No; Zen is Japanese. This is Chinese, set in the latter part of the 1800s, starting at a Shaolin temple. Definitely Taoist. I was so into this when I was in college that I went out and read the Tao te Ching and everything else I could find on the topic, became a vegetarian for a couple years, and bought all the novels-based-on-the-series. (It's actually surprising I didn't learn Chinese; but I did buy books on Kung Fu and learned some basics that didn't require actual disciplied practice.)