The material seems authentic enough, with a number of sources provided in the introduction (although hard to trace and verify.) The illustrations seem genuine, originating from old Chinese medical texts. However, the author's statement that this material is not well known in China either, set off something of a red flag.
Another issue has the author omitting certain information, such as times of day for certain postures, as well as their relation to the five elements. (This was stated in the introduction.) This makes certain sections of the text incomplete, and of questionable value to someone trying to get complete information.
The text descriptions accompanying the illustrations are either very obscure, and seem like more of a direct translation than an actual explanation of the subject depicted. An author's commentary, or if the author is not qualified, a TCM doctor's notes would have made this book more readable and understandable.
To the familiar, you will find descriptions of the Yijin Jing, the sitting Eight Pieces of Brocade, the 5 Animal forms, and several others. Unless already familiar, as I stated earlier, the text will be very confusing.
As it stands, the text is very obscure, some of the grammar is on the verge of confusing, and the terminology at times needs explanation (some of it is non-standard, and some outright arcane, even for qi gong practitioners.) As such, this book only gets 3 stars. A lot could have been done to make this book a genuine treasure to Qi Gong/TCM practitioner, but it seems the effort was not put in.
I would only recommend this for the most hard-core qi gong practitioners/historians, and the curious. Although in itself a valuable book, for the average reader, this will be of very little use.
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