Tianyang Martial Dao Academy

Biodata

Power Progression

History

Establishment and Recruitment

Zhang Qingyuan established the academy as an alternative to rebuilding the Tianyang Sect through conventional disciple recruitment. His plan applied modern educational methods to martial training, using the sect’s existing grounds, buildings, and extensive manual collection rather than constructing a school from nothing 2 18.

The recruitment campaign spread through villages and cities using banners, posters, flyers, and newspapers. It advertised free first-year study, food and lodging, scholarships, and job recommendations. Zhang planned to admit 2,000 students annually to uncover martial talent on a larger scale, and sought twenty licentiates on one-year contracts to teach students who could not read 18 19.

At the inaugural ceremony, Zhang explicitly distinguished academy enrollment from sect membership. Students were attending a school operated by the Tianyang Sect; they had not become members of its martial-world organization and were not obliged to share its fate 23.

First Assessment

After three months, the academy held its first martial tournament. Preliminary competition selected the top hundred students, with every class represented. Classes One, Three, and Ten were considered the strongest overall 31 34.

The ranking matches attracted local officials and martial figures, including City Lord Zhao and Brocade Guard commander Zhang Tianlu. Zhang Tianlu’s attendance reflected attention from the capital. Ten arenas were used for group-based advancement, initially reducing the field from one hundred competitors to fifty, then twenty-five 34 35.

Internal Cultivation and Vocational Reform

The academy introduced internal cultivation after its initial three months of physical and technical training. First-year teachers continued strengthening students’ foundations alongside the new internal-arts instruction, since ordinary students had not necessarily absorbed everything taught during the accelerated opening stage 38 42.

At its first all-staff meeting, Zhang reorganized academy posts and appointed teaching-group leadership. He subsequently expanded the school’s mission to include practical trades, insisting that students unable to cultivate should still leave with a means of supporting themselves 39 41.

First Study Tour

Zhang led ten selected students on a study tour intended to combine travel, practical experience, and moral judgment. Planned destinations included the Bright Moon Sect, temples, and Daoist monasteries in the Eastern Realm 47 48.

During the journey, students helped clean and bandage an injured swordsman’s wounds. At the Bright Moon Sect, Ma Shou narrowly defeated the experienced outer disciple Xu Kun after more than thirty exchanges 49 51.

When Xiao Yan disappeared into a deep pool, Zhang repeatedly entered the icy water to search for him. His refusal to abandon an ordinary student moved both academy students and Bright Moon Sect members; his students vowed not to leave without Xiao Yan 53 54.

After Xiao Yan recovered, the group continued to Supreme Purity Palace. Zhang proposed establishing a Daoist department, and Xuanchengzi agreed in principle to send disciples to teach Daoist classics after examining the Nine Yin Manual 56 58.

Organization and Membership

• Institutional position: The academy belongs to the Tianyang Sect but is a separate subordinate unit, on the same organizational level as the Tianyang Editorial Department and Tianyang Newspaper Industry 23.
• Student obligations: Students must study, but do not bear the sect’s obligation to fight or die for it 23.
• Freedom after study: Graduates may work, travel, or continue cultivation at another school without being treated as traitors 19 24.
• Formal sect recruitment: Outstanding university-division students may be selected as Tianyang Sect disciples. Formal disciples receive posts and assume responsibility for strengthening and protecting the sect 24.
• Early selections: Zhang offered to take Ma Shou as his disciple and separately secured both Liu Sandao’s consent and Liu Sidao’s agreement for Liu Sidao to join the sect 46 47.
• Graduate employment: Positions in security, logistics, and teaching are available within the sect and academy. Some vacancies were deliberately reserved for the first intake 24 47.

Administration

Teaching Staff

The academy initially hired ten foundational teachers and the sword instructor Zhao Wuji. Recruitment emphasized practical understanding and the ability to explain cultivation to less-talented students, rather than personal cultivation talent alone 18 29.

