      zhang sanfeng was a legendary chinese taoist who is believed to have achieved immortality. according to various accounts, he was born in shaowu, nanping, fujian during the southern song dynasty and lived for over 200 years until the mid-ming dynasty. his given name was tong (é) and his courtesy name was junbao (åå¯¶). he specialised in confucian and taoist studies, scholarly and literary arts. during the reign of emperor shizu in the yuan dynasty, he was nominated as a candidate to join the civil service and held office as the magistrate of boling county (åéµç¸£; around present-day dingzhou, baoding, hebei). while touring around the mountainous regions near present-day baoji, shaanxi, he saw the summits of three mountains and decided to give himself the taoist name "sanfengzi" (ä¸ä¸°å­), hence he also became known as "zhang sanfeng". zhang sanfeng's life is that of indifference to fame and wealth. after declining to serve the government and giving away his property to his clan, he travelled around china and lived as an ascetic. he spent several years on mount hua before settling in the wudang mountains. ==legacy== zhang sanfeng is credited for creating the concept of neijia (å§å®¶) in chinese martial arts, specifically taijiquan, a neo-confucian syncretism of shaolin martial arts with his mastery of daoyin (or neigong) principles. on one occasion, he observed a bird attacking a snake and was greatly inspired by the snake's defensive tactics. it remained still and alert in the face of the bird's onslaught until it made a lunge and fatally bit its attacker. this incident inspired him to create a set of 72 taijiquan movements. mount wudang -- abode of immortals and a martial monk, by staff reporter huo jianying (front page) he is also associated with the taoist monasteries in the wudang mountains. huang zongxi's epitaph for wang zhengnan (1669) gave zhang sanfeng credit for the development of a taoist "interna
Chinese_spiritual_writers Ming_dynasty_Taoists Ming_dynasty_writers People_from_Fuxin Qigong Writers_from_Liaoning Yuan_dynasty_Taoists Yuan_dynasty_writers