Book Review – The Art of Yi Quan by Dragos Ghitiu

This book is an evolution of the author’s May 2018 release ‘Yi Quan – the Natural Way of Power’. The first thing that caught my attention was the author’s obvious passion for his training and that alone is worth the modest price of entry. Despite the exciting characteristics of martial arts, the book genre can be quite dry, so it is nice to see a writer with a bit of fire in the dantien!

The perennial question around martial arts books is whether you can learn from them and in my opinion the answer is absolutely, yes. Check out our Jan 2023 blog for a full explanation of this statement. But safe to say this is a hill I’m prepared to die on, well at least fight on using techniques learned from books. Yiquan lends itself particularly well to self-learning due to its experimental nature.

This text takes a methodical walk through the classical Yiquan syllabus. The photos are crisp enough and the postures shown are alive. There are some lovely anecdotes and details which really elevate an otherwise workaday structure. The author has his own well justified take on training which whether you agree or disagree with the minutiae, is where the art is. He does a solid job of balancing martial, health and esoteric interests rather than going off the deep end of the latter as our little band of psychonauts often do!  

I would tentatively say that my senses are detecting an increasing interest in zhan zhuang as a holistic practice in the general population, as well as an add-on to other internal martial arts. English language material on Yiquan is limited (and almost non-existent when it comes to Taikiken) compared to other martial arts and this is a humble, concise and practical addition to that small library.

Review by Tim Tynan – Head Instructor W.X.T.B.A (Review is of the original manuscript)