Jessica Kingsley Publishers, under its Singing Dragon imprint, has been putting out some very interesting and unusual titles related to taiji and qigong lately, and this is one of them. Really, the publisher has found quite a rich vein to mine here, because rather than martial arts how-to books (although there is a little bit of hands-on guidance to be found at the tail end of this book) the offerings look at these Chinese arts through the unusual and creative lenses of practitioners, often Western, who have something different to say.



This book is one of them. Graham Norwood is quite steeped in Yang Style tai chi and appears to be privy to family perspectives most practitioners never hear. These gems are scattered throughout a text that brings Norwood's own experiences as a Jungian therapist to bear not only on the art, but on the philosophy and medicine behind it. I found the parallels and comparisons between Jung's work and ancient Chinese philosophy to be an intellectually fascinating gambit, though sometimes they felt like a bit of a stretch. No matter, though, because in the process of deciding to agree or not agree with any of Norwood's hypotheses, the reader is, perforce, looking at the arts and their history in a fresh way.



The book goes beyond Jungian perspectives. The author has a wide-ranging intellect, drawing on Western history and philosophy (the Greeks!) and modern biology and mathematics too. All in all the book reads like an extended, interesting conversation about how one can relate the logic and worldview of tai chi to a number of other academic and professional fields, punctuated by the author's desire to get up and show you how a particular movement actually works. It's a different book, and I think it has a place in the library of the devoted practitioner.