動靜無始 變化無端 虛虛實實 自然而然
Movement and stillness have no beginning. Transformation has no end. Emptiness empties, fullness fills. Let it all happen.
— Du Xinwu (杜心五), 1927
The Most Famous Proponent: Du Xinwu 杜心五 (1869–1953)
Few figures in Chinese martial arts history are as compelling as Du Xinwu (杜心五). Nicknamed “Shenjiao” — Magic Legs — he was known for a speed and lightness that contemporaries described as unearthly. He served as personal bodyguard to Sun Yat-sen during the turbulent years of the 1911 Revolution, protecting the founding father of the Republic of China through some of the most dangerous moments in modern Chinese history. Yet despite his fame as a fighter and patriot, Du Xinwu devoted his life not to combat itself, but to the deep cultivation of a rare and nearly unknown art: Ziranmen — the Way of the Natural.
Watch: Ziranmen in Motion
Master Liu Deming (劉德明), fifth-generation lineage holder of the Liuhe Ziranmen tradition and a direct disciple of Grandmaster Wan Laisheng, demonstrates the art’s essential form — fluid, grounded, alive:
What is Ziran Quan? 自然拳
Ziranmen (自然門) — literally the “Natural Gate” or “Natural Way” — is one of the rarest and most philosophically coherent internal martial arts of China. Unlike styles built on elaborate form catalogues or muscular conditioning, its entire architecture rests on a single principle: ziran (自然), naturalness — the Taoist quality of effortless, uncontrived action in perfect harmony with the Way.
Its training does not build a fighter by adding skills on top of a rigid structure. Instead, it strips away everything artificial — tension, performance, ego, habit — until what remains is a responsive, rooted, spontaneous being who moves as naturally in combat as in daily life. As the art’s own sayings put it: do not be dogmatic about postures; be natural and adapt to the situation.
The result is a system that, outwardly, does not look impressive. It is not meant to. But encountered by a skilled practitioner, it is, in the words of Wan Laisheng, “like encountering a shapeless ghost, a silent mist.”
A Brief History of Ziranmen
The Founder: Dwarf Xu 徐矮師 (dates unknown)
The origins of Ziranmen trace to a figure almost mythological in his obscurity: a tiny man of Sichuan origin known only as Xu Aishi — Dwarf Xu — whose height reportedly did not reach three feet. He never disclosed his real name or precise birthplace. What is known is that he had synthesised a complete martial system rooted in ancient Taoist concepts of ziran — spontaneity and naturalness — and in the traditions of Daoist inner cultivation. He carried no complex forms, no theatrical methods, only a set of foundational practices that, over years, transformed the practitioner from the inside out.
Around 1885, during travels through Sichuan and Guizhou, Dwarf Xu encountered a young caravan guard named Du Xinwu. The young man, hearing the master’s reputation but seeing his meagre frame, was unimpressed — and attacked him repeatedly to test him. Xu defeated every attempt with effortless ease. Humbled, Du Xinwu abandoned everything he had previously learned and spent the next eight years training with Xu from morning to night. When it was time for Du to travel to Japan to study, Xu departed for Mt. Emei to continue his own cultivation — and was never seen again.
Du Xinwu 杜心五 (1869–1953) — “Magic Legs”
Born in Cili County, Hunan Province, Du Xinwu became the living proof of Ziranmen’s principles. After years of independent practice following Dwarf Xu’s departure, his skill reached legendary levels. He developed an extraordinary qinggong — light-body technique — training atop wooden stakes with weighted rings on his arms and legs, moving so quickly that observers at the 1928 Nanjing competition described his body as “a blurred shade while his eyes remained clear and solid.”
He served as personal bodyguard to Sun Yat-sen from 1905 and through the revolutionary events of 1911–1912, later working as a counsellor at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Fiercely selective about transmission, he passed the art to his eldest son Du Xiusi, and — unusually, as tradition had allowed only one disciple per generation — to Wan Laisheng.
Wan Laisheng 萬籟聲 (1903–1992) — “The Big Dipper”
Wan Laisheng is arguably the most important figure in the public history of Ziranmen. Born in Wuchang, Hubei, into a scholarly family, he was a polymath: martial artist, Taoist philosopher, physician, professor, and prolific author. He had already trained in Shaolin Liu He Men Boxing, Xingyi, Baguazhang, Luohan Boxing, Wudang Taiji, and Monkey Style before tracking down Du Xinwu — then working at the Ministry of Agriculture — and spending seven years in concentrated study of Ziranmen.
