Training in this style is divided into three levels. The first is known as Xuan Gong Quan 玄功拳, which we might translate as Dark Practice Fist. This level has three forms (yilu 一路, erlu 二路, and sanlu三路), and is centered around long, open movements 长劲 and hard training of fundamentals 硬功. Our entire first year of training was dedicated to this first phase of long fist. You usually also learn broadsword 玄功刀 at this point as well, focusing on the same principles.

The second phase is known as Xuan Zhen Quan 玄真拳, Dark Perfection Fist. At this point you have already developed the flexibility and coordination that allow you to perform all the basics with ease, so here the focus shifts to specific types of striking and fighting strategies. Through training in this level you develop “bullet power” 刚弹之劲, where your strikes resemble an arrow being released from a bow or a bullet from a gun.

The third level of training is known as Long Hua Quan 龙华拳, Dragon Transformation Fist. Here this very gymnastic, athletic style, begins to move into the realm of internal martial arts. The specific type of movement you develop in this form is meant to resemble a dragon winding through the clouds, and the striking technique you develop is called “swinging power” 悠劲, raking dragon claw strikes. Before we learned this form we had been practicing Dragon Claw Conditioning 龙爪手 for like two years, as the style is pretty useless unless you have developed strong dragon claws. This is also where you start getting into vital point striking 点穴位. The previous grand master Kuang Changxiu 匡常修 also said this is where to begin to develop “Qi power” 气劲.

History of the Style 玄真门历史

The oral history of this style traces it back to Sun Xuanqing 孙玄清 (1497—1569), a fourth-generation Dragon Gate lineage holder who studied Zhang San Feng’s internal boxing style (neijiaquan 内家拳) during his time in Wudangshan.  Sun later relocated to Laoshan 崂山 and founded the Golden Mountain sect 金山派 at Laoshan’s Cave of Red Mist 明霞洞.  According to the mytho-history, this cave was also where Qiu Chuji 丘处机 had created the dragon sword style in the 12th century, a style that Sun Xuanqing learned and incorporated into the martial arts of the Golden Mountain sect.  

Sun’s martial arts style was subsequently transmitted through the 16th and 17th centuries to 19th generation Golden Mountain lineage holder Li Shiqing 李是庆, who passed it to 20th generation lineage holder Kuang Zhenjue 匡真觉, who was the uncle of 21st generation holder Kuang Chang Xiu 匡常修 (1905-1993), who taught the art to Zhong Yunlong in 1985 during the latter’s years as a wandering Daoist.

Kuang Chang Xiu was well versed in a variety of martial arts, including eagle claw 鹰抓拳 and a regional long fist style (Shandong province is famous for its longfist) called Digong Quan 地功拳.  Wanting to develop the traditional Daoist martial arts he had received from his uncle, he combined the martial arts of the Golden Mountain sect with eagle claw and northern longfist to create his own style he termed Wudang Internal Fist Laoshan Sect 武当内家拳崂山派.  This is the style that Zhong Yunlong learned in the 80’s and brought back to Wudangshan’s purple cloud palace, where my master Yuan Xiugang learned it in the 1990’s. I learned it from my own master in the 2000’s at Wudangshan’s jeweled void palace 玉虚宫.  

Curriculum 目录

We learned this style in the context of a traditional master-disciple relationship. It sounds really cool and romantic, and it is, don’t get me wrong, but this way of learning comes with a lot of challenges. As I’ve written about elsewhere on this site, our master taught things to us mostly through informal interactions. He might casually point out this or that aspect of a form. Or you might catch him very nonchalantly teaching an advanced meditation technique to some foreigner who was just passing through the school, someone who couldn’t possibly understand the value of what they were learning. If you weren’t listening, or were distracted, or your Chinese wasn’t very fluent, you would totally miss what he was teaching. There’s a saying in Chinese about this, “Playing the zither for a cow” 对牛弹琴 (funny because cows are actually quite musically sensitive beings). I was certainly the cow in this equation more times than I would like to admit, despite my assiduous note-taking and best efforts to remember and understand everything shifu taught us.

Anyway, after years of learning, collecting, collating, and systematizing, this is how I have ended up structuring my notes on this style. You won’t find anyone else with this same way of laying things out, since this is a reflection of how I learned everything from my shifu. That doesn’t mean that I am right or that other people are wrong. We’ve all had different interactions with this system. It’s fluid. There is no sacred scroll here. The style is alive.

基本功 Basics

1. Conditioning 硬功

2. Stretching 拉筋

3. Tumbling 翻腾滚爬

4. Fists 手法

5. Stances 步法

6. 36 Kicks 三十六路腿法

套路 Forms

1. Basic Fist 基本拳

2. Dark Practice Fist - First Road 玄功拳一路

3. Dark Practice Fist - Second Road 玄功拳二路

4. Dark Practice Fist - Third Road 玄功拳三路

5. Dark Perfection Fist 玄真拳

6. Dragon Fist 龙华拳

7. Subduing Dragon Taming Tiger Fist 降龙伏虎拳

8. Dark Practice Broadsword 玄功刀

9. Dragon Straight Sword 龙华剑

散手 Partner Training

1. 基本散手 Basic Partner Training

2. 擒拿 Joint Manipulation

3. 摔跤 Throws

4. 玄功拳散手（12) Dark Practice Fist Partner Training

5. 玄真拳散手（3）Dark Perfection Fist Partner Training

6. 玄华拳散手（5）Dark Transformation Fist Partner Training

7. 玄功刀六法 Dark Practice Broadsword Six Methods

8. 龙华剑六法 Dragon Sword Six Methods

历史与传统 History and Tradition

1. 玄真门历史 Dark Perfection Gate History

2. 三层理论 Theories of the Three Levels