Books?

[Wilson]

I'm looking for some suggestions on books that discuss the history, fighting strategy, culture, insight into the mind of the Chinese fighter, philosophy of Chinese martial arts, etc. Not necessarily all in one book! The authors can be from any style, but I definitely want to avoid ones that just have a bunch of pictures, techniques, and forms that I seem to always run in to.

I am able to find (and read) many more books like I mention above that stem from the Japanese martial arts. These focus on Budo, Bujuitsu, history of the samurai, philosophies of life based on principles from martial arts, etc. I am finding it more difficult to find books like this based on Chinese arts and background.

Any help and suggetions would be appreciated.

[Dark Knight]

Bubishi

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0804820155/ref=sib_rdr_dp/002-2954262-9308862

[Waxwood rod]

Try reading some classic zen and taoist writings. Some other things might be "Kung Fu:History, Philosophy, and Technique" by David Chow, "The History and Philosophy of Kung Fu" by Earl Medeiros, Sun Lu Tangs books on tai chi and hsing yi have some good text, the tai chi classics, "Asian Fighting Arts" by Smith and Draeger has a section on CMA, "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, and if I dare say some of Bruce Lee's books have some good text "Tao of Gung Fu" editied by Little has some good text by Lee. I've heard that "The Ssword Polisher's Record, the Way of Kung Fu" by Adam Hsu is a good read. There are a bunch of shaolin type books out there, but havn't read any. I'm sure there is plenty more, good luck.

[ZIM]

The trouble with Chinese Martial Art books is that you want to read another one a half hour later

[Serpent]

Originally posted by Waxwood rod
I've heard that "The Ssword Polisher's Record, the Way of Kung Fu" by Adam Hsu is a good read. This is actually just collected columns from his magazine writings reformatted into a book. There's some decent stuff in there, but it's hard to get past the whole "northern systems rule the world" overtones throughout the book.

[Oso]

"Shaolin Fighting: Theories and Concepts" by Douglas Wong is a good basic one.

David Chin's book on Hop Gar has a very good intro/history chapter at the beginning of it.

"Sword Polisher" is also very good.