Wudangquan
武當拳A collective name for the internal arts and the art of the Wudang mountain temples. The internal-external division dates from 1669, and Zhang Sanfeng is founder only by tradition.
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About Wudangquan
Wudangquan has two meanings: the collective term for the internal arts taijiquan, xingyiquan and baguazhang as opposed to the external Shaolin ones, and the arts cultivated in the Taoist temples of the Wudang mountains in Hubei province. The distinction between internal and external arts first appears in 1669 in Huang Zongxi and spread as a category at the national tournaments of 1928. Historians found no connection between the categories and the two places. Tradition attributes the origin to the Taoist Zhang Sanfeng, who was supposedly inspired by a fight between a bird and a snake. The historians Tang Hao and Stanley Henning reject this, and Henning doubts even his existence. The Wudang forms include the Wudang sword of 132 movements, paired routines with swords, qigong and tuishou. Martial practice on Wudang was renewed after 1979, and in 1989 a martial academy of the Taoist association was founded in the Purple Cloud Temple. We did not find grades or examinations. Wudang wushu has been since 2006 on the national list of intangible heritage of the PRC, with Zhang Sanfeng as the founder according to the entry. In 1994 UNESCO inscribed the temple complex, that is the buildings, not the martial art. Since 1999 an international competition in taijiquan routines and Wudang forms has been held on Wudangshan.
History
The name Wudangquan has two meanings. It denotes the group of internal arts taijiquan, xingyiquan and baguazhang as opposed to the external Shaolin ones, and at the same time the arts cultivated in the Taoist temples of the Wudang mountains in Hubei province. The distinction between internal and external arts first appears in 1669 in Huang Zongxi’s epitaph for Wang Zhengnan, and the historian Stanley Henning reads it as political, not technical. At the national tournaments of the Kuomintang in Beijing and Nanjing in 1928, participants were divided into Shaolin and Wudang, and masters of the internal arts were assigned to Wudang. Later historians found no historical connection between these categories and the two places. Tradition attributes the origin to the Taoist Zhang Sanfeng from the turn of the Yuan and Ming dynasties. The legend tells that he watched a bird attacking a snake, which remained calm and alert and then bit the bird fatally. The historians Tang Hao and Henning reject the attribution, and Henning (1994) doubts even Zhang Sanfeng’s existence. Zhang Songxi was a fighter from Yin county (today’s Ningbo) during the reign of Jiajing (1522–1566) and a student of Sun Shisan. No documented source connects him with Zhang Sanfeng, and only the Wudang Dan Pai lineage ranks him as the first after him.
How it differs
Wudangquan is traditionally defined in opposition to Shaolin. China's national list of intangible cultural heritage describes Wudang art as a fusion of ideas from the Book of Changes (I Ching) and the Daodejing with taijiquan, xingyiquan and baguazhang, stressing the unity of heaven and humans, of movement and stillness, and of inner and outer work. Qi Journal contrasts Shaolin's external hard styles, which build strength and fitness, with Wudang's soft internal styles, focused on qi work. Historians dispute this division. According to Ben Judkins, Shen Yiguan (1531–1616) wrote the biography of boxer Zhang Songxi without the terms internal and external, and only Huang Zongxi (1610–1695), in an epitaph, called Zhang an internal boxer superior to external schools such as Shaolin. Historians Wells and Henning read the distinction politically: Shaolin was external because of its foreign Buddhism, while the internal arts identified with Chinese origin and the Ming dynasty. According to Judkins, Sun Lutang (1860–1933) laid down today's link between the three internal arts and Taoist philosophy and qigong.
Technique
The Wudang forms include the Wudang sword of 6 sections and 132 movements, paired routines with swords, Wudang qigong, dian xue and tuishou. According to the available description, liangyi quan is taught only by the Wudang masters and the Fu family. Taiyi wuxing quan was publicly demonstrated in 1980 in Taiyuan by Jin Zitao, who according to one article in T’ai Chi Magazine had learned it from 1929 from Li Heling on Wudang, and we did not find any other evidence. What is taught today in the schools in the mountains, we were not able to document.
