Academy of Genuine Wudang Taoist KungFu - Sanfeng Taichiquan

    Since Chinese Wushu has a long history, no one can tell exactly the source of kinds of boxing style and there is no available way to find it. . For example, eight- diagram palm was created by Dong Hai chuan, then he passed it to Bi Cheng qie (Red Lotus Taoist Priest) and his master’s brother Guo Yuanji (Iron Cap Taoist Priest), but to whom Bi and Guo passed on the boxing? God knows. Another example, Nature Gate of Wan lai Voice  (sound of nature) was passed on to Dwarf Xu? But then to whom? Form and will boxing is said to come from the Boxing script of Yue Fei (a patriotist of the Southern Song Dynasty), Yue Fei imparted it to Zhou Tong, and to whom Zhou tong passed on? And what is about Gong sun da niang’s graceful sword art? Many unknown things exist among famous generals.  It is known to all that Taiji quan was from Zhang San feng of Wudang, but in the 30s of 20th century, it was suspected after Tang Hao and Gu Liuxin’s research. They insisted that Chen Pu and Chen Wangting of Chen jia Gou Village created Taiji quan. Therefore they declined the fact that the real creator was Zhang San feng.
  Who created Taiji quan Where is its source? This article will research it according to the relative historical material.
  1.It is a mistake that Chen Clan created Taiji quan. Preface of Taiji quan illustration, by Chen Xin, says, the first ancestor Wei Pu taught his son and grandson in his spare time to move yin and yang to help digest, and he based his movement on Taiji, thus it was called Taiji Quan. If it was true, then eight-tri gram and twelve-tri gram were called Taiji Quan too. Later in the Chen clan’s family tree, no one was mentioned to have practiced Wushu. Is this a mistake? There was no written work about this.
  2.The view that Taiji quan was created by Chen Wangting is the subjective view of Tang Hao and Gu Liuxin
The view began from Tang Hao and Gu Liuxin. After 3 visits to Chen Jiagou, Tang Hao found the family tree of Chen Clan, there were relative articles about it. Words like this: Creating boxing when one felt boring and Chen Wangting was the creator of Chen Clan ‘s sword and spear. Thus Gu Liuxin compiled it to the Encyclopedia Physic Section. The second note of Taiji quan says, In the early times, Taiji quan spread among Chen clan in Chen Jiagou Village of Wen xian County in Henan Province and the creator was Chen Wangting, who was an outstanding expert of Wushu, the introduction of the Art of Taiji quan boxing says, Chen clan’s Taiji quan was a kind of antique boxing and other schools of Taiji quan (Yang, Wu, Sun, Wu) were based on it then developed. From then on, the whole situation had been changed. The Chen clan follows this point view and people saw the same opinion from both the books and TV.What about the true story of it on earth? First, let us see the fact of Encyclopedia.
   The interview to Wushu senior Li Tianji, which was organized by Mr. Yu Zhijin, said:” Gu Liuxin took Chen Wangting in Lulong County, Hebei Province for the Chen Wangting in Chen jiagou Village. The one in Hebei was a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty. He was not the same person who was born at the end of Ming Dynasty. Gu corrected his error on Physical Newspaper in 1984. Later, Li Tianji said:” I was not willing to write the knack of Taiji quan with Gu, thus he cooperated with Li Deyin. At last, Gu wrote all the knacks by himself and wrote what he liked. Now I am 80 years old and have no energy to correct it. Therefore, I hope you the young generation write the correct and true one through thorough research. From the words above, you can see that the concept that the Chen clan created Taiji is unavailable.
