 Two fighters practicing kung fu in Shaolin Temple | |
| Also known as | Shaolin wushu |
|---|---|
| Focus | Hybrid |
| Hardness | Full-contact,semi-contact,light-contact |
| Country of origin | China |
| Famous practitioners | Shaolin monks |
| Parenthood | kung fu,wushu |
| Olympic sport | No |
Shaolin kung fu (Chinese:少林功夫;pinyin:Shàolín gōngfū), also calledShaolin Wushu (少林武術;Shǎolín wǔshù), orShaolin quan (少林拳;Shàolínquán), is the largest and most famous style ofkung fu. It combinesMahayana Buddhist,Chan philosophy andmartial arts. It was developed in theShaolin Temple inHenan,China during its 1500-year history.[1] InChinese folklore there is a saying, "Shaolin kung fu is the best under heaven", which indicates its superiority among martial arts, and "All martial arts under heaven originated from Shaolin", which indicates its influence on other martial arts. The nameShaolin is also used as a brand for the external styles of kung fu. Many styles in southern and northern China use the name Shaolin.[2]
Chinese historical records, likeSpring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue, theBibliographies in the Book of the Han Dynasty, theRecords of the Grand Historian, and other sources document the existence of martial arts in China for thousands of years. For example, the Chinese martial art of wrestling,Shuai Jiao, predates the establishment of Shaolin temple by several centuries.[3] Since Chinese monasteries were large landed estates that made a considerable regular income, monks required some form of protection. Historical discoveries indicate that, even before the establishment of Shaolin temple, monks had been armed and also practiced martial arts.[4] In 1784 theBoxing Classic: Essential Boxing Methods made the earliest extant reference to the Shaolin Monastery as Chinese boxing's place of origin.[5][6] This is, however, a misconception,[7][8] but even the fact that such a mistake could be made helps to show the historical importance of Shaolin kung fu.
In 495 AD, Shaolin temple was built among theSong mountains in Henan province. The first monk who preached Buddhism there was the monk namedBuddhabhadra (佛陀跋陀罗;Fótuóbátuóluó), simply called Batuo (跋陀) by the Chinese. There are historical records that Batuo's first Chinese disciples, Huiguang (慧光) and Sengchou (僧稠), both had exceptional martial skills. For example, Sengchou's skill with the tin staff and empty-hand strikes is even documented in theChinese Buddhist canon.[9]
Bodhidharma is traditionally credited as the transmitter ofChan Buddhism toChina, and regarded as its first Chinesepatriarch.[10] In Japan, he is known as Daruma.
The idea that Bodhidharma founded martial arts at the Shaolin Temple was spread in the 20th century. However, this idea came from a debunked apocryphal 17th century legend that claimed Bodhidharma taught the monks philosophies ofChan Buddhism, which the monks were then able to use to create their own combat techniques that developed into Shaolin kung fu. The idea of Bodhidharma influencing Shaolin boxing is based on aQigong manual written during the 17th century. This is when a Taoist with thepen name 'Purple Coagulation Man of the Way' wrote theSinews Changing Classic in 1624, but claimed to have discovered it. The first of two prefaces of the manual traces this succession from Bodhidharma to the Chinese generalLi Jing via "a chain of Buddhist saints and martial heroes."[11]: p165 The work itself is full of anachronistic mistakes and even includes a popular character from Chinese fiction, the 'Qiuran Ke' ('Bushy Bearded Hero') (虬髯客), as a lineage master.[12]Scholar-officials as far back as the Qing dynasty have taken note of these mistakes. The scholar Ling Tinkang (1757–1809) described the author as an "ignorant village master."[11]: p168 Even then, the association of Bodhidharma with martial arts only became widespread as a result of the 1904–1907 serialization of the novelThe Travels of Lao Ts'an inIllustrated Fiction Magazine:[13]
One of the most recently invented and familiar of the Shaolin historical narratives is a story that claims that the Indian monk Bodhidharma, the supposed founder of Chinese Chan (Zen) Buddhism, introduced boxing into the monastery as a form of exercise around a.d. 525. This story first appeared in a popular novel,The Travels of Lao T'san, published as a series in a literary magazine in 1907. This story was quickly picked up by others and spread rapidly through publication in a popular contemporary boxing manual, Secrets of Shaolin Boxing Methods, and the first Chinese physical culture history published in 1919. As a result, it has enjoyed vast oral circulation and is one of the most "sacred" of the narratives shared within Chinese and Chinese-derived martial arts. That this story is clearly a twentieth-century invention is confirmed by writings going back at least 250 years earlier, which mention both Bodhidharma and martial arