Famous Tai Chi Stories There are many stories about who created Tai Chi but most of them are either magical or mysterious so I don’t want to waste your time with them. If you really want to know those stories, there are plenty of books out there. Yet among all these there is one particular person whose stories are just too popular to ignore. Many people believe Zheng San Feng was the creator of Tai Chi. Many novels and movies have made this notion even more popular and convincing. Zhang was one of the most accomplished Taoist priests in Chinese history. However he has been made more of a legend than a real person, especially in martial art circle and there are many stories about him and what he reportedly did. Some say he was born in 1247 AD and died in 1458 AD and some simply say he died once, resurrected and then just disappeared. He was such an important figure that he earned a place in the official history book “History of Ming Dynasty” commissioned by Qing Dynasty Empire Shun Zhi. The following are paraphrased from his biography in that book- Zhang San Feng was from Yi Zhou, Liaodong Province. His real name was Quan Yi. He was also known as Jun Bao but San Feng was the name he preferred. His nick name was the Slovenly Zhang because of the carelessness of his appearance. He was very tall, hunch-backed (his back looked like that of a turtle or a crane) his ears were huge and his eyes were round and his whisker-looking hair, mustache and beard were long, hard and pointing to all directions. He wore a light cassock and a straw hat all year round. He could gobble down bushels of food when he felt like he needed to eat but could go without food for months. He had photographic memory. He never settled down and he traveled fast, as many as 300 miles a day on foot. He had a great sense of humor. He was spontaneous and did not care what people thought of him. He predicted that Wu Dong Mountain would be famous and prosperous after he traveled through the mountain. At that time, all temples in the mountain were destroyed in wars. He and his disciples cut bushes, cleared debris and set up a straw shed but he left shortly after. The founding emperor of Ming Dynasty heard of him and sent for him but he was nowhere to be found. Later, he lived in Jin Tai Guan of Bao Ji (a Taoist temple far from Wu Dong Mountain.) One day, he said he was dying and he really died. He was put in a coffin. When he was about to be buried, he was heard moving in the coffin from which he then resurrected. He kept traveling and then back to Wu Dong Mountain but never settled down. Some time later the 3rd emperor of Ming Dynasty sent his men out to find him and although they looked for years they ultimately failed. The emperor then ordered a spectacular palace looking Taoist temple to be built and maintained for him on the Wu Dong Mountain. The temple became the most important Taoist Temple in China, which made the mountain the most sacred Taoist place as he predicted. In 1429, the 6th Empire of Ming Dynasty knighted him. After that nobody knew where he went or what happened to him. As usual, the official biography is boring and doesn’t really tell anything. The important point we need to be aware is that there is no mention of his knowing, being good at or creating martial arts. On the other hand the folk tales are much more interesting and can be broken into four basic schools of thought. Theory #1-
His martial art was a gift. The following is an excerpt from the words of Wang Zheng Nan (?-1675) of the Qing Dynasty- “One night during a trip to the north, he was visited by Zhen Wu Shen Jun the highest Deity of Taoism. The Deity taught him some martial arts and Tai Chi was one of them. He was attacked by many thugs the following day and he defeated them all with his newly learned martial arts. This incident started his fame as the creator and grand master of internal martial art.” Theory #2-
He was inspired by a fight between a bird and a snake or a fight between a crane and a snake. One day he witnessed a fight between a bird and a snake. The bird was offensive, flew and jumped around trying to peck on the snake while the snake hardly moved waiting for his opportunities. The snake won the fight and he realized that softness could be harder than hardness. Based on this inspiration and his profound Taoist knowledge, he created the soft and slow looking internal martial art and Tai Chi was a branch of it. Theory #3-
He created internal martial art as the result of sudden enlightenment of his Taoist meditation. Theory #4-
He created internal martial art based on Shao Lin Kung Fu. He lived in the Shao Lin Temple as a servant to a lowly ranked monk when he was a teenager and he learned some Shao Lin Kung Fu. Later, he moved to Wu Dong Mountain to start his own Taoist practice. The mountain and his temple became famous and prosperous. He needed his disciples to learn martial arts to keep good health and to protect his property. He integrated Shao Lin Kung Fu and Taoist notion of softness could beat hardness to create a brand new style of martial art—internal martial art. Tai Chi is one branch of it. In my opinion, only the 4th theory is worth our attention. Creating new styles of martial arts based on old ones is exactly the force behind the evolution and development of martial arts. Yet one needs to master the old ones in order to do so. Zhang only spent a few years as a teenage at Shao Lin Temple. He did not even have the opportunity to complete his basic training there not to mention the opportunity to study higher level knowledge which would have been essential for him to create a new style of martial art unless he was a genius or at the very least exceptionally gifted. All we can get from those stories is that the creation of Tai Chi was the result of magical or mysterious forces. I don’t believe in miracles so I don’t believe in these stories. Next: The history we know for sure.... |
