Academy Links
- Canadian Tai Chi Academy
- Eastern Counties Tai Chi Academy (Cambridgeshire)
- Suffolk Tai Chi Academy
- Essex Tai Chi Academy
- Shropshire Tai Chi Academy
Additionally, we are also thrilled that Andrew Kirby and his team are now offering classes in the Cardiff area: Tai Chi evolutions.
Books
Tao Te Ching – Lao-Tzu’s Book of The Way and it’s Virtue, sometimes called the “Classic of one thousand characters” (it’s a short book) is one of the most translated and most read books in the world. This version captures the terse and enigmatic beauty of the original, complemented with beautiful Chinese brush-stroke paintings.
I Ching (Yi jing) – the Book of Changes. Both a book of wisdom and an oracle, this book has been a great friend to me. The German sinologist Richard Wilhelm spent the last 25 years of his life translating this work from Chinese into German, a task brought to completion by his son. In 1950 Cary Baynes translated Wilhelm’s translation into English. Nearly all other English “translations” are either translated from Wilhelm’s German, or simply (like the execrable version of Stephen Mitchell) simply paraphrased from the English. Note that the source text from which Wilhelm worked, whilst ancient (3rd century BCE), is a late version of the work with a strong Confucian influence. The core of the work, the description of the hexagrams, is six centuries older and has a more shamanic flavour. To taste that one has to consult the version of Stephen Karcher.
Chinese dictionaries:
- Zhendic Chinese (Mandarin) dictionary – sometimes down
- MBDG – for when zhendic is down, or use the plexo app on your smartphone
- CC-Canto Cantonese dictionary
- Chinese Etymology – follow the development of a character from oracle bones, through seal scripts, to written characters. Fascinating.
Useful sites:
- Niejia Dao – a blog by an anonymous senior student of Master Moy which appeared in 2010. The last post was made in 2015. Neijia (內家) means internal arts.
