Introduction
If you’re a martial arts nerd like me, who likes not only to train but to read about history and watch movies and all that you’ve at the very least heard about the Shaolin Monastery and the Wudang Mountains. Fiction portrays them as two distinct, opposite martial arts factions revered by all others. Sometimes this opposition is merely in the differences between their martial arts. Other times it’s more political, even getting to a rivalry. As often happens, fiction and reality tend to overlap. If you tell a story enough times people start to believe it. Nowadays with China promoting martial arts as a cultural element, they’re a bit like the Coke vs Pepsi of traditional kung fu.
First of all, for all of you who might not know what I’m talking about, let me do a very brief summary of both institutions’ history.
Brief History
Shaolin
The Shaolin Monastery (少林寺 Shàolínsì), also known as Shaolin Temple, is a renowned temple founded during the Northern Wei Dynasty (around 495 AD). It’s recognized as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the cradle of Shaolin Kung Fu. As with most Buddhist Monasteries of the time, its purpose was the study and translation of sacred texts. According to legend, when Bodhidharma arrived at the temple, he taught two things to the monks. Chan Buddhism and some sort of physical exercises which became the foundation of Shaolin Kung Fu. The truth, according to historians, is a bit more complex. But in summary Shaolin has always been famous for its martial arts, especially for its staff technique.
The history of the temple is intertwined with that of China and the temple’s political connections have varied. Some emperors saw to the welfare of the monks, others not so much. And in more than one occasion, the army recruited monks for some military endeavor or as instructors. During the first half of the 20th century, wars and turmoil hit the temple quite hard, badly damaging the institution, the monks and the buildings. After the Cultural Revolution, it was reconstructed and rebuilt. To this day, monks practice and teach religion and martial arts there.
Wudang
The Wudang Mountains (武当山, Wǔdāng Shān) consist of a small mountain range in the northwestern part of Hubei, China. They are home 
to a famous complex of Daoist temples and monasteries. The Wudang Mountains are renowned for the practice of Taijiquan and Taoism as the Daoist counterpart to the Shaolin Monastery. While the earliest temples at Wudang date from the Tang dynasty, it was during the Ming dynasty that it really became big. As opposed to Shaolin, the Daoist monasteries in Wudang remained more secluded from the rest of the world. Between that, legend and folklore, Wudang’s actual historical connections to martial arts are not clear. Nowadays, monks in Wudang teach several martial arts, mainly the so called internal styles of Taijiquan, Xing Yi and Bagua.
Shaolin and Wudang as labels
The Roman saying goes “mens sana in corpore sano”, it means “a healthy mind in a healthy body”. Traditional Chinese culture has very similar ideas in that aspect. During the Republic era, several public kung fu institutes appeared. They promoted traditional martial arts and other aspects of Chinese physical culture as a way to strengthen the nation and its people. One of these schools was the Central Guoshu Institute. Originally, the faculty was divided into two schools, Shaolin School and Wudang. The Wudang School taught Xingyi, Bagua and Taijiquan, while the Shaolin School taught Chuo Jiao, Zha Quan, among others.
Thus, Wudang became associated mainly to those three styles and vice versa, while Shaolin became a bit of an umbrella term for external styles. It was also around that time that Taijiquan became strongly associated to Zhang Sanfeng, tightening its connection to Wudang. Similar ties between Xing Yi and Bagua, and Wudang, probably appeared then too. Even though there is no historical evidence that relates any of those styles founders directly to the mountain and daoist priests.
In Fiction
Between the later days of the Qing dynasty and the early Republic, martial arts fiction exploded as a genre. Similar to chivalry novels and pulp fiction in the west, stories about kung fu heroes became very popular. These heroes came from different backgrounds, they fought against injustice and for the Chinese people, and some of these heroes’ kung fu came from Shaolin or Wudang. Shaolin was already very popular in folklore and daoist hermits who imparted their secret skills were also not strange in fiction. Evil daoists against righteous buddhist heroes, Wudang swordsmen fighting alongside Shaolin monks. Sometimes the two sects are mostly in the background, sometimes the hero is related to both. From the written page to the cinema, tv and whatever you can imagine. Several Shaw Bros. movies show some variation of those ideas.
Modern rivals
Nowadays, both Shaolin and Wudang are pilgrimage sites for martial artists. People from all around the world go there as tourists or even students. There’s an industry built around certified instructors who studied at one or the other. Both sacred sites have become marketing stunts. Don’t take me wrong, foreigners who study there, mostly, get the same treatment as locals. They train hard, develop skill, learn to do all kinds of stunts, some even become good fighters. But they still feed that machine. Are those people learning actual Wudang or Shaolin martial arts, some sure do, some probably don’t. Wudang promotes itself as the originator of the internal styles but you can find some videos of people in daoist garment doing Bajiquan, or even mantis. In very similar manner, you can find Shaolin monks doing their own version of Taijiquan and other styles not usually associated with the temple.
Conclusions
To wrap this post, I’d like to sum up a bit and maybe add some concluding remarks. Both Shaolin and Wudang are important religious centers and sacred sites. Both are nowadays centers for the study of martial arts, but in the case of Wudang, that might not have been usual in ancient times. There is a sort of rivalry between the two that probably has its roots in fiction, Republic era books and their current position as THE two origins of kung fu. But is this rivalry real? Are Wudang and Shaolin martial arts so different, so apart from each other? Not really. It would require a deep dive into the history of those styles to clear that but you can check my links and the sources I’ve cited. They are more qualified than I am.
As usual, I hope you liked this and you can leave a comment to share what you think of it. Thanks!
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For your information: a French researcher wrote his PH’D on Wudang which has been published as: Le Wudang Shan, Les Indes Savantes, 2010. he explains that up to now it exists 9 monographies in Chinese about Wudang and none of them mentions the connection Zhang San feng / taiji quan.
That’s quite interesting. Do you know if there’s an English translation of that paper?