The Gilded Hall on Tianzhu Peak dates back to 1416, and enshrines a copper statue of Zhenwu the All Mighty. Built entirely of refined copper and gold, it was in the style of a wooden palace, with tenoned and mortised components whose manufacture required scores of tons of pure copper. After being transported to the Wudang summit, the components were assembled and heavily coated with kilogram upon kilogram of liquid gold. To protect the hall, Zhu Di ordered construction of a "Forbidden City" on the slope beneath it. Fire bolts and balls around the building worked in the same way as lightning rods in preserving the Gilded Hall, which 500 years later is still intact and gleaming.

The entire Taoist Imperial Palace complex was finished in 1424, but Zhu Di never beheld its full magnificence, having died on a northern expedition shortly before its completion. His legacy to the nation, in addition to a wealth of legends, was four World Heritage Sites -- the Wudang Mountain ancient temple complex, the Palace Museum, the Ming Tombs and the Temple of Heaven.

Zhang Sanfeng and Wudang Kung-Fu

Taoism has a complicated system of immortals and deities. They fall roughly into three categories: natural gods, such as those of the sun, moon, wind, rain, and earth; deified mortals of great merit, such as role models for fidelity, filial piety, benevolence and justice; and daily functional gods, such as the door, kitchen and fire gods. Each has its own characteristics, but all represent justice and benevolence and have the common purpose of helping the needy and punishing evildoers.

Unique among the large body of immortals believed to live on Wudang Mountain was the martial Taoist monk, Zhang Sanfeng. He could walk 500 kilometers daily, fast for months at a time and vanish and reappear in an instant, according to The History of the Ming Dynasty. The founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Yuanzhang had tried unsuccessfully to employ Zhang Sanfeng in his service, but the monk was notoriously difficult to pin down. Emperor Zhu Di wrote an extraordinarily modest and respectful letter to Zhang Sanfeng, requesting a meeting, but Zhang declined. No mortal that valued his life would have dared to behave in such an offhand manner towards the emperor, but as Zhu Di regarded Zhang Sanfeng as a deity he was not affronted. On the contrary, to express his sincerity, the emperor ordered construction of the Yuzhengong (Meeting the True Man Palace) on Wudang Mountain and the enshrinement of a statue of Zhang Sanfeng in its main hall. This unheard of imperial honor caused a storm of speculation as to the emperor's motivation for such an act of obeisance. Some thought it was because Zhang Sanfeng was actually a living deity versed in the arts of necromancy and distillation of life-prolonging elixirs. Others surmised that Zhang knew the whereabouts of the missing emperor Jianwen, whose reappearance was the emperor's greatest dread. Since the Zhu Di epoch, however, Zhang Sanfeng has been regarded as a great martial artist and founder of Wudang kungfu, rather than immortal.

Wudang kungfu is equal in reputation to Shaolin kungfu, the former being generally accepted as the southern, defensive and the latter as the northern, offensive school of martial arts. One of Zhang Sanfeng's most esteemed contributions to Chinese martial arts was his unequivocal statement that the ultimate purpose of practicing kungfu was to maintain physical health. Taoists were popularly associated with elixirs and alchemy, but Zhang Sanfeng was one outstanding exception. In a letter to Emperor Zhu Di he wrote, "It is better not to believe in alchemy and alchemists….. The amplitude of Dao and abundance of virtue are the best remedies, and a serene mind and absence of desires bring longevity." Zhang created and practiced an "inner elixir kungfu," known today as qigong, or respiratory kungfu -- a breathing technique that aligns the body and the spirit.

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