Chiyang Daoren, Eastern Taoism
Patriarch Zhang Sanfeng
According to legend, Patriarch Zhang Sanfeng was not only a master of becoming an immortal through the alchemical Way but also the creator of tai chi.
Patriarch Zhang Sanfeng cultivated in seclusion in the Wudang Mountains and was called the Hidden Immortal. He was a great synthesizer of Taoist inner alchemy (neidan), and in his cultivation he stressed refining the mind through clarity and stillness in order to nourish one's nature. He loved wandering the four seas and left traces in many places, which is why official histories and many local gazetteers and documents record him. Scroll 299 of the History of Ming, in its “Biographies of Technicians,” records: “Zhang Sanfeng was a native of Yizhou in Liaodong. His name was Quanyi, also Junbao; Sanfengzi was his Taoist name. Because he paid no attention to his appearance, he was also called Zhang the Slovenly. He was tall and imposing, with a tortoise's form and a crane's back, large ears and round eyes, and a beard and whiskers like halberds. Winter and summer he wore only a single patched robe and a straw cape. When he ate, he could finish a sheng or a dou of food at once, or he would eat once in several days, or not eat for several months. He never forgot a book once he had read it. He had no fixed abode; some said he could travel a thousand li in a day. He was fond of jesting and behaved as though no one else were present. He once roamed the cliffs and valleys of Wudang and said to people: ‘This mountain will one day flourish greatly.’ At that time Wulong, Nanyan, and Zixiao had all been destroyed in war; Sanfeng and his followers cleared the brambles and rubble, built a thatched hut, and lived there, and after a time left it.”
Taught by the Perfected Warrior
The Epitaph for Wang Zhengnan and the Gazetteer of Ningbo Prefecture record that one night, while traveling north to Bianjing, Zhang Sanfeng dreamed that the divine lord the Perfected Warrior (Zhenwu) descended and taught him boxing. At dawn the next day, Zhang Sanfeng was surrounded by a band of highway robbers, and he defeated them with the divinely taught boxing. From then on Zhang Sanfeng was famous for his martial skill.
The Lesson of the “Bird-and-Snake Fight”
In the Wudang Mountains the story is still told of Zhang Sanfeng watching a “bird-and-snake fight.” At “Slovenly Cliff,” Zhang Sanfeng saw a bird fighting a snake. Each time the bird swooped up and down to strike the long snake, the snake coiled and made its body light, swaying to dodge, and was never hit. After a long standoff the bird was exhausted and flew off helplessly, and the long snake slipped freely into the grass. From the fight between bird and snake Zhang Sanfeng drew an insight: softness can overcome hardness, and stillness can control movement. So, imitating the movements of the long snake, he created internal boxing.