The Annotated Classics

I have just finished Barbara Davis' excellent translations of the T'ai Chi Classics, including the commentaries of Chen Wei Ming, a great student of Yang Cheng Fu. I wrote to Barbara last night to give my appreciation and to find the best way to get a box of her books for my students and colleagues. The Classics are essential for anyone sincerely practising Yang Style T'ai Chi. For beginners and those averse to longer books I still recommend starting with The Lo / Inn / Amaker / Foe version of the Classics 'The Essence of T'ai Chi Ch'uan': its clear layout and poetic form is very appealing. However, if you already have a dog-eared copy of that (and if you don't, you should!) then Barbara's book is a must. The intro has a very accessible and well researched history of T'ai Chi, and the Classics themselves yield fresh inspiration via her particular renditions into English of certain words and phrases. However, the loveliest aspect for me was Chen Wei Ming's commentary: really of a piece with our approach to T'ai Chi, and finding out that his school was called 'Achieving Softness' was a delightful detail.

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