Yang style Taijiquan has three traditional frames of practice—large, small, and middle—each training different qualities. Master Tian Zhaolin, a disciple of the famous Yang Jianhou, popularized the middle frame. It involves rising, falling, changes in speed, small and large circles, and subtle body mechanics not seen in the large frame of Yang Chengfu. The middle frame Yang style is well known as one of the primary fighting methods and has a traditional transmission consisting of two famous lineages in Shanghai. In this presentation, attendees will learn the history, principles, and core ideas of the Yang style middle frame from the Wang Chengjie line of Tian’s Taiji as taught by Master Yin Qin.

BIO
Robert Coons has practiced Tian-style Taiji in both famous lineages for 24 years and is a dedicated practitioner and writer on Daoist internal alchemy. He is an initiate and lineage transmitter of the Miaoshi Yixue system of Zhou Yi arts and Fengshui under the lineage name Kong Xinjie. His primary martial arts education comes from Master Yang Hai in the arts of Xingyi and Bagua and Master Yin Qin in Yang style middle frame Taiji, making Yin and Yang his principal teachers. A passionate educator committed to promoting authentic traditions as they are practiced in China, Robert currently lives in Kaifeng, China, to continue his studies, believing that to be a good teacher, one must also remain a diligent student.

Tai Chi Chuan is an ancient healing art and powerful martial art rooted in Confucianism, Taoism, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Zen philosophy. Supported by thousands of modern medical studies, it offers proven benefits for mind, body, and spirit. But why was it named Tai Chi Chuan? In this session, Master Violet Li will demystify the name and core principles of Tai Chi Chuan, demonstrating how its gentle movements directly reflect its profound underlying philosophy and its name.

BIO
Master Violet Li is a 12th-generation Chen-Style Tai Chi Inheritor, Qigong master, and certified instructor dedicated to sharing mind-body wellness globally. Known as a “teachers’ teacher,” she has taught over 10,000 students worldwide and founded free online instructional programs reaching audiences across more than 30 countries. Beyond instruction, Master Li is an award-winning journalist and prolific author with hundreds of published articles on Tai Chi, meditation, and the healing arts. Combining rigorous martial arts training with deep philosophical insight, she bridges ancient Eastern traditions and modern science to promote physical health, mental clarity, and spiritual harmony.

An intermediate – to advanced-level class on Wudang Celestial Horse Taiji, water and fire styles (shui huo tian ma tai ji quan). Beginning with a presentation on the cosmological and alchemical significance of the art’s namesake, the session explores Zhou Dunyi’s Taijitu, a brief chronology of the Yin-Yang symbol, and the origin legend of Zhang San Feng observing a snake and crane. This is followed by a movement workshop embodying energetic principles in practice. Fundamentals are shared through well-known exercises such as silk reeling, cloud hands, and brush knee, while applying reverse breathing to inspire the highest potential of the craft through a Wudang Daoist worldview. Participants will learn how the 3rd-century text, Yellow Court Scripture, conveys breathing and awareness techniques that influenced early qigong and taiji—a text recommended by her master, Li Shifu, to be read 10,000 times and which inspired Chen Family Style founder Chen Wanting in his poetry The Long and Short Lines. The workshop provides a comprehensive training routine to take home, enhancing any Taiji style with health and longevity benefits, martial power, and access to spiritual connection.

