city or even village. Generally, this identification indicates the region of origin but could also describe the place where the style has established a reputation. Well-known landmarks used to characterize Chinese martial arts include the famous mountains of China. The Eight Great Schools of Martial Arts (八大門派/八大门派), a grouping of martial arts schools used in many wuxia novels, is based on this type of geographical classifications. This group of schools includes: Hua Shan (華山/华山), Emei Mountains (峨嵋山), Wudang Shan (武当山), Mt. Kongtong (崆峒山), Kunlun Mountains (崑崙山/昆仑山), Cang Mountain (蒼山/苍山), Mount Qingcheng (青城山) and Mount Song Shaolin (嵩山少林). Historically, there are 18 provinces (省) in China. Each province has its own styles of martial arts. For example, in Xingyi, there are currently three main branches: Shanxi, Hebei and Henan. Each branch has unique characteristics but they can all be traced to the original art developed by Li Luoneng and the Dai family. A particular style can also be identified by the city where the art was practised. For example, in the North, the cities of Beijing or Tianjin have created different martial arts branches for many styles. Similarly, in the South, the cities of Shanghai, Quandong and Foshan all represented centers of martial arts development. Older martial art styles can be described by their village affiliation. For example, Zhaobao t'ai chi ch'uan (趙堡忽靈架太極拳/赵堡忽灵架太极拳) is a branch of Chen-style t'ai chi ch'uan originating from Zhaobao village. External and internal classifications The distinction between external and internal (外内) martial arts comes from Huang Zongxi's 1669 Epitaph for Wang Zhengnan. Stanley Henning proposes that the Epitaph'''s identification of the internal martial arts with the Taoism indigenous to China and its identification of the external martial arts with the foreign Buddhism of Shaolin—and the Manchu Qing Dynasty to which Huang Zongxi was opposed—may have been an act of political defiance rather than one of technical classification. Kennedy and Guo suggests that external and internal classifications only became popular during the Republican period. It was used to differentiate between two competing groups within The Central Guoshu Academy. Regardless of the origin of this classification scheme, the distinction becomes less meaningful since all complete Chinese martial art styles have external and internal components. This classification scheme is only a reminder of the initial emphasis of a particular style and should not be considered an absolute division. External styles External style () are often associated with Chinese martial