| Title | : | Cheng Hsin: The Principles of Effortless Power |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1556433026 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781556433023 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 208 |
| Publication | : | First published September 1, 1989 |
Cheng Hsin: The Principles of Effortless Power Reviews
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The author starts this book discussing he background in Judo and external martial arts, which he seems to have mastered rather early and perhaps got board of them. This book covers "internal" martial arts and power generation. As part of a martial art discussion group, we read this book and discussed it in detail. I'll give it 4 stars because it sparked good conversation and dialog, but I think that 3 stars would be appropriate for reading it by oneself.
The book is difficult to read. The author uses terminology that differs from what many internal artists may be used to. My discussion group came to the conclusion that the author speaks from his own experiences and discoveries and describes things based on his own vocabulary. While it is clear that Peter Ralston has a grasp of Chinese or asian languages, I found the terminology to be non-standard. I myself speak some Chinese, practice Chinese Medicine, and have practices both internal and external martial arts for over 30 years. I understand what is meant by xin (heart), xing (form), qi, Taiji, Yi (mind/intent), etc. but the author seems to use both the older Wade-Giles spellings of Mandarin terms and often redefines them in English without reference to the Chinese. This makes the complex subject even harder to read in my opinion.
As far as the content goes, some chapters are really good and others could be just skipped by some readers. I think I would recommend to the reader to start with the appendix interview first, then skim the chapters before doing a deeper dive. I don't think you can read this book without some exposure to internal martial arts, but no form or particular style is required. You can't follow this book if you only have an external martial arts background. The author's final chapters discuss what many might related to the "Dao/Tao" and not necessarily "Power" generation. This is that philosophy of True Heart (Cheng Xin) but maybe not what the readers are looking for.