BIO
Wei Cheng Ling (Lindsey Wei) is a 24th-generation Chun Yang Sect lineage transmitter of Wudang Daoism, 31st-generation Long Men (Dragon Gate) Daoist (魏世灵), 23rd-generation (ordained through Parting Clouds) Quanzhen Long Men Priestess (宗辉). She trained in the Wudang Mountains under her master, Li Song Feng, for nine years. Lindsey’s Wushu training began in 2004 at Beijing’s Capital Sports University, where she studied for two years. In 2006, she began her study of internal Wudang Gong Fu, training full-time in China for the next six years—including the San Feng Sect with Zhong Xue Chao and the Chun Yang Sect with Du Zong Chang. By 2007, she was deeply immersed in the culture, philosophy, and spiritual practices of Daoism, living in a remote Daoist temple with her master. In 2008, she began organizing groups of students to train for one to four months at a time with Master Li Song Feng in Wudang, continuing these trips annually ever since. She is a senior instructor and translator under Li Shifu of the Five Immortals Temple and has recently led student groups to China for courses in Daoist Medicine, Yi Jing and Fengshui, Dragon Heart Sword, Five Dragons Bagua Zhang, and Internal Alchemy.  Lindsey is the author of The Valley Spirit: A Female Story of Daoist Cultivation (Singing Dragon, 2012) and The Path of the Spiritual Warrior (Purple Cloud Press, 2021). She founded the Wudang White Horse Internal Arts Academy in 2014 and the Wudang White Horse Temple 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2022. Since 2024, she has served as a Shift Network Instructor, teaching courses on Wudang Temple Qigong, Wudang Longevity Qigong, and the Daoist Meditation Path.

This talk explores how Daoist martial arts such as Taijiquan and Baguazhang are, at their deepest levels, somatic technologies of exorcism, alchemy, and apotheosis. Their occult physiologies mirror—and actively participate in—the greater daimonic cosmos surrounding them, transforming the body into a living microcosm of that unseen world. It traces how early methods for summoning, armoring, and transforming the body crossed a daimonic bridge into the subtle-body technologies of internal alchemy.

BIO
Jeff Reid is a teacher, writer, and 16th-generation disciple of the Wudang Sanfeng Lineage, who spent seven years living and training in the Wudang Mountains. His book, Leaving the Mountains: A Daoist Journey from Obscurity to Modernity (2025), is at once a genealogy of the lineage as well as a map of the strange terrain of contemporary Daoism—tracing its migration from secluded mountain temples and caves into the turbulent currents of modern China and the wider world. He is also the founder of Wudang Santa Cruz in California, where he explores the territory where martial arts and mysticism converge

Taiyi Xiao Yao Zhang (太乙逍遥掌) offers a doorway into the deeper dimensions of Daoist internal cultivation, where martial movement becomes a vehicle for transforming the relationship between body, intention, Qi, and spirit. In this session, Rodney Bhally draws directly on traditional Xuan Wu Pai teachings to explore the core principles underlying the art and the deeper meaning of Xiao Yao—carefree, unrestrained movement rooted in Daoist philosophy. Rodney examines how practice moves beyond external choreography and excessive muscular effort toward greater internal integration, sensitivity, spontaneity, and non-forcing. Through the lens of traditional Wudang practice, attendees will discover how martial arts can become a living expression of Daoist cultivation, bridging physical practice, internal development, and spiritual philosophy. The presentation will also include a practical demonstration to help participants experience these principles firsthand.

BIO
Rodney S. Bhally holds a doctoral degree in Eastern Medicine and Acupuncture and spent over a decade in China’s Wudang Mountains engaged in the immersive study of Tai Chi and Qigong. An advanced instructor under Ismet Himmet, with extensive experience teaching internationally, he leads seminars and retreats in locations such as Costa Rica, focusing on traditional movement practices, internal development, and self-discovery.

In 1958, Alan Watts, the renowned ‘philosophical entertainer’ and rascal guru who played a major role in introducing Asian philosophy to Western audiences, published an essay entitled ‘Beat Zen, Square Zen, and Zen’. In it, he examined the tendency of Western seekers approaching Zen to fall into one of two extremes. On the one hand, an overly free-spirited ‘go with the flow’ attitude. On the other, a rigid adherence to the deeply structured practice common in the temples of Japan.

Perhaps this sounds a bit familiar?

Drawing on the ideas presented by Watts, as well as his own experiences and those of his students, James explores the ways in which this same tendency often shows up in practitioners of Taiji (and indeed in all the Daoist Arts). With over-emphasis on elaborate tradition on one side, and a sort of anti-discipline based on doing what feels right on the other, the essence of Taiji sits somewhere in the middle. And while both extremes have their place and their uses, they also can be traps that stop practitioners from appreciating Taiji for what it is and why they practice it.

