Wudang Taiyi Dark Gate Sword

武当太乙玄门剑

The Taiyi Dark Gate Sword is the first straight sword style you learn in our lineage. Though it is technically an internal form, a branch of the Taiyi style, in the first phase of study you learn it as a fast, external style with long fist principles. Our class began training in this form in early 2010. Starting with a series of basic drills that focus on fundamental postures, defensive and offensive techniques, and footwork, we then moved on to the whole 72-step form. Once you’ve mastered the external, technical dimension of the style, the focus switches to the internal dimension, employing the principles of the Taiji and Taiyi. In this way this single form covers the entire path of the Wudang sword, from the most basic techniques like pointing 点 and thrusting 刺 to the use of internal power 内劲 and more abstract fighting strategies like “overturning heaven to startle the bird” 翻天兮惊鸟飞 and “human and sword as one” 人剑合一.

Grandmaster Zhong Yunlong 钟云龙 learning Taiyi Sword from Guo Gaoyi 郭高一, early 1980’s

Brandi 资自 practicing Taiyi Sword at Yuxu Temple 玉虚宫, 2014.

History and Symbolism 历史和象征

This form is attributed to the ancient Daoist god Taiyi Zhenren 太乙真人, who transmitted it down the ages through the hidden immortals sect 隐仙派, where it entered our lineage through our mytho-historical patriarch, Zhang San Feng 张三丰. I guess you could say this is the most ancient form in our lineage, since Taiyi Zhenren was the guy who fashioned the cosmos out of the primordial waters of creation. We might surmise he developed this sword style after giving birth to the universe.

The actual history of this form is quite murky. It is remembered as a style transmitted in the utmost secrecy 传授极严, a form learned by all warrior-priests for the purpose of protecting the mountain 护山剑. Guo Gaoyi 郭高一 (1900-1996) taught it to our grand master Zhong 钟师爷 in the 1980’s, but from whom master Guo learned it I have not been able to determine. It is quite interesting though since a manual of a simplified version of the form was published in 1935 by the martial artist Yan Dehua 阎德华 who claims to have learned it from a Wudang Taiji master named Mou Shi Xin 某師薪.

There is a traditional incantation that references key movements in the form. You can recite it in your head before you begin the practice, and it is thought to capture the essence of the Taiyi Sword:

青龙出海势难挡，Green dragon goes out to sea is a posture that is difficult to block,

拨云见日定乾坤；Raising the clouds to see the sun settles Heaven and Earth;

犀牛望月显灵机，Rhinoceros gazes at the moon reveals the spirit mechanism;

白猿攀枝藏奥妙。White ape moves its branch conceals the subtle mystery.