   Looking at the sentence: The creator of spear and sword of boxer of Chen clan, Chinese Wushu had few thousands years’ history and Chen was the creator is obviously not conformable to the fact, but why did people say like this? In a sense it is partly true, because:
   a.The family handed down double three boxing knacks says: “ I learned it from Ji Clan though I don’t master it perfectly, but I dare not say that I can impart it to the younger generation. The author learned it from the Zhen Clan, disciple of Mr. Jin Longfeng. It was the compile during Yongzhen Period, the same time when Wangting lived.
   b.Chang quan of Chen Clan is the combination of Tongbi quan and Hong tong Tongbi quan in Shanxi Province; Hong tong quan (Zhong Yiquan) was passed on by Guo Yongfu in Henan. He imparted it to He Huaibi of He Jia zhuang Village, when he visited Hong tong during Qian long (a emperor in the Qing dynasty). The order of passage is like this: Shaolin temple---Guo Yongfu (a person good at darting) ---He Huaibi (He Jiazhuang in Hong tong)---Shi Jiwen (Wan an Town) ---Shi Genlin (Shi tong wenzi) ---Yang Rumei, Qiao Bai (Wan An Town) ---Pan Yi qui (Gao gong Village)
   c. Chen Wangting copied knacks of boxing scripts from Quan jing song Ji xin New book from Qi Jiguang. The basic theory belongs to Shaolin boxing family
   d.The annotation of the old boxing knack of the Chen Clan says, the diagram of the spear style was derived from Yu Clan in Si Xian County. And another article of Wen Xiutang record: the knacks above come from Northern Wang bao Village. Zhang Kaizhou copied and rewrote it in the 23rd year of Daoguang.
These 4 points above illustrated that in Chen jiagou Village, Chen Wangting was the first one to learn Wushu, which were the combination of Tongbi quan and Pao quan, falling into shaolin style of boxing. What’s more, some were the duplicate copies. The so-called “ creator “ was the one who learnt as the earliest one, so how Chen Wangting created the boxing in his spear time?
  Taiji quan is a kind of complicated Wushu arts, “creating” can be counted on only if one has thorough understanding of Yi (change) Theory and boxing theory, then add the concentration, inspiration and aesthetic mood. Under the state of being terribly upsetting, people cannot create common Wushu and gymnastics, let alone Taiji quan. So creating Taiji needs rigid conditions (Chang duan ju did not conform to the mental state of Wangting) maybe this has something to do with Jiang Fa.
  After failure of Li Ji’s troop, Jiang Fa lived in seclusion, who was as competent dicipel of Wang Zongyue, a Taiji master of great learning and integrity. Jiang could rush like galloping horse and chase rabbits within 100 steps. Since Wangting knew his competence and treated him warmly, which made Jiang so grateful that he taught Wangting according to his aptitude. Then he combined the essentials of Taiji quan to Pao quan in the way of twisting and turning, removing the sharp angles of Pao quan. Thus the Chen Clan’s created Taiji Wushu skill. In federal society, how can one have his servant as his disciple? Moreover, the original native place of Jiang Fa was Liu cun Village of Dong Town in Wen Xian County, and moved to Shui yun Village later. Jiang learnt boxing for 10 years from Wang Zongyue in Shanxi, then became a servant in Chen gou Village and concealed his identity after the failure. At last he imparted the boxing skill to his disciple Chen Wangting and then Xing Xihuai. After death, he was buried a place called Yang haiwa, West north of Yangji gou. 
  Chen Zhengshu, the 17th later generation of Chen Wangting often holds honorable ceremony for Jiang Fa in honor of their senior and showed respect for their master. Jiang Fa had outstanding Wushu skills and was respected by the villagers of Chen gou Village.
   The sure purpose of the above fact is to illustrate that all schools of Taiji quan were derived from Zhang Sanfeng, though it has a long story. All the people, regarded   Sanfeng as “ the original master” ,but there are still people who still turn deaf ear to it and held view that it is only a legend and could not be worthy of believing but only brought chaos of Taiji boxing. Even now, no one exactly knew from which generation and how it was passed on from the Chen Clan.
   There was a lyric from the 51st Division Headquarter of Kuomin tang;
Taiji derives really from Wudang, if one gets the essence of it, it benefits both the nation and its citizens, and also it helps to make oneself stronger.