At the landmark 1928 National Wushu Competition in Nanjing — a notoriously fierce full-contact tournament that was eventually halted due to the severity of injuries and two deaths — Wan’s skill was recognised by a jury of peers as supreme. He was chosen as one of the “Five Tigers Going South” (alongside Gu Ruzhang, Li Xianwu, Wang Xiao, and Fu Zhensong), dispatched to Guangzhou to establish martial arts institutes across southern China. He later earned the title “Big Dipper” — meaning his skill had reached all the way to the heavens — in recognition not just of his fighting ability but his mastery of Taoist philosophy, Chinese medicine, and classical literature.
Wan authored sixteen books, including Zi Ran Men, One Zero Philosophy, Essence of Wushu, Discussion of Wushu, and Traditional Chinese Orthopedics, integrating Zhuangzi’s philosophy into the martial framework. Notably, Bruce Lee is reported to have owned Wan’s books, and researchers have identified Ziranmen’s influence on the development of Jeet Kune Do.
Before his death in 1992, Wan passed the lineage to Hong Zhengfu and established the Fuzhou Ziranmen Academy in 1986, which trained thousands of practitioners.
The Living Lineage
- Hong Zhengfu (1923–) — 4th generation, professor at Fujian Physical Education Institute, direct successor of Wan Laisheng
- Liu Deming — 5th generation, trained under both Hong Zhengfu and Wan Laisheng; has taught internationally from Melbourne, Australia since 1992
- Du Xiusi — Du Xinwu’s son, preserved the family lineage with emphasis on internal cultivation
- Du Fei Hu — Du Xinwu’s grandson, 3rd-generation holder of the family branch
- Lu Yaoqin — also transmitted by Wan Laisheng; lineage holder and author of introductory Ziranmen texts
- Lin Disheng, Zhang Youcheng, Wen Zhouxu — early disciples of Du Xinwu alongside Wan Laisheng
Philosophy and Core Teachings
The “Middle Path” Between Inner and Outer
Ziranmen deliberately positions itself as a synthesis — dwelling at the midpoint between internal and external cultivation, drawing the strengths of both while avoiding their characteristic weaknesses. Wan Laisheng articulated this clearly: in purely external training, energy disperses throughout the body and floats upward, dissipating with age. In purely internal methods, energy is pressed into the tissues until the practitioner becomes hard as iron — but also stiff, slow, and clumsy. Ziranmen does neither.
“It uses intention to guide energy, without allowing the slightest amount of exertion or the slightest desire to pose. Where intention goes, the hand goes, and where it stops, the hand stops.”
— Wan Laisheng, Collection of Martial Arts Traditions, 1929
The practitioner works in what Wan calls “the deeper emptiness” — not forcing, not performing, simply allowing a refined internal process to unfold through consistent, patient, natural training.
Ziran (自然) — Spontaneous Naturalness
The concept of ziran is not passivity or formlessness. It is the quality of a master who has so thoroughly internalised a discipline that technique dissolves into pure response. As in Zhuangzi’s image of Cook Ding carving the ox — moving with total harmony, following the natural grain — the Ziranmen practitioner no longer “does” techniques; they happen through him.
At the highest levels, there are no preconceived forms, no fixed patterns of attack or defence. Movement is swift and unpredictable precisely because it is not planned. The mind is free from thought, and action arises spontaneously from the situation. This state is called ziran fa — natural law in action.
The One and Zero Philosophy (一零哲學)
Wan Laisheng formalised the art’s deepest principle in what he called the “One and Zero” philosophy — drawn from Taoist thought and expressed through Zhuangzi’s lens. Zero represents emptiness, the undifferentiated ground of potential; One represents the unified action that arises from it. In combat: when the mind is empty (zero), appropriate action (one) emerges naturally. When the mind is full of fixed ideas and intentions, technique becomes mechanical, predictable, and ultimately vulnerable.
This philosophy extends to health: energy (qi) sinks naturally to the dantian when the practitioner is free of tension and contrivance. “Never forget that this is happening,” Wan wrote, “but also never try to help it happen.”
