Those original blog postings and videos are long since gone. I viewed some of the videos when I had a backup drive attached earlier this week. Wow! It is even worse than hearing yourself on cassette tape for the first time.

Over time, The Walking Circle web site became more of a repository of terms and martial art masters. It illustrated the transition of the internal martial art forms over time, while providing the supporting documentation for those forms.

Still later, I tried making the site into a community driven platform, but most people had little reason to support my small corner of the Internet when Facebook had much larger communities available. Those that did participate took part in one of the most rewarding journeys of my life–writing my first book–and were rewarded with autographed copies of the first edition. Someday, I am sure those first editions will be worth millions .

On this journey, I realized that the best interaction/community tools are Facebook and Twitter. If you need help with a form or just a have a question or rant, my Facebook and Twitter accounts are the best place to turn. You can link directly to my account using the logo links presented on the sidebar.

Outside those accounts, I still have much stuff I would like to share with the world. Stuff that I want to remember, and don’t want to leave in the hands of Twitter or Facebook. It is also stuff that does not belong on this site.

I have created a new site for just such a purpose and thanks to the wonderful stylings of ElegantThemes, I think it is marvelous! At the Daoist Almanac I will post all that stuff that might also fit into Twitter or Facebook, and some stuff that is exclusive to that site. My plans include excerpts of my book on Zen/Dao philosophy and how to use those classic texts as a tool for lateral thinking.

This site will get more blog entries about the martial arts. Most of these updates will come from my work on my Taijiquan book.

Finally, the Earth Dragon Canon section of this site will get its own web site as well. That way, The Walking Circle gets back to its roots, and those other creations get an opportunity to stand on their own.

I made the entire contents of the book AND the DVD available from this site earlier this month, but no one has taken advantage of that offer. I guess you would rather have a physical copy in your hands, even if that copy is in Kindle form.

Because of your overwhelming response, I am considering Amazon’s Video On Demand service as well for the DVD.

Again, this was just one guy passionate about these arts with a desire to share my experience with others.

Sincerely, Thank You.

Taking a broad look at the history of qigong practice, you first must understand that at the time these practices were developed; they were not called qigong. For the daoist and Chinese medical doctor there was dao yin, and for the buddhist there was the yi jin ching, for example.

Medical

Medical qigong classifies those practices based on traditional Chinese medicine theory with the goal to prevent or cure illness. The types of practice would depend on the condition of the practitioner with the goal of restoring balance and health.

Daoist

Daoist priest’s developed a system of alchemy based around the trigrams of the Bagua. These systems were seeking the elixir of life. The exercises focused the practitioner on the lower Dan Tian, an area below the navel, with the goal of creating an elixir field that could be manipulated through sexual or other physical practices.

Buddhist

The Buddhists were more concerned with liberation from reincarnation and self-observation then the Daoist. The buddhist exercises were more meditative seeking a state of pure consciousness or a “sound mind in a sound body.”

Confucian

The Confucians believed that by creating healthy family you would create a healthy country. This starts with the health of single person. Therefore, it was the responsibility of every individual to exercise daily and to develop into a virtuous person. The exercises are often the same as exercises from other systems, but the goal of the student is to cultivate benevolence, sincerity, respect, and other virtues.

Boxing

Martial qigong developed to improve the efficiency of the muscles, bones, and ligaments to use in a fight. Exercises developed not only physical strength, but mental strength. The ultimate goal was to balance the hardness and the softness by developing the body to be strong on the outside while maintaining suppleness on the inside.

The actual term, qigong, probably arose during the Cultural Revolution as an attempt to integrate Chinese medicine practices with Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian methods of self-cultivation. While the term qigong is relatively new, the practices we now call qigong are quite old. The first explanations and illustrations of such exercises coming from the Zhou Dynasty (122 – 255 BCE). The most famous of these early illustrations is the Dao Yin Illustrations, which depict 44 human figures (drawn in color) with different postures and short captions drawn in black lines.

Dao Yin Illustrations

The Huangdi Neijing–the earliest Chinese medicine reference–summarized theoretical and practical knowledge on health and was the primary reference material on qi and health promoting exercises for centuries.

Qigong is a practice that has taken on mythic qualities. In the early 1950′s Liu Guizhen, a doctor, used his family’s method of qigong practice to cure himself; He wrote a book to promote his system. Later, madam Guo Lin is said to have cured herself of uterine cancer. She was diagnosed at the age of forty and suffered through many operations and setbacks. After eight years she began to practice qigong methods in the park for two hours a day, and within six months she claimed to be cured of the cancer.

