Zhang Sanfeng created evidence of Tai Ji Chuan.
-
There is no written record of Zhang Sanfeng's creation of Tai Ji Chuan until now, which is earlier than Huang Zongxi's Epitaph of Wang Zhengnan and his son Huang Baijia's Law of Inner Family Boxing. These two records should come from the Origin of Neijia Boxing dictated by Nan, and they should have certain credibility.
When Zhang Sanfeng created Tai Ji Chuan, Tang Hao and Gu established Chen's boxing theory in the past, they seized the so-called "absurd" statements such as "giving boxing a dream at night" and criticized and denied them. In fact, Wudang Mountain has a tradition of Taoist martial arts since ancient times and has never been interrupted. If we can look at it objectively, does Zhang Sanfeng, as a Taoist in Wudang Mountain, believe in martial arts and boxing? Seeing that the Taoist priests in Wudang Mountain inherited the tradition, formed their own boxing methods and spread them to the people, thus developing into a famous martial arts school in China-Wutangzong Wushu. Is this superstition? If these are not superstitions, should we clarify the objective facts denied by Tang Hao and Gu?
In the sixth year of Guangxu reign in Qing Dynasty, Li wrote the Preface to Taiji, saying, "Taiji originated in Song and Zhang Sanfeng, and it was exquisite and ingenious, but Wang Zongyue exhausted it. Later, it spread to Chen's surname in Chenjiagou, Henan Province, and there were not many wise and wise people ... ",but in the seventh year of Guangxu, Li changed the beginning:" I don't know who started Taiji. " Kai-fu Lee may have made such a change for two reasons. First, Li was confused about Zhang Sanfeng in the Song Dynasty and Zhang Sanfeng in the Ming Dynasty, so he did not draw a conclusion; Secondly, at that time, Tai Ji Chuan schools except Pai Cheng (Pai Cheng, Yang School, Wu Pai, etc. ) They are imitated by the public, and these schools are earlier than Zhang Sanfeng. Li may have heard of it, so he thinks that the origin of Tai Ji Chuan may be earlier than that of Zhang Sanfeng.
In this regard, we can take an example as proof: during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, Mr. Yang Luchan taught boxing in Qiying and Duanwangfu in Beijing, and many people were taught. Xia Guixun, the flag bearer, studied boxing from Master Lu Zen for several years. Later, Xia Guixun lost to Li in Henan, only to know that Li practiced "Jinling Taiji Kung Fu", and Li learned Taiji Kung Fu from Gu Zongyun and Gu Zongxiu in Jinling (Nanjing). The Gu brothers were from Ganjia period in Qing Dynasty. It can be seen that Taiji Zhuan was circulated in Jinling as early as the Qianlong period. Li passed on the contents of this school to Xia Guixun. After Xia Guixun returned to Beijing, he passed it on to Kyoto flag bearer Heng Shoushan and others, and it has been inherited ever since. The author has a close relationship with the descendants of the school, and learned that the biography of the school recorded that Jinling Taiji began in the Southern and Northern Dynasties and flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties. It's earlier than Zhang Sanfeng. In addition, from the content and characteristics of this school, it is very different from the Chen school, but it is definitely not derived from the Chen school. Xia Guixun and Li are contemporaries, and Li has probably heard of Jinling Taiji Kung Fu and its origin. Therefore, it was changed from "Tai Chi Chuan started in Zhang Sanfeng in Song Dynasty" to "I don't know who started Tai Chi Chuan". However, Li explained it clearly: "Exquisite and ingenious, which was exhausted by Wang Zongyue, and then spread to Chen's surname in Chenjiagou, Henan". Although Jiang Fa was not mentioned here, it was obviously due to a slight stroke. Coincidentally, the younger brother of Wang Lanting, a disciple of Zen Master Lu, wrote a preface in July of the seventh year of Guangxu, in which Zhang Sanfeng's boxing was also mentioned. The preface says: "The spread of Taiji began in Xuanyuan Huangdi. Because I occasionally saw the battle of snakes and magpies in Changshan, I used snakes to wrap magpies to achieve ideals and justice, thus inventing Taiji Chuan. From Song Dynasty to Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Sanfeng, the first teacher, caressed the intricate meanings of infinity, Tai Chi and gossip, and said that Yin and Yang pushed each other. The five elements have a sense of resistance, and the eight changes have expanded and supplemented, resulting in various Tai Ji Chuan techniques. At this point, our boxing began to flourish. In fact, it is a small group within the family in martial arts.
