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Arthritis — The Chinese Way of Healing and Prevention

(Yang’s Martial Arts Association, ISBN 1-886969-42-6)

Book Review by Perry A. Chapdelaine,

The Arthritis Trust of America

Forty million Americans suffer from Osteoarthritis, six mil-

lion from Rheumatoid Arthritis, and one million from Gouty Ar-

thritis.

Perhaps thirteen million suffer from the eighty or so improp-

erly labeled “incurable” Rheumatoid Diseases, also called “auto-

immune,” or “collagen tissue diseases.”

As many as fifty-three million silently suffer from associated

calcium spurs.

These are estimates. No one knows the true extent of these

painful conditions.

Can one truly recover wellness?

Is there really hope?

As a dance hobbyist, I was very much impressed with David

Carradine’s television persona —Kwai Chang Caine — of Ed

Spielman’s Kung Fu series, and to a lesser extent with the later

Kung Fu series starring David Carradine as his own grandson, and

co-starring Chris Potter as the great grandson of Kwai Chang Caine.

Graceful ballets are performed by David Carradine who, of

course, appears to be kicking and slamming villains with great ease.

Marvelous physical control is required to provide such beautiful

patterns of motion while not actually harming good members of

the screen actors guild, although Carradine reported that the “con-

tact” choreography was not always so benign.

And those villains! — no matter how besmattered their stage

makeup after Caine’s buffeting — they are also great motion en-

hancers, reacting with graceful response and purpose to each of the

Kung Fu master’s apparent blows.

Most impressive to me, however, were the flashbacks in the

first series, with the youthful Caine absorbing ancient profound

wisdom from Shaolin priests who, despite great age, were each of

them also masters of the graceful dance known as Kung Fu.

What did the young Caine absorb from Oriental wisdom be-

sides an impenetrable defense, an irresistable attack?

Ed Spielman’s television character, Kwai Chang Caine, grew

up to know that strong character is superior to strength of muscle;

that inner knowledge supersedes external sensory wisdom; that

thought precedes emotion, physical force, and all the remainder of

our daily activities.

While an extensive knowledge of herbs was a useful adjunct

to Caine’s wisdom, wisdom itself stemmed from the inner depths

of self-knowledge.

Shakespeare said it for the Occidental, “Know thyself, and it

follows as the night the day, thou can’st not then be false to any

man.”

But Oriental wisdom said it many thousands of years earlier:

There is an unseen, untouchable force within us that can nonethe-

less be known, and is primary to all that we are, all that we can be.

Master Yang Jwing-Ming writes that, “The best way to heal

yourself is to know yourself and understand the key to your indi-

vidual problem.”

Once we discover and know this “Qi” force, with it we can

mold our bodies, willing it to behave according to our moods.

We can send the force on long, virtually instantaneous trips

with the speed of thought.

With it, we can form an invisible protective shield about our-

selves, staving off every form of inimical, invading micro-organ-

ism.

With it we can cure our ills — yes, even our so-called “incur-

able” ills!

As a serious student, with full knowledge and grasp of the

“Qi” force, we might even enjoy longevity!

I’m in the business of telling folks how to get well from incur-

able rheumatoid diseases, usually advising on alternative treatments.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned while executive director and secre-

tary of the The Arthritis Trust of America/The Rheumatoid Disease

Foundation, it’s that there are many paths to wellness, just as there

are many paths to sickness.

Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming is an unusual master — teacher — as he

has transplanted at our Western shores wisdom that was ancient —

and mostly hidden — at the time Jesus Christ was preaching the

Beatitudes. With Christ’s unfortunate sacrifice there continued a

gigantic struggle between good and evil, while in the Orient the

identification and controlled use of “life’s energy,” Qi (pronounced

“Chi”), slowly became apparent through a tapestry of trial and er-

ror, rational reasoning, experimentation, and self-knowledge involv-

ing balance, harmony, and slowly accumulated observation of the

effects of many interactive influences.

Once hidden and reserved for the few, many “self-knowledge”

branches grew from initial Chinese understandings: acupuncture,

meditations, breathing techniques, philosophies and religions, func-

tional Qi circulation, massages, martial arts, Shaolin and Taiji exer-

cises, disease prevention, and health restoration. Each of these bor-

rowed and loaned, from and to, respectively, India, Korea, Japan

and many other countries.

Since the 1970s we Westerners have at last come to accept

many historical Oriental discoveries. Even the slowest, dumbest

oxen of all — traditional Western medicine — has finally begun to

accept acupuncture and meditation.

Now that author Yang Jwing-Ming, Ph.D. has borrowed the

paradigm of “bioelectrical energy” for the Chinese concept of “Qi,”

Westerners will find Qigong (pronounced Chi Gong) quite under-

standable.

Lucid exposition of an historically complex subject has at last

communicated the nature of Qi, and Master Yang Jwing-Ming —

obviously also master of language — easily leads the reader to un-

derstand how to cultivate the very “breath-of-life,” and how to con-

trol and expand its influence on the human body.

As executive director and secretary of a non-profit, tax-ex-

empt, charitable foundation dedicated to eradicating the more than

90 Rheumatoid Diseases from the earth’s face, I always suggest

that arthritics explore every possible path to wellness, until, like a

key to its lock, one modality works for you, from which wellness

ensues.

Do not accept defeat from those who do not themselves suf-

fer, and have no knowledge of wellness.

As a compassionate person who wishes everyone free of crip-

pling diseases, I can only energetically recommend to all arthritics

Master Yang Jwing-Ming’s clear exposition, understandings, and

Qigong exercises that hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens (dur-

ing the past several thousands of years) have also known will bring

about a painless, comfortable wellness.