Stories like these cross the practical aspect of physical exercise with mysticism that promises miracles. Rather than the movements of a qigong sequence simply being movements, they turn into some sort of spell. I guess that moving this arm this way, followed by that way, will generate a certain response that creates a healing effect on the cells of the body. But, it will only work if you breath a certain way, at a certain time of day, and if you are not healed, then you must have been doing it wrong or chosen the wrong system, or your teacher was a flake. My vote is on the last one.

Qigong is not a magic spell. A more accurate term is calisthenics. Calisthenics are defined as an exercise used to achieve bodily fitness and grace of movement; a definition that is not far from the practical definition of qigong presented below.

The need to move something as practical as an enjoyable exercise routine into something that will cure any disease, or cause you to become immortal is a mystery to me. Qigong forms are easy to do, and are accessible to people in many age groups or physical condition. There are sitting, standing, and lying qigong forms that can relax or energize the most harried practitioner.

Set aside the mythical stories and try to arrive at a practical definition of the term. Qi means breath, and gong can mean work, merit, achievement, or practice. So at its most literal qigong is breath work or breath practice. A practical definition is: An exercise set emphasizing breathing techniques and designed to achieve bodily fitness.

This entry is now a page in the Glossary section

Enjoy, and as always your comments are welcome.

The case is of standard quality for DVDs, but I think the printing on the DVD front face is excellent. I provide a summary of what the DVD contains on the rear panel of the case, it reads:

This DVD describes functional practices for the Chinese internal martial art known as Baguazhang (Eight Trigram Palm).

The DVD illustrates a series of standing exercises that stress good posture before introducing the circle walking practice of Baguazhang.

In the walking section, you will learn three “Stepping” patterns and eight “Standing Palms” that will prepare you for the ten classical postures of Sun Style Baguazhang.

In the Baguazhang section, you will learn the two primary “changes” of Baguazhang before learning the eight animals and their associations to the trigrams of the Bagua.

The DVD complements the book of the same name.

It is that last sentence that is important. This DVD is meant to work in conjunction with my book to improve your understanding of the forms. Studying martial forms from a book is difficult, the transitions between forms—while often obvious—can be tricky to get from pictures alone. Seeing a video of the form performed helps in understanding the practice.

In my study, I have found that I get the best understanding of a martial form when I can both read a book and view a video of the art. With the large variety of martial forms out there, it can be frustrating to find a book that accurately describes a form you have seen in a video, or vice-versa.

This was especially true in the late 90′s when I wanted to study Xingyiquan. No one in Kansas was teaching Xingyiquan at the time, and I was enjoying the practice of the Five Element fist that I had learned from a book. I wanted to learn the Animal forms, but it was impossible to find a good description of them in books—at least one that I could follow with the same ease that I followed the Taijiquan sequence from Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming’s first Taijiquan book. When I could find a video, it was often pricey (more than $40), and the forms did not match up with descriptions I read in books. It seems that while the Five Elements were consistent between schools, the Animals were all over the place.

Because of that frustration with Xingyiquan, I have always valued teachers that provide both video and written evidence for me to follow. A quick note, shooting video is easy. Writing a book is hard. First, there is the form description. Putting down on paper the sequence of foot and hand movements is a very good way to find out that you know less about what you are doing than you suspect. Second, there is the introduction, and general description of the form. Seems simple enough, but you quickly find that when you are putting something down on paper–that you will ask hundreds or thousands of others to read–you want to get it right. So, a simple fact–that you assume you have always known–suddenly raises questions. Where did I learn that? Who said it first? Why is it true?

All these questions have to be answered if you will write a good book. Third, you have to persuade the reader to practice. Seems obvious, they bought your book; they must want to practice. But, who are they? Are they experienced martial art teachers? A new student? How do you write for both?

Finally, and I think this is the most important bit, and the one overlooked by most instructional books. Your book has to be an argument. You don’t have to win the argument, but it must be made. Without the argument, there is no book. Until you have this argument, and have put it down on paper, you really don’t understand why you are doing all this.

I am glad that I had that argument with my first book. I had finished the first draft of Earth Dragon Canon around Christmas of 2008. It was crap. I mean it was really bad. It answered few of the questions I asked above, and presented the forms as some static postures that you should go through to learn Baguazhang. It was very stale, traditional—in a bad way—and lacked my passion for the martial arts.

I started over, on January 1, 2009, and by March I had the book that I published. I wanted to move directly to shooting a DVD to compliment the book, but life got in the way, and I started a new career instead. That career was put on an unexpected hold early this year, and I found that I had the time to complete the DVD. While I was working on shooting the footage for the DVD, I decided that I should make the video available online as well.

Over the past four weeks I converted the entire text of Earth Dragon Canon into HTML format for presenting on this web site. I also converted the DVD footage into versions suitable for internet streaming. The result is that you can read the entire text, and view the videos—presented at their appropriate place in the text—on this web site. The price is $39 for 3 months of access. You pay through Pay Pal, so you know that your transaction is secure. The access does not auto-renew, so you are not locked into a long term commitment.