Here, Mr. Li Ruidong said that the spread of Taiji began in Xuanyuan Huangdi, because Taoism advocated Huang Lao, and the descendants of Taiji were influenced by Taoist thought. The Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan here should be understood as a synonym for the ancients who don't know its age and name. But when the ancients watched the battle between the snake and the magpie, they realized a primitive boxing method, which was not superstitious and conformed to the materialistic point of view. This primitive boxing spread to the Song and Yuan Dynasties and became the blueprint for Zhang Sanfeng's further creation. This shows that Zhang Sanfeng recreated on the basis of predecessors' creation, thus creating Tai Ji Chuan, a Wudang family boxing. This statement is obviously more credible than the so-called night dream that Xuan Di gave boxing, Jueming and our hill killed hundreds of thieves.
Li Ruidong said in the preface that Zhang Sanfeng was a native of Song and Yuan Dynasties. Zhang Sanfeng lived in the Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, which is objectively questionable. But it is not impossible for Zhang Sanfeng, who specializes in longevity, because there is an old saying that Peng Zu is 800 years old.
Whether Zhang Sanfeng created Tai Ji Chuan or Neijia Boxing depends on whether Neijia Boxing originated from Tai Ji Chuan in its early days. In fact, there is no contradiction between Zhang Sanfeng's creation of Tai Ji Chuan and Neijia Boxing, both of which were created by Zhang Sanfeng. Early Neijia Boxing was inseparable from Tai Ji Chuan. It's just that the names are different, because the descendants are different, which leads to different names. Or because the boxing routines are different, because what Zhang Sanfeng created is by no means a single routine, and it is likely to be a variety of routines, various auxiliary techniques and internal cultivation methods. Because of the different routines passed down from generation to generation, there are different appellations. It is not surprising that similar situations are common in the process of traditional Wushu. Another possibility is that Tai Ji Chuan was once a part of Neijia Boxing in Wutangmen, which was inherited from other contents of Neijia Boxing in a certain historical period, and later separated from other contents of Neijia Boxing for various reasons. After separation, he constantly absorbed the contents of other boxing to enrich and improve himself, and gradually evolved into an independent boxing. As for when it was separated from the family boxing, this is exactly what we need to study in depth.
The concept and connotation of Neijia Boxing have changed a lot today. It includes not only the original things (including the biography of Taiji), but also "Eight Diagrams", "Mind", "Form and Meaning" and "Tongjing". However, the original content of Neijia Boxing is only "Zhang Sanfeng is good at Shaolin, and then he is a famous scholar" (Huang Baijia's Neijia Boxing Law), which is synonymous with Tai Ji Chuan created by Zhang Sanfeng.
Tai Ji Chuan used to be a part of family boxing for two reasons. First, there are similarities between Tai Ji Chuan and Songxi Jiaquan. According to the boxing theory expounded by Wang, the 20th generation successor of Songxi Family Boxing, in the article The Origin of Songxi Family Boxing (see Wu Hun 1 983rd issue1issue), this paper briefly compares the traditional Tai Ji Chuan boxing theory.
Songxi School's Neijia Boxing said: "Boxing can only change if it has yin and yang, and it can only be rigid and soft if it changes"; Wang Zongyue's On the Biography of Taiji said: "Taiji is born without promise, and the mother of Yin and Yang is also". Taiji regards Yin and Yang as the ancestors of all things.
Songxi School said: "Boxing starts easily"; All factions in Tai Ji Chuan regard righteousness and benefit as their boxing theory.
Songxi School said that "qi sinks, qi turns", which is the method of holding yuan to the extreme and practicing innate mixed yuan. Traditional Tai Ji Chuan said: Qi sinks in the abdomen, and internal qi turns, which is also the work of congenital mixed elements.
The main points of Songxi School are: "Hold your chest and pull your back, sink your shoulders and lower your elbows"; This is the basic point that people know in traditional Tai Ji Chuan.