BIO
James began his training in Boston under Master Zhou Xuan Yun in 2014. Over more than a decade of dedicated study, he has trained extensively in Taiji, Qigong, Xing Yi, and meditation, earning his credentials as a certified teacher through Daoist Gate. After spending many years in England, he settled near Nantes in northwestern France with his family in 2024. In May 2025, he founded Arts Taoïstes de la Loire to offer Taiji classes in his community in keeping with Master Zhou’s tradition. He later established his own school, Le Temple Errant Arts Taoïstes (Wandering Temple Daoist Arts). Outside of his training with Daoist Gate, James is also an avid student of both Eastern and Western philosophical traditions and a scholar and practitioner of Medieval European Martial Arts, having formerly served as curator for the Royal Armouries collection at the Tower of London in the UK. For James, these arts are far more than mere physical exercise or a hobby; they are part of a life journey aimed at cultivating balance, serenity, and clarity of both body and mind.

In this talk, Daniel Mroz shares how lì 力, líng 靈, and yì 艺—translated here as power, spirit, and art—form a fascinating triad. Zhẽng hé lì 整合力 (integrated movement) and júbù lì 局部力 (sectional movement) are key methods for generating power in Chinese martial arts, which also create suspense and surprise in performance. These movements can further be related to early Daoist rites of flight and tribute, the combination of which is now called nèidǎn 內膽. These ideas are brought together using contemporary and historical examples, delivered in a relaxed, informal, and welcoming way.

BIO
Daniel Mroz, PhD, is a theatre artist, author, and student of the Chinese martial arts. He is a professor in the Department of Theatre at the University of Ottawa in Canada. His most recent book, Resonant Space: Religion, Theatre and the Chinese Martial Arts, was published by Cardiff University Press (2025). His work can be found at www.danielmroz.net.

Because of the way Chinese culture has been transmitted and interpreted, Taiji and Taijiquan are often mistakenly treated as the same thing.

In traditional Chinese thought, Taiji (太极) is a philosophical concept—a fundamental principle concerning change, balance, and the dynamic relationship between complementary forces. Taijiquan (太极拳), by contrast, is a martial art that incorporates and expresses these philosophical principles through physical practice. Over the course of Taijiquan’s transmission and popularization, however, this distinction has gradually become blurred. Today, many people understand Taijiquan simply as a series of slow, gentle movements performed in a fixed routine. While slow practice is certainly one aspect of Taijiquan training, it represents only a small part of a much deeper and more comprehensive martial art. This misunderstanding has been further shaped by the way Taijiquan has been promoted in modern times. As the art gained popularity, some masters and schools developed increasingly elaborate historical narratives and legends around their traditions, sometimes influenced by competition for commercial recognition, cultural influence, and tourism resources. To understand Taijiquan more fully, it is important to distinguish the philosophical concept of Taiji from the martial art of Taijiquan, and to look beyond the modern image of Taijiquan as simply “slow-motion exercise.” In this conference, attendees will explore in greater detail what Taiji and Taijiquan mean, how they are related, and how they have developed over time.

BIO
Founder of the Daoist Gate Center, a non-profit organization, Master Zhou’s mission is to promote cross-cultural East and West understanding and Daoist solidarity. At 13, Master Zhou was sent to live on Wudang Mountain, where he was a student and later an instructor of Taiji, Kung Fu, and Qi Gong. Living at the Daoist Association Martial Arts Academy in the Purple Cloud Temple, he was accepted into the 24th generation of the Wudang Long Men (Lóng ménpài 龙门派) lineage. At 16, he vowed to become a Daoist Monk and began his study of Daoist philosophy and religious practices. He was trained in ritual arts, chanting, divination, and internal alchemy. Master Zhou is a formally recognized disciple of Master Li Guang Fu 李光富, the Chairman of the Chinese Daoist Association (中国道教协会会长). Master Zhou divides his time between teaching at the center and abroad.