I would like to know what you think about the online version. Comment on this post, and let me know if the term is too long, or too short Would you rather download the whole thing? I need to know, because I am actively writing a Taijiquan book, and actively looking for work, so my time frame for making major adjustments is limited. Thanks in advance.

Troy

This is it! This is what those geniuses of my childhood–Jobs, Gates, and …–were saying. Power to the People! Publishing will never be the same! I did all of this, in less than a month(OK, I have studied martial arts for something like 17 years now, and have been a hard-core geek coder for something 10, so maybe not everyone can do this)!

Anyway. the proof is on it’s way, and the proof is just a copy of the DVD I sent in. I assume the cover art will turn out fine. So I expect this proof to work. In which case, the DVD of Earth Dragon Canon–Walking, Martial Arts and Self Evolution will be ready for your purchase sometime in August. That is really amazing, when you consider that I started this journey–with this book– on August 8 of 2008.

If you don’t want to wait for the DVD, or would rather get your martial art fix on-line, then you can do that today!. That’s right! You can click on the Membership link, Pay $39 with either your PayPal account, or any other methods that PayPal makes available for you to pay, and get 3 months access to the entire text of the book and the entire contents of the DVD! On this web-site! That just blows my mind! I used to wait weeks to get a subscription to a Marvel Comic, and you can get the book, AND the DVD in a few seconds. And I did all this–the years of studying a martial art, the years of coding in HTML, javascript, etc, the months of practice with iMovie and camera, and… anyway.
I am excited, I hope your are too.

This may not sound so cool now, but as a kid it was always fun. You only had to work a few hours, then the rest of the day you could wander the midway, play on the tractors, or visit the other exhibits. When you spend that much time at a fair, you get to see all those sales presentations repeatedly.

Even if you have never been to a county or state fair, you are familiar with these types of sales pitches. They are the guys using a knife to cut a tin can in half, a shammy to soak up an entire two-liter bottle of pop, or demonstrating a blender that can also crush ice.

I mention this because it was at the state fair that I first saw someone issue what the martial artist call rootedness. This sales pitch was for a set of shoe inserts, or arch supports. With the arch supports in, the guy could not be pushed around, even by a couple of really big guys. But with them out, he could be pushed all over the place. He would even get a pair of arch supports for someone in the audience and try to push them around with the arch supports in, and then again when they were out.

(Another segway and then I will pull it together, I promise.) Recently; we started using Direct TV instead of cable (both a mistake and a good thing). The first thing that struck me about Direct TV is the huge number of channels dedicated to nothing more than commercials. One of these is for an exercise program called P90x.

The sales pitch for P90x is that in 90 days you will transform your body and get back in shape. (When you have watched as much late-night television as me, you recognize that this is not a new sale’s pitch.) The commercial includes lots of video of people sweating and hurting as the instructor takes them through their paces.

Within a couple of days of noticing the 90 day exercise program, I noticed another one that promises the same results in 60 days. Of course, there is the usual array of devices promising the same type of results as the 90 and 60 day programs, but the bared midriff models on these commercials seldom break a sweat.

There are many charlatans in the martial art worlds that are trying to sell you a lethal advantage, or a magic power that will make you invincible and able to withstand the force of many men, or throw others away like a piece of paper.

Others like to sell you on the arts physical characteristics, how brutal and hard it is. By practicing this or that art you will be get in supreme shape and be a true warrior.

What I want you to be aware of, is how many of these sales pitches have in common with those sales booths at the fair, or commercials on Direct TV.

I have seen an increasing amount of martial art teachers and students turning to programs like the 90 and 60 day programs sold on Direct TV to “get in shape” and then claim that shape—or use it as an advantage—in their martial art program.

It is a good idea if you plan on spending many hours a day teaching the martial arts, or participating in fighting competitions (you need that kind of effort to be a warrior). I would accept this practice from any teacher that is honestly sharing his escapade into these other fitness programs. The problem with this approach, is that you will suffer from energy dispersion.

Energy dispersion is what old master Zhang referred to when he created Taijiquan. Remember that he was taught in Shaolin before he created the “softer” art. I suspect that after 90 days in the P90x program you will be in better shape. The effort indicated in the commercials is extreme, and I have no doubt that if you honestly make it through the program you will feel great about yourself.

What happens on the 95 and 100th day? Well, according to the old internal martial art masters, you will get sore, you will be tired, and you will not practice. When you do practice again, you will injure yourself. Provided of course that you did not injure yourself during the 90 program.

So if you feel the need to pump up your ego with one of these programs, I guess you should go for it. But, I want you to be aware of the consequences, and realize that for less effort, and a few more minutes a day you could walk a few more circles in the fixed postures, stand in San Ti, or do a few more push-ups.

