Chi Kung: Taoist Secrets of Fitness and Longevity

Excellent material, very well written, with detailed instructions. It covers the basic knowledge about Qi Gong, explaining the energetic system (channels, meridians, points, centers, etc) and every excercise is explained also in the energetic purpose, something often missing in the written material on Qi Gong, where some authors pretend to clarify but always keep too much for themselves. This is not the case. the only critic I can do is that sometimes the breathing pattern is not explained, but anyone with basic or intermediate knowledge on Qi gong can intuitively find the correct breath. A must!! I recommend it. Horacio Di Renzo

This book is a very detailed guide to the practice specifically of Wild Goose Qigong. It's would be most helpful for refining the practice for someone who has studied with a teacher. It must be acknowledged that this practice would be difficult to learn just using a book, but it's very helpful as a backup guide since it is so very detailed.

Using this book, supported by Youtube videos (which are widely inconsistent), I learned the entire 1st series of Wild Goose Qigong. This book is well illustrated and narrated. This practice is totally worth the many hours of persistent work required to learn it.

It explains about the exercise you are doing in a way you can understand with ease.

excellent book

This is not, thankfully, another generic book on "chi practice". Author Wen Mei Yu Introduces us to and instructs us in a very specific form of Chi Kung: Wild Goose Chi Kung. Yu was a student of Madam Yan Mei Jun, the legendary grandmaster of this popular and complex school of energy cultivation. Every necessary topic is covered in this volume, including history (photos of Grandmaster Yan Mei Jun are included), philosophy (this is a Taoist school), Theory (very detailed, many diagrams with explanations), and of course the COMPLETE 64 movement Wild Goose form. A note on the instructional photographs in this volume: every technique is illustrated by several photographs. The pictures do an excellent job of communicating direction, movement, posture, et cetera. Yu also takes the time with more complex techniques to show common mistakes practitioners should avoid. This is probably one of the best books on physical chi practice out there. I found it to be thorough but not cluttered. Every piece of information fit, and the author's descriptions and explanations were easlily understood in the context of traditional belief and practice.

*Update: This review was originally published in 2004. As of 2011 Wen Mei Yu has retired and is no longer available for teaching.* I've met and studied with the author, Wen Mei Yu, and she is the real thing. We are lucky to have this book, especially in English. She teaches here in Los Angeles and also does healing work for cancer patients at UCLA. The first half of the book gives a concise review of the basics of chinese energy work and esoteric Taoism. It is laid out in a matter of fact way without any fantasizing or superstitious sillyness. The second half of the book is a methodical training manual for a powerful chi gung form. Regular practice, even without a teacher, yields results to the capacity of the student. This may be the best way to really learn to experience the flow and feeling of "chi" if you don't have access to a master guide to help. Highly recommended.

Dies ist das beste Buch, das ich bisher über Wildgans Qigong gefunden habe. Gute Erklärung aller Energiebahnen - 12 Kanäle (Hauptmeridiane), 8 Meridiane (Dumai, Renmai, etc.) sowie der Dantians. Bei den Übungen gibt die Autorin auch Details, worauf man bei der Haltung achten sollte, erklärt den Energiefluss bei jeder Übung, was die hohe Effektivität von Wildgans Qigong noch einmal unterstreicht. Sie zeigt die Übungen auch aus verschiedenen Perspektiven mit Nahaufnahmen. Als Wildgans-Qigong-Lehrerin und Produzentin einer Lehr-DVD ([...]) habe ich zusätzliche, wertvolle Hinweise erhalten. Wer Wildgans Qigong lernen möchte, kann dieses (englischsprachige) Buch als ergänzende Literatur zum Kurs oder DVD sehr gut verwenden. The best book I've read about Wild Goose Qigong, including detailled information about all channels, the meridians and dantians. The author explains the energy flow of each sequence, which is most helpful to understand the real value and effectiveness of Wildgoose Qigong. The close-up images are helpful to visualise the details. This book is an additional helpful reference for people learning Wild Goose Qigong in a course or by video.

Concise and well written with clear photos. i think you still need a good teacher before you use this book. also you may find some subtle differences. i learnt with Michael Tse (Manchester) who also learnt from the same teacher as Wen-Mei but there are differences.

This is among the best reference books available if you do wild goose Qigong