I’ll be honest with you: I have not yet finished Andrea Falk’s new book, “A Shadow on Fallen Blossoms: The 36 and 48 Traditional Verses of Baguazhang,” but we were so excited about the book we wanted to announce it as soon as we received copies. I can’t imagine anyone interested in Bagua not wanting to add a copy to their martial library.
This volume of poems and essays are supposedly written—recorded is a better word—directly from the teachings of Dong Hai Chuan, the founder of Bagua Zhang, by a follower named Zeng Zengqi. Falk expertly translates the text from the Chinese (included), but also adds her own enlightened English commentary. She preserves the poetic structure where the principles of Bagua are laid out in small, memorable Chinese verses. In former days these “songs” were studied and memorized, allowing even illiterate students to analyze their rich content.
Andrea Falk has the natural reticence of someone who does not want to mess up her sources. In this text, she has written extensively, adding her own commentary on the original texts. Her approach succeeds, creating a running subtext that taps into her teachers’ and her own knowledge of Bagua and Chinese Martial arts, not to mention the re-statement of many sections in terms modern and clear to an English reader.
We highly recommend this generous work.
This sample will give you some idea of her work
I’m interested. What is the price? Thanks.
Yikes! Way to go, Plum! Sorry for leaving that off…$40 reduced to $30 at Plum.
Good deal! My order is in! Thank you for carrying this.
Thanks, got it, will send out this evening. We are really excited about this book!
this was one of my favorite books this year