Wudang Style?

[Ninjaz]

I am having trouble researching various styles of Wudang. It is my understanding that Wudan, Wudang, Wutang, and Wudung are all the same. I have read many times that Wudang is one of the top martial schools, but can find no reference to the actual styles taught there. I have read that Wudan is the origin of many internal arts such as:

Taijiquan - created by Chang San-Feng
Baguazhang
Xingyiquan
Liu Hsing Chuan
Taiji, Green Dragon, Seven Star Sword
and others.

However, I have not seen any reference to a set style named Wudang. There are styles that use Wudang in there names as reference to there origin such as , Wudang-style Push Hands, Wudang Taiyi Wuxing, Wudang Qingcheng Nei Dan Taiji, ect.

Many of the styles said to have originated at Wudan Mountain are highly debated, apparently because the Taoist preference for anonymity.

If anyone has more information, criticism, advice or suggestions to aid my search for authentic Wudang styles, please reply.

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

i study wudan taichi but i know absolutely nothing about it's history.

[Brad]

Not sure exactly what's taught there now, but I think there is no main Wudan style or curriculum if that's what you're looking for :confused: My teacher wrote the book 23 Wudang Taiyi Wuxing Boxing, and he knows Wudang Sword so if you have any specific questions about that, I might be able to ask him if we find some spare time(and I get one of my Chinese classmates to translate, lol).

[Martial Joe]

Ask the Wu-Tang Clan.

[Sho]

My knowledge in Taoist martial arts is very limited, but I think Wudang is only a "trademark" for all the styles created in Wudang, such as Wudang Jian Fa for Wudang Swordstyle and so on. If this is what you meant in one of your questions, Ninjaz.

[Vapour]

Strictly speaking, taijiquan is the only style of kung fu which has legitimate claim to name wudang. Legendery Zhang San Feng, a graduated of Shaolin Kung Fu are said to have developed taijiquan from Shaolin Kung Fu. However, this is only a legend. There is also few legend that bagua and xingyi founder learned Wudang kung fu (i.e. taijiquan) however, as anything with Chinese martial arts history, these claim are not that strong on historical validity.

Current taijiquan style all trace its origin to Chen family in Chen village which is located near Shaolin temple and Chen family claim to have invented taijiquan. Here is a tricky part. There is hardly any question that current tajiquan styles trace its orign to Chen style but there is no historically varifiable evidence to prove that Chen has invented taijiquan except that they say so and they do practice oldest surviving style of tajiquan.

Zhang San Fen orign of taijiquan is also only a myth but there is ample historical document stating that Wudang mountain practiced kung fu style called taijiquan. But problem is that the word taiji is the title name for the daoism so it is such easy name to put as a title of kung fu style.

Now, in modern Republic of China official martial arts academy set up curriculum in which xingyi, bagua and taijiquan were put together as internal arts arts in which the title of this section of curriculum was named as Wudang Kung Fu. So these three internal arts are often called wudang kung fu but strictly speaking, only taijiquan has claim to this name but even that there is a question as to whether current taijiquan is the same as wudang taijiquan.

To make a matter complex, Dan Doherty who practice Wu style of taijiquan sometimes call his style (and sometimes school) as Wudang style/school. But he is very honest about his lineage being Wu. Having said it, he is sort of on crusade to rewrite history of taijiquan attempting to make Yang style which is the parent style of Wu style as the origin of taijiquan. Personally, I think this whole business of "I'm original so I'm better than you" is futile but that is my $0.02.

[omarthefish]

BAJI! ! ! has to go under that Wudang umbrella too as it was born in Hebei near Wudang mountain as well. I like think of Wudang as just the other umbrella term like Shaolin. There are 3 major religions/philosophical systems in China and 2 of them have associated martial traditions. Boddhism/Shaolin Taoism/Wudang. If and art traces it's roots back to Shaolin we say it's a shaolin style even if if started outside of Shaolin. Like Wing Chun or Choi Li Fut, basically Shaolin styles. If it comes out of Hebei or the mountains of Szechuan and has basically taoist theoretical structure then we call it Wudang. It's messy because there are a few exceptions to this rule like tongbei quan which is neither Wudang or Shaolin as far as I can tell and there are other "vilalge styles" like Xiao Hong Quan and Da Hong Quan, not to be confused with Hong Quan a.k.a. Hung Gar which is southern shaolin. I suspect certain styles of mantis may be exceptiont too but I don't know enough about mantis. Shuai Jiao seems to fall outside of the two main categories as well.

[Vapour]

Yes, plus I read somewhere that xingyi originiated from baji.

[Souljah]

Well, I won't bother arguing about whether Zhan Feng was the true originator (I have made my stance on this clear in the taichi forums) but I will tell you that there are still martial arts being practiced in Wudang Shan to this day.
I'm not sure which ones or if its just 'wudang wushu' or whatever they call it these days.
But I wil look into it as it does interest me.
I will be going there in july and I'll know for sure then. Though i'll probably find something before that...

[Shaolin Master]

Wudang Shan and nearby areas in south central Hubei Province (Ba Ji is practised in the Northern Hebei Province) have long history of martial arts practise. There are many different styles and divisions.

The 'Wudang Boxing Society of Australia' as headed by Master Lin still maintains the practice of some of the Wudang styles/forms (in addition to Xin Yi & Zhao Bao Taijiquan) including :

Wudang Yu Men Quan
Wudang Tai Yi Wu Xing Quan
Wudang Long Hua Quan
Tai He Quan (also known as Wudang Taijiquan)
Xiang Long Shi Ba Zhang
Wudang Chang Quan
Jiu Gong Baguazhang [Jiu Gong Zhang]
and many more ...........

Since I am fairly close I have been to Wudang twice and can say that the practice of martial arts (as an aid to tourism is growing rapidly) and will return in two weeks time.

[scotty1]

I am learning a style called Ye (after the original founder, who derived it from Yang style) but my teacher always refers to it as Wudang.