Here is something quite special. Lionbooks has just published an exceptionally beautiful and important work, The New Silk Road of Martial Studies, presenting a unique exhibition of historical martial material, both East and West. The book is sectioned chronologically, so the development of martial literature and theory can be seen side by side. Created by […]
Mar
25
2025
25
2025
Jan
9
2025
9
2025
Nov
18
2024
18
2024
Chaquan, Xinyi Liu He, and White Crane…What Joy!
Where does the time go? (No, seriously, if anyone has an answer for that we’d like to know.) We seem to be busy all the time, then realize we have not posted any of the new material that stacks up here at Plum. So here is a rush of new and revised material for your […]
Aug
26
2023
26
2023
The Dao of Shipping
Daoist writings (and I liberally paraphrase here) teach us that ‘Nature is not kind.’ This does not mean that Nature is unkind; more like Nature is not a Disney movie. At Plum, we recognize a variation of this wisdom: ‘The post office is not kind.’ In all honesty, the vast majority of what we send […]
Feb
13
2023
13
2023
Oct
12
2022
12
2022
Jun
11
2022
11
2022
Apr
8
2022
8
2022
Our First Love
Although we are smitten by many truly wonderful contemporary texts we represent on Plum, our first love was the older manuals: dusty copies found on the bottom shelves of poorly lit bookstores in Chinatown. These books telescoped us back to earlier times and teachers. Now, more than 50 years later, some of what was contemporary […]
Jan
10
2022
10
2022
Gao Style Baguazhang
We have been receiving some exceptional Bagua material lately, so if you think we’ve been a little tilted toward the Bagua circle, you would be correct. Bagua Rubbing Bagua linked Palms Compiled, at least of this writing, is the last for a while, but it is a mighty nice offering on which to pause. Lionbooks, […]
Nov
4
2021
4
2021
Liu YunChiao’s Bagua Zhang
We received several requests for this book before we even saw it, so we are pleased to actually have it in hand. And what a book! We have seen other memorials to Liu YunChiao, all admirable, but this book, Essence of Baguazhang, honors him especially by including both written remembrances, by those who studied with […]
Oct
28
2021
28
2021
Zheng Zi’s (Cheng Man Ching’s) Taijiquan
Well, here is an event! We have just added to our site this beautiful book from Lionbooks on Zheng Man Qing’s) (Cheng Man Ching’s) teachings, presented by Hong WuCheng. Included, in full-color photgraphs, are the 37- and 72- routines, plus the complete Tai Chi sword. There are also sections on Zheng’s fundamentals, and basics, approach […]
Sep
5
2021
5
2021
Hands and Swords
As promised, we have finally added the two latest great books to our catalogue: Adam Hsu’s San Cai Sword, and Zhao Da Yuan’s Practical Qin Na (translated by Tom Bisio). A recent customer mentioned that it is not just the books themselves, but the types of books that Plum represents that excite him. We’re prejudiced, […]
Aug
24
2021
24
2021
Forthcoming, and Then Some
A brief pause in our cataloguing work to tell you about a few items coming up that would be here sooner if we didn’t keep pausing to tell you about them…well, you get the picture. Anyway, a little while back we added a gorgeous new Chinese book from Sifu Adam Hsu on Tan Tui, this […]
Jul
29
2021
29
2021
Coming Soon!
We are in our typical state of “too much coming all at once,” so we thought we’d offer an appetizer of what to expect in the next few weeks. We’re already getting questions about a couple of these, so consider this your official update. And, of course, as soon as we post this, more will […]
Jun
21
2021
21
2021
Tid Sin Kuen, Almost HERE!
Tid Sin Kuen (Iron Wire Fist) is one of the hallmark ‘internal’ forms of the Hung Gar system, and we were excited when we first started representing Sifu Lam Chun Fai’s beautiful text on our site a few years back. Lam Sifu, son of Lam Cho, has produced three fine books in his lineage, Hung […]
May
28
2021
28
2021
Li YaXuan’s Legacy: A Beautiful New Book
We have a few more new books to announce in the next few days, but this one, The Legacy of Grandmaster Li YaXuan, is so beautiful we thought we would give it its own space. Lionbooks has released a comprehensive collection of writings from Yang Style Taijiquan Grandmaster Li YaXuan. Lionbook publisher, Liu KangYi, is […]
May
13
2021
13
2021
Two Great New Books
We’re working through a tall pile of new Chinese books, and here are the first two: Chen YiMing‘s Chen Family Martial Arts Experience takes a geometric look at fighting stances and approaches. We’ve seen a few books over the years that include some aspects of this, but this all-color text is dedicated, start to finish, […]
Nov
9
2020
9
2020
Bagua Zhang and Xin Yi Quan
Got in a short stack of great books—limited copies on each, at the moment, but thought we would let you know about them. One of them, the book on Dai Style XinYiQuan, incorporates those QR Codes instead of including a packaged DVD, so that with a simple scan from your phone’s camera, you can watch […]
Oct
7
2020
7
2020
The Newest Great Items
Today’s diverse selection of new material available is really all about the classics: two DVDs of an older master presenting the rarely seen style of “Xin Boxing;” a completely redone and reimagined instructional DVD on Water Boxing (LiuHeBaFa) from Helen Liang, whose original work on the subject was one of the first; and the original […]
Sep
1
2020
1
2020
A New Book Bevy
Well, we are happy to mark ourselves safe from the devastating fire that, over the past two weeks, destroyed over 80,000 acres in and around Santa Cruz county, the place we call home. Several friends had to evacuate, but none lost their homes or lives, although almost 1000 residences were destroyed, and it will take […]