Immortal Chang Sanfeng

Statue of the Immortal Chang Sanfeng at Wu-T’ang Mountain Temple

 

Painting of Taoist Priest
Chang Sanfeng,
Ching Dynasty

Chang Sanfeng (Three Peaks Chang)—also known as Chang Tung and Chang Chunpao—was reportedly born on April 9, 1247, in Kiang Hsi province, southeast China. His ancestors lived on Dragon-Tiger Mountain, sacred to Taoists.

Chang is the attributed founder of T’ai Chi Ch’uan and author of various T’ai Chi Ch’uan texts and Taoist internal alchemical and meditation treatises. According to legend he lived to be nearly 200 years old, a life spanning three dynasties, beginning at the end of the Sung, extending through the entire Yuan, and ending in the early Ming.

In 1314 when Chang was 67 years old it is said that he met a Taoist by the name of Ho Lung (Fire Dragon) who taught him the methods of becoming an immortal. Chang practiced high in the mountains for over four years before moving on to the Wu-T’ang Mountains to practice for another nine years and finally achieve his immortality. He then began what Taoists call “cloud wandering,” traveling through northern and southern China and heading into hiding in Yunnan province until 1399.

When he eventually returned to Wu-T’ang in 1407 the emperor Chen Tzu sent two officials to find Chang (wanting him to serve as an official), but Chang disappeared and took on the persona of being insane and appearing as a poor beggar, which earned him the moniker “Dirty Chang.” In 1459 the emperor bestowed the honorific title “Immortal Chang” upon him, but he was never seen again. Legend has it that he returned to Dragon-Tiger Mountain with two young disciples and taught them the secrets of immortality and T’ai Chi Ch’uan there.

How Chang invented T’ai Chi Ch’uan is unclear, but it is thought he had known or learned Shaolin kungfu earlier in his life, specifically the Five Animal forms (Tiger, Dragon, Snake, Leopard, and Crane). It is surmised that he took the principles of the Dragon form and thus added the aspects of I Ching (Book of Changes) theory, Taoist breathing techniques, and qigong methods. In essence he created a physical form of expression of Taoist philosophy, or Taoist philosophy in motion.

Painting of Chang Sanfeng watching a bird and snake.

Legend has it that Chang first thought of creating T’ai Chi after seeing a bird and snake fighting. The story runs that Chang was meditating in his hut on Wu-T’ang Mountain when he heard a bird attacking a snake. He watched intently as the snake yielded and counterattacked all the movements of the bird. If the bird tried to seize the tail of the snake the snake struck back with its head. If the head was attacked the snake countered with its tail. Likewise if the center of the snake’s body was attacked both the head and tail countered the bird. Chang thought this was really clever and so believed that instead of utilizing hard and unyielding movements like those in Shaolin kungfu, martial art should be yielding and soft, just like the snake. Thus he created the 13 Kinetic movements, consisting of 8 basic movements and 5 governing principles. These later became the T’ai Chi Thirteen Postures of Warding-Off, Rolling-Back, Pressing, Pushing, Pulling, Splitting, Elbowing, Shouldering, Advancing, Withdrawing, Looking-Left, Gazing-Right, and Central Equilibrium.

Beyond the creation of T’ai Chi Ch’uan, Chang’s contribution to Taoist practices includes a very unique system of meditation. He believed that tranquility must be achieved in all activities of sitting, standing, walking, and lying down. In brief, adding that self-cultivation should be approached on a cyclic and repetitive basis. For example, he taught a method called Attaining the Golden Elixir. In this method he taught students to sit for 15 minutes (calling it the Quarter-Hour Method), standing for 5 minutes, sitting again for 15 minutes, standing again for 5 minutes, sitting again for 15 minutes, and then walking for 5 minutes. This was one cycle.

Within this cycle of sitting, standing, and walking meditation a student would spend the first 18 days of this practice just ridding the mind of extraneous thoughts and distractions, and getting the breathing correct. This first stage was called Preparing the Cauldron. Then a 99-day practice period, called Forming the Pearl, was undertaken. This second stage simply focused on congealing the ching and qi energies within the Tan-T’ien. The third stage took place over a 9-month period wherein the congealed essence of ching and qi (or pearl) was then moved up the spine and back, over the head, and then back down into the Tan-T’ien again. This stage was called the Waterwheel, as the sensation of the Golden Elixir is that of a fluid circulating through the Tumo and Renmo meridians of the body. Other sects of Taoism refer to this process as the Lesser Heavenly Circuit or Microcosmic Orbit, but Chang’s method is the most pragmatic.

Chang did not believe that toiling the body with long periods of forced meditation was useful. In fact, this is usually dangerous. He believed that entering true tranquility was a spontaneous response to practice and not something that could be brought on or achieved through painful and forced practice. It wasn’t that he thought long periods of meditation were useless, it was more a matter of understanding that a cultivator should enter tranquility without the thought or forced effort of entering it. To Chang it had to be completely natural and spontaneous. In many ways Chang’s meditation method was as revolutionary as his invention of T’ai Chi Ch’uan.

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