Zhansanfeng is thought to have been born on 4 April 1247. He is described as being intelligent, a good memory and was thought to be wise. His ancestors were from the Dragon-Tiger Mountain area of the Jiangxi province in southeast China. The region is a historical Daoist site. Zhan’s grandfather moved the family to Yizhan in the Liaoning province in northeastern China.
Sometime during the Yugan Dynasty (1279-1368 CE), Zhang passed the governmental exam to become a high level official for the Emperor Taizong. He instead chose to be a hermit. The educate elite in China admired hermits at this time. To become a hermit, one had do renounce all connections with society and give up all worldly processions. Zhang departed on a 30 years quest seeking enlightenment and immortality. He ended his quest in the Baozhi Mountains in Midwestern China. The mountain range was lush and had three rugged peaks or sanfeng in Chinese.
Zhang met and trained under Jinoyuanshangren, a Shaolin warrior monk for the next ten years. He became a master of Shaolin martial arts: “The Change of Tendons”, “The Marrow Washing” and “18 Buddha’s Hands”. Zhang also mastered the six postures of the original Five Quans (five fist): Dragon, Tiger, Snake, Leopard and Crane.
Zhang was 67 when he met the daoist hermit Huolong in 1314. Huolong taught Zhang one of the psydo-Tai Chi styles as a means of reaching enlightenment and immortality. After four years of training without reaching his goal, Zhang moved to the Wudang Mountians. There he practiced and meditated for the next nine years until he became enlightened.
It was while Zhangsanfeng was in the Wudang Mountains that he founded Tai Chi. There are three common stories about the creation of Tai Chi:
- It came to him in a dream.
- He was inspired by watching a snake and crane fighting.
- Zhang noticed that local monks were fighting with so much force that they were unbalanced and their strikes lacked strength. He thought that if the ying and yang were in balance, their bodies would not be so clumsy. Zhangsanfeng added the Daoist theory of qigong and yijng to martial arts.
Zhangsanfeng is credited with training the Tai Chi master Wangzong, Chentongzhou, Zhangsongxi, Yejimei, Wangzongyue and Jiangfa. It is Jiangfa that is credited with teaching Tai Chi to the Chen family leading to the creation of the Chen family style. From the Chen style, Yang, Wu, and Sun were created.
[i] Based on The Doa of Taijquan, by Jou Tsung Hwa