Wudang Kung Fu?

[GeneChing]

All seriousness aside, Ken Cohen wrote an article for the now defunct IKF magazine years ago and he lists the nine styles of Tai Chi that were trained at Wudang.

1. Five Elements Tai Chi
2. I Ching Tai Chi (standing postures)
3. Eight Hacking Palms Tai Chi
4. Shoulder/Elbow Tai Chi
5. Seven Star Tai Chi
6. Praying Mantis Tai Chi
7. Snake Form Tai Chi
8. Universal Tai Chi
9. Formless Tai Chi

Hmm, I wonder where Cohen got that. I can't even map all of that on Chinese terms.

In our SEP+OCT 2003 cover story with Zhong Yunlong, he said the following:

It's very hard to say how many lineages there are at Wudang today. Through the centuries so many masters have created their own styles. When each master breaks through, when they attain a higher level, they become their own style. When they become their own style, they create another branch of the lineage. Most of the lineages are out in the community among the folk people of the country. Today, there might be thirty or fifty of them, but the Wudang Zhang San Feng branch is the main stream. Now we still call it Wudang San Feng Pai (Pai means "school.") All of the others came out of the San Feng Pai - they were created and branched out. Under Wudang San Feng Pai are eight men (gates): Taiji, Xingyi (form mind), Bagua (eight trigrams), Baji (eight extremes), Baxian (eight immortals), Xuangong (mystic work), Liuhe (six harmonies) and Jiugong (nine directions). I still focus mainly on Taiji. Wudang Taiji consists of 15 forms. Then from that it also branches out into 18 weapons.

[Scott R. Brown]

True. It is really difficult to train at altitude. I've tried. You cash in your chips in about 1/4 of the time it would take you at SL or around it.

Yeah me too, except at the time I couldn't figure out why I sucked so bad. Then I found out I was at 5,000 feet and it all made sense. I wasn't on a mountain, it was in the upper desert in relatively flat land so it wasn't obvious at the time.

5,000 feet doesn't seem all that high, but when you are from sea level, its a huge difference when you are used to working out 3-4 hours at a time.

[Kellen Bassette]

Yeah me too, except at the time I couldn't figure out why I sucked so bad. Then I found out I was at 5,000 feet and it all made sense. I wasn't on a mountain, it was in the upper desert in relatively flat land so it wasn't obvious at the time.

5,000 feet doesn't seem all that high, but when you are from sea level, its a huge difference when you are used to working out 3-4 hours at a time.

I was in the Himalayas, I didn't think nothing of it...carried my luggage up 3 flights of stairs and felt absolutely pathetic. Couldn't breathe. I was out of training at the time, but I couldn't believe I was that out of shape. It didn't dawn on me until a week later what my problem was.

I know why some fighters like to go the high desert to train.

[GeneChing]

It's like Spring Cleaning time.

Farce of fury: Boxer KO's 'Wudang kung fu master' in 7 seconds flat

Another video surfaces of a phony Chinese kung fu fighter getting beat down by a combat sport athlete

By Keoni Everington,Taiwan News, Staff Writer
2017/05/15 18:54


Boxer decks "Wudang disciple" in 7 seconds. (Weibo image)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- Another fake kung fu fighter met his match when he was knocked out by a boxer within seven seconds on May 4, a few days after the infamous match between an MMA gym owner and self-professed "tai chi master."

This time, another faux fighter, who claimed to be a disciple of the Wudang (武當) style of kung fu, is shown in a Weibo video being bounded to the turf like a rag doll in seven seconds by a boxer.

In the grainy video titled "Wudang kung fu master fights for traditional martial arts at a fight club, but doesn't last for seven seconds," a man is see wearing a black kung fu uniform with white boxing gloves, while a bare-chested boxer can be seen with bright green boxing gloves. Not to leave viewers disappointed, the boxer quickly goes to work and punches the pseudo kung fu "master" to a pulp.

The video is the latest in a series of videos showing purported "kung fu masters" taking on mixed martial artists and boxers. The previous being the clash between an MMA gym promoter Xu Xiao-dong (徐曉冬) and a massage therapist turned "tai chi master" Wei Lei (魏雷), which ended with the latter being punched into submission within ten seconds.

Nothing is yet known of the current kung fu fighter to be clobbered on video, but the Taoist Wudang monasteries, which housed famous sword fighters going back many centuries, were ransacked during the cultural revolution from 1966-1976 and the resident monks and martial artists were banished from the area.

After the cultural revolution, like most temples in China, the Wudang monasteries were converted into tourist attractions. Not much evidence exists of the return of the original practitioners of Wudang style after the cultural revolution.

Thus it is difficult to ascertain the validity of the martial arts lineage of a person claiming to represent Wudang style kung fu in modern day China. If he did in fact train at Wudang, it is a tangible sign of the deplorable state of this once fierce fighting system.

continued next post

[GeneChing]

Such style versus style videos provide little in the way of quantifiable data as to the effectiveness of a given fighting system since they are individual incidents. Below is a video showing an opposite outcome in which a Wing Chun kung fu fighter smashes a Muay Thai kick boxer into a mirror:

That MMA vs Taiji Fight Everyones Talking About
Wudang Kung Fu?
Muay Thai Vs Wing Chun

[GeneChing]

Cultivating the Dao Through Martial Arts: A Look at Wudang Wushu Revival By Emilio Alpanseque

July August 2017 cover story tackles Wudang Kung Fu

[GeneChing]

Thread: 2018 Year of the EARTH DOG
Thread: Cirsus of Shaolin or not ?
Thread: Wudang Kung Fu?