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Zhang Sanfeng was the famous Wudang Taoist
during the late years of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning years of
the Yuan Dynasty.
It was said that Zhang Sanfeng, originally named Zhang-Quanyi,
nicknamed Sanfeng, born in Yizhou City, Liaoning Province was tall and
strong, with tortoise shape and swan bone, big ears and round eyes,
hard beards and moustaches. He always wore a coir raincoat and a pair
of grass shoes, no matter summer or winter, lived in the lonely deep
mountain or traveled in the crowded city. He could remember what he
read just by one look, talked nothing but moral, kindness, faith and
filial piety. He could talk with the gods and understand Taoism, so he
could forecast the future and solve all the difficulties in the world.
He could live without a meal for five days, even for two or three
months; he could penetrate the mountain and drive the stones when he
was happy; he lived in the snow when he was tired; he traveled here and
there without any information, so all the people then were surprised at
him and thought him one of gods.
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Wudang Taoist medicine cultivation has a long history, especially the
inner medicine, which is to cultivate the breath into medicine so as to
make one's strong, keep healthy and prolong the lifespan by way of
breathing. Zhang Sanfeng had a profound cultivation in inner medicine,
he said in Ode to Big Road, "To cultivate the mood before cultivating
the medicine; to cultivate big medicine before cultivate the mind; when
the mind is steady, the medicine will come by itself; when the mood and
character have cultivated, the big medicine will be in reach", which
figuratively explained the progress of medicine cultivation. He had
written many books on medicine, such as, The Gist of Gold Medicine, The
Secrecy of Gold Medicine, A Song of Inner Medicine, Twenty-four
Principles of Rootless Trees, Taoist Song of Earth Element and Real
Immortal, which had been published in the Ming Dynasty. Later, the
people had compiled them into The Full Collection of Zhang Sanfeng's
Works, with eight volumes.
Zhang Sanfeng was not only profound in medicine cultivation but also in
martial art, especially good at boxing and swordplay. He, on the base
of Taoist theories, such as the naturalness of Taoist theories, keeping
in a humble position and so on, had combined Taoist inside exercise,
guarding skills of regimen, boxing acts of martial art, military
sciences of militarists into one, then created Wudang Boxing, which is
with the inside exercise as the body, attacking as the purpose, regimen
as the first important thing, self-protection as the main principle,
and to defeat the tough by a tender act, charge the active by the still
movement, attack the opponent with his own force, strike only after the
opponent has struck. From the Ming Dynasty, martial art world have
respected Zhang Sanfeng as the founder of Wudang Inner Boxing and Taiji
Boxing. Wudang martial art, through many generations' succeeding and
development, has become one important school among China martial art,
spread in the folk, with a long and profound influence.
During the beginning years of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Sanfeng came to
Wudang Mountain, worshipped Emperor Zhenwu on Heavenly Pillar Peak, and
built a hut to the north of Flag-stretching Peak in which offered
incense to Emperor Zhenwu. Then he built a hut in another place, named
Meeting Gods Temple. He once said to the seniors in the mountain that
Wudang Mountain would be different from that day. Later, the second
emperor of the Ming Dynasty did order to build Wudang Mountain at a
large scale and made Wudang Mountain the head of the Five Famous
Mountains in China, naming the Biggest Mountain.
In the twenty-second year of Emperor Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty, he
left Wudang Mountain without any information. When the King of Hunan
Province, Zhu-Bai worshiped Wudang Mountain and could not find him,
Zhu-Bai wrote a poem to him, A Poem to eulogize Zhang Sanfeng, which
said to the effect, "Zhang Sanfeng loves gods. He drinks the water from
the clean river in the morning, sleeps under South Cliff in the
evening. He has cultivated Taoism in Wudang Mountain for many years,
paying no attention to the changes of seasons and landscapes. When I
could not find him in the bare mountain, how sad I am! There is only an
empty hut left, an old Taoist sleeps under the pine tree."
In the 24th year of Emperor Hongwu, Zhu-Yuanzhang, the founder of the
Ming Dynasty, sent profound Taoists to put in order all Taoism in
China. For that Zhang Sanfeng was so famous, he specially ordered them:
"If you meet Zhang Sanfeng, invite him to me." But they could not find Zhang Sanfeng.
When Zhu-Li became emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he wanted very much to
invite Zhang Sanfeng who was famous and highly influential among the
folk to work in the central government, so he sent many men to look for
him many times, but all ended in failure. He himself had written a
letter to Zhang Sanfeng, which said to the effect that: "A letter from
the Emperor to Zhang Sanfeng: I admire you so much that I want to learn
from you. I have tried sending men to look for you all over the
country, but you are a profound god, full of wonder and mystery, so I
couldn't find you. Though I am not so clever and special, I look
forward to meeting you day and night. So I send envoys again to look
for you with my letter, waiting for your coming, so as to express my
faithful feeling for you. On February 2, the tenth year of Emperor
Yongle." From the letter, we can understand his anxiety and admiration
feelings to meet Zhang Sanfeng.
Had looked for him for many times, but all ended in failure; so Emperor
Zhu-Li ordered to build Meeting God Palace for Zhang Sanfeng, copper
statue for him, and sent officials to clean the palace. That the
highest emperor built temple, made statue, and offered incense for a
Wudang Taoist was the only one in China Taoist history.
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