Is Wudang “not very good”

Hi all,
So I was talking to Bruce Frantzis at a party the other night about Wudang arts, and he said “Wudang is not very good” “Invented by the government” etc. and that “Everyone in the Chinese medial arts community that he knows says that is the truth” and since he goes to China “all the time” and speaks Chinese he should know.

I am a student of the Dong Taijiquan Lineage but I love all neijiaquan especially the Wudang arts and I have gained much by incorporating them into my practice.
I just wondered what you guys thought about this topic?

Cory
Taiji on Maui. com

 

Hi Maui Taoist,
I daresay that Bruce is refering to the modern temple complex (complete with spa and hotel) at Wudang.
The methods taught at this complex are modern, performance-based Wushu arts as opposed to the traditional boxing and meditational arts (supposedly) taught at Wudang.

James

 

Opps thanks for the "filter"

I was hoping that there was room for a renewal of something that maybe was once there at Wudang, I know there is now something new going on there,I don't want to be negative or whatever. It is now becoming popular and I hope they get it right and people can be accepting of the techniques that are unique to Wudang.

 

There is still some good schools there I believe. I have chatted with a monk from wudang, on a few occasions. He demonstrated one of his forms, and I have to say it was one of the best demonstrations of a form that I've ever seen form any style.

 

It's quite debatable if there were ever any especially "unique" things originating @ Wu Tang. This is no secret. Not unlike Shaolin.

So what specifically do you mean re Wu Tang you have incorporated? What are they?

 

In Oct. of 1982, I spent 4 days cirss-crossing Wudang mountains, with a relatively good connected Chinese MA friend. We didn't find one single MAist, not one intact temple/monastery, no monks and no nuns.
What we met were herbs collectors, and one of them told us that he was collecting allready for 7 years and never had seen any MAist in that time. That would go back to around 1975.
So where do those new monks come from, lol?

 

This is often the case in much of China. I've come across monks in some pretty remote regions. However martial arts are the furthest thing from their mind. In many ways the common conception of the martial monk is by and large a western construct.

 

The movies......

 

Probably from the Beijing Tourist Board.

.

 

It's a shame because historically Wudang was one of the great centre's
For martial arts and enlightenment.

 

Actually the popular fiction "sword novels" of the late 1800s in China are mainly resposible.This romanticized concept being exported to the West along w/the Southern Chinese MAs-ever notice that many of the famous systems from the south claim Shaolin descent,whereas not that many in the north,where Shaolin was,do? Odd,isn't it?

CMA historians throughout the 20th century never found evidence for this supposed great martial center/influence at/of Wu Tang. Where does this rep come from then,historically speaking? (Huang Zongxi's 1669 Epitaph for Wang Zhengnan proves nothing,it's widely considered to be merely a symbolic statement having to do with socio-political issues).This is a myth with less historical substance than Shaolin's rep,which at least has a couple mentions in history.Very slight mentions at that.

 

Yes.. most of which have never seen a western translation... but are still rather popular... there are rows and rows of them in the library. I reckon that most people take them as fact rather than entertainment.

 

I share the same experience as you do. In July of 1980, I went to Shaolin temple the 1st time. I saw only 4 monks in the whole temple. None of them were training TCMA. Many years later I went back again, there were a lot of monks there. They all claimed they were there all their life. Where were they during 1980 and culture revolution?

 

The difference with Wudang is that no-one's really claiming that 30 years ago there were more than a handful of people living in the mountains. Pretty much everyone in Wudang is descended from a couple of guys.

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl6jwab3HWk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl6jwab3HWk[/ame]

 

So who are all the fancy folk one sees on youtube executing 'wudang' taichi, bagua, qigong, dian etc - some of them look pretty impressive it has to be said.

They look/market/other adjective, themselves as some long lineage disciples of some tradition. Is it all manufactured out of some marketing machine?