The history of the martial arts is full of characters that took a chance by either sneaking a peak through a fence, or traveling China in poverty, to discover or perfect their art.
At the beginning of the last century many of these came together in Beijing, China where schools were formed, books were published, and legends were made.
On these pages, I have not traced lineage trees, attempting to detail the links between these masters. Lineage trees are important to understanding the development of a martial art, but after a few generations they become irrelevant. Your practice is important, not the practice of some man or woman from tens or hundreds of years ago. It is not some masters skill that transfers to you through the lineage, but their forms and practice sequences.
It is frustrating to see — for example — one Yang style Taijiquan student denigrate another’s practice because their forms or practice sequence look different, therefore dismissing an entire lineage of practice. On these pages we focus on the efforts of the teachers or masters who contributed to each lineage, discuss their contribution, and — where possible — show videos of those practices.
Then we take it another step and include those legendary figures of the ancient past whose work directly influenced the character of the martial arts, and have laid a philosophical foundation that is still making an impact on our world.
You can contribute or discuss entries on these pages in the Timeline group.
Fu Xi (2852 – 2731 BCE)
Fu Xi taught the Chinese people fishing with nets, hunting with weapons made of iron, cooking, domestication of animals, music, the writing system, sericulture (cultivation of silk worms) and the weaving of threads from silkworm cocoons into textiles.
Yellow Emperor (2497 – 2398 BCE)
Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, is a legendary Chinese sovereign and cultural hero who is considered in Chinese mythology to be the ancestor of all Han Chinese.
Yu, the Great (2059 – 2149 BCE)
Instead of building more dikes, Yu began to dredge new river channels, to serve both as outlets for the torrential waters, and as irrigation conduits to distant farm lands.
King Wen (1099 – 1050 BCE)
Laozi (600 BCE)
When he reached the western border of the kingdom, a guard recognized him as a great philosopher and asked him to share his teachings.
Confucius (571 – 479 BCE)
Confucius hated disorder and disunity and wanted to find ways to overcome the feuds that characterized the latter part of the Zhou era.
Shakyamuni (563 – 483 BCE)
His father, Shuddodana, was the local king from the Sakya clan and Siddhartha would later become known by the title Shakyamuni, or Sage of the Sakyas.
Bodhidharma (440 – 534)
Concrete details about Bodhidharma’s life are hard to find since many stories about him are filled with mythical elements that have significant meaning for Zen Buddhists.
Zhang Sanfeng (960 – 1370)
Others place him in the Song dynasty (960 – 1279 CE) which saw many achievements in science, philosophy, and arts, including the first use of printing (700 years before it was used in Europe), and the use of gunpowder (invented by Daoists during the Tang dynasty) in grenades.
Yue Fei (1103 – 1142)
We do know that Yue Fei was a great military leader who is credited with the creation of many qigong and martial forms including Xingyiquan, Eight Pieces of Brocade, and Eagle Claw Boxing.
Dong Haichuan (1797 – 1882)
Dong Haichuan’s reputation would go from a criminal and freeloader to the creator of China’s last internal martial art.
Cheng Tinghua (1848 – 1900)
One day, Cheng Tinghua subdued ten of the looting soldiers before they ordered a patrol with rifles to surround him.
Yin Fu (1840 – 1909)
Some stories say that when he started studying with Dong that he did not appreciate circle walking and focused on striking and kicking methods, even laughing at the circle walking practice.
Sun Lu Tang (1861 – 1932)
This Grand Master of all three arts broke with tradition and wrote down—in classical chinese characters (characters that he taught himself)—the practice methods of all three arts.