Zhang Sanfeng: Historical Evidence vs. Taijiquan Creation Legend Part 3: Philosophical and Daoist Writings Attributed to Zhang Sanfeng

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 refer to a small but diverse set of works that survive under his name in the Daoist Canon (Daozang, 道藏) and its later abridgments. Among the most cited are:

Da Dao Lun (大道論) — Discourse on the Great Dao

Xuanji Zhi Jiang (玄機直講) — Straight Talk on the Mysterious Pivot

Xuan Yao Pian (玄要篇) — Essentials of the Mystery

Wu Gen Shu Ci (無根樹詞) — Song of the Rootless Tree

Various letters, verses, and admonitions collected in the Zhang Sanfeng Xiansheng Quanji (張三丰先生全集), The Complete Works of Master Zhang Sanfeng.

This Quanji was compiled during the Qing dynasty, probably in the  eighteenth century, and later incorporated into the Daozang Jiyao (道藏輯要), the “Collected Essentials of the Daoist Canon.” Scholars attribute its compilation to the Quanzhen (Complete Reality) lineage, which sought to harmonize Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism into a single moral-spiritual path.

Yet the question of authenticity remains thorny. Few of these texts can be reliably dated to the Yuan or early Ming period when Zhang is said to have lived. Their style, terminology, and syntax align more closely with late-Ming and Qing Daoist homiletics than with the direct, unpolished prose of earlier inner-alchemy writings. In short, what we call “Zhang Sanfeng’s writings” are likely a combination of genuine moral verses preserved by his followers and later compositions written in his voice by Quanzhen priests who revered him as a spiritual archetype.

Inside the Texts: Philosophy, Alchemy, and Virtue

The Dao of Moral Alchemy

In Da Dao Lun (Discourse on the Great Dao), Zhang Sanfeng is portrayed as a teacher of the Three Teachings Unity (三教合一), the syncretic philosophy that framed Confucian ethics, Buddhist insight, and Daoist cultivation as complementary paths toward the same truth. He writes:

“The Confucians cultivate the Dao to order the world.

The Buddhists realize the Dao to awaken the world.

The Daoists preserve the Dao to save the world.

When the root of virtue is firm, the myriad practices converge.”

Here, Zhang’s “Dao” is not mystical abstraction but moral substance. The foundation of all practice, he insists, is gongde (功德), meritorious virtue—the ethical refinement that makes alchemy possible. Without virtue, no elixir can congeal; without method, virtue cannot reach completion. This coupling of moral conduct with technical cultivation reflects a distinctly Quanzhen sensibility, bridging the Confucian heart-mind (心) with the Daoist elixir-field (丹田).

Inner Cultivation and the Unity of Xing and Ming

Throughout the corpus, Zhang’s attributed writings emphasize the dual cultivation of xing (性, inner nature) and ming (命, life-force or destiny). The practitioner, he writes, must refine these two until yin and yang harmonize and the original qi returns to its source.

This pairing—xingming shuangxiu (性命雙修)—lies at the core of inner alchemy (neidan, 內丹). It proposes that true realization requires both moral-psychological purification and physiological transformation. The fire and water of the body, metaphorically the heart and kidneys, must interact in balance to produce the “Golden Elixir” (jindan, 金丹)—a symbol of transcendence and immortality.

In Xuanji Zhi Jiang (Straight Talk on the Mysterious Pivot), Zhang explains:

“Guard the One, and the spirit returns to its abode.

Calm the breath, and the fire descends.

When water rises to meet fire, and fire bows to water,

the true qi moves without obstruction.”

This is alchemical language, not martial instruction. It refers to reversing the flow of energy—turning the generative essence inward, refining it into spirit, and returning that spirit to emptiness. The tone throughout is meditative and ethical, grounded in personal transformation rather than external skill.

The Rootless Tree

Among Zhang’s most beloved works is the Wu Gen Shu Ci (Song of the Rootless Tree), a lyrical meditation on impermanence:

“The tree without roots, where shall it grow?

Floating in the wind, it follows no earth.

Seek not form, for form is illusion.

The root of the root lies in returning to the Dao.”

This poem, often memorized by Daoist novices, encapsulates the philosophy of detachment and return. To be “rootless” is not to drift aimlessly, but to transcend fixation—to dwell in the Dao rather than in circumstance. The same imagery would later influence martial thinkers who interpreted stillness within movement as the physical analog of spiritual rootedness.

