Wudang Gongfu, one important school of Chinese Martial Arts, has a very
long history. Wudang Gongfu, incorporating the ways to keep healthy and prolong
the lifespan and collecting the skills to fight, is not only a special school of
Martial Arts, but also a whole system of Martial Arts theory.
Wudang Gongfu, as a culture, taking root in the fertile soil of thousand-
year long Chinese civilization, containing profound Chinese philosophical
theories, has combined traditional notions of Taiji, Yinyang, Five-element,
Eight-diagram into boxing theories, boxing skills, exercise and attack policies,
tantamount to studying the laws of life activities. So we can say that Wudang
Gongfu is the crystallization of Wudang Taoism in the process of studying life.
It is said that when Zhang-Sanfeng, the founder of Wudang Boxing, was self-
cultivating in Wudang Mountain; he met a fight between a magpie and a snake. That
the magpie was flying up and down to attack and the snake was shaking its body
and raising its head to fight back gave him some inspiration and understood Taiji
theory so that had created Wudang Boxing.
The original legend of Wudang Gongfu and the pose of the snake in the
fighting have visually demonstrated the gist of Wudang Gongfu: to overcome the
strong in a gentle way and to win by striking only after the enemy had struck; to
ascertain one's position and then defeat the enemy.
After many boxing masters' enrichment and development, Wudang Gongfu has
many derivative schools and kinds, such as, Taiji Boxing, Form-and-will Boxing,
and Eight-diagram Palm; Taiji Spear and Taiji Sword; Qingqong, Hard Gongfu, feats
and some kinds of Qigong. From then on, Wudang Gongfu has walked out of the deep
mountain and become an important school of Chinese Martial Arts.
