Notes on translation: There is no perfect translation of a classical text like this. In fact, the notion that there is one to one correlation between words in different languages is a translation fallacy. Also when reading a text such as this, there are often [...]]]> Translated by Scott M. Rodell with Meilu Chen-Rodell, copyright 2012

Notes on translation: There is no perfect translation of a classical text like this. In fact, the notion that there is one to one correlation between words in different languages is a translation fallacy. Also when reading a text such as this, there are often terms or phrases that one may understand perfectly well in the original, that simply cannot be express as succinctly in English as they are in Chinese. And, naturally, every translator comes with his or her own personal perspective. Therefore, every translation, by its very nature, is an interpretation.

The translation presented here is based on over four decades of experience in martial arts, including years of full contact combat with weapons, as well as years of bow hunting experience. Many of the ideas recorded in this manual, are reminiscent of training in internal martial arts. One example is the text?s description of eyeing the target, which has the same flavor as the moment one sights at opening for a cut in free swordplay. In combat, one is joined to the target in a quite different fashion than the way a casual target archer observes his or her target before drawing. When one faces an opponent, who is looking back with the same intentions, one is focused in a different fashion than when there is no opponent. This text reads differently to one that has swam such seas, than for one who has never had their target shoot back with an intent to cause real harm.

With any translation there is the question of the style in which to render the work. Some translators endeavor to translate a text into the best English possible. Personally, I prefer to keep the translated text to be as close to and parallel with the original, often terse, Chinese as possible. This may mean that the English version of this translation is less than “prefect” English, but when rendered in this fashion, hopefully it is closer to the original in flavor and thus intent.

For those unable to read the original Chinese text, it is strongly suggested that after reading this translation, you also read Stephen Selby’s translation of this same text in his book, Chinese Archery.

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14 & 15 – Senior Students Winter Retreat

28 – TCSL Tournament, Northern Virginia Sportsplex, 14810 Murdock St, Chantilly, Virginia

18 to 26 – Chinese Swordsmanship including advanced students training, Tallinn, Estonia. Contact Anne Likold, 372/5342-6046 GRTC Eesti (English, Russian, Spanish & Estonain [...]]]> All seminars taught by Scott M. Rodell unless otherwise indicated.

January

14 & 15 – Senior Students Winter Retreat

28 – TCSL Tournament, Northern Virginia Sportsplex, 14810 Murdock St, Chantilly, Virginia

February

18 to 26 – Chinese Swordsmanship including advanced students training, Tallinn, Estonia. Contact Anne Likold, 372/5342-6046 GRTC Eesti (English, Russian, Spanish & Estonain spoken), Great River Taoist Center Estonia

March

24 & 25 – Idaho, Chinese Swordsmanship Seminar, Contact Mark Duffner, 208-255-8099

April

21 & 22 – Chinese Swordsmanship, Toronto, Canada, Contact: Poney Chiang, +1 905-513-6888

28 & 29 – Chinese Swordsmanship, Amersfoort, Netherlands, Contact via email

May

2 – Manchu Archery Workshop, Zeist, Netherlands, Contact via email

5 & 6 – Chinese Swordsmanship, Bad Krozingen, Germany, Contact Dirk Kaestner, Mobile 0151-404-31796

19 & 20 – Chinese Swordsmanship, Mendon, MI, Contact Jim Carlson, Rou He Dao Guan, Mobile +1 269-580-3817

June

9 & 10 – Chinese Swordsmanship & Taiji Saber Form, Portland, ME, Contact Elmo Mackay

23 & 24 – Chinese Swordsmanship, Fairbanks, AK, Contact: Tim Walker, Northern Taijiquan

TBA – European TCSL Tournament

July

August

7/30 – 8/5 – Summer Chinese Swordsmanship and Mounted Archery Retreat, Contact Pettra Engelnder – Kassai Reiterbogenschule Deutschland

September

8 & 9 or 22 & 23 – Chinese Swordsmanship, Bozeman, MT, Contact Mike Wiseman, +1 406586-7213

15 to 23 or 22 to 30 – Chinese Swordsmanship including advanced students training, Talllinn, Estonia. Contact Anne Likold, 372/5342-6046 GRTC Eesti (English, Russian, Spanish & Estonain spoken), Great River Taoist Center Estonia

October

6 & 7 – Chinese Swordsmanship Seminar, Netherlands, Contact via email

13 & 14 – Chinese Swordsmanship, Bad Krozingen, Germany, Contact Dirk Kaestner, Mobile 0151-404-31796

November

17 & 18 – Chinese Swordsmanship, Mendon, MI, Contact Jim Carlson, Rou He Dao Guan, Mobile +1 269-580-3817

December

1 & 2 – Annual Taiji Push Hands Training – Mendon, MI, Contact Jim Carlson, Rou He Dao Guan, Mobile +1 269-580-3817

Scott M. Rodell has studied martial arts since the age of nine. He has dedicated the last three and a half decades exclusively to study of Yang Family Taijiquan (T’ai Chi Ch’uan). Rodell spent many years traveling to find and study with the best teachers in this [...]]]>

Scott M. Rodell executing Snake Creeps Down

Scott M. Rodell has studied martial arts since the age of nine. He has dedicated the last three and a half decades exclusively to study of Yang Family Taijiquan (T’ai Chi Ch’uan). Rodell spent many years traveling to find and study with the best teachers in this lineage to fulfill a person goal – renovating Yang Family Taijiquan. He sought out teachers known for certain specialties, pulling together elements of the system that have become separated and fragmented. Rodell has been privileged to receive instruction in Push Hands and Free Fighting from William C. C. Chen, Sword and Push Hands from T.T. Liang and the Yang Family Michuan Taijiquan, form, applications, push hands, fan, sword and spear, from Wang Yen-nien.

Rodell is the Director of the Great River Taoist Center. The Center was founded in 1984 and now is headquatered in Washington, DC and has branch and affiliated school across America, Northern and Eastern Europe and Australia.?He began teaching international in the Russia at the request of the Soviet Wushu Federation in 1991. In 1992, the Moscow branch officially opened as a branch of Great River. For fourteen years, Rodell taught across western Russia before turning over the Russian Branch of GRTC to his disciple student, Albert Efimov. While in Russia, Rodell has made TV programs about Taijiquan for Moscow’s learning channel and Sochi local Television and has been interviewed by various daily newspapers. Rodell is also the author of three books, “Chinese Swordsmanship – the Yang Family Taiji Jian Tradition,” “Taiji Notebook for Martial Artist” and “A Practical Guide to Test Cutting for Historical Swordsmanship.”

Rodell is best know internationally for his work reviving Chinese Historical Swordsmanship. Considered the leading authority on Chinese Swordsmanship, Rodell travels frequently to Europe, across the US and to Australia and Canada to lead seminars in this art. Currently, he teaches over 20 seminars a years. Over the years Rodell has taught a wide variety of classes to a diverse audience including Vietnamese refugee children, jail inmates, seniors at the Library of Congress, in addition to his regular weekly classes.

Rodell was one of the first ten Americans to enter the door of the Jin Shan Pai, a traditional school of Taoist Nei Gong. Rodell, initiated into the Jin Shan Pai by Wang Yen-nien, is a sixth generation teacher in this tradition.

Tournament Record – Partial List:

• USAWKF Northeast Regional Competition, June 24 & 25, 1995, NYC
• Men’s Advanced Light Weight Restricted Step Push Hands Champion
• Men’s Middle Weight Moving Step Push Hands, Third Place
• International Taiji Quan Championship, Republic of China, Second Place, Men’s featherweight Push Hands, 1990