Textual Layers and Authorship Debates

Philological Markers of Time

The vocabulary within these writings tells its own story. Many texts attributed to Zhang use terms such as zhenqian (真鉛, True Lead), huangpo (黃婆, Yellow Dame), and xuantong (玄通, mysterious union)—standard Neidan metaphors codified between the Song and late Ming periods. Others employ Neo-Confucian moral phrasing like zhengxin chengyi (正心誠意, rectifying the mind and making intention sincere), drawn directly from the Great Learning (大學).

This blend of alchemical and moral language indicates not an individual author but an evolving tradition. The Zhang-voice texts are spiritual palimpsests: layers of teaching and commentary compiled over centuries. By the time the Qing editors of Daozang Jiyao gathered them, Zhang had become less a man than a rhetorical persona—the “Perfected Immortal of Wudang” whose name gave moral authority to a living Daoist synthesis.

The Role of the Quanzhen Lineage

Quanzhen Daoism, which emerged in the twelfth century and rose to imperial prominence during the Yuan and Ming dynasties, provides the theological backbone of these writings. Quanzhen monks emphasized celibacy, monastic discipline, and meditative quietude, but also preached social virtue and interfaith harmony.

By the Ming period, the sect had splintered into northern (Longmen) and southern (Wudang) branches. The Wudang priests, eager to sanctify their mountain’s reputation, claimed Zhang Sanfeng as a spiritual forefather. The compilation of his Complete Works thus functioned as both hagiography and lineage legitimation—a literary temple to the ideal Daoist adept.

The Martial Question: From Neidan to Neijia

The Absent Martial Manual

Despite centuries of speculation, no document verifiably authored by Zhang Sanfeng describes martial techniques, principles of combat, or physical training methods. His surviving works concern alchemy, virtue, and meditation—not boxing. The link between Zhang and martial theory emerges only in the late seventeenth century, more than two hundred years after his supposed lifetime.

The first explicit statement comes from Huang Zongxi (黃宗羲, 1610–1695) in his Epitaph for Wang Zhengnan (王征南墓誌銘, 1669), which credits Zhang with founding the “Internal School of Boxing” (Neijiaquan, 內家拳) of Wudang. Yet Huang’s text is allegorical, contrasting the “external” (Shaolin) school associated with foreign aggression to the “internal” (Wudang) school embodying Chinese spirit and Daoist virtue. His purpose was political, not historical.

Nineteenth-Century Canonization

By the late Qing, as Taijiquan evolved from a localized martial art into a cultural symbol, editors and teachers sought to anchor it in antiquity. Texts such as the Taijiquan Lun (太極拳論, Treatise on Taijiquan) and Thirteen Postures (十三勢) began circulating with Zhang’s name attached, despite stylistic and linguistic evidence that they were written centuries later—probably by the Wu and Yang family scholars of the mid-1800s.

These treatises echo Zhang’s philosophical vocabulary—softness overcoming hardness, stillness governing movement, yin and yang in mutual exchange—but transpose it into martial context. In doing so, they created a bridge between Daoist internal cultivation and physical combat, giving Taijiquan an aura of spiritual depth that appealed to literati and reformers alike.

Modern researchers such as Tang Hao (唐豪), Xu Zhen (許震), Douglas Wile, and Stanley Henning have demonstrated that this “Zhang Sanfeng school” is mythological. The real origins of Taijiquan trace back to Chen Wangting (陳王廷, ca. 1580–1660) of Chenjiagou, whose routines integrated military training, Daoyin exercises, and philosophical reflection. Yet the choice to attribute these principles to Zhang shows the enduring power of his name as a symbol of moral and spiritual legitimacy.

The Daoist Mind in Martial Context

Even though Zhang Sanfeng likely never taught boxing, his philosophical ideas resonate uncannily with the internal logic of Taijiquan. His emphasis on balance, yielding, and return to the source mirrors the martial method of neutralizing force through softness. His insistence that virtue and calm mind are the foundation of all transformation aligns with the ethical underpinnings of traditional martial discipline.

