ERICMA > Research > In the field

According to some legends, Wanlang (the tanglang quan founder) was a Taiyuan native, the present capital of Shanxi province. Taiyuan is actually an industrial city with a modern architecture which dates essentially from XXth century. This is in contrast with the ancient city of Pingyao, which is located in the southern part of the province and has been perfectly preserved. Thanks to the silver trade, Pingyao was a rich and prosperous city. It remains so now thanks to tourism, as the city is in the World Heritage List. In this city there were also a lot of escorting companies which were insuring the safety of fund conveys. Therefore, it was also a major center for martial arts. Today, the city shelters a museum of martial arts and a second one describing the history of an escorting company with a noteworthy series of portraits and biographies about well-known martial artists who had worked as escort in Pingyao. Of course, we have visited and extensively filmed these two museums.

The walls of Pingyao
(for additional pictures, check those taken by Lionel with his disposable cameras!).

In the north of Taiyuan, we made a first halt at Wutaishan, one the 4 sacred mountains of Chinese Buddhism.
A pilgrimage to Wutaishan consists in climbing the 5 peaks corresponding to the 4 cardinal points and to the center.
The emperor Qianlong (Qing dynasty) visited the place several times.
Wutaishan is the place where QixingTanglang quan’s famous master, Wang Yun Peng, became a monk after the death of his master, Kuai Shou Li ( fast hands Li ) and studied Shaolin Duanda and Qigong between years 1920 and 1923. Another character related to Tanglang quan retired and became monk in Mount Wutai. It was the fifth son of General Yang of Song Dynasty. During a battle which was taken place in the vicinity, he recognised the flag of his brother (the number 6 out of 7), and guessed that the latter was in trouble. It is said that armed with a staff he came down the mountain to help his brother and made victory change side. This is according to tradition the origin of the staff form Bagua Wulang Gun adopted by certain branchs of Tanglang quan.

The eastern peak

Ceremonial weapons given by Qianlong (in fact, the original weapons have vanished but these were found in another temple and are supposed to have been offered by Qianlong as well).

Hengshan is one of the 5 sacred Daoist mountains in China and is located north-east of Wutaishan. We made a stopover at the Cliff-hanging temple, Xuangongsi:

On the right hand side picture, the curving on the rock, is attributed to the famous Li Bai.
The story tells that mesmerized by the beauty of the site, he forgot his calligraphy
and drew on an additional dot to the first character.

On our way back to Taiyuan, we stopped over at the octogonal wood pagoda , Yingxianta and unravelled the oldest known representation (according to sinologist C.despeux, an expert in the field), of the Taiji concept by two kissing fish. The stone dates back to the 11th century and pictures a primitive form of the Taiji in the course of the evolution that led to the current spiral shape representation: