Wudang martial arts gather the internal schools historically associated with the Daoist monastic communities of the Wudang Mountains in Hubei province, chiefly taijiquan, xingyiquan and baguazhang, styles grouped together and contrasted, within Chinese martial arts classification, against the so called external schools such as Shaolin kung fu, on the premise that Wudang's internal styles cultivate and direct qi and stillness of mind as the actual source of martial effectiveness rather than relying primarily on developed muscular strength and speed, a distinction Chinese martial theory frames as much philosophically as technically. This internal framing ties the Wudang styles directly to Daoist cultivation practice more broadly, the same vocabulary of qi circulation, yielding rather than opposing force, and cultivating stillness within movement that also structures Daoist meditative and longevity practices such as neidan, internal alchemy, so that training in a Wudang style is presented within the tradition as a form of Daoist self cultivation pursued through combat application rather than combat training that happens to occur in a Daoist setting.
Tradition credits the legendary, possibly semi legendary, figure Zhang Sanfeng with founding or decisively shaping taijiquan and the broader internal martial tradition associated with Wudang, an attribution scholars of Chinese martial arts history treat with the same caution given to comparably legendary founder figures across several martial traditions worldwide, real reverence within the tradition sitting alongside genuine historical uncertainty about the specific facts.