D&D Publications

25/06/2024

GM Chen Xiaowang with the Polish edition of The Essence of Taijiquan with Marek Baliński and Barbara Wyczesany who brought the book to another language.🙏🙏🙏

15/06/2024

Some more images of the newly released Polish language edition of The Essence of Taijiquan👊👊👊

09/06/2024

12/03/2024

Chen Ziqiang with a copy of Chen Taijiquan Illustrated👊👊👊😎

01/03/2024

Advertisement for Chen Taijiquan Illustrated designed by Bugeisha Magazine…

19/02/2024

The most satisfying thing for an author is to see their work dog-eared, scrawled over with notes and highlights. Inspiring reflection and action, not just sitting forgotten on the shelf gathering dust. 👊👊👊 If anyone has a more battered copy of one of our books than Mary Johnston’s Essence of Taijiquan (below), we’d love to see it😎😎😎

12/02/2024

Wang Xian - a life of Taijiquan🙏🙏🙏

12/02/2024

Primary research is data which is obtained first hand. That means going directly to the source 👊👊👊

Love the following quote from dailystoic.com “Why do you think Marcus Aurelias and Epictetus were such big readers?… Because they wanted to learn as much as they could from the scope of established human knowledge and use that as their starting point. It is arrogant to assume you have time to learn everything on your own. You need to get caught up first. And then you’ll not only be better prepared… but you’ll also be in a position- ideally- to add to this store of knowledge with your own discoveries and experiences. Below, picking the mind of and learning from the experiences of Chen Xiaowang. (Picture taken at the home of our friend ( Lau)

12/02/2024

Love the following quote from dailystoic.com “Why do you think Marcus Aurelias and Epictetus were such big readers?… Because they wanted to learn as much as they could from the scope of established human knowledge and use that as their starting point. It is arrogant to assume you have time to learn everything on your own. You need to get caught up first. And then you’ll not only be better prepared… but you’ll also be in a position- ideally- to add to this store of knowledge with your own discoveries and experiences. Below, picking the mind of and learning from the experiences of Chen Xiaowang. (Picture taken at the home of our friend ( Lau)

09/02/2024

This week the world lost a great master of Chen Taijiquan. Eighty years of accumulated wisdom and experience and a strong link to the masters of past generations has left this earth. How important it is to capture the realisations of teachers like Wang Xian while we still can 👊👊👊🙏🙏🙏 The photo below taken in 2014 in Fecamp, Normandy, France captures such a moment as Davidine Sim interviews Wang Xian for the first time

05/02/2024

D&D Publications are used as core texts in Chen Taijiquan schools in the USA and Europe. Here’s a link to our new Instructor’s Discount Page…

01/02/2024

The old and new faces of Chenjiagou. We understand the importance of going to primary sources to understand Chen Taijiquan in an authentic way. Primary sources… can be defined as original, first-hand records of a particular culture, event, or time period… Examples of primary sources include oral histories, historical texts, photos and artworks, and various archival materials…

In the accompanying photo Davidine Sim records Chen Xiaoxing’s recollections of Chenjiagou in the past…

14/12/2023

It’s coming up to 15 years since we published The Essence of Taijiquan. Below is a small excerpt from a great review in the Journal of Asian Martial Arts. The book is available on Amazon…

https://www.amazon.com/Essence-Taijiquan-David-Gaffney/dp/1500609234/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1588254916&sr=1-1

22/03/2023

Wonderful review of Chen Taijiquan Illustrated by one of the original Western groundbreakers of Chen Taijiquan. Thank you Justin Meehan👊👊🙏🙏🙏