In this sense, Zhang’s writings became a kind of moral scripture for the internal arts. They offered language and imagery through which martial experience could be reinterpreted as spiritual practice. The alchemical “cauldron” became the human body; the refinement of qi became the harmonization of structure and intention; the return to the Dao became the attainment of stillness within motion.

Myth, Identity, and the Authority of the Written Word

Why did later generations feel compelled to write in Zhang’s name? Partly because Chinese culture has long valued textual lineage as proof of authenticity. To claim that one’s art descends from Zhang Sanfeng was to root it in sacred antiquity, to place it beyond the domain of mere physical technique.

The late Qing was an age of moral anxiety: foreign incursions, social upheaval, and technological modernization challenged China’s self-image. By linking Taijiquan to an immortal sage who united morality, meditation, and harmony with nature, reformers reasserted a cultural ideal. Zhang’s words, whether authentic or apocryphal, provided the philosophical scaffolding for a martial renaissance.

However, there is also a psychological dimension. Myths of origin satisfy the human need for coherence. They give practitioners a sense of continuity and purpose that raw historical fact rarely provides. To study Zhang’s writings is therefore to confront not only questions of authorship but the deeper function of myth itself: to bridge the space between moral aspiration and mortal practice.

Between Spirit and Body: What Remains

After centuries of mythmaking, what can modern practitioners and historians take from Zhang Sanfeng’s literary legacy?

First, his writings remind us that the foundation of all internal cultivation—whether in meditation or martial art—is moral integrity. The Dao cannot be forced through technique alone; it must emerge from the rectified heart.

Second, Zhang’s voice, real or constructed, offers a model of integration. He refused to divide spiritual from physical, Confucian from Daoist, stillness from movement. That unity remains the heart of Taijiquan’s philosophy, even if he never practiced the art himself.

Finally, his case teaches humility. Our traditions are living dialogues between history and imagination. To honor them is not to fossilize myth as fact but to understand why myth was born—to see in it the yearning of generations to reconcile strength and serenity, matter and spirit, self and cosmos.

Conclusion

The Zhang Sanfeng who wrote of virtue and inner alchemy was no fighter, yet his words armed generations with a moral compass. The Zhang Sanfeng who fought with a snake and a crane on Wudang’s peaks never existed, yet his legend gave shape to a philosophy of motion that continues to define Chinese martial arts.

History and myth are not enemies but reflections of each other. One records what was, the other expresses what should be. Between them lies the living tradition of Taijiquan—a practice born from soil and story alike, still seeking, as Zhang once wrote, “to return to the rootless root, and find stillness within movement.”

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References

Zhang Sanfeng Quan Ji (張三丰全集) in the UC Hong Kong Digital Repository. Includes Da Dao Lun, Xuanji Zhi Jiang, Xuan Yao Pian, and Wu Gen Shu Ci.

Simon Cox, “On the Historical Mystery of Zhang Sanfeng,” Okanagan Valley Wudang Research. Discusses the 1844 Chengdu edition compiled by Li Xiyue and the textual composite nature of Zhang’s corpus.

Benjamin Judkins, “Zhang Sanfeng: Political Ideology, Myth Making and the Great Taijiquan Debate,” Kung Fu Tea (Chinese Martial Studies), 2014. Analyzes the evolution of Zhang’s martial reputation and its political context.

Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen (eds.), The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang (University of Chicago Press, 2005). Provides background on Daozang compilation and commentary on Zhang Sanfeng entries.

Stanley E. Henning, “The Martial Arts Myth and Reality,” and “Legends of the Shaolin Monks: Kung Fu and History.” Notes the absence of early martial linkages and the late attribution of internal schools to Zhang.

Daoist Culture Centre Database entry on Zhang Sanfeng (en.daoinfo.org). Summarizes his life, teachings, and the authorship debate.

Tang Hao (唐豪) and Xu Zhen (許震), Studies on Chinese Boxing Origins (1930s research). First modern critical analysis debunking the Zhang Sanfeng–Taijiquan connection.

Douglas Wile, Tai-Chi’s Ancestors: The Making of an Internal Martial Art (1999). Explores how Zhang’s philosophical legacy was reframed by 19th-century Taiji lineages.

Purple Cloud Institute, “Saints & Sages Part VII: Zhang San Feng.” Overview of his Daoist writings and spiritual teachings within the Quanzhen tradition.