Yang Style Traditional Long Form T'ai Chi Ch'uan: As Taught by T.T. Liang

In this book Gordon Muir quotes Master T.T. Liang as saying "I wish all my students would become better than me. I wish the whole world would take up T'ai Chi. Then my life''s work would not be in vain, and the world will become a beautiful and peaceful place". Master T.T. Liang's wish is quite admirable but for some of us who seek the truth, this World; the Pinda World is not necessarily for Souls to experience all piece but rather to gain the necessary experiences to obtain Spiritual Freedom on the way back to the Divine. It is only my humble opinion but I do believe Master Liang's student can and would become better then this book depicts the Yang style traditional long form, if they were to study with Sifu Tommy Cheng in New Orleans Louisiana. I see many discrepancies in this book that Sifu has mentioned during tranning. Sifu tells us he is teaching us the Classical Tai Chi handed down by masters of the Ming dynasty. The first two generation of the Yang style; Bu lawn Yang and his sons knew and taught the secret, classical Tai Chi. When the Ming masters taught the Ching soldiers and people they diluted the teachings to keep the Ching people from learning the true Tai Chi. For instance Sifu tells us there was no Push Hands. Push Hands was created to preoccupy the Ching students so as not to learn the true Striking Hands. Sifu uses the Chinese charters that are along side of the english translation of "The Song of Hands Pushing" in the Tai Chi Bible to illustrate; the Chinese Charter is correctly interpreted as "Hands Striking". Sifu expresses his desire to write about his knowledge of Tai Chi and my hope is that some entirety such as the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences would sponsor him. Sifu is 71 years old and I would hate to see his knowledge of Classical Tai Chi be lost to this world.

I am a t'ai chi player of the Yang long form. I work with it first thing in the morning and last thing before bed. This book is a very valuable companion and should be taken daily in small doses and absorbed like a vitamin pill to nourish the chi. This book is not for the beginner, but he or she should buy it while he has the chance and grow into it as he progresses. Detailed instructions are given, but without a companion DVD it would be hard to learn the form directly from them, and as far as I know, no DVD is available. (To learn the form Terry Dunn's DVD is a classic.). This is the real thing. The simplified, popular books are a good place to get your feet wet, but if you're serious, you should know what authentic t'ai chi is all about. Buy a copy for yourself, and you can't find a better gift for someone who plans to make Yang long form a life's quest, as I have.

Excellent resource for Tai Chi practitioners. T. T. Liang's instructions are well worth the study/reading as written by Gordon Muir. As a continuing student of Tai Chi, one should read this to learn more about the 'principles' of the Art. Muir explains it well, and the photographs are a great resource also.

I STUDIED WITH PAUL GALLAGHER AND TT LIANG YEARS AGO. A GOOD REFRESHER.

Master Liang has shared his knowledge and experience in this work, and in doing so has created an excellent adjunct text to be used -- preferably along with a Sifu's instruction -- in learning the intricacies of the Yang Long Form. I have been studying this form for over two years, and have gained several new insights into my study as a result of reading Master Liang's writing.This makes an excellent addition to one's martial arts/internal study library.

Every Master that teaches Yang Styles has something a little different sometimes it depends if the Master was from Northern China or Southern China there will be a slight difference. So I can only say the book was interesting

always interested in insights to the long form

I studied the Yang Family T'ai Chi form for years with Tom Tam of Gin Soon Chu's lineage, and teach Unity Practice Chi Gong. There is no substitute for a qualified teacher, but this book is an accurate and complete reference. It's a good addition to your library.Jon, AuthorThe Next Testament The Next Testament

This is a very fine book for beginning and experienced tai chi practitioners alike. The instructions are written as if Sifu Muir is right there explaining things to you. His respectful sections on meeting Master TT LIANG are most illuminating. It is also a fine complement to Stuart Olson's "TAI CHI CHUAN: Imagination becomes reality". The men are tai chi brothers of Master Liang's line after all.

I purchased this book several years ago along with other books about Tai chi philosophy and application, but this is the book that I have clung to for my practice. This is indeed the long form of Yang style Tai chi chuan and if you pick it up you will not put it down. The reader of this manual is not only given step by step instructions but pictures to follow to make sure you are progressing with this form correctly. I would recommend it to anyone, and it is a book that I consider sacred amongst my Tai Chi collection.

An excellent treatise. The foundation part at the beginning is worth the price of the book and you don't need to practice Yang style to greatly benefit from the foundation portion. It will help you to move more effectively in day to day life.

very, very good explanation how tai chi works. very motivating.

Having chosen this book on the basis of its two glowing 5-star reviews, I was actually quite disappointed with it. Gordon Muir is doubtless a very accomplished Tai Chi player and perhaps even a very good teacher too, but his book fell far short of what I was hoping for. Why oh why do so may Tai Chi books supposedly aimed at beginners show the Form being done with an incredibly long and deep stance that would take perhaps a full decade of practice to achieve? Is it ego on the part of the authors that they want to show everyone how deep a posture they have managed to achieve? I'm not sure, but I don't think it's the best way to present the Form to beginners. And by beginners, I mean anyone in their first decade of practice! That aside, the photos in this book are small and it's not always clear from the text descriptions exactly what direction one should be facing. I also think it is almost impossible to convey correct positioning for each posture without a basic four-points-of-the-compass diagram showing where the feet should be, such as in the 1973 book by Cheng Man-Ch'ing and Robert Smith.Perhaps I'm being overly critical though, as I didn't buy this book to try to learn the traditional Long Form. I practice Cheng Man Ching's 37 posture 'Short' Form and I was just interested in seeing what postures he had removed from the traditional Long Form to end up with the Form that I am learning. I might be interested in learning the traditional form once I feel like I've really got to grips with the short form, but that probably won't be for at least another dozen years or so yet.Anyway, back to this book. The preliminary exercises are interesting and well described and have given me fresh insight into movement and weighting, and that alone has made it a very worthwhile purchase for me. Although I said I was disappointed with this book I would still rate it quite highly, as I suspect that my problem with it may just be that it's aimed at people much further along on their Tai Chi journey than I am at the moment. I'd say it's definitely not for beginners. :-)