Chen Taijiquan Illustrated Review

David “Gu Liu” Gaffney (after one of the great Taijiquan historians and authors, Gu Liu Xin) and Davidine Siaw-Voon Sim
have written an excellent 5 star book titled Chen Taijiquan Illustrated. I love it and highly recommend it to everyone, beginners
and advanced alike. David and Davidine have already authored the world’s most complete and authoritative books on
Chen Taijiquan, especially Lao Jia Taijiquan. Their books including Chen Style Taijiquan:the Source of Taiji Boxing and
The Essence of Taijiquan contain almost every bit of technical information regarding the technical requirements of Chen
Taijiquan, its essential principles and historical context in the English language. They continually quote the world’s most
famous teachers and find ways and explanations to help non Chinese readers attain clarity and understanding, with
endorsement from 19th Generation Gatekeeper of Chen Family Taijiquan, Chen Xiao Wang among others. They then
published Chen Taijiquan: Masters and Methods which was composed of their personal interviews of leading Chen Family
Masters such as the so called “Four Tigers” but also included Xin Jia /Chen Fake Masters such as Feng Zhiqiang and Chen Yu.
The ask the burning questions and give us their answers in clear English. It is hard to imagine what more technical, theoretical
and historical information anyone could offer in the English language. Keep in mind, as I do, that words alone without proper
practice are useless, but tis book is perfect for those on their own in the US, Merry old England and Ireland and other
predominantly English speaking countries.

This new book is different. It is written by two Chen Taijiquan scholars who are also respected for their practice and
and accomplishments by serious practitioners and Chen Village Masters alike. This book attempts to convey the authors’
own understandings through their own words and clear illustrations. We know they have excavated almost everything
there is to say in words. This book , although still including words of the Masters, primarily is designed to share what they
have learned in their own practice and continued understanding. It’s kind of like taking a class with them. They put hard to
understand, let alone translate, concepts into plain English language with examples we are familiar with and easily understand.
Very few of us understand concepts such as ‘Silk Reeling”. We have never worked in the silk reeling industry, and most likely
never will, so are left to rely on what others may understand, because it creates no clear picture in our mind. In this book
references are made to baseball, soccer, crossbow mechanics (no darts, unfortunately) and other known activities that we
are familiar with in modern Western culture.The illustrations are great in that they are not only clear but excellent in directing
our attention to the exact point the authors are trying to make clear. We get honest information from the authors’ own experience
and studies in their own words, such as:

“ The widely quoted idiom of “using four taels to deflect a thousand catties” has caused many to view Taijiquan as either
unrealistic or fanciful.” “In practice the saying shouldn’t be taken too literally. What it means is “to achieve much with little effort.”
There it is- permission to not be too literal and to grasp the concept without getting too hung up on words.
By the way, 4 teals is comparable to 4 oz.s which if you want to get an idea of the weight is about that of one Land of Lakes
stick of butter. Your welcome.

This book is great. You have the authors after decades of research and study using their own voice and illustrations based
on their own extensive knowledge and understanding after studying with the best of the best. They are doing their best to help
us by sharing everything (including much that has been kept as “secrets” by others in the past) to help us get it right.
As a distillation of all their research, studies and practice I recommend it highly and thank them for their willingness to share.
J. Justin Meehan

14/03/2023

14/01/2023

Thanks Scott Prath and tai chi basics.com for the great review of Chen Taijiquan Illustrated🙏🙏🙏🙏

An aspect of studying tai chi that can be daunting at the beginning is understanding the many new Chinese words that describe our postures and…

24/11/2022

Sometimes you’re the interviewer, sometimes you’re the interviewee. Here, it’s the latter - grilled by a lively group of “junior reporters” that came to see what life was like in the Chenjiagou Taijiquan School👊👊👊

22/11/2022

04/11/2022

Cheers Katerina Smith - carrying on the warrior tradition in Greece👊👊👊

02/10/2022

Thanks to all the guys over there at the Akademia Taiji Chen Krakow👊👊👊

29/09/2022

Taijiquan journalist Violet Li gives her impressions of Chen Taijiquan Illustrated🙏🙏🙏

“The book is in a casual format with serious discussion on Tai Chi fundamentals. During the reading, I would sometimes put the book down and played a little Tai Chi just to experience the Qi flow and then picked up the book again. In any Tai Chi chuan quan (school) in Chen Village, there is always a tea set with a small tea pot and tiny tea cups. During breaks, Sifus (teachers) and students will sip fine tea from tiny cups and chat about Tai Chi theory and techniques. That is Tan (talk) Chuan (boxing) Lun (discuss) Dao (principles) and considered as a scholarly refined lifestyle. Even though I was stuck in a room by myself, I actually had invigorating Tan Chuan Lun Dao sessions with David and Davidine over tea.”

It was twenty-one years ago when I embarked my Tai Chi chuan journey in St. Louis, Missouri. My classmates and I were intrigued by the art and thirsty for the knowledge on the forms, the principles of Tai Chi, and the history of the art. Back those days, Chen Tai Chi was lessor known in the West, es...

