Wudang Tai Chi Styles

The 13-style Tai Chi has 13 routines and 60 postures in all. It is believed to be the authentic Tai Chi Chuan handed down by Master Zhang Sanfeng. it contains five steps and eight positions, and it is called Tai Chi Mu Boxing. Wudang Tai Chi Chuan applies the soft to overcome the hard and stillness to restrain movement. It reacts later but takes the upper hand first, thus it is a good way to strengthen the body and self-defense. By practicing it, people can transform strength into inner energy, then into shen, so that it makes up for weakness and cooperates with the tao.

It combines wushu with health-preservation and can enhance longevity, intelligence and strength. The entire practice process can be classified into three stages: jing practice, chi practice and shen practice. The main practicing methods include inhaling and exhaling to regulate breathing, assisting external force to make up for internal force, and standing on stakes with coordination strength. The main movements include straight blows, pressing, jostling, picking, arraying and elbowing.

Once practiced well, it flows very smoothly by following, connecting, pasting and striking. To practice it well requires peace of mind. Practitioners must also bend the chest, erect the back, relax shoulders and lower elbows. These actions must be done naturally. Wudang Tai Chi boxing incorporates movements with stillness. The internal work and external work complement each other and easily preserve health.

Wudang Sanfeng Tai Chi Chuan includes 108 postures in all. It is a transformation of the 13-style Taichi Chuan.

Eighteen-style Wudang Tai Chi has 18 postures in all. It is excerpted from the 108-style Wudang Sanfeng Tai Chi Chuan.

Twenty-eight-style Wudang Tai Chi Chuan has 28 postures in all. It is excerpted from the 108-style Wudang Sanfeng Tai Chi Chuan.

Wudang Sanfeng Tai Chi Sword has 65 postures in all. It is said that this art was founded by Master Zhang Sanfeng who incorporated many other sects' swordplay strategies. Tai Chi Sword not only has wushu characteristics, such as overcoming the hard with the soft, restraining motion with stillness, reacting later but taking the upper hand first and manipulating the whole with little strength, but also includes Taoist health-preservation methods. It functions to strengthen the body as well as self-defense.

Taiyi Wuxing Chuan (Taiyi five-element boxing) has 25 routines with about 81 movements in all. As an important school of Wudang internal kung fu, the Taiyi School is somewhat similar to that of Wudang Tai Chi. It was founded by Master Shouxing, who was from the Longmen School of Wudang Taoism during the Ming Dynasty. It combines the 13 styles of Tai Chi Chuan, the Five-Animal Exercise of Hua Tuo (a famous doctor in the Han Dynasty) and the Taoist yoga practice of breathing, regulating, striking and defense. Theoretically, it lays more emphasis on the application of yin-yang and five elements ideas, so the layout resembles the framework proclaimed by the two theories.

In practice, the mind-will is more important than strength, transforming to adapt to the situation rather than directly resisting. It requires that the heart-mind and breath accompany each other, and that the waist must move in harmonious correspondence with the motion of the hipbones.

The body has to act slowly, smoothly and naturally. When practiced well, it looks like a worming snake. In fact, it achieves an effect as forceful as a thick callus, attaining vigor while preserving flexibility.

Crane-Style Stakes is a kind of health-preservation exercise. It imitates the movements and stances of white cranes in the wilderness.

Tai Chi Hunyuan Chuang (Tai Chi mixed-force stake) believes that strength, internal energy and shen are the three treasures of the human body. Its main focus is to conserve strength and convert it to internal energy first and then to shen second. Practicing this exercise for a period of time can make one feel more energetic, more intelligent and help them surpass others. The gist of performing this exercise is to master the naturally alternating law of three treasures in order to gain longevity.

Chiran Yangshen Gong (natural health-preservation exercise) believes that the wise cultivate yang in spring and summer, and yin in autumn and winter, in order to follow the laws of nature. Doing otherwise will bring detrimental effects to body and spirit. Therefore, yin-yang and the four seasons represent the alternating pattern of a myriad of things in movement.

Still-Sitting Meditation believes life and death depend on each other. The two cannot work without the opposite. The law of innate nature and life force are the main focus of the regimen as well as achieving longevity. Innate nature refers to the heart in some aspects, which serves as the source of heart, yet the letter (heart) demonstrates itself in intangible form.

People's hearts are always subject to changes every now and then, just as restless as an ape. In Taoist theory there is one popular term: subdue the dragon and take captive the tiger. The saying explains how to calm down the heart to have chi arise naturally. The ancient sages advocated cultivating and encompassing chi because the corporeal body, heart and true intentions can be congealed into one unit. This is the highest attainment of unifying humans with nature.