Watching Your Back: Chinese Martial Arts and Traditional Medicine

Rating:
Summary: A unique perspective on Chinese martial arts.
Review: I found this to be, from the first paragraphs of the Preface, a delightful book. Dr. Schmieg does as he says and tells us the story his experiences with the "high" Chinese martial arts and his Sifu, Dr. Xia. As Dr. Schmieg points out in the Preface this is a "why" book not a "how to" Book. In my experience, "how to" books about the martial arts are a waste of time unless you are already experienced in one or more forms. "Why" books are much more interesting because they allow me to compare my own experience with that of others.

This is the intensely personal journey of one person with a traditional Chinese Sifu. Schmeig's explanation of the sifu-tuer relationship opened new horizions for me. This is not simply and explanation of an explanation of Daoism and martial arts, but rather the story of Dr. Schmeig's personal journey through the high chinese martial arts and Daoism.

Dr. Schmieg does place his personal story within the much larger context of the history of martial arts in Chinese, South East Asia and its more recent impacts in Europe and North America. However, the point of the book is to introduce the reader, martial artist or not, to the inside world of "high" Chinese martial arts through one lineage. While this is not a scholarly work intended to place Dr. Schmieg's lineage within some larger context, it is a wonderfully personal work.

I particularly enjoyed D. Schmieg's writing style and his frequent use of personal anecdote. I felt very much like I was in a conversation with Dr. Schmieg. This particular style allowed me to continuously compare my personal journey and experiences with Dr. Schmeig's in what I found to be a non-threatening manner. For all practitioners of martial arts this book is a necessary read.

I did find some of Dr. Schmieg's comments about Taijiquan and Qi to be incongruent with my personal experience. Someday I hope to have the opportunity to speak with him directly about this seeming incongruity.

Dr. Schmieg's attempts to put his personal experiences in the context of the history of Chinese martial arts are very well done. His grasp of the broad scope of Chinese history certainly matches my own and may be much better. There may be some readers who take exception to his debunking of some mythological aspects of the martial arts. That is only to be expected given his premise of the differences between high and low practitioners.

I feel compelled to note that this book will undoubtedly receive many adverse reviews. Dr. Schmieg's personal experience and the experience of Dr. Xia, which he reports, are certain to offend many traditional martial artists. That is a good part of the strength of this book. Again, given the premise of the high and low aspects of Chinese martial arts as explicated herein, it is inevitable that the book will receive adverse reviews from those who are unable to apprehend the message, for whatever reason.

I know of no other books that deal with this particular subject in this precise manner and I suspect that this makes book unique. However, in the realm of `Why " books I would include John Lash - "The Tai Chi Journey"; Margaret Schorre _ "How to grasp bird's tail, if you don't speak Chinese; Deng Ming Dao - "Chronicles of the Dao. In my opinion Dr. Schmieg's book is the equal of these books.

The book is well written and easily read by both martial artists and non-martial artists. To the best of my knowledge and experience the material is accurate.

The work is important because it provides a uniquely personal view of a particular lineage of Chinese martial arts that is little known outside of China.

The audience is anyone with a background or interest in martial arts or classical Chinese culture.

The writing style is very clear and the presentation was delightful. I laughed out loud on more than one occasion as I read.