Wudang Taiyi Five Elements Fist

武当三丰派太乙五行拳

The Taiyi Five Elements Fist (taiyi wuxing quan 太乙五行拳) is a kind of sister style to Tai Chi. As I wrote about on our Tai Chi page, our system is divided into three sections which mirror the interactions of Yin and Yang at the inception of the Daoist cosmos: from the undifferentiated chaos of wuji 无极 to the interpenetrating Yin and Yang of the taiji 太极 to the polar separation of the liangyi 两仪. Our Taiyi Five Elements fist belongs under the latter heading. In practice, it is performed slowly, though a little faster than Tai Chi. And instead of focusing on breathing 吐纳, collecting 采补, and harmonizing 混元一气 as does Tai Chi, our Taiyi style focuses on the separation of Yin and Yang energy in the body manifesting in explosive power 发劲, and a particular variety of explosive power known as “the power of primordial chaos” 混元劲.

Each of the form’s 22 main movements is done by a different animal: white ape, horse, dragon, rhinoceros, lion, leopard, Peng bird, spotted deer, yellow python, carp, eagle, red crowned crane, golden monkey, green moth, black bear, golden toad, magpie, blue dragon, wild horse, spirit ape, phoenix, and tiger. I really love this style because it is so full of mythological, cosmological, and zoological peculiarities. As far as applications are concerned, this is mostly a grappling style, focusing on joint locks 擒扑 and seizing vital points 点穴位.

Taiyi Five Elements Fist is a native Wudang martial art and actually one of the most historically well-attested of our styles. The oral tradition traces it back to Zhang Shouxing 張守性, a sixteenth century Daoist master, and eighth-generation leader of the Wudang Dragon Gate Sect.  After studying the thirteen postures of Zhang San Feng 十三式, he combined them with the five animal frolics 五禽戏 and fashioned a more practical fighting style he called Taiyi five elements grappling in 23 postures 太乙五行擒撲二十三式.  Everyone these days just knows it as Taiyi five elements fist 太乙五行拳.

From Zhang Shouxing it was transmitted through the Wudang Dragon Gate lineage, passing to the last abbot of Purple Cloud Palace, Xu Benshan 徐本善 (1851-1932) during the late-19th century.  Master Xu then passed this art on to his disciple Li Helin 李合林 (1898-1930?). One day in 1929, while Li Helin was practicing this style in the bamboo grove behind Purple Cloud Palace, a wandering Daoist visiting the temple spied on him from afar.  Wanting to learn this unique kung fu style the young man approached master Li to ask for instruction. Displeased that this guest of the temple had spied on an elder priest practicing a secret style, Li Helin scolded the young Daoist, who actually turned out to be Jin Zitao 金子弢 (1904-1985), the younger brother of Puyi 溥仪, last emperor of the Qing dynasty.  Jin Zitao returned to master Li with a chest full of silver, again requesting to learn the form. His request was granted. He became one of Li Helin’s last disciples.  

Two years later, in 1931, following a battle between the communists and nationalists for the nearby town of Xiangyang 襄阳, abbot Xu took in injured communist soldiers, setting Purple Cloud Palace up as a temporary infirmary.  The general of the defeated communist troops was Helong 贺龙 (1869-1969), a martial arts enthusiast who asked master Xu to show him some of the martial arts for which Wudang mountain had become so famous. Over the next four days master Xu taught him the Taiyi Five Elements Fist.  Helong went on to become the Vice Premier of the CCP, one of the highest positions in the Communist Party, from 1954 until his death in 1969.  Because of the friendship he developed over those few days in 1931 as master Xu’s martial brother, and because of the debt he felt he owed to the temple that supported him and his troops after their defeat, Helong protected Wudang through the cultural revolution, and it is in a large way thanks to him that most of the temples, statues, and relics of Wudang survived unscathed.  So Taiyi Five Elements Fist, this bit of intangible cultural heritage, played a big part in preserving Wudang at its most vulnerable moment.  

