Taichi (Taijiquan) – Balance In Motion
Traditional Taichi or Taijiquan is one of the most important heritages of wudang martials arts culture. Together with wudang sword and the cultivation practice of the inner elixir it is known to be one of the three essential parts of wudang kungfu. While the origins of this art are found in the long martial arts history of wudang, its later branches are now spread around the whole world.
Taijiquan is thought to be found by one of wudang‘s former daoist sages Zhang Sanfeng. It is a holistic martial art. It is energizing like a qi gong set or meditation. It challenges with its broad requirements wich are: fast, slow, high, low, soft, round, simultaneous coordinated movements of the whole body. It relaxes and balances body mind and spirit. All over the world, governments and their health care systems have officially acknowledged its great value.
Wudang Kungfu – Neijia Quan – A unique style
Endless internal martial art (neijia quan) styles have derived directly from Wudangshan. Wudang Boxing & Kungfu was always based on the daoist culture & the principles of nature. The practice of Wudang Kungfu is versatile & holistic. Body, mind & spirit need to be sharp & work together. Wudang Quan may contain elements of taiji, bagua or xingyi, but in the end wudangquan has it very own character.
How does it look like? It is faster & more martial than Taijiquan, but also round & sometimes also contains slow movements. There are locks, throws, acupressure points & very aggressive attacks. Wudang Kungfu looks beautiful, because it tries to hide the secrets of its applications.
Meditation (Nei Dan) – Internal Alchemy
Legends about wudang masters refer to their great skills in meditation & their high level of spiritual wisdom. Truly a big part of daoist practice leads through meditation.
Physical skills like taijiquan are a door opener to long sessions of deep meditation. Meditation is a mental skill. It aims on a balance of inside & outside. Realize your spiritual self-actualization. Your full potential of psychophysical strength is a result of the conversion of the three treasures (jing=essence, qi=energy & shen=spirit). Transform the essence into energy. Change energy into spirit. Lead the spirit to nothingness (xu). With the last step of Internal Alchemy, you will travel from nothingness back to the source (dao/tao).
The way that leads to more spiritual satisfaction and connects you with
the infinite universe is the way in which you will practice meditation.
Master Wang teaches Wudang Daoist Meditation, Internal Alchemy (Neidan = Inner Elixir) & other meditative skills for different purposes like self-healing, mind control, healing of certain diseases and mental or energetic disbalances.
Traditional Wudang Qigong – The Ancient Health Preservation
Qigong is a holistic art. Breathing, feeling, awareness and movement are done al at once. You body-mind & spirit form a unity. You will find relaxation. More than everything else, Qigong is energizing. Just like a good midday rest or a healthy meal. Qigong uses the control of energetic flow through the whole body. It improves your sensibility for your energies. It teaches you how to heal yourself. The Wudang mountains are a very rich area for qigong practices. Here the energies and the environment is very good for qigong development. Many qigong traditions have directly derived from the temples and monasteries here in Wudang. Famous Master’s have realized themselves here through the practice of qigong, tai chi and meditation.
Qigong was always motivated to prolong life span. The goal is to balance the energies of yin and yang. But also to safe energy. Our Qigong aims at changing the students energies to their levels of higher potential.
Students can choose between a great choice of qigong. The different aspects are health preservation, physical or mental strength, self-healing, conditioning or self-defense. Most often the practice of qi gong results in a mix of different benefits, but with a different focus.
Together with Master Wang you will find the right schedule to satisfy your individual needs.
Bagua – Palm of the 8 Trigrams
Traditionally Bagua (Baguazhang) is one part of wudang kungfu. This style contains of a whole system with basics, forms, drills and weapons. Bagua is always a part of our basic training. Dedicated students are welcome to practice only baguazhang.
The Eight trigrams palm (ba gua zhang) is based on the yijing, the book of changes. Thus it is constantly flowing & changing to all 8 directions. The number 8 refers to the eight trigrams of Daoist science. There are 8 main palms. Those can be multiplied by 8 different variations. All together there are 64 palms.
Bagua is known for: circle walking; big round moves; turns & twists. Baguazhang is very dynamic. It is beautiful like dancing. Yet it is very effective for fighting. It uses fast kicks, finger & palm strikes. The specialties of our wudang baguazhang are the throwing techniques & its extremely dynamic movements.
Baguazhang can defend effectively against all directions at the same time.
Our Dragongate Bagua (Longxing Baguazhang) is very difficult. Try it if you want. But martial arts experience would be very helpful. In general, Ba Gua and bagua circle walking will improve your balance, strength, structure, flexibility & breathing.
Xingyi (Xingyiquan) – “One Power of Body & Mind”
Just like Bagua, Xingyiquan is one part of wudang kungfu. At our kungfu academy we teach the 5 element boxing of Xingyi as one of our basic elements. Many don‘t know that Xingyiquan is of big importance to the basic skills & stepwork of wudang kungfu. We use it to develop great energy. The result aims at a „whole-body-force“. Xingyiquan is very straight forward. All move use the center line for attacking. A bit like Wing Chun. For the application Xingyi open and absorb attacks with a simultaneous counterattack on the center line.
The five main elements are 1. chopping fist, 2. drilling fist, 3. smashing fist, 4. canon fist & 5. rolling fist. Those 5 elemts built the foundation of Xingyiquan.
We teach levels from basic to advanced, from pure Xingyiquan to mixed Wudang style forms.
Wudang Sword – Jianshu – The true king of Wudang
Wudang sword is one of the 3 precious heritages of wudang kungfu: inner elixir, taijiquan & sword fighting. Since the old times the sword fighting is representative treasure of wudang‘s traditional martial skills. Since ancient times, the sword is known as the “king of weapons”. In ancient times the art of the sword was one of the last arts that were taught to wudang disciples.
The tradition of the wudang sword is still alive at the Wudang Dragongate Kungfu School. It will be passed on to any dedicated student. The sword training will improve one’s concentration and develop a sharp awareness to wield and control sword precisely. Our education of wudang sword will improve your skills for any sophisticated weapon.