A Short History of the Internal School

One of the earliest important written references to an "internal school" of Chinese martial arts appears in the seventeenth century. Huang Zongxi (1610–1695) was one of the most important intellectual figures of the early Qing period: a historian, philosopher, poet and political thinker. Like Chen Wangting, an important early figure in the development of Chen Taijiquan, Huang was also a loyalist of the fallen Ming dynasty.

Huang Zongxi fought for the Southern Ming until 1649. These forces continued to resist the Qing dynasty for several years after the fall of the Ming government in the north. After 1649 Huang withdrew to his homeland of Yuyao in northern Zhejiang province and no longer actively participated in military or political resistance. Following the fall of the Ming, he carefully analyzed the political weaknesses that, in his view, had contributed to the collapse of the dynasty (Dillon, 1998).

In 1669, at the request of a certain Gao Chensi, Huang Zongxi wrote an epitaph for the martial artist Wang Zhengnan (1617–1669), who was said to have practiced the "internal school". Gao Chensi probably provided much of the necessary information. The inscription is an interesting historical testimony.

Huang Zongxi's youngest son, Huang Baijia (1643–1709), was apparently a student of Wang Zhengnan. In 1676 he wrote a treatise usually known as the Boxing Method of the Internal School (neijia quanfa), in which he describes techniques associated with this tradition. Interestingly, many of these methods are quite straightforward and do not look fundamentally different from techniques found elsewhere in Chinese martial arts.

Huang Baijia writes:

"In the external school the Shaolin art is the most perfected of all. Zhang Sanfeng was skillful in Shaolin [boxing], but he turned it around and created what is called the internal school. To know it a bit is enough to beat Shaolin."

Huang Zongxi likewise writes in the epitaph that the internal school originated with Zhang Sanfeng:

"Shaolin is widely praised for its boxing, but it emphasizes hitting techniques, against which advantages can be gained. There is a so-called internal school that uses stillness to control movement, so that an attacker can be brought down at the very start of an encounter. Therefore we differentiate Shaolin as an external school. The internal school was founded by Zhang Sanfeng during the Song period. Sanfeng was an alchemist from Mount Wudang."

It is quite clear from the wider context that Huang's epitaph was not intended as an accurate historical account in the modern sense. He also makes no secret of his antipathy toward the new Qing government.

The opposition between internal and external may therefore also have served a political and symbolic function. An internal, Daoist and therefore supposedly genuinely Chinese martial tradition could be contrasted with an external, Buddhist Shaolin tradition. Against the background of Huang's Ming loyalism, such distinctions could carry meanings that went considerably beyond martial arts.

Zhang Sanfeng, Wudang and the Internal Martial Arts

The figure of Zhang Sanfeng became closely connected with later ideas about Wudang martial arts and the origins of the internal martial arts. Huang Zongxi's 1669 epitaph already names Zhang Sanfeng as the founder of the internal school and associates him with Mount Wudang.

Historically, however, very little can be said with certainty about Zhang Sanfeng himself. The legendary figure associated with Daoism and Wudang existed long before he became connected with Taijiquan.

This does not mean that Taijiquan or present-day Wudang martial arts can simply be traced historically back to Zhang Sanfeng. Rather, Zhang Sanfeng gradually became part of a powerful historical and symbolic narrative connecting Daoism, Wudang, internal martial arts and eventually Taijiquan.

This distinction is important because legendary genealogy and martial history are not necessarily the same thing. Legends can nevertheless tell us a great deal about how practitioners understood and presented their arts at particular points in history.

The Internal Martial Arts: A Brief Timeline

Even in the early twentieth century, however, many practitioners did not regard the divide as particularly fundamental. Xu Ke wrote in 1916:

“Boxing is divided into two schools, internal and external, however, more people are familiar with the external school. No matter if it is about the internal or the external school, you have to use the individual techniques of falling, lifting, opening and closing, of beginning and ending with perfection, one has to regulate the qi and understand the principles and be inspired when doing the forms. [...] In addition, the lower body is most important. It is the basis of the whole body. Whatever happens, if it is not stable, one can't respond properly to a capable opponent."

From around 1894 onward, some masters of Xingyiquan, Baguazhang and Taijiquan increasingly began to associate themselves with the internal martial arts. Sun Lutang, a disciple of teachers from these traditions, started publishing a series of highly influential books in 1915. In the following decades, this classification became increasingly widespread and eventually turned into a kind of standard terminology.

In 1928, the Chinese Nationalist government established the Central Guoshu Institute in Nanjing. The academy was divided into two major sections: a Wudang section, which included Xingyiquan, Baguazhang and Taijiquan, and a Shaolin section, in which most other martial arts were taught. There was considerable political and institutional rivalry between these departments.

What Is Internal and External in Real-Life Practice?

As a trainer, I am often asked questions about internal and external martial arts. I find the discussion a little problematic, and I do not want to reinforce the old divide between supposedly internal and external systems. There has been a lot of nonsense, exaggeration and mutual vilification around this topic over the past hundred years or so.

In the Chen Taijiquan I learned and the way I teach it, there are both internal methods and external methods. To classify the entire art as exclusively internal or exclusively external therefore seems somewhat misleading.

I think it is much more useful to discuss the individual methods that exist within a martial art.

External Methods

For example, we have stance training, stepping methods, long-pole shaking, short-stick training and similar practices. It makes sense to describe these as external methods because they work very visibly with posture, movement, structure, physical strength, coordination and mobility.

These things are not somehow less sophisticated because they are external. They are fundamental parts of developing martial skill.

Internal Methods

Then we have breathing methods, work on internal pathways of force generation, proprioception, kinesthetics, mind and intention work and related training.

Many traditional concepts refer directly to this realm of practice: internal force (neijin), internal qi (neiqi), pathways of force (jinlu), intention work (yigong) and so on.

Much of this cannot really be seen directly from the outside. At most, it may become visible indirectly through a certain cohesiveness, integration or quality of movement. In this sense, it makes sense to describe these practices as internal methodology.

Methods Rather Than Martial Arts

If we use this classification — internal and external methods rather than internal and external arts — the issue becomes much clearer.

Some martial arts may emphasize internal methods more strongly, while others may emphasize external methods. Still, there will almost always be some kind of mixture of the two.

The aim should therefore be to balance these methods in a coherent way, develop skill in both areas, and eventually integrate them toward a higher level of practice.

In our Chen Taijiquan, for example, we teach certain internal methods right from the beginning. They can be found throughout the form and are basically inseparable from it. At the same time, their importance and complexity increase as practice develops.

In the beginning, the external shapes are actually very important. Students need to develop physical skill, coordination, mobility, posture and a certain degree of muscular capacity.

As practice progresses, the emphasis changes. Some methods become less dominant while others become increasingly important. There should therefore be a development within the art: different methods receive different emphasis at different stages of training.

Internal and External Unite

This, in my view, is the direction of our system.

Not internal or external, but both — trained in a coherent and useful way and brought into a meaningful balance.