In addition, Songxi School said: "Mandibular Miniature"; Tai Chi Chuan also talked about slight retraction of mandible.
In terms of style of play, Songxi School emphasized that "latecomers attack first, latecomers arrive first"; Taiji legend "you don't move, I don't move, you move a little, I move first" is the interpretation of the former. In addition, the Songxi faction emphasized in the attack that "grasping the tendons and taking the pulse to attack the key points". This is also reflected in the traditional attack and defense of Tai Ji Chuan.
In short, due to the continuous evolution in the process of inheritance, if we compare today's Songxi Zongmen Boxing with today's Tai Ji Chuan, there will definitely be many differences, such as the big difference in the name of boxing potential, which is also natural. These differences can never be used to deny the original relationship between Songxi Neijia Boxing and Tai Ji Chuan, because doing so is tantamount to shelving history and unilaterally demanding the same form, which is undoubtedly not the correct attitude to study history.
As an integral part of Wudang Neijia Boxing, Tai Ji Chuan, as a Taoist Kung Fu created and spread by Wudang Taoist Zhang Sanfeng, can find other basis in the traditional Tai Ji Chuan content inherited by some schools today. Li Ruidong, a famous Tai Ji Chuan scholar in Qing Dynasty, studied Tai Ji Chuan with his brother Wang Lanting. After his success, he met Gan Fengchi's great-grandson, Mr. Gan Indifferent, and worshipped Gan Indifferent as a teacher, thus obtaining his biography of "Jiangnan School" in Taiji Biography. Taiji Chuan, the so-called Jiangnan School, is actually the common name of Taiji Kung Fu of Wudang "Golden Toad School". This sect is very rich in content, and its boxing methods are divided into two types: touching, sticking, receiving and following in the literary frame, and leaving, sticking and following in the martial frame. Its style and characteristics are quite different from Chen School. Later, Mr. Li integrated the essence of Tai Ji Chuan from Henan School, Jiangnan School and Shaanxi School, and established Li School Tai Ji Chuan, which formed an independent school. In addition to the various boxing methods created by Mr. Li, the Li school also inherited many traditional Tai Ji Chuan routines, instruments, internal skills and various auxiliary techniques. There are many contents handed down by Mr. Li Ruidong (not created by Mr.), among which we can find evidence that Tai Ji Chuan belongs to Taoist Kung Fu and Zhang Sanfeng created Tai Ji Chuan.
Among them, "Tai Chi Thirteen Dan" is a very primitive Tai Ji Chuan technique. Because of its historical origin, it is called "Dan". The "Thirteen Dances of Taiji" preached by Mr. Li Ruidong has an indissoluble bond with Wudang Taoist Inner alchemy, and it is also the title of Inner alchemy passed down directly. The so-called Taoist inner alchemy is actually the internal strength of Taoist cultivation. What Taoism pursues is to cultivate into a "pure yang body", that is, to become immortal. There are two ways to become immortal. One is to achieve the goal by eating foreign pills; The second is to achieve the goal by practicing inner alchemy. Generally speaking, the external elixir made by Taoist priests through an alchemy furnace contains a lot of lead and mercury, which is very toxic. Not only will it become immortal, but it will also be poisoned, which is extremely harmful to the body. Since ancient times, many Taoist priests have been poisoned by taking external medicine, and even the emperor is eager to live forever. But the inner alchemy is different, because the popular saying is Taoist "health qigong". Practicing Neidan is not only harmless to the body, but also can prolong life when it is low, and it can also be cultivated into a "pure yang body" when it is high, thus "achieving enlightenment and becoming immortal". Therefore, the vast majority of Taoist priests in history practiced inner alchemy. Because Neidan is also Qigong, then Qigong has both dynamic and static methods.
The thirteen Dan of Taiji is a kind of Taoist inner alchemy, and its movements are bionic achievements imitating thirteen kinds of animal movements. Generally speaking, Thirteen Dan is a kind of Taoist Kung Fu, which combines Kung Fu and Boxing, both inside and outside. It is similar to other traditional Tai Ji Chuan in that they are both offensive and defensive. Mr. Wang Lanting and Gan Indifferent wrote The Thirteen Dan of Taiji, and Mr. Yang Luchan taught it in the early days.