28/09/2022

Thoughts, reflections, insights: 99 short articles from the Talking Chen Taijiquan blog👊👊

24/09/2022

Nothing better than chatting with martial artists from the “good old days!” Spent an enjoyable breakfast that turned into lunch learning about the vibrant martial arts scene in Sabah, Malaysia in the 1960s and 70s. Davidine’s cousin John Han told the story of how pioneer Judo Grandmaster Kim Chan Yong, a close friend of his father, spread martial arts in the area. Kim was the 1960 Korean Heavyweight champion in Judo and also holds a 9th Dan in Tae Kwon Do and 6th Dan in Hapkido. (Later he trained his son Jimmy Kim to capture gold at the Seoul Olympics in Tae Kwon Do heavyweight division aged 21). Training with Kim in his youth, John later became a black belt in Shorinji Kempo teaching this art in the North of England for a year during his university days - one of the earliest Shorinji Kempo classes in the country. Great to chat about some of the greats of that time - Steve Babbs, Ticky Donovan, Bill Wallace etc...

21/09/2022

Writing is a practice just like Taijiquan training is a practice. The important thing is to show up everyday. In The War of Art American author Steven Pressfield spoke of the “resistance” all athletes, authors and creatives face when bringing a project/outcome to life. By resistance read the internal mental barriers that everyone faces when confronted by the reality of a long period of grinding work with no guaranteed payoff at the end. His conclusion, become a “professional.” Professionals show up everyday whether they feel like it or not!

20/09/2022

Meeting practitioners from the old days and hearing their tales, experiences and exploits is an important step in cutting out the myths, fairytales and frankly BS that often accompanies Chinese martial arts. We met the exuberant Jiang Hao Quan at a Chinese Internal Martial Arts Festival in Newcastle, England in 1996/7. A master of various internal arts as well as Sanshou, wrestling - he was also competed in western boxing, diving and weightlifting. When we met him he was about 80 years old and physically very capable. During a panel discussion he was asked how a person could be as strong and flexible as him at this age. Eminently practical he answered, “eat three eggs every day for breakfast!”
Jiang Hao Quan passed away in 2012 aged 95.

19/09/2022

Strangely and unintentionally (as far as I can tell!) we have the only business card displayed in the Chenjiagou Taijiquan Museum. Several of our books are displayed in the museum alongside a few other authors including our friend Jan Silberstorff. Back in 2011 we met the director of the museum and we’re told everyone who had exhibits in the museum should have some kind of certificate. We never got the certificate but for some reason the business card became part of the display! Unfortunately all the details on the card are out of date now, but still a fun story😎😎

04/09/2022

If you want to write, always keep notes. During Chen Zhenglei’s 1999 First International Advanced Training Camp in Hebei, China. The accompanying pictures were taken during a lecture on Taijiquan concepts. We still have the notebooks from the lecture today😎

03/09/2022

There are two types of knowledge. One that is written down and another that is passed down orally. We need both to get a true picture of the soul of an art like Chen Taijiquan. In the attached pictures Chen Xiaoxing points out the ruins of Chen Changxing and Chen Fake’s homes in Chenjiagou. In the flow of conversation during this on the ground research stories and anecdotes that have never been written down are naturally transmitted...

01/09/2022

In this new page we (David Gaffney & Davidine Sim😎) want to share some of the back story (and future story!!!) of D&D Publications. It’s sobering to realise more than 20 years have passed since our first book Chen Style Taijiquan: The Source of Taiji Boxing was published by North Atlantic Books (California, USA). At the time little information was available about Chen Taijiquan in the English language and our literary efforts began with the simple idea of producing the kind of book that we ourselves would like to read. The idea might have been simple, but it’s realisation has been an ongoing journey.

The whole process has centred around three ideas:

1. The need for high quality accurate texts in English cutting through misinformation and misunderstandings, and demystifying Chen Taijiquan.

2. A recognition that this required travelling to the source and experiencing the methods in their “natural habitat” rather than trying to understand them out of context from a distance.

3. An eagerness to conduct open-minded research and hear the voices of experienced practitioners from different schools.

In future posts we’ll share how the different books came to life: the interviews; collaborative artists; the book generation process; the ideas behind each title and what triggers a new book; and the most thought provoking reader’s responses.

Like and follow👊👊👊