Rating: 
Summary: it's a reminder
Review: If you haven't learned from a teacher, you won't learn from this book. It does serve, however, as a reminder for someone who has moved away from other practitioners, so that a thorough workout doesn't leave out any of the forms, letting it fade into the oblivion of the memory.
Rating: 
Summary: Historically interesting, but not especially informative
Review: Sun Lu Tang wrote this book at a time when martial arts were considered mainly pastimes for the lower classes. To combat this, Sun tried to explain many martial arts ideas using neo-Confucian metaphysics, which (I suppose) gave the text a learned and philosophical tone. But bottom line, all the philosophical chatter doesn't help you understand Xingyi as a martial art, so much as it shows you what passed for intellectual respectability in late Qing Dynasty China. All the metaphorical and philosophical stuff will only make sense to you once you have figured out on your own what they are supposed to mean. However, the pictures provide an interesting reference for Hebei Xingyi, and this book is probably one of the seminal works on Xingyi (even though it doesn't tell you much of practical use).
Rating: 
Summary: A must-read for those involved in the internal martial arts.
Review: Sun Lu Tang's classic book is the best and most authentic book you can read about Hsing-I Chuan. I am a student and teacher of Hsing-I, and was very impressed with this book. It will help give you a thorough understanding of the philosophical foundation and excellent advice on technique for performing this powerful martial art.
Rating:
Summary: Who better to listen to?
Review: there is no metaphor in this book. These are ways of living and of becoming. These are efforts into translating what is unrestrained into words. These are some of the best words a human can live by. And on a purely martial level this book offers some very practical explanations of postures and movements. I might add that these are very practical explanations from one of a handfull of people who has ever fully understood the concepts of center and of the pre natal state. who better to listen to? For all of those out there who are honest seekers of the center, of themselves, and of the internal arts this may be the best book available to any of us. Warriors of stillness is the only other book i have read that truely understands and translates these concepts.
Rating:
Summary: Best (& only?) English translation of Sun's work on Xing Yi!
Review: This book is the golden standard by which Xing Yi Books in English should be judged by. To be sure there is a wealth of books in Chinese on this powerful, and most external of the 4 major Internal arts, the others being Bagua Zhang, Taiji and Liu Ho Ba Fa. However, there is a literal dearth of information in English when it comes to this fine martial arts system. I have had the pleasure and privilege of being a student of dan Miller over the years, and he has done a superb job in making this classic document available to us here in the West. The other fine book I would recommend would be Hsing Yi Chuan: Theory and Applications (Chinese Internal Martial Art) by Liang Shou Yu and Yang Jwing Ming. While this book is good, it still cannot match the superlative wisdom of the hand of Sun Lu Tang,
who died in the previous millenium, and was considered the greatest of Internal Martial Artists of his time. So skilled was he, that he was chosen as a personal bodyguard of Sun Yat Sen; and his daughter was alive and teaching until her very recent demise, in the past few years I beleive (Between 1999 and 2004). So, get up off your futons, put on your fu shoes, and get this book right away! Do it! NOW!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: An essential study of Xing Yi Chuan
Review: This book really helped me to understand Xing Yi Chuan. Not only does it explain the practical movements, but it also includes the essential philosophy and reasons behind every position.
| 