The Art as Qigong
Ziranmen explicitly frames itself as qigong — not in the narrow modern sense of health exercises, but in the classical sense of energy cultivation as the foundation of all capability. External training scatters qi; the art of Ziranmen gathers, purifies, and anchors it. The result is a quality described in the texts: outwardly the practitioner may appear slight or even frail, but internally there is a fullness and a power that only reveals itself under pressure. “With more practice comes greater health. With more experience comes greater strength.”
Principles as a Practical System
Wan Laisheng’s 1929 text encodes the entire system’s fighting logic in a set of compact principles — not as rules to memorise, but as qualities to embody through years of training:
The Four Animal Qualities
- Crane: Shrink your body, gather, retract — then release
- Snake: Shoot the hand forward with penetrating precision
- Monkey: Move with agility, mobility, and playful unpredictability — never fixed to one approach
- Tiger: Root deeply, move with patience, stealth, and ferocious commitment when the moment arrives
The Nineteen Combat Words
The fighting logic is compressed into nineteen characters: liveliness in capturing, catch and seize, dodge and evade, rounded and slippery, absorb and shoot, sink and float, flowing and supple, skillful and crisp, transforming with subtlety — these principles take you to the highest level.
The Fifteen Body Points
Every part of the body must be trained and ready: hands, eyes, body, technique, stances; shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees; head, neck, chest, waist, back. Every part moves when any part moves. Every part is still when any part is still. There are no isolated movements.
The Paired Qualities
- Hard as steel — soft as rubber
- Heavy-footed as a tree rooted in the ground — light-footed as an ice skater
- Hands reach out soft as silk — upper body stays hard as iron
- Power can be obvious or hidden — technique can be sticky or evasive
On Evasion
“Dodge his attack like cool breeze blowing past. Evade like pulling a sword out of a sheath.” Evasion in Ziranmen is not retreat — it is the spatial repositioning that makes the opponent’s force irrelevant and one’s own response effortless.
The Key to Everything
Amidst all these principles, Wan Laisheng identifies one as primary: energy (qi) sinking to the dantian. All other qualities depend on this. When qi roots in the lower abdomen — not through force, but through the progressive relaxation of the entire being — the body integrates, the mind clarifies, and natural power becomes available without effort.
Training Methods: From First Circle to Final Mastery
Unlike many internal arts that begin with forms, Ziranmen’s curriculum is built from the ground up through a sequence of foundational practices that the student must not rush. The art specifies a ten-year curriculum, with the first six years focused on deep physical and internal transformation, and the final four years consolidating what has been built. After ten years, a brief daily practice is sufficient to maintain the art for life.
Stage 1: Circle Walking with Rolling Hands (Neiquanshou Zouquan 內圈手走圈)
The gateway to Ziranmen is simple but demanding: walk endlessly in a tight circle while maintaining low stances and performing the “forward rolling hands” — a continuous, outward-circling motion of both arms. Begin with one hundred steps, gradually extending to four hundred and then to two hours of unbroken practice. This is the practitioner’s only task for the first two years.
Du Xinwu himself spent three years on this practice alone before Dwarf Xu accepted him as a full disciple. The exercise develops root, internal coordination, qi descent to the dantian, and — gradually — the clear, steady gaze and light-footed agility that mark the accomplished Ziranmen practitioner. “After a couple of years, your energy will gradually sink down, and your eyes will also gradually develop more of a gleam.”
Stage 2: Ghost-Head Hands (Guitou Shou 鬼頭手) — Pushing Hands
After the internal circle-hand walking is established, the practitioner progresses to “ghost-head hands” — a form of pushing hands training performed in both active mode (back of the hand pushing outward, tiger-claw palm) and passive mode (palm facing downward). This develops sensitivity, structure, and the capacity to issue force in any direction without muscular contraction.
Stage 3: Kicking Methods
Toe kicks (die ti) and edge-of-foot kicks (pian ti) are integrated into the circle-walking pattern. Direction alternates — with the grain, then against — building coordination, balance, and the lightning-fast low kicks that Ziranmen is known for. Du Xinwu’s “Magic Legs” nickname referred to precisely this cultivated speed and precision.
Stage 4: Conditioning Tools
Once the internal foundation is established (after at least two years of circle walking), specialised conditioning tools are introduced — each requiring consistent daily practice over years:
- Mother and Child Spheres (Zimu Qiu): Iron spheres of sixteen and twenty pounds. Practised in horse stance, using eight methods: grabbing, slashing, cutting, stabbing, throwing, brushing, pointing, seizing. Develops iron grip and whole-body structure.
