tiger" era, but you'd find out the same about the old west in America- i.e. almost no duels, being a cowboy sucked, etc.