There are two forms of Tai Chi Thirteen Dan: snake and magpie. Descendants of Taoist Tai Ji Chuan believe that these two shapes are the parents' fists of various forces in Tai Ji Chuan, that is, the original form of Tai Ji Chuan, and other boxing forces are derived from these two shapes.
As Mr. Li Ruidong said in the preface to the Seven Years of Guangxu, the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan watched the battle of snakes and magpies in Changshan, and realized and created a primitive boxing. There is a "Song of the Origin of Tai Ji Chuan" in Li Pai's "Tai Ji Chuan Pu":
I used to occasionally see snakes in Xuanyuan to Changshan. In front of the slope, the magpie pecked the snake's head and tail. The magpie pecked at the snake's waist. It should be the yellow emperor at the end of the year. This spread to Tai Chi Chuan, because he happened to see two things fighting.
Coincidentally, there is a kind of "primitive Taiji Biography" among the Taoist priests in Beijing Baiyun Temple, and this genre also has similar songs about the origin of Taiji Biography, with exactly the same meaning, but slightly different words. The characteristics of the "fighting between snakes and magpies" mentioned in the song have been vividly reflected in the practice of snakes and magpies in Tai Chi Thirteen Dan. The snake is soft and curved, the magpie is fast and rigid, the snake is curved and jumps, and the two shapes, one yin and one yang, are both rigid and flexible, with endless changes. I think this is indeed the most primitive form of Tai Ji Chuan. This primitive form spread to Zhang Sanfeng in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and was expanded and developed through re-creation, thus forming a simple Tai Ji Chuan form-Taiji Thirteen Dances. The other eleven forms of Tai Chi Thirteen Dan are: lion, bear, tiger, ape, crane, toad, horse, chicken, phoenix, cat and dragon. Each image represents many potential individual exercises, and each potential individual exercise has its own special name. Such as "Long Snake Bead", "Lingque Begins at the Tail", "Bear Walking", "Crane Dancing Shadow" and "Golden Frog Looking at the Moon", these names are different from the 32 styles in Qi Jiguang's Boxing Classic and Chen Changquan's boxing names. From the characters in Qi Jiguang's Boxing Classic, it is proved that Tai Ji Chuan was not created by Chen Jia's ninth ancestor Chen, but came from another source.
In the past, some people regarded Qi Jiguang and Chen as the intermediate descendants of Tai Ji Chuan, but this statement is also inadequate. It is still the same type of name found by comparing the modern Chen Tai Ji Chuan, Chen Family's Changquan and Qi Jiguang Boxing Classics. Compared with Tai Ji Chuan in Chen Changxing era, the content of modern Chen-style Tai Ji Chuan has undoubtedly undergone a great degree of evolution, and in the process of evolution, it inevitably infiltrated the original elements of Chen's family boxing. In this way, it is reasonable that there are some Chen Changquan in Chen Taiji's biography and some boxing potential names in Qi Jiguang's boxing classics. Tang Hao's textual research overemphasized the comparison of boxing names, thinking that he found the evidence of Chen Chuang boxing, but he didn't know that the later Chen Tai Ji Chuan was the result of the transformation of Chen clan combined with family boxing. For example, modern Chen's "two-way gun hammer" has a strong flavor of foreign boxing, but it also highlights Tai Ji Chuan's silk-winding strength. Obviously, this is the result of Chen's partial transformation of the original external boxing with Tai Ji Chuan's strength and reason. This problem has been puzzling the research and textual research on the origin of Tai Ji Chuan. Many scholars mistakenly believe that the source of Tai Ji Chuan can be found along Chen's modern Tai Ji Chuan-Chen's general song of boxing classics-Qi Jiguang's boxing classics, so they regard Chen as the earliest founder of Tai Ji Chuan in China, or regard Qi Jiguang and Chen as the intermediate carriers of Tai Ji Chuan.
