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Foreword

After twenty years of practice, Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing in 1950 published Cheng-tzu T'ai-chi Ch'uan Shih-san P'ien (Cheng's Thirteen Chapters on T'ai-chi Boxing). A decade later the growing popularity of T'ai-chi Ch'uan in the world led Cheng to publish a text in English on the art. The text suffered, however, from severe inadequacies in scope and presentation. At Cheng's request, I took the text to the present publisher, but he was as disturbed about its imperfections as I. He suggested a fresh start on an entirely new book with my full collaboration. The present book is the result. It has been built from the published versions of Cheng's two books—the one in Chinese and the other in English—as well as from the oral instructions in T'ai-chi that I received from Cheng and my own research concerning the art.

Cheng Man-ch'ing is a remarkable man. He is a versatile and brilliant master of the "Five Excellences" (Painting, Poetry, Calligraphy, Medicine, and T'ai-chi), on the wrong side of sixty, but with the vitality of a man much younger. After I knocked on his door for a year—the usual Chinese custom—he accepted me as a student. For more than seven years it has been my pleasure to learn the intricacies of the art under his tutelage. Every bit a gentleman, he is the living representation of T'ai-chi. I have studied many systems of T'ai-chi and have had the opportunity to see in action the leading teachers of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. None can stand before Cheng.

So in all sincerity let it be said: this is his book. My part in it is to present his teaching as clearly as possible. Paraphrasing Michael Drayton speaking of his beloved Wales, I wish to say of T'ai-chi: "If I have not done it right, the want is in my ability, not in my love."

Both Professor Cheng and I thank Liu Chen-huan for his . diligent efforts in helping to put the manuscript in final form; E. Gunberg, B. Fusaro, and D. Slater for editorial corrigenda and suggestions; and W. Neisler, R. Mischke, and E. Maginnes for assistance with the graphics. And by no means least, we thank Sylvia Jackson for her patient and excellent typing of the text through several revisions.

ROBERT W. SMITH