Zhang Sanfeng


Zhang Sanfeng, courtesy name Junbao, refers to a legendary Chinese Taoist who many believe invented the Chinese martial art tai chi. However, other sources point to earlier versions of tai chi predating Sanfeng. He is purported to have achieved immortality.

History

There are conflicting accounts of where Zhang Sanfeng was born. According to the History of Ming, he was born in Liaoning in the late Song and lived up to 212 years. In 2014, the local government of Shaowu, Fujian province, claimed that he was born in their city. His given name was Tong and his courtesy name was Junbao. He specialised in Confucian and Taoist studies, scholarly and literary arts. During the reign of Emperor Shizu in the Yuan dynasty, he was nominated as a candidate to join the civil service and held office as the Magistrate of Boling County. While touring around the mountainous regions near present-day Baoji, Shaanxi, he saw the summits of three mountains and decided to give himself the Taoist name "Sanfengzi", hence he also became known as "Zhang Sanfeng".
Zhang Sanfeng's life was one of indifference to fame and wealth. After declining to serve the government and giving away his property to his clan, he travelled around China and lived as an ascetic. He spent several years on Mount Hua before settling in the Wudang Mountains.

Legend

Zhang Sanfeng is purported as having created the concept of neijia in Chinese martial arts, specifically tai chi, a Neo-Confucian syncretism of martial arts with his mastery of daoyin principles. On one occasion, he observed a bird attacking a snake and was greatly inspired by the snake's defensive tactics. It remained still and alert in the face of the bird's onslaught until it made a lunge and fatally bit its attacker. This incident inspired him to create a set of 75 tai chi movements. He is also associated with the Taoist monasteries in the Wudang Mountains.
Huang Zongxi's Epitaph for Wang Zhengnan gave Zhang Sanfeng credit for the development of a Taoist "internal martial arts" style, as opposed to the "external" style of the Shaolin martial arts tradition. Stanley Henning's article, Ignorance, Legend and Taijiquan, criticised the myth that Zhang Sanfeng created tai chi and cast doubt on whether Zhang really existed.
Zhang Sanfeng was also an expert in the White Crane and Snake styles of Chinese martial arts, and in the use of the jian. According to 19th century documents preserved in the archives of the Yang and Wu-styles tai chi families, Zhang Sanfeng's master was Xu Xuanping, a Tang dynasty Taoist poet and daoyin expert.

Writings

Writings attributed to Zhang Sanfeng include the Da Dao Lun, Xuanji Zhi Jiang, Xuan Tan Quanji, Xuan Yao Pian, Wu Gen Shu Ci and others. These were compiled into a collection known as The Complete Collection of Mr Zhang Sanfeng, which is found in Dao Zang Ji Yao, a series of Taoist texts compiled by Peng Dingqiu in the early Qing dynasty. It also contained introductory notes on Taoist martial arts and music.

In folktales, fiction and media

Literature

Owing to his legendary status, Zhang Sanfeng's name appears in Chinese wuxia novels, films and television series as a spiritual teacher and martial arts master and Taoist practitioner. Zhang Sanfeng's popularity among the Chinese is also attributed to his personality and association with Confucianism and Taoism.
The best known depiction of Zhang Sanfeng in fiction is probably in Jin Yong's wuxia novel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber, which is primarily set in the final years of the Yuan dynasty. In the novel, Zhang Sanfeng is a former Shaolin monk who founded the Wudang School based in the Wudang Mountains. He has seven apprentices, the "Seven Heroes of Wudang", one of whom is the father of the novel's protagonist, Zhang Wuji.
According to The Complete Collection of Mr Zhang Sanfeng, he might have been still alive in the reign of the Tianshun Emperor of the Ming dynasty. The emperor, who was unable to find Zhang Sanfeng, gave him the title of zhenren.

Film and television