Studying Qi Jiguang's Ji Xiaoxin's "A Brief Introduction to Boxing", we can see that its 32-style boxing was taken from 16 popular boxing methods at that time, and even if there were elements of Neijia boxing or Tai Ji Chuan, it was only limited to one or two boxing methods. Therefore, its "Thirty-two" pictures can never be regarded as Tai Ji Chuan, and Qi Jiguang and Chen Ye are by no means the creators and intermediate descendants of Tai Ji Chuan. Although the Qi family once mentioned "the snake on the long mountain" in the Book of Boxing, there is a cloud in "Nine Places of Sun Tzu": "Therefore, it is good to use soldiers, such as self-nature, and the self-nature is also a snake on the long mountain. Qi Jiguang, as an outstanding military general who is proficient in the art of war, probably quoted the book Sun Tzu directly, which has nothing to do with the biography of Taiji. For example, there are many tributaries in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, but other tributaries are not the source of the Yangtze River except Tuotuo River, although those tributaries also enrich the flow of the Yangtze River. So, where is the source of Tai Ji Chuan?
Facts have proved that the emergence of Neijia Boxing and Tai Ji Chuan system is inextricably linked with Taoism and Taoist Inner alchemy, which is both dynamic and static, with all kinds of movements such as walking, standing, sitting and lying. The organic combination of its dynamic skills and folk martial arts has formed the embryonic form of Neijia Boxing. This combination not only makes the dynamic skill of Inner Dan Gong have a new function-fighting skill, but also sublimates the external skill boxing, forming a powerful internal boxing skill in fighting skill, which is undoubtedly a leap in the development history of China Wushu.
The above statement is by no means speculation, and there are many grounds. For example, the characteristics of Taoist Dan Gong and the attributes of boxing preserved in Tai Ji Chuan's early childish form are living evidence. It uses images instead of words to record the historical turning point from the combination of Taoist Dan Gong and folk martial arts to Neijia Boxing and even the formation of Tai Ji Chuan.
In the biography of Li Pai, there is a description of the thirteen immortals of Taiji: "The above is called thirteen immortals, also known as magic alchemy. It is also the art of refining the shape of the Taiyin, which is divided into yin and yang, the heat of civil and military affairs, and the magic of movement, so it has the power of standing, sitting and lying. " Eight potentials and five steps are among them. The intricate application of the Eight Diagrams to the mode of change conforms to the theory of five elements' generation and possibility, and * * * becomes thirteen potentials. "This passage not only shows that Tai Chi Thirteen Dan is an inner alchemy of Taoism, but also shows that it is also an intermediate transition form from Dan Dao to Tai Chi Chuan. Through the analysis of the content of Thirteen Dan, it is found that the original "one", "le", "squeeze", "press", "pick", "rub", "elbow", "lean", "advance", "retreat", "care", "hope" and "settle". The reason why it is called "Thirteen General Trends" means that all kinds of Tai Ji Chuan routines are based on this and derived from it! ! ! Wang Zongyue's "Song of Thirteen Potential" says: "The thirteen potential cannot be underestimated, and the source of fate lies in the waist gap. "Whether Wang Zongyue taught boxing before was once suspected by Tang Hao. Now it seems that the "Thirteen Taichi Dan" (thirteen potential) inherited by the Lee School is one of the boxing stands of Wang Zongyue and Tai Ji Chuan in Wenzhou County, Henan Province! It is completely different from Chen's Changquan and Qi Jiguang's Boxing Classics, but it is essentially the same as Tai Ji Chuan, which is circulated by various factions. Although it has been handed down from generation to generation, it still retains its quaint features and Taoist characteristics of Inner alchemy, which provides a living "fossil" for studying the origin of Tai Ji Chuan.
Studying the origin of Tai Ji Chuan is by no means a simple comparison of boxing names, but an in-depth study from the basic theory of boxing, auxiliary techniques and other aspects, especially from Tai Ji Chuan's various internal cultivation methods. Tai Ji Chuan, as an internal boxing method, has always been accompanied by the inheritance of internal training methods throughout its inheritance process. Often the boxing frame has undergone great evolution, but the internal training methods have not changed much. This is because internal strength training is easy to lead to deviance and needs to be carefully passed down from generation to generation.
