Spread Taoism and Wudang Boxing
When Zhang returned back to
Wudang Mountain, he began to
teach his students Taoism and
Wudang Boxing. Now the real
visage of Dirty Zhang was revealed
to the public, lots of Taoists
came to study under his tutor.
Meeting Gods Temple was too
small to hold so many people,
so they built some huts nearby.
At the very beginning, he taught
the students to exercise stake
work. He said, "Stake work
is the base of Wugong; only
have a steady base can we make
a progress in Wugong. Taoist
stake work has two kind, Taiji
stake and Wuji stake. It can
not say the we succeed in exercising
stake work until we stand there
steadily as the tree sprouts
roots into the earth."
Then he taught them Wudang Taiji
Boxing, Wudang Swordplay, Wudang
Light Exercise, Wudang Inner
Medicine Exercise, Wudang Vital
point-hitting Exercise, Wudang
Sleeves Exercise.
Besides teaching the students
Wushu, Zhang also wrote many
poems, especially the twenty-four
poems of Wuji Root, to explain
Taoist cultivation and boxing
exercising, which influenced
the later generations a lot.
In order to better teach the
students Wugong, he ordered
them to plant many posts in
the shape of a club in the yard
in front of Meeting Gods Temple
and then he practiced and taught
Taiji Boxing on these posts.
One newcomer saw Zhang practiced
Taiji boxing in a very tender
way, which seemed as if there
was no strength in, so he said,
"Sir, what you practice
is nice, but not useful, not
worth learning." Zhang
jumped down the post and said,
"I will practice Taiji
Boxing, you can hit me with
your full strength." The
big and strong newcomer thought
that he could hit Zhang down
to earth by one attack, so he
made a violent attack towards
Zhang's stomach when Zhang was
practice Taiji Boxing casually.
Zhang turned around a bit and
then met his attack with his
left hand, made a tender palm
towards his stomach, which made
him backed up for several paces
and sat on the earth. Not to
accept defeat, he jumped up
his feet and gave another violent
attack to Zhang; Zhang avoided
away and got hold of his wrist
and gave a tender attack on
the back with his right hand,
which made him spring forward
about ten meters and fell down.
He stood up, wiped out the dirt
on the face and said, "Sir,
you just use a miracle way to
defeat me, which is not enough
to make the opponent convinced."
Zhang smiled, "Young man,
I just used less that one of
my strength to fight against
you, or I will hurt you. If
you want to see the power of
Taiji Boxing, I can show it
to you." With the words,
he began practicing Taiji Boxing
slowly, and then suddenly gave
a palm to one of club post,
which made the bowl-thick post
break into two parts. Becoming
excited, he kicked up a large
blue stone and then gave a palm,
making the stone into pieces.
Convinced, the newcomer kneeled
down before Zhang and said,
"Sir, Taiji Boxing is so
powerful that I am convinced
now. " Zhang stopped his
practicing and smiled, "Young
man, Taiji Boxing is seemingly
soft but very tough in reality.
When soft, as soft as swimming
silk, can twist the opponent's
hand, which stops him from escaping;
when tough, as tough as iron
and steel, can break logs and
open tones, which makes the
opponent bad injured or lose
his life. Taiji Boxing is the
first-rate one among all the
boxings in the world."
Suddenly, a man shouted "Very
good" out of the yard;
when Zhang looked towards the
voice, he found a monk standing
on the road, who was fat and
tall, with a thick iron truncheon
loaded his luggage on the shoulder.
He went forward to the yard
and put his truncheon into the
earth, which dropped into the
earth more than one foot deep.
When he heard that Zhang-Sanfeng
had created Wudang Boxing, so
he wanted to complete with him.
He said that Zhang could create
his own school only when he
could defeat him. He was very
impolite to Zhang and hurt some
students of Zhang, which made
Zhang determined to teach him
a lesson, so he said, "Ok,
let us have a competition. I
will stand here still, you can
hit me first."
Zhang stood there with a Wuji
stake, the monk gave a violent
boxing to Zhang's stomach; but
Zhang was there still without
any movement, while the monk
was sprung three meters away,
nearly fell down. He made forward
again, jumped up to kick Zhang's
face, the latter just put out
one hand and poked away his
foot, which made the monk turn
two somersaults in the air and
fell down to the earth. He jumped
to his feet once again and stroke
Zhang violently with his own
head. Zhang was still there
without any movement, but the
monk's head was stuck so tightly
that he could not take it away,
no mater how hard he would try.
The monk had no choice but to
ask for mercy, "Sir, I
am wrong. Please forgive me!"
Zhang let up his belly and said
"Go away," the monk
was sprung away more than three
meters away and fallen down
to the earth. Red-faced, the
monk said, "We will meet
in the future", and then
went away with his iron truncheon.
Saw off the monk and thought
of something, Zhang gathered
all his students and said, "Wudang
Boxing is profound, but we should
not keep it indoors, but spread
it widely. When you have grasped
Wudang Boxing, you may created
a school and become a founder."
Heard this, all the students
kneeled down and said, "We
will never forget or betray
you." Zhang continued,
"I have combined most of
things of Wugong, Guarding skills
and Inner Medicine Exercise,
then created Wudang Boxing.
In the future, if you want to
create a new school, you must
put Wudang before your school."
These students did remember
Zhang's order and created many
schools, which made Wudang Boxing
widespread in the world.
After the reign of the Yuan
Dynasty was overthrown, the
new Junzhou County Official
escorted the imperial envoy
of the Ming Dynasty to Wudang
Mountain to visit Zhang-Sanfeng,
with the emperor, Zhu-Yuanzhang's
order to give Zhang a government
position and court clothes.
When they came to the entrance
of Meeting Gods Temple, they
asked Qiu-YuanJing, one of Zhang's
students to report.
On hearing that the imperial
envoy came to Wudang Mountain
and wanted to see him, Zhang
understood their intention,
but he decided not to receive
them. So he ordered some Taoists
to get him his dirty clothes,
hemp shoes, broken cap made
of bamboos, and an iron rule.
He seldom wore this set of costumes,
only when he went out for a
travel. After put them on and
told something to Sun-Biyun,
he took a broom in the corner
and went out to sweep the yard.
He went on sweeping till to
the entrance where the imperial
envoy met him and asked, "Sir,
could you tell me Zhang-Sanfeng
is in or not?" Zhang just
pointed to Meeting Gods Temple
and continued his sweeping.
The imperial envoy and his suit
hurried into Meeting Gods Temple,
where Sun-Biyun gave them a
warm welcome. The imperial envoy
asked, "Where is Zhang-Sanfeng?"
Sun answered, "You had
a talk with Zhang-Sanfeng just
now." Till now the imperial
envoy understood that the Taoist
sweeping the floor was Zhang-Sanfeng,
he hurried out to look for him;
but there was only a broom left,
Zhang was gone.
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