Zhang Sanfeng

From The Book of THoTH (Leaves of Wisdom)

Zhang Sanfeng was a semi-mythical Chinese Taoist priest who is believed by some to have achieved immortality, said variously to date from either the late Song Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty or Ming Dynasty. His name is said to have been 張君寶 before he became a Taoist.

His Taoist name in Traditional Chinese characters is 張三丰, or 張三豐. Both are Zhāng Sānfēng in pinyin and Chang¹ San¹-feng¹ in Wade-Giles.

A legendary culture hero, Zhang Sanfeng is credited as having originated the concepts of nei chia; soft, internal martial arts, specifically Tai Chi Chuan, as a result of a Neo-Confucian syncretism of Chan Buddhist Shaolin martial arts with his mastery of Taoist Dao Yin (neigong) principles. He is also associated in legend with the Daoist monasteries at Wudang Mountains in Hubei province.

Zhang Sanfeng is also said to have been expert in the White Crane and Snake styles of Chinese martial arts as well as in the use of the Chinese straight sword or jian. According to relatively late (19th century) documents preserved within the Yang and Wu family's archives, the name of Zhang Sanfeng's master was Xu Xuanping (許宣平), said to be a Tang dynasty hermit poet and Taoist Tao Yin expert.

The Tai Chi Chuan families who ascribe the foundation of their art to Master Zhang traditionally celebrate his birthdate as the 9th day of the 3rd Chinese lunar month.

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Traditional folktales

Much of the written material about him is mythical, contradictory, or otherwise suspect. For instance, he is reported by different people to have been born either in 960, 1247, or in 1279. He has at times been described as being seven-feet tall, with the bones of a crane and the posture of a pine tree, having whiskers shaped like a spear, and being able to cover 1000 li in a day (roughly 580 km or 350 miles). He is reputed to have worn a straw hat, and is usually depicted with one slung on his back, but two villages are reported in the 19th century Wu-yang Gazeteer (Wu-yang hsien-chih) to have believed that his hat was actually a cymbal, which only residents of the villages (famous for manufacturing cymbals) had permission to sound upon meeting him.

Some sources record two Chinese emperors sending missions to Zhang Sanfeng to ask for his advice, although neither mission is reported to have found him.

Owing to his legendary status, his name frequently appears in Chinese novels and Wuxia films of swordsmen as a spiritual teacher and master of martial arts.

Today, Chinese readers are most acquainted with Jin Yong's version of Zhang Sanfeng, thanks to the popularity of his Wuxia novels. In his book The Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber, Zhang Sanfeng was a former Shaolin disciple in the late Song Dynasty, and born on April 9th, 1247 at midnight (Day 9 of month 3 in Chinese calendar). He left Shaolin Temple to establish the Taoist monasteries in Wudang Mountains. In the book he had seven disciples, and was alive until the late Yuan Dynasty.

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