Chang San-Feng

A person calling himself "Sifu" and writing from "not@happy.com" sent me the following email message regarding my webpage on the famous Taoist Master named "Chang San-Feng": "Chang San-Feng was real It's very disrespectful to "portray" Chang San-Feng as a "imagery” figure. Please don't have false infomation on your Web Page... He did exist, the so called common years that he lived (1247-1447AD) is just a “estimated range”.Chang San-Feng (also known by different spellings ex. Zhang Sanfeng) was the “original creator” of the 13 original movements of Tai Chi Chuan. One just has to look, at the old book of “The Tai Chi Classics”, to see his teachings. It not only, insults the original master, of all forms Tai Chi Chuan, but it also shows lack of knowledge, history, and understanding of the art. I hope you remove all false references about him, from your website. I am from direct Yang family lineage Thank You for reading the above. Sifu" I wrote back to "Sifu," whomever he or she is, but the email bounced back. Some scholars do not believe that Master Chang San-Feng invented the 13 core moves of Taijiquan, and that these claims were invented in the late 19th century by people trying to ground their taijiquan in ancient heroes. I believe that I do a pretty fair, reasonable and respectful job of explaining the lore and scholarshop about Master Chang San-Feng on my webpage. Personally, I find it rather hard to believe in Taoist Masters that supposedly live to be over 300 years of age, can walk 70 miles in a day at age 150, are masters of ten fine and applied arts, and can work other miracles in their spare time. But I love legends and lore about these great Masters anyway. Truth is sometimes less important than the hope for greater human achievement.