Original link: https://ysxw.cctv.cn/article.html?item_id=17121330232706605736
On August 11th, the Shanghai Inheritance Base of Wudang Chunyang Fist, an intangible cultural heritage of Hubei Province, held a plaque ceremony in Tanhualin Community, Wuchang District, Wuhan, hoping to promote and pass down Wudang Chunyang Fist from generation to generation. Wang Zhaohui, the representative inheritor of Wudang Chunyang Fist, a provincial-level intangible cultural heritage in Hubei Province, presented the plaque to Shi Weimin, the 24th generation inheritor from Shanghai, and officially established an intangible cultural heritage inheritance base in Shanghai. At the same time, 10 enthusiasts from Shanghai paid their respects to Shi Weimin and paid tribute to the “master”, aspiring to join the Chunyang Boxing inheritance team. The ‘master’ happily told the new master Shi Weimin that he did not want to be a disciple of the master and was not a good disciple, and praised his inheritance.
Wang Zhaohui (third from right) awarded the Shanghai Heritage Base History for the People (second from right)
Wang Zhaohui introduced the inheritance history and unique health benefits of Wudang Chunyang Fist to the Shanghai team led by Shi Weimin, encouraging everyone to learn and practice diligently, inherit and carry forward the martial arts wisdom of Chunyang Fist that has been passed down for thousands of years, and keep up with the times.
It is reported that Wudang Chunyang Fist belongs to the Quanzhen Dragon Sect of Taoism, which has a history of about a thousand years. It is said to have been created by Lv Dongbin, one of the Northern Five Ancestors of Taoism. It is an internal martial art of Taoism for health preservation, physical fitness, and enemy defense. In the early years of the Republic of China, Chunyang Quan began to spread to Liu Lihang, a Taoist of Wudang Palace. In the late 1960s, Liu Lihang met martial arts enthusiast Wang Zhaohui. After careful consideration, he taught Chunyang Quan to Wang Zhaohui and bestowed the name “Zongyang” upon him.
Wang Zhaohui is determined to inherit the traditional martial art of Chunyang Quan, which is on the brink of extinction. After more than 20 years, he has gained the true essence of martial arts and insists on showcasing this precious martial art to society. The cultural heritage value of Chunyang Quan has finally been widely recognized by the martial arts community and society, and has been included in the list of 129 recognized martial arts by the state, becoming an intangible cultural heritage project in Hubei Province.
Shi Weimin, who received disciples on that day, is the 24th generation descendant of Wudang Chunyang Fist. He was born into a famous martial arts school in Yangzhou and has been practicing martial arts since childhood. In 1986, he was admitted to the Department of Computer Science at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. During his studies in Jiangcheng, Shi Weimin developed the belief to learn Chunyang Quan, but he was unable to achieve his goal. After graduation, he traveled back and forth between Shanghai and Wuhan for a long time, seeking opportunities to learn from Wang Zhaohui. In recent years, at the request of Wang Zhaohui, Shi Weimin has been teaching Chunyang Quan in Shanghai.
In 2023, he was invited by Shanghai University and Shanghai Film Academy to produce a Wudang Pure Yang Fist teaching film, which was broadcasted on the Golden Channel of Shanghai Television and received high praise. In addition, as a “STEM man”, Shi Weimin began to use technological means to give technological support to the inheritance of Chunyang Fist. This year, he launched the “Intelligent Pure Yang Fist” app in collaboration with Shanghai universities for testing.
It is reported that as a representative project of Hubei Province’s provincial intangible cultural heritage that originated from Wuhan, Wudang Chunyang Fist has already left Hubei, and the inheritance work is orderly deepening outside the province. At present, inheritance bases have been established in Hefei, Anhui, Inner Mongolia, and Shanghai, with over a thousand formal disciples and over ten thousand generalized students. Shi Weimin revealed that the establishment of the inheritance base in Shanghai is aimed at spreading the excellent Chinese martial arts wisdom of Chunyang Fist to a wider range in the Yangtze River Delta region, allowing more people to join the inheritance team and enjoy the health benefits of Wudang Chunyang Fist.
A group photo of Shanghai’s new apprentice disciple and fellow elders
On that day, a group of Shanghai students who officially became the 25th generation disciples of Wudang Chunyang Fist visited places where modern Chunyang Fist was spread, such as Changchun Temple, Snake Mountain, and Yellow Crane Tower, to explore the traces of previous generations and deepen their understanding and appreciation of the thousand year history of Chunyang Fist.
