use the Pinyin version. History Early development Taijiquan's formative influences came from practices undertaken in Taoist and Buddhist monasteries, such as Wudang, Shaolin and The Thousand Year Temple in Henan. The early development of Tai Chi proper is connected with Henan's Thousand Year Temple and a nexus of nearby villages: Chen Village, Tang Village, Wangbao Village, and Zhaobao Town. These villages were closely connected, shared an interest in the martial arts and many went to study at Thousand Year Temple (which was a syncretic temple with elements from the three teachings). New documents from these villages, mostly dating to the 17th century, are some of the earliest sources for the practice of Taijiquan. Some traditionalists claim that Tai chi is a purely Chinese art that comes from ancient Daoism and Confucianism. These schools believe that Tai chi theory and practice were formulated by Taoist monk Zhang Sanfeng in the 12th century. These stories are often filled with legendary and hagiographical content and lack historical support. Modern historians pointing out that the earliest reference indicating a connection between Zhang Sanfeng and martial arts is actually a 17th-century piece called Epitaph for Wang Zhengnan (1669), composed by Huang Zongxi (1610–1695). Aside from this single source, the other claims of connections between Tai chi and Zhang Sanfeng appeared no earlier than the 19th century. According to Douglas Wile, "there is no record of a Zhang Sanfeng in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), and there is no mention in the Ming (1368-1644) histories or hagiographies of Zhang Sanfeng of any connection between the immortal and the material arts." Another common theory for the origin of Tai Chi is that it was created by Chen Wangting (1580–1660) while living in Chen Village (陳家溝), Henan province. The other four contemporary traditional Taijiquan styles (Yang, Sun, Wu and Wu (Hao)) trace their teachings back to Chen village in the early 1800s. Yang Luchan (1799–1872), the founder of the popular Yang style, trained with the Chen family for 18 years before he started to teach in Beijing, which strongly suggests that his work was heavily influenced by the Chen family art. Martial arts historian Xu Zhen claimed that the Tai chi of Chen Village was influenced by the Taizu changquan style practiced at nearby Shaolin Monastery, while Tang Hao thought it was derived from a treatise by Ming dynasty general Qi Jiguang, Jixiao Xinshu ("New Treatise on Military Efficiency"),