The descendants of the Li School have inherited many methods of Tai Ji Chuan's internal skill cultivation so far, including "Tai Chi Toad Fishing", "Building a Foundation in a Hundred Days", "You Mao's Zhou Tiangong", "Nine-turn Dangong" and "Holy Fetus Cultivation to Yuan Gong". Most of these techniques are sitting and lying, and in the process of cultivation, we pay more attention to "ding ding in the furnace", "picking herbs", "burning slow fire", "burning fierce fire", "coitus between yin and yang" and "making pills with babies" Their principles and techniques are consistent with Wudang's true-fixing map, and the Li Sect has passed down Wudang's true-fixing from generation to generation. Even today's various factions of internal boxing have the saying that "boxing enters the Tao." The goal is the so-called "pure Yang body" boxing and martial arts are just "the end of skills", which proves from another aspect that Tai Ji Chuan and Neijia Boxing originated from the initial combination of Taoist Neidan Kung and primitive boxing, and it is entirely possible for Zhang Sanfeng to create Neijia Boxing and Tai Ji Chuan in the Song and Yuan Dynasties.
From the time of Zhang Sanfeng to the present, due to many factors such as age, there is no continuous, strict and complete inheritance procedure for us to refer to. The continuous inheritance of Tai Ji Chuan can only be traced back to Wang Zongyue between Kanggan in Qing Dynasty. According to the existing records of the Li School, Wang Zongyue's contemporaries were Gan Fengchi, Zhang Fengyi, Li Fengyuan, Qiao Sanxiu, Chen Fengshan and Huang Fengqi who were good at Tai Ji Chuan.
Zhang Sanfeng's disciples are: Li Xuanzong (Taoist name "Tie Chan Zi"), Wang Daozong (Taoist name "Jin Chan Zi"), Zhang Qingxiu, Qiu and others. From Wang Daozong to Chen, it crossed with the origin of Neijiaquan (see Wang Zhengnan's epitaph) until Wang Zhengnan's death, followed by Wang Zongyue, Gan Fengchi, Zhang Fengyi, Qiao Sanxiu and others. Since Wang Zhengnan, Tai Ji Chuan has been integrated with Neijia Boxing, but after Zhengnan, it has been separated from Neijia Boxing and gradually evolved into an independent boxing. It spread to the Kangxi and Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty, which was the revival period of Taiji Chuan, and a large number of Taiji Chuan families appeared. A branch of Wang Zongyue, widely circulated by disciple Jiang Fa, rose in Wenzhou, Henan Province, and was called "Henan School" or "Wenzhou River School" in Qing Dynasty. Gan Fengchi, Zhang Fengyi and others spread Tai Ji Chuan to parts of the south of the Yangtze River. In the Qing Dynasty, it was called "Jiangnan School", also known as "Jin Chan School Taiji Kung Fu". Toad fishing is the stunt of this school. During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, 108-year-old Gan indifferent, the word, was the great-grandson of Gan Fengchi, and completely passed on the "Golden Toad School" to his husband, which has been passed down to this day.
As we all know, the Henan School was spread from Chen Changxing to Yang Luchan, and Yang Luchan was widely spread in Beijing, which resulted in the schools of Yang, Wu, Li, Wu and Sun.
At the end of Guangxu period in Qing Dynasty, the Taoist priest Pei, who wandered around Wudang Mountain, passed on the "Taiji Legend, Wudang Hidden Immortal School" to Si Xingsan in Beijing, which is still followed in Tianjin today.
During the reign of Qianlong and Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty, Gu Zongyun and Gu Zongxiu in Jinling were good at "Jinling Taiji Kung Fu", and the Gu brothers spread Li from Henan, Li Guixun from Beijing and Xia Hengshou Mountain (Dali Heng). This school is still circulating in Tianjin today.
In addition, there are many schools, such as the 37-style Tai Ji Chuan inherited by Song Shuming in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China; Wudang Taoist Taiji Biography passed down by Taoist in Wu Xinquan: The Original Taiji Biography passed down by Anyuan Road in Baiyun Temple in Beijing has its own inheritance procedures, and most of them have nothing to do with Chenjiagou in Henan. Therefore, the saying that "the world is too extreme to get out of the ditch" simply ignores the existence of objective facts.
Zhang Sanfeng, as the founder of Tai Ji Chuan, is still a ZTE person, which needs further research. However, Zhang Sanfeng once expanded and enriched the content of Tai Ji Chuan and spread the art of Tai Ji Chuan, which cannot be denied at will. Because Tai Ji Chuan's boxing originated from the Taoist inner alchemy itself, we can find a lot of evidence.