Training
According to Gene Ching's article in Kung Fu Magazine, until the nineteen-eighties martial art at Wudang was taught only among initiated Taoist priests, and the masters taught in secret. The Wudang Taoist Association was founded in 1984 and the first annual leitai tournament took place in 1987. After the politician Qiao Shi visited in 1988, the priests began to teach foreigners too. At the Taoist college of the Purple Cloud Temple, priests and nuns study music, painting, calligraphy and astronomy alongside martial arts. In October 2026 the agency AP described an academy at Wudang founded in 2004, with a five-year course, a programme for adults and a children's summer camp. According to AP, instruction there may begin at 6 a.m. and includes standing meditation and theory. According to the same report, physical training at Wudang schools has been eased and corporal punishment abolished.
Ranks and progression
We found no grades or examinations for ordinary students of Wudang schools. Lineages such as Wudang Dan Pai count generations of transmission. For ordained monastics, the Wudang Taoist Association makes registration conditional on requirements and examinations, and according to Kung Fu Magazine it lists about 120 priests and 40 nuns. The academy that AP described in 2026 offers a five-year course of in-depth martial arts study alongside a health programme for adults.
Today
Since 2006, Wudang wushu has been on the first batch of China's national list of intangible cultural heritage under number 290 (code VI-8), nominated by the city of Shiyan in Hubei province. The listing names Zhang Sanfeng as founder, names taijiquan, xingyiquan and baguazhang as the main forms, and describes the tradition as endangered by the ageing of its bearers and by limited research. In 1994 UNESCO inscribed the ancient building complex in the Wudang mountains on the World Heritage List, an inscription that concerns the monasteries and temples, not the martial art. Martial practice at Wudang was revived after 1979, when religion was legalised and Wang Guangde became the administrator. In 1980 the masters Guo Gaoyi and Zhu Chengde returned, in 1981 Zhong Yunlong came to study, and in 1989 he and Wang Guangde founded the martial academy of the Taoist association at the Purple Cloud Temple. Since 1999 the Wudang Taijiquan International Friendship Competition has been held on Wudangshan. Individuals, pairs and groups compete in several styles of taijiquan and other Wudang forms in five age groups.
Did you know
Under the Ming dynasty, according to UNESCO, the Wudang mountains held 9 palaces, 9 monasteries, 36 nunneries and 72 temples, and 53 old buildings survive today. The bronze shrine from 1307 is a prefabricated structure, and the Forbidden City on the summit, surrounded by a stone wall, dates from 1419. According to China Daily, Emperor Zhu Di ordered 33 temples built within ten years in 1413 and in 1417 proclaimed Wudang the Great Mountain. A fire at the Yuzhengong palace on 19 January 2003 destroyed three rooms with an area of 200 square metres. Ming emperors sent search expeditions for the legendary Zhang Sanfeng, according to Qi Journal, in 1391 and again in 1407 to 1419, both without success. China Daily states that birth dates of 960, 1247 and 1279 are attributed to him. According to Qi Journal, teachers of the Yang family claimed as early as the eighteen-seventies that he invented taijiquan, while the historians Tang Hao (1935) and Stanley Henning reject this.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Wudang kung-fu?
A martial art associated with Taoist temples in the Wudang Mountains in Hubei Province. China's national list of intangible cultural heritage inscribed it in 2006 and names taijiquan, xingyiquan and baguazhang as its basis. Tradition attributes it to the Taoist Zhang Sanfeng, which historians reject.
What is the difference between Wudang and Shaolin?
Wudang is traditionally associated with soft internal styles focused on working with qi, Shaolin with hard external styles that build strength and conditioning. Historians such as Ben Judkins, however, point out that the division into internal and external arose in the 17th century more for political than technical reasons.
Where are the Wudang Mountains?
In Hubei Province in central China, near the cities of Danjiangkou and Shiyan. UNESCO inscribed the complex of ancient buildings in the mountains on the World Heritage List in 1994.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.