Kung fu-China's legacy of martial arts stretches form the distant past of the Shaolin Temple to the strife-torn decades of the 20th century. It is a legacy filled with tales of great masters who, in their search for inner truth, were confronted with tyrannical Emperors, civil wars, and marauding bandits. It is a tale of color, violence, and, triumphing over all, the kung fu masters' attainment of the very acme of physical skill, mental discipine, and awesome internal power.

Now, for the very first time in the West, comes a work that surveys the masters' labors-a comparative study of the authentic styles of Chinese martial arts featuring the finest master practitioners of this century. It is a book that will take you from the outer limits of external power training to the inner realm of the master's mind.

Contents

Introduction
Kung fu keystone of China's history
Kung fu comes to america
Book One: Northern kung fu
Chang Chuan: The brave father of kung fu
Northern praying mantis: The power of the claw
Monkey style: From man into monkey
Eagle claw: 108 points of attack
Hsing-I: The no-nonsense
Pa Kwa: A fighting strategy in eight directions
Tai chi chuan: The yin and yang of combat
Book Two: Southern kung fu
Choy-Li-Fut: the fist on the end of a rope
Hung Gar: Hard as iron...soft as thread
Wing Chun: The shortest distance between two points
Tibetan white crane: One hand lies the other tells the truth
White eyebrow: Soft hands and scared power
Esoteric southern styles
The true tradition of kung fu