Huang Bo Nien’s Xingyi Fist and Weapon Instruction was the first manual to systematically adapt a traditional Chinese martial art for modern military training. When it was first published in Chinese in 1928, it was heralded as an exciting new approach to martial arts; today, it remains an important work for close combat enthusiasts, traditional martial artists, and Chinese and military historians alike. While organized as a means of progressive training—from empty-hand fighting to combat with weapons—no actual applications are given in Huang’s original manual. Building upon a new translation of Huang’s text, The Xingyi Quan of the Chinese Army also expands and illustrates his instructions with xingyi training drills and combat applications taught to select units of the Chinese army prior to and during World War II. These applications are not speculative reconstructions, but are based on actual training methodology from the Central Military Academy at Nanjing, taught to the author by Colonel Chang Xiang Wu. Also included are theory sections and background material from the Chinese army training for empty-hand and two-handed saber—material never before published in any book on xingyi.

The combat techniques of Tai Ji, Ba Gua, and Xing Yi were forbidden during China's Cultural Revolution, but the teachings of grandmaster Wang Pei Shing have survived. This comprehensive guide, written by one of his students, selects core movements from each practice and gives the student powerful tools to recognize the unique strategies and skills, and to develop a deeper understanding, of each style. It contains complete instructions for a 16-posture form to gain mastery of combat techniques. The book helps practitioners achieve a new level of practice, where deeply ingrained skills are brought forth in a more fluid, intuitive, and fast-paced fashion.

Harmoniously merging the mind and the body, Hsing-I Ch'uan is simultaneously one of the most simple and most complex of the Chinese martial arts. The five forms, based on the Chinese concept of the five elements, provide a toolbox of techniques that the skillful Hsing-I practitioner uses to box with himself, channeling ch'i into spirit and spirit into mindful stillness. From this synthesis of external and internal forces springs new energy and true ability. Engagingly written and amply illustrated with black and white photographs, Robert W. Smith's primer includes the history and meaning of Hsing-I, detailed instruction in the five forms and twelve animal styles, and cogent advice from the masters. First published almost 30 years ago, Hsing-I: Chinese Mind-Body Boxing was among the first books on Hsing-I and remains one of the best.

This history of modern China under the regime of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek traces the development of military and political forces within the Nationalist government, the Kuomintang, and the Communist Party through the end of World War II.

Part Two explores the thought, feelings, and behavior of the direct participants in the Boxer experience, individuals who, without a preconceived idea of the entire event, understood what was happening to them in a manner fundamentally different from historians.