This next book is for those who just love to know more about martial arts. You will not learn any techniques or martial principles just history and context but a very real history and context stripped of the common BS that is built in martial arts because some feel they require myths and legends to make their art viable.
The book is: “Chinese Martial Arts Training manuals: A Historical Survey” By Brian Kennedy and Elizabeth Guo.
The book is broken into two parts.
Part One Background: The sources, an overview, a caveat about the history, Historians, Stories, classifications, military examinations, history of the training manuals, authorship, keeping traditional alive, translation problems and perils, how did martial artists make a living and Taiwan martial arts history.
Part Two – The books. The books covered range from older 1500’s to earlier 1900’s. they range from those that set the bar to those meant for the state and military and those that may just have spread myths and legends as truth. There is only a few pages describing the author and the contents of each book and the relevance to martial arts history. Many have some of the pictures or illustrations from the manual as well.
No, this book does not have the manuals themselves (it would be a massive book if it did) but as a person who enjoys any martial knowledge this history is interesting.
If when reading a book on Chinese martial arts, you enjoy the sections on the practitioners, their lives, their study of the art and the history of whatever style is being covered then you will enjoy this book.