Martial History Team

 Welcome to the March 2023 book survey, part three. I decided to break this month's survey into three posts. The theme for this month is Kung Fu. Part one is  here . Part two is here . Introduction In March 2023, I (Richard) continued my reading plan. This month I surveyed a number of books on Kung Fu.  Chinese Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self-Defense, Bruce Lee, 1963/1987/1988/2008 This is one of the few books in the MHT catalog that has an entire web site devoted to it -- Bruce Lee Chinese Gung Fu Book  by Steve Palmer. Mr. Palmer has done the definitive research on this book, which was the only title published during Mr. Lee's lifetime (1940-1973), regardless of what the Dragon movie depicts : My print copy is a 1996 twelfth printing of the 1988 third edition. It is a paperback measuring 5 1/2 inches by 8 1/4 inches with 102 black and white pages. There is a digital copy of a twentieth printing of the same edition from 2005 on the Internet Archive . I also own a digita

   Welcome to the March 2023 book survey, part two. I decided to break this month's survey into three posts. The theme for this month is Kung Fu. Part one is here . Introduction In March 2023, I (Richard) continued my reading plan. This month I surveyed a number of books on Kung Fu.  Sword Treatise (Jian Jing), Jack Chen, Yu Da-You, c. 1565/2016 I first mentioned this book here three years ago . This title is an excerpt from a longer work by general Yu Da-You (1503/4-1579/80) titled Compilation of Vital Energy . I bought my copy of Sword Treatise  or Sword Classic  from the translator, Jack Chen . It's a traditionally bound paperback measuring 5 3/4 inches by 8 1/4 inches with 372 black and white pages. I love the traditional Chinese binding. Most of the book consists of Chinese characters, Chinese romanization, and Mr. Chen's English translation. Despite the title, the book is about spear techniques. There are over 20 line drawings, all reformatted from the original.  Oddl

   Welcome to the March 2023 book survey, part one. I decided to break this month's survey into three posts. The theme for this month is Kung Fu. Introduction In March 2023, I (Richard) continued my reading plan. This month I surveyed a number of books on Kung Fu.  Wing Tsun Kuen, Leung Ting, Richard Lee, 1978/1994 I bought my copy of Wing Tsun Kuen while briefly studying Wing Tsun in San Antonio, Texas, before 2002. My copy is a 13th printing of the first edition. It is a hardcover measuring 8 1/2 inches by 11 1/2 inches, with 324 black and white pages and some color inserts.  It begins with about 20 "congratulatory" pages, similar to the books by George Dillman. The bulk of the material covers 3 forms, wooden dummy techniques, chi sau, and other exercises.  This title is (was?) the handbook of the International Wing Tsun Martial Arts Association. For example, here is some information on rank: I was surprised to read on pages 30 and 31 that the author, Dr. Leung Ting, d