• Zhao Wuji: Assigned to first-year university sword Dao instruction; initially assists with newcomers while awaiting university-level students 18.
• Contracts: The ten initial foundational teachers sign ten-year contracts; Zhao Wuji signs for fifteen years. Teachers receive access to the sect’s martial texts 18.
• Teaching materials: Instructors are asked to compile their experience into books to make instruction consistent and preserve their knowledge 18.
• Vocational recruitment: Applicants face no restrictions on age, gender, background, or cultivation. Professional skill, upright character, patience, and willingness to teach are the stated priorities 41.

Curriculum and Student Policies

Training Structure

• Instructional model: Standardized courses, tiered teaching, and training tailored to individual aptitude replace reliance on a single master’s instruction 19.
• Advertised disciplines: Palm, fist, leg, hidden-weapon, sword, saber, and spear classes, alongside the other traditional weapon disciplines 19.
• Literacy: Students unable to read attend evening lessons 24 25.
• Pace: The academy compresses material normally taught over two or three years in traditional sects into one year of vocational training 35.

Internal Arts

• Method selection: Neither Nine Yin nor Nine Yang is presented as universally superior; suitability depends on the student’s constitution 42.
• Switching methods: Students who experience discomfort practicing Nine Yang are instructed to consult a teacher and change to Nine Yin 42.
• Continuing foundations: Students who develop internal force but remain weak in basic movements are encouraged to return to their first-year teachers for additional practice 42.

Vocational Subjects

• Announced subjects: Medicine, arithmetic, literature, carpentry, smithing, weaving, and embroidery 41.
• Eligibility: Students still unable to develop internal force after six months may choose a trade 42.
• Fees: Vocational subjects are free and excluded from tuition charges 42.
• Commitment: The academy publicly pledges not to give up on any enrolled student because of physical limitations or inability to cultivate 41.

Tuition and Financial Support

• First year: Tuition, food, and lodging are provided free 18 19.
• Continued paid study: Students who fail to meet the later advancement threshold may pay tuition if they wish to keep attempting martial cultivation 47.

The opening address and a later explanation give different thresholds for financial support:

Conduct

• Competition: Zhang accepts student fighting as a potential stimulus for competition 31.
• Expulsion: Bullying and deliberately injuring or crippling others are grounds for immediate expulsion 31.
• Discipline: Teachers break up unauthorized brawls and may assign additional drills as punishment 25.

Grounds and Resources

• Campus: Uses the Tianyang Sect’s existing estate on Phoenix Cry Mountain, with facilities renovated during preparations for the school 18.
• Martial library: Draws on eight centuries of sect inheritance and Zhang’s system-rewarded manuals, amounting to thousands of books 18.
• Student facilities: Includes accommodations, a dining hall, martial training grounds, and a library pavilion 30.
• Security: Twenty black-clad Security Department members are presented at the inaugural ceremony as responsible for student safety 23.
• Uniforms: Loose blue-green outfits made from coarse hemp, chosen for durability and low cost 26.
• Meals: Students receive meat and nourishing ingredients such as ginseng. Medicinal supplies are stretched across the entire intake rather than reserved solely for exceptional students 25.
• Additional reading: Daoist scriptures are added to the library alongside existing Confucian classics 47.

External Relationships

• Fair Wind Escort Agency, Four Seas Chamber of Commerce, and Pacify the Distant Martial Hall — Advertised employment partners offering pathways from graduation into work 19.
• Wang Lineage — Reaches a preliminary agreement to recruit graduates as guards, escort guards, or disciples. Bai Shuyan proposes that the lineage select candidates at the following June’s academy tournament 32.
• Moon Haze Sword Sect — Bai Shuyan approaches Liu Ruyan by emphasizing shared ideals of teaching without discrimination and helping students become self-reliant, including talented girls 33.
• Brocade Guard — Has an agreement to cooperate with the academy; its provincial intelligence reporting brings the institution to the capital’s attention 34.
• Bright Moon Sect — Hosts the first study-tour group and a student sparring match. Ning Jixiang praises the academy’s practical-trades initiative and offers public support if Zhang encounters difficulties in Yu Province 51.
• Supreme Purity Palace — Xuanchengzi agrees in principle to supply Daoist instructors and help establish a Daoist department; practical arrangements remain under negotiation 58.