- Mandarin-Duck Rings (Yuanyang Huan): Sixteen lead rings per arm, each weighing one pound (total 32 pounds), worn on the forearms and used with ghost-head hands pushing. Three years to master.
- Sandbag and Tiger’s-Mouth Stick: The sandbag — four layers of cloth filled with mung beans and iron pellets — develops snatching grip strength. The tiger’s-mouth stick trains the pinching power between thumb and forefinger.
- Triangle Stakes (Sanjiao Zhuang): Rope-wrapped stakes pounded into the ground; the practitioner weaves and kicks between them, developing evasive footwork and kicking precision.
- Balancing Stake (Shang Zhuang): A vertical stake on which the practitioner balances on their belly — training the internal membranes. Three years to master. At advanced levels, weight is added to the back while the practitioner eats and speaks normally.
- Basket Walking (Zou Boluo): Walking along the rim of a bamboo basket initially laden with two hundred pounds of stones. Rocks are gradually removed over ten years. Develops extraordinary lightness of foot. Ten years to master.
- Tiptoe Walking (Die Xing): All circle-walking practice eventually transferred to the tips of the toes — and ultimately performed while standing on small plates.
Stage 5: The Absorbing-Expelling Stage
After two to two and a half years, the “fire nature” — the hard, aggressive energy accumulated through external training — gradually cools. The practitioner then enters the deeper study of tun tu fu chen: absorbing and expelling, floating and sinking. At this level, practical fighting methods become available naturally, not through drilling techniques but through the maturation of internal structure.
The Sparring Sayings
A complete set of combat principles governs the body in motion:
- In stillness: adopt “Showing the Tablet of Authority” — deep, wide stance, dragon-embrace hands
- In motion: use the eight stances
- When changing: let the steps flow like ocean waves
- Short-range techniques: Wave, chop, raise, slash, lift, pull, flash, spread
- “Cover like a metal hook, thrust like a knife, brace like iron scaffolding, stick like glue”
The Warning Sign of Progress
Wan Laisheng describes a remarkable marker of internal transformation that practitioners can watch for: after years of training, the imposing, heroic look of the external martial artist gradually disappears. The limbs become slimmer, lighter, the posture relaxed. The practitioner no longer looks like a fighter. “Once you cease to look like a fighter, appearing to be almost too weak for it, then the training has been fulfilled.” Internally, practitioners of both styles can also be distinguished by the eyes: external practitioners have a piercing, even threatening gaze; internal practitioners possess what Wan describes as “the calm clarity of gemstones, a dignified solemnity.”
Weapons
Ziranmen includes a small but complete weapons curriculum, characteristically stripped of all superfluous material: long weapons (the snapping staff and the Eight Immortals single-head staff), short weapons (the saber), and hidden projectile weapons (whip-chain dart and stabbing dart). Each weapon system consists of only a handful of essential methods — deceptively simple to the eye, but expressing the same internal principles as the empty-hand practice.
The Art in Summary
Ziranmen is not a fighting style you learn quickly or display impressively. It is a path of gradual internal transformation, requiring patience, humility, and consistent daily practice over years — then decades. Its logic is not the logic of technique accumulation but of quality deepening: the same foundational practices, trained until they reveal layers of understanding that no amount of rushing can access.
What it promises — and delivers, to those who walk the path — is a body that moves with complete integration, a mind free from contrivance, and a power that belongs not to the muscles but to the whole organism in harmony with itself. In short: what the Taoists called wu wei — effortless action in accord with the Way.
The four lines of calligraphy left by Du Xinwu say everything:
動靜無始 — Movement and stillness have no beginning.
變化無端 — Transformation has no end.
虛虛實實 — Emptiness empties, fullness fills.
自然而然 — Let it all happen.
Further Reading and Sources
- Wan Laisheng, 武術滙宗 Collection of Martial Arts Traditions (1929) — translated by Paul Brennan: brennantranslation.wordpress.com
- Wikipedia: Ziranmen | Wan Laisheng
- Master Liu Deming’s Ziranmen school: ziranmen.com
- Freedom School of Martial Arts — Ziranmen resources: freedommartialart.com
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