Melanie Gibson General Martial Arts, Guest Writers, Self-Development and Leadership

Guest Writer: My Kung Fu Journey – My Shaolin Kung Fu Training Story at Tagou

Guest article by Yan Zhijun. For more information about the author and his website, see the bottom of the post.

Yan Zhijun (mid-air, center) with fellow Tagou students after a performance at the Longmen Grottoes, Luoyang, 2000

How It Started

I was not a good student. School bored me. I was restless, mischievous, and had no interest in sitting still long enough to learn anything. My parents looked at my grades, looked at my attitude, and worried — genuinely worried — about what kind of future I was heading toward.

One evening they sat me down and asked a question I was not expecting: Would you consider going to Shaolin?

The idea had come through a connection in our town. Someone my parents knew had a child already training at Tagou. We visited that family, heard their story, saw their photos. Something about it stuck. So in 1998, at the age of sixteen, I packed a bag and headed for Dengfeng.

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Melanie Gibson General Martial Arts, Guest Writers

Guest Writer: Taijiquan and Chinese Medicine

Martial arts practitioners are fortunate in that they don’t just have access to learning a physical skill when they begin training. They are also exposed to the emotional, spiritual, cultural, and wellness aspects of their chosen martial art. This article provides foundational information about Taijiquan and Chinese medicine, courtesy of Shaolin Shi Yanhao, co-founder of the Taizu Shaolin Kung Fu School.  For more information on the school and its founder, see the end of the article.

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