Title: The General Tian Wubeizhi: The Bubishi in Chinese Martial Arts History
Author: Liu Kangyi and David S. Nisan (editor, translator)
Publisher: Lion Books Martial Arts Company
Publication Date: 2016
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 228, 10 ⅜ in X 7 ⅛ in
Cover Price: $47.95
ISBN: 9789869375405
Content
I was able to find very little about the authors of this book via the book itself. On page 21 the authors note that “Liu Kangyi studied with one of those [gongfu] masters who passed on his Bronze Statue Notebooks,” indicating that Mr. Liu has some martial arts training. Thanks to the book Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals by Brian Kennedy and Elizabeth Guo, I learned that Mr. Liu is a Taiwanese book collector who founded Lion Books Martial Arts Publishing. Mr. Liu has authored several books on the martial arts, all in Chinese. David S. Nisan is the editor and translator. Mr. Nisan was active in the Black Belt Forums Kung Fu site after the publication of his book in 2016. He also interacted with the United States distributor, Plum Pub, in 2017, as shown by this article. Authors — remember to include an “about the author” section somewhere in your book!
Pros
I recommend reading my review of Sensei Patrick McCarthy’s book Bubishi: The Classic Manual of Combat before reading the rest of this review, as it allows me to address this book directly.
In brief, authors Nisan and Kangyi present not only a new interpretation of the Okinawan Bubishi, known by its Chinese name as the Wubeizhi, but they also include two editions of the work. One of these is offered for the very first time, and it is a beautifully illustrated color version.
Regarding their interpretation of what they call the Wubeizhi, the authors propose the theory that the Bubishi was written by Okinawans who studied kung fu while living in China, and that it likely dates from “no earlier than the Xianfeng era (1851-1861), and most probably in the Tongzhi (1861-1875) and Guangxu (1875-1908) eras.” The authors make a convincing argument that the book should be thought of as a “Bronze Statue Notebook,” a combination of a medical and martial arts manual. The medical aspects are likely more significant than the martial, which would explain why so much of the Bubishi involves specialized medical care for traumas inflicted by personal combat. This argument receives plenty of attention, but as noted by Dr. Judkins in his review, it would be helpful to see more coverage of similar Bronze Statue Notebooks to secure the connection.
As to authorship, Nisan and Kangyi state that “we believe that the Bubishi was compiled by Ryukyuan [i.e., Okinawan] overseas students pursuing higher education in the Ryukyu House of Fuzhou City, Fujian.” They say “we believe that the Bubishi was not written by Chinese. This immediately rules out the possibilities that a Chinese student of Wang’s or Chinese practitioners of White Crane Fist wrote the Bubishi, but we do not dismiss Chinese martial artists for no reason. Our conclusion is based on the fact that an original handwritten Bubishi was never found in China. In fact, not even a related, partly similar text was ever discovered there. It is also considerably different from extant White Crane Fist manuals of Fuzho and Yongchun.”
If you want a deep discussion of this book, I recommend reading professor Ben Judkins’ review here.
Cons
I have very few concerns with this book. I would like to see a second edition that translates the Wubeizhi editions in the second half of the book. I would also like to know more about the authors, so that I could better understand their training and skills.
Conclusion
I give this book 5 out of 5 ninja stars.
I enjoyed reading The General Tian Wubeizhi. It is a stunning partner to Sensei Patrick McCarthy’s book on the Bubishi. Authors Nisan and Kangyi present a compelling argument in a beautiful package. This hardcover book is larger than most, at 10 ⅜ in X 7 ⅛ in, and the color illustrations are awesome. The reader will pay for this format, however, but I believe it is worth it for the martial arts scholar and researcher. The distributor in the United States, Plum Pub, is probably the best source for those in that country.
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