Nei Gong: The Authentic Classic: A Translation of the Nei Gong Zhen Chuan

To be truthful, I had a relatively small role in bringing this book forward. This particular book on Nei Gong is specifically aimed at dyed-in-the wool hard core practitioners of Xing Yi Quan who already have memorized and incorporated the most basic ideas of the art. A person without a reasonably good understanding Xing Yi and of Taoist Concepts including those of Chinese medicine like the location of acupuncture channels and points (including some non-standard ones) and the I Ching and other works would find this work slow going, or even impossible to comprehend. It discusses in detail the principles of how internal power and mechanics are gained and then used in Xing Yi, assuming a thorough knowledge of the culture out of which it emerged. If you read the introductory passages, you will learn that literal (if accurate) translation of what was written was still meaningless without the proper perspective. The final choice of words depends on whether you understand the context underlying the book's point of view. The original Chinese author was clearly preaching to the converted/previously initiated. He was directing it at individuals who could take the hints therein and develop themselves further according to its principles. Thus, it is aimed at a small and equally obscure audience.Tim Cartmell's book on Xing Yi Nei Gong, mentioned in other reviews of this book, has more basic down-to-earth advice and practices for people who wouldn't be able to take advantage of what this book has to say just yet. I still like the Cartmell Nei Gong book. To try to understand this book without being experienced enough would be like elementary school students attempting to understand advanced work in physics with a third grade reading level and basic arithmetic. I myself am no beginner, and yet I had to sit and think about some of the difficult passages in the current work for days just to feel I had a grasp of the basic idea. As to the I Ching portions, I just wasn't qualified to comment. This is why the book took several people's input to bring forward in English. If you've been doing Xing Yi for many years, and Cartmell's Nei Gong book has begun to seem a little basic to you, then this book might be just what you need to begin mining information for your current tasks at hand in the art.

As a student of chinese internal arts, this book provided me with a wealth of useful information to apply to my Xingyi practice. It also corroborated/validated some ideas which had started to become apparent but reading this historic take on the internal practice of Xingyi Quan really made them solidify. Mr. Bisio has crafted something which sits at the intersection of the scholarly and the practical: it will certainly aid martial/internal artists with alignments and combat strategy, while readers interested in the esoteric side of the internal arts will gain access into the alchemy that is present in these practices and Yi Jing scholars may find a very useful and different take on interpretation of the trigrams. The book is not an overview of internal arts, nor is it a teaching manual; though it does have one of the most straightforward explanations of Taoist meditation I have read. This is a true to form translation, with the Chinese included for readers who want to check back and forth between the renderings. As it is a true to form translation, the language is not as fluid as we readers are used to, but in my experience that makes it no less useful. A great read which I will return to repeatedly over the coming months and years, as I feel it will require multiple readings to wring more and more out of it. It is at points dense and the more one knows about the Yi Jing, Chinese Medicine and Internal arts the better but even with very little background in those things I enjoyed it and benefitted.(In the interest of full disclosure, I have studied with the Author)

I never review books but this one I had to. This book for me was what I was looking for. I'm looking for literature on the highest levels and most advanced teaching on the art. This book can only be understood by practitioners with years and decades of training under competent teachers(rare by the way). If that's you it's a great book. It's principles need to be contemplated, meditated on and felt to be understood. Your body needs to understand, your already now beyond mind.

All information on subject is always positive for my development & transformation.

The only other book I have read that is similar to it was "Xing Yi Nei Gong" translated by Tim Cartmell. This book had the basic information of that book but I enjoyed that book better. What distracted me was having the Chinese text, obscure English translation, and finally what it all means. I would have liked it better if it just had the part where the authors explained what it meant and if the explanations were more fleshed out.The book is a bit pricey for its size. I expected it to be bigger and with more information that just the basic info presented in other books like Xing Yi Nei Gong.

Thank you for the item.

For a solid background and know about different branches and approaches it is a very nice book, but technical sometimes.

Classic material well explained!

The three stars are mainly because the authors have added the Chinese texts, which are very interesting indeed. The translation however is of a saddening quality and in some cases -such as ‘stratagem 5’ of the Dragon Classic- even of such a quality that one wonders if the translation does not belong to a totally different text.

Such a bad translation. It isn't a translation so much as an interpretation (all translations are to some degree, but this is heavy handed), and with quite a strong 'bias' on it that moves the English far from the Chinese original. There are many places where the English projects a particular view of Chinese Daoist cultivation that is not present or extant in the original text. This is mis-leading and shows that while the original author may have been discussing one thing, the translators do not know what that was. Bisio (and team) instead shoe horn the original text to fit their views instead of letting the text speak for itself. The single star is because they had least had the good sense and courtesy to include the Chinese text.

il manque de tels livrets. Sur les spratiques ésotériques de santé et de combat - ancestraux et tellement utiles dans la vie quotidienne.l'auteur connaît son sujet qu'il décrit correctement. Que les spécialistes rendent ouvert les méthodes simples pour l'humanité, suivant l'exemple de la méditation pleine conscience en 8 étapes tellement claire et utile pour tous. La diffusion de ce genre de savoir est d'une utilité publique.A noter qu'il faut ne pas être rebuté par vocabulaire et culture particulière. Un peu de curiosité devrait suffire pour entrer dans l'esprit de la méthode. A vos neurones et à vos gestes (re) centrés de tous les jour, pour le mieux-être partagé.

not as good as the other books that I have bought.

Nei gong - the autentic classic is Wonderful Book. Good scholarly footnote to praktice of Xing yi.Greeting from Prag (Czech republik)