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The Long Fist Legacy: Origins, Evolution, and Mythos of Changquan Part One: From Ancient Battlefields to Imperial Courts

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Northern China’s martial arts occupy a paradoxical space in the modern imagination. They are often depicted as the crisp, long-ranging, acrobatic routines familiar from Olympic wushu performances. Yet behind those stylized modern expressions lies a vast historical landscape of soldiers, rebels, wandering monks, Hui Muslim fighters, imperial founders, and storytellers. At the center of this lineage stands Changquan (長拳) , often translated as Long Fist, a term that refers not to a single art but to an entire family of northern fighting systems distinguished by extended movements, deep stances, long-range striking, and a philosophy that prioritizes decisive forward energy. To understand Changquan is to step into a complex confluence of myth and history. It is not a single origin story but a mosaic layered over more than a millennium. This first article in the series traces Long Fist from its earliest recognizable forms through the Song and Ming dynasties, examining what can be...
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Morning Reflection: Cutting Through Delusion

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There is a difference between encountering a mean-spirited person and encountering reality. One challenges your patience. The other challenges your honesty. In practice, people often confuse the two. When someone points out a truth we do not want to face, it is easier to label them unkind than to examine why the truth stings. We retreat into comforting language about staying peaceful, avoiding negativity, or rising above conflict. But peace built on avoidance is not peace. It is fear wearing soft clothes. In the actual Zen and Daoist traditions, clarity is compassion. To see things as they are is not an act of aggression. It is an act of courage. When delusion harms others, or when deception is used to elevate oneself, it is not “mean-spirited” to speak plainly. It is necessary. Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, is always shown holding a single tool: the sword that cuts through illusion. He does not wield it in anger. He uses it to separate truth from pretense, reality ...
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Why Tai Chi Drifted from Combat: History, Culture, and the Martial Identity Divide

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Introduction: A Martial Art that Forgot its Punch Taijiquan (太极拳) literally means “Supreme Ultimate Fist.” The final character, quan (拳), is unambiguous. It is the same “fist” that appears in Xingyiquan (形意拳) and in countless other Chinese fighting systems. Yet in parks from Shanghai to San Francisco, most people practicing Taiji (太极) would never dream of calling themselves fighters. Many will tell you that what they do is “moving meditation,” “energy work,” or “gentle exercise for seniors.” The word “martial” makes them uncomfortable, or at best feels beside the point. This disconnect is not just a matter of semantics. It reflects a century of social engineering, cultural reinvention, and psychological negotiation. Taijiquan began as a pragmatic fighting system, born in rural clan villages and honed in escort work, militia duty, and private challenge matches. Over time it was recast as a health regimen, a symbol of national culture, and a vehicle for spiritual self-cultivation. In the...
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Zhang Sanfeng: Historical Evidence vs. Taijiquan Creation Legend, Part 4 - The Legacy of a Myth

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By this point in the series, the legend of Zhang Sanfeng (張三丰) has already walked a long path—from elusive sage and mystical recluse to immortal alchemist, philosopher, and alleged creator of Taijiquan (太極拳). The first two installments examined the evidence: the absence of Zhang in any verifiable martial lineage before the seventeenth century, and the subsequent flowering of myth that enveloped him. The third essay explored his spiritual writings and Daoist teachings, revealing a man—or perhaps an idea—rooted in the inner alchemy of virtue and stillness rather than combat technique. This final installment closes the circle. It asks a question that transcends history: Why did Zhang Sanfeng need to become the founder of Taijiquan? What did his myth achieve that mere fact could not? And how did that legend shape not only Chinese martial culture but the global imagination that now moves in the slow, spiraling patterns of the “Grand Ultimate”? To understand the power of Zhang’s legend, w...
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Zhang Sanfeng: Historical Evidence vs. Taijiquan Creation Legend Part 3: Philosophical and Daoist Writings Attributed to Zhang Sanfeng

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In the first part of this series, we stripped away centuries of haze surrounding Zhang Sanfeng’s historicity. The so-called founder of Taijiquan, as the records of the Ming Shi revealed, was not a martial artist at all but a wandering Daoist adept—an alchemist, recluse, and moral philosopher whose legend grew long after his lifetime. Part Two explored how that legend evolved, showing how Zhang’s image as an immortal sage became woven into Chinese cultural identity and ultimately reimagined as the mythical creator of Taijiquan. Now, in Part Three, we turn from battlefield and myth to mountain hermitage, from physical movement to inner cultivation. What, if anything, did Zhang Sanfeng actually write? What philosophical and spiritual ideas were attributed to him, and how did these texts come to define his posthumous reputation as both sage and supposed martial progenitor? The Written Legacy: Texts Under Zhang Sanfeng’s Name When scholars and Daoist clerics speak of Zhang’s writings, they ...
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Zhang Sanfeng: Historical Evidence vs. Taijiquan Creation Legend Part 2 – Myths and Legends Surrounding Zhang Sanfeng

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  A Sage Steps Out of the Mist Part 1 established a sober baseline: the Zhang Sanfeng 張三丰 who turns up in Ming sources looks like a Daoist adept chasing immortality, not a boxing master arranging choreographies in a courtyard. The records are thin but consistent. They describe charisma, asceticism, and visionary power, not curricular instruction in quan 拳. If we stopped there, the story would be clean and dry. Yet the culture never stopped there, and that is the point of this second installment. The figure who strides out of the Wudang 武當 clouds in popular imagination is not merely a person. He is a symbol system. He holds together Daoist internal alchemy 內丹術, a theory of softness overcoming hardness 柔勝剛, the poetic economy of yin 陰 and yang 陽, a nationalist statement about indigenous genius, and a pedagogical shorthand for the character required to practice well. To understand why Zhang Sanfeng remains indispensable to Taijiquan 太極拳, even where history demurs, we must track how my...
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