Wudang kung fu question

[novamma]

Is it mandatory to grow your hair long and do the top knot thing after training at Wudang, same way you must shave your head if you train at Shaolin?

I've noticed a influx on Wudang being promoted in the last few year and astonished by the amount of pony tails and top knots.

[novamma]

found this:

http://www.americanwudang.com/#!the-topknot/ccyu

[GrahamB]

I found this:

http://edinburgh.tab.co.uk/2014/11/28/t ... n-history/

[kenneth fish]

Graham: +1

As for the top knot at Wudang: a recent fashion trend.

[novamma]

so there is no history of it past few hundred of years? the other article stated:

One of the most common questions I get asked back home is, "What's with the hair?" It is an obvious first question, especially to those who are uninitiated to the ways of Wudang and the Daoist culture that resides there. China has a long history of traditional hairstyles. Each has its own meaning. Some are fashions. Some are traditional. Some are functional. Some were even used to show submission to those in power. Over time, others have been given meanings. So what is the story behind the topknot?

To answer that question, we have to take a look at the Daoist practice itself. Daoism gets its core belief from the idea that one should work together with the natural flow of energy within all things. As opposed to gaining salvation from overcoming the natural world and its difficulties, Daoism works to mend the correct flow of positive energy throughout the world. One of the ways we approach this goal is by understanding that the natural world has a way of balancing itself despite our interation. Instead, everything is viewed in a state of constant transformation through growth, destruction, and rebirth.

Following this idea, traditional Daoist practitioners in the old days refrained from getting their hair cut. Instead, they vouched for the natural growth of their hair to go untamed and free. Much like keeping from unnecessarily cutting branches from a tree were the Daoists in the practice to let their hair grow long.

Another point to keep in mind in the location of the BaiHui. The baihui is an acupuncture point on the crown of the head (where your topknot would be). BaiHui in English means 'Hundred Convergences." This is the point where energies of the body and spirit meet. This makes the BaiHui a very important point in your body for practice, especially for the internal alchemy of qigong. Through the BaiHui, being as it is the uppermost point on oneself, an individual can connect to Heaven. A balanced BaiHui is also used to help clear the senses and calm the spirit.

[liokault]

Which came first, the Wudang tai chi, or the top knot.

As they are both recent inventions, i would call it a draw.

[Bao]

so there is no history of it past few hundred of years? the other article stated: ...

Don't listen to anyone. The CMA world is full of myth.

Here is one of my paintings, probably from the beginning of the 20th century. A monk with a pearl calling a dragon. Through out the history, the Daoist art, design and clothes have been more or less identical to Chinese Buddhist tradition.

[kenneth fish]

novamma: The Chinese traditionally did not cut their hair as it was seen as a gift from their parents. Buddhists and Taoist monks would cut their hair as a means of disassociating themselves from such worldly attachments, although Daoist mendicants (lay Daoists who would wander from town to town, selling amulets and dodgy medical cures) would frequently sport long, unkempt locks.

[shawnsegler]

Hmmmm...amulets and dodgy medical cures sounds like a good way to get more ancillary dollars from students between belt ranks.

Tell me more.

S

[Michael Babin]

Having a distinctive hairstyle is another way of being "tribal" and cuts across all cultures and ages. It's another way of saying "I'm one of them." and it's ugly cousin "He's Not One of Us!"

One of my pet peeves as wearing the costumes and hairstyles of a culture and an age other than your own; but that's not a popular attitude with a lot of Western kung fu and taiji students. Than again, I'm not a big fan of dress-up for Renaissance and LARP events either.

OK, I'll admit that I'd be happy to have a good suit of scale or chain mail but only for the privacy of my own bedroom.

[willywrong]

Having a distinctive hairstyle is another way of being "tribal" and cuts across all cultures and ages. It's another way of saying "I'm one of them." and it's ugly cousin "He's Not One of Us!"

One of my pet peeves as wearing the costumes and hairstyles of a culture and an age other than your own; but that's not a popular attitude with a lot of Western kung fu and taiji students. Than again, I'm not a big fan of dress-up for Renaissance and LARP events either.

OK, I'll admit that I'd be happy to have a good suit of scale or chain mail but only for the privacy of my own bedroom.

Not me I would wear it around the street just for a laugh and the exercise. As to the hair it is the cutting of it that is unnatural and not the growing of it. And yes I have long hair but have a Friar Tuck so no topknot. It's not a pet peeve of mine the wearing of the costumes and hairstyles of a culture and an age other than your own but what frigging idiots.

[willywrong]

I found this:

http://edinburgh.tab.co.uk/2014/11/28/t ... n-history/

From the man who just loves getting down on the ground and rolling around and hugging other men. Oh Yeh

[novamma]

Both Shaolin and wudang are so heavily marketed by the PRC it is a total turn off. The forms were lost and re-vamped by the wushu associations for tourist money. so many forms, so many outfits, so many rip-offs.

there is a wudang version of everything now:
wu dang baji
wu dang taiji
wu dang bagua
wu dang ba dua jin
wu dang xingyi
wu dang sword
wu dang yadda yadda yadda

hard to tell what is original. cause before the wu dang explosion we had:
Shaolin baji
Shaolin taiji
Shaolin bagua
Shaolin ba dua jin
Shaolin xingyi
Shaolin sword
shaolin yadda yadda yadda

[edededed]

To be fair, Wudang sword seems to be one of the more authentic Wudang styles - but if I was going to learn something Wudang, I would go for one of the more exotic-sounding styles, definitely not "Wudang bagua" or "Wudang xingyi." (For those, Beijing or Hebei/Shanxi would be a better bet!)

Never heard of Shaolin bagua - sounds almost sacrilegious Shaolin sword is maybe damojian?

[Niall Keane]

There is a Disney land around Wudang, which didn't exist until the 90's and is basically Wushu.
There are however real temples where daoist priests stay and also a daoist center in the village below. I've met some ofthose and they have real gung fu, not tai chi. HOWEVER... they are obviously not fighters. I wrestled and sparred with a few and they had a habit of "preempting" and so wrecking their own techniques. SO they would lead one way and then immediately go another, but the ting jin wasn't there, they didnt wait for a response, so there was no hua jin. Just fa one way and fa the opposite. A bit flat? The ideas are there but they really need to get off mother's lap and get some experience.

As for the wushu brigade, endless, endless, endless forms..... with gymnastic signature techniques. Zero martial practice, one of the main (state appointed, though his western students dont know that) sifu there was actually quite shocked when he was told that I practice TCC and I fought. He even went as far as to say TCC wasn't for fighting.

My own Sifu visited both Shaolin (Songshan temple) and Wudang in 1984, they were ruins, Shaolin totally empty, and Wudang had a few old priests only one of whom practiced a martial art - Tai He Chuan, and claimed only to do so for health not martially.

I've heard that the government brought a few old masters of various wudnag styles of gung fu together in the late 80's to teach some wushu athletes and these are now the coaches there. But they're dancers, there's no understanding of the practical application.

Interestingly of the genuine gung fu practiced in the region, none is TCC or Ba Gua or Hsing Yi etc.