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Great River was founded in 1984 by a circle of serious Taijiquan (Tai Chi Chuan) practitioners. For nearly 3 decades the Center has been focused on presenting the complete art, in all its aspects from the meditative to the martial. As such, Great River offers classes in the complete system from proper body mechanics and qi (chi) development learned thru form work, interactive training in push hands, real self defense thru full contact sanshou, and strength training via traditional weapons training as well as historical swordplay.
Center Director, Scott M. Rodell, studied with notable masters, Wang Yen-nian, T.T. Liang, and William C .C. Chen. Over the last 28 years, the Center has grown from a local group into an international school with branches and affiliated school across the US and Canada, Northern & Eastern Europe and Australia. Today, Center director Scott M. Rodell & senior students, hold regular weekly classes in Washington & lead over 25 seminars a year in Europe, Australia and America.
Classical TaijiQuan (T’ai Chi Ch’uan)
Taiji Quan (Tai Chi Chuan) is an classical Chinese internal martial art that, when practiced regularly and correctly, reduces stress and helps to improve physical fitness, concentration, and overall health for all ages. Center Director Scott M. Rodell has 20 years of Taiji experience under masters Wang Yen-nien, T.T. Liang, and William C.C. Chen.
Chinese Historical Swordsmanship
Center director, Scott M. Rodell, is an internationally recognized expert of Chinese Historical swordsmanship & the author of “Chinese Swordsmanship, The Yang Family Taiji Jian Tradition.” While many contemporary schools of Chinese martial arts practice various sword forms, few practice swordsmanship. At GRTC we strive to achieve the complete sword art, moving beyond simple form practice to free swordplay in a manner that is both effective, adheres to the principles of taijiquan & is historically accurate.
Neigong
Traditional Taoist NeiGong (internal work) Meditation in the Jin Shan Pai (Gold Mountain Tradition) for students who have demonstrated sufficient skill and disciple.
More Information:
Translated by Scott M. Rodell with Meilu Chen-Rodell, copyright 2012
Notes on translation: There is no perfect translation of a classical text like this. In fact, the notion that there is one to one correlation between words in different languages is a translation fallacy. Also when reading a text such as this, there are often terms or phrases that one may understand perfectly well in the original, that simply cannot be express as succinctly in English as they are in Chinese. And, naturally, every translator comes with his or her own personal perspective. Therefore, every translation, by its very nature, is an interpretation.
The translation presented here is based on over four decades of experience in martial arts, including years of full contact combat with weapons, as well as years of bow hunting experience. Many of the ideas recorded in this manual, are reminiscent of training in internal martial arts. One example is the text?s description of eyeing the target, which has the same flavor as the moment one sights at opening for a cut in free swordplay. In combat, one is joined to the target in a quite different fashion than the way a casual target archer observes his or her target before drawing. When one faces an opponent, who is looking back with the same intentions, one is focused in a different fashion than when there is no opponent. This text reads differently to one that has swam such seas, than for one who has never had their target shoot back with an intent to cause real harm.
With any translation there is the question of the style in which to render the work. Some translators endeavor to translate a text into the best English possible. Personally, I prefer to keep the translated text to be as close to and parallel with the original, often terse, Chinese as possible. This may mean that the English version of this translation is less than “prefect” English, but when rendered in this fashion, hopefully it is closer to the original in flavor and thus intent.
For those unable to read the original Chinese text, it is strongly suggested that after reading this translation, you also read Stephen Selby’s translation of this same text in his book, Chinese Archery.
Continue reading “Mounted and Foot Archery Illustrated, Liu Qu, 1722” »
The Taijiquan Jing,
Attributed to Zhang Sanfeng,
describes the form as -
Without any place having a flaw,
Without any place having any protrusions
or hollows,
Moving without any breaks, continuously.
(trans. S. M. Rodell)
Calligraphy by teacher Wang Yen-nien (signed with his Taoist name Shang Shou Zi), presented to Center Director, Scott M. Rodell
Congratulations to GRTC Senior Student, for taking home the Champion's Prize Sword, this Saturday, at the National
Traditional Chinese Sword League Tournament.
This was a full contact swordplay competition.
For League info please see: Sword League
Come out & Support your classmates playing in the
Full Contact
Chinese Swordplay
Tournament
This Saturday
January 28th at Noon
in Chantilly, Virginia at the Northern Virginia Sportsplex (http://www.northernvirginiasportsplex.com/).
Then on Sunday (1/29) we’ll have our annual
Push Hands Open Practice for all levels.
at the DC Center, starting at 10, followed by pizza & Kungfu Movies.
http://www.northernvirginiasportsplex.com/
www.northernvirginiasportsplex.com
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