As a romantic, China-glorifying tale from the early days of the communist struggle, the story of Helong and Abbot Xu’s martial brotherhood would become a valuable piece of folklore, the subject of books, comics, and film: from the author Tong Delun’s 童德伦 1991 historical novel about the encounter entitled Helong at Wudang Mountain 贺龙在武当山, to the really quite bizarre 1994 film of the same name, to comic books and even television episodes.

Nevertheless the Taiyi Wuxing art went underground through most of the 20th century, and it wasn’t until 1980 that it surfaced again. As I’ve written about in other articles, following the 1979 reforms of Deng Xiaoping 邓小平, a “back to Wudang” movement was born, where Daoists were called back to the mountain to try to piece together the shattered culture and broken lineages Wudang was home to.  Jin Zitao was one of the first to heed this call, and he returned to Purple Cloud palace in 1980, teaching this form to small group, among whom was the female martial arts master Zhao Jianying 赵剑英 (1926-2011), who learned it alongside our grandmaster, Zhong Yunlong 钟雲龍, who taught my master Yuan Xiugang 袁修刚 in the 90’s.  Our class then learned this style in the winter of 2009.

In 2006, local government officials came in and tried to create an official government standardized form of Taiyi Five Element Fist, taking out some movements and putting other, objectively worse movements in.  As soon as the officials were gone everyone went back to practicing it the way it was originally done, an encouraging prospect for Wudang’s future.    

Curriculum 目录

The Taiyi Five Elements Fist is a pretty complete style all on its own. It begins with basic strikes, stances, footwork, and kicks, and moves on to the 23-step form. It has a lot of internal training that goes along with it, focusing on the development of explosive power. The traditional fighting, or sanshou 散手 is centered on applying the movements of the form in the context of partner training. This style was specifically developed to be more immediately applicable than Tai Chi, so its uses are fairly obvious. As mentioned above, vital points and joint locks are the focus here

基本功 Basics

1. Hand positions 手型

2. Hand Techniques 手法

3. Stances 步型

4. Footwork 步法

套路 Forms

1. Taiyi Five Elements Fist 太乙五行拳

散手 Partner Training

1. 勒马悬崖 Rein in the Horse at the Cliff’s Edge

2. 海底顶云 Ocean Floor, Cloudy Summit

3. 转身托天 Turning around and Supporting Heaven

4. 豹子含美 Leopard Carries its Cub

5. 仰頸驚林 Seizing the Nape, Rousing the Forest

6. 大鹏展翅 Great Peng Spreads its Wings

7. 花鹿采芝 Spotted Deer Collects Mushrooms

8. 金猴窃丹 Golden Monkey Steals the Elixir

9. 醉卧瑶池 Drunkenly Sleeping in the Jade Lake

内功 Inner Training

1. 发劲 Issuing Internal Power

2. 九宫旋转十二桩法 Revolving the Nine Palaces 12 Standing Methods

Lineage and Transmission 嫡传谱系及代表性传承人

This is one style for which we have a full transmission chart:

1. Zhang Shouxing 张守性 (15th-17th century)

2. Zhan Tailin 詹太林 (1625-1712)

3. Chen Qingjue 陈清觉 (1606-1705)

4. Liu Yiming 刘一明 (1734-1821)

5. He Yangchun 何阳春 (19th century)

6. Yang Laiwang 杨来旺 (d. 1909)

7. Wang Fumiao 王复渺

8. Xu Benshan 徐本善 (1851-1932)

   • Abbot Xu taught this to numerous disciples, including Zheng He Yu 郑合玉, who passed it to Wang Jiaohua 王教化 (1901-1989), one of the teachers of our 13th generation grand master Wang Guangde 王光德, so our lineage purportedly stems from both Jin Zitao and Wang Jiaohua transmissions of this style.

9. Li Helin 李合林 (1898-1930)

10. Jin Zitao 金子弢 (1904-1985)

11. Zhao Jianying 赵剑英 (1926-2011)

12. Zhong Yunlong 钟云龙 (b. 1964)

13. Yuan Xiugang 袁修刚 (b. 1971)