The door that is used does not stick shut, and the hinge will not rust. Nuff said.

My first book on Taijiquan did not include a single classic. Dr. Yang, Jwing Ming’s “little yellow book” (as I call it) had a brief introduction to the form, followed by lots of photos and detailed explanations of how to perform the sequence of postures. It was a later book from Dr. Yang, Advanced Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan, Volume 1, Tai Chi Theory and Tai Chi Jing that introduced me to the classics. The appendix of this book has 15 classics with the original Chinese, a translation, and an explanation.
I remember reading these in the bookstore and wondering why some of them, at least, were not in the other book. Dr. Yang would later expand the classics to complete reference series, with books dedicated to the classical literature of each of the major family styles of Taijiquan.

Back to my original question, what are the classics? I normally start such searches from my own library, but this time I searched the internet, and found an entry on Wikipedia that included books from Sun Lutang and Chen family masters.

After studying the books in my library I came up with a chart cross referencing the classics mentioned in each book. With that chart, I found six classics mentioned in multiple sources. From those, I chose three since most of the material is duplicated in the others.

Without further explanation, here is my (initial) interpretation of The Taijiquan Classics.

What is Taijiquan?

What is Taijiquan? It is like a long river and a great sea, rolling unceasingly.

Within it, there are the Changes and the Great Primal Beginning. These generate the two primary forces. The two primary forces generate the four images. The four images generate the eight trigrams.

What are the thirteen postures? Ward-off, Rollback, Press, Push, Pluck, Split, Elbow-stroke, Shoulder-stroke, these are the Eight Trigrams.

Forward, Backward, Beware of the Left, Look to the Right, Central Equilibrium, these are the Five Phases.

Ward-off, Rollback, Press, and Push is Heaven, Earth, Water, and Fire; the four main sides.

Pluck, Split, Elbow-stroke, and Shoulder-stroke is Wind, Thunder, Lake, and Mountain, the four diagonal corners.

Forward, Backward, Beware of the Left, Look to the Right, and Central Equilibrium is Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth.

Together they are the Thirteen Postures.

The Song of Thirteen Postures

Do not neglect any of the thirteen postures of Taijiquan; do not treat them lightly.

The source of will, and energy of life originates at the waist.

Change from insubstantial to substantial with the greatest of care.

The Qi circulates without the slightest stagnation.

Touch the movement in the stillness.

Sense the stillness in the movement.

Vary your response to the enemy and follow his intent; show the marvelous technique.

Pay attention to every posture, gauge its purpose, and you will achieve skill without wasting your time and energy.

In every movement the heart (hsin) remains on the waist

Relax the abdomen keep it lite, allowing the Qi to rise up.

Remain upright and the spirit (shen) will thread through the top of the head.

The body is pliable with the top of the head suspended.

Pay attention to your research of Taijiquan, seeking its meaning and purpose.

Bent and extended, open and closed let nature take its course.

Beginning your study requires instruction.

Practice without ceasing, gradually apply yourself more and more.

Skill comes through self-study.

If asked, what is the standard of Taijiquan, the answer is Yi (mind) and Qi are primary, the bones and muscles are secondary.

What is Taijiquan’s purpose? It is for health, longevity, and rejuvenation.

Taijiquan is an eternal spring.

Every word of this song has enormous value.

If you fail to follow the advice in this song, you are wasting your time and energy, merely passing the time.

The Theory of Taijiquan

With every movement, the body is lite and agile (Ching and Lin). More important, each joint of the body is articulated like a string of pearls.

The breath should be full and still inside, penetrating the entire body. Your Shen (Spirit Energy) is concentrated and retained internally.

All the movements must be smooth and round, no part should be deficient or excessive; no part should be disconnected.

The internal energy is rooted in the feet, flows upwards through the legs, controlled by the waist and expressed in the fingers. The movements of the feet, legs, and waist must be integrated to act as a unit. When the entire body is acting as a unit, going forward or backward, you can gain the superior position.

If you fail to gain the superior position then your mind is scattered, and your body is disordered. To solve this problem you must develop the waist and the legs.

Movement up or down, forwards or backwards, left or right is the same. This is understood with the (yi) intent, and not with force (externally).

If there is a top, there is a bottom; if there is a front, there is a back; if there is a left, there is a right.

Before moving upward, one must first move downward. Just as one intends to pull up a tree must first push downwards to loosen the roots. This means lifting something upward and then destroying it downward. If the root of the object is lifted, it can be destroyed easily.

Yin and yang must be clearly distinguished. Every part of the body has a substantial and an insubstantial aspect. The unity of the body must be maintained, linking the joints together without the slightest break.

Note: If you are trying to register, go to the Membership page and look for information there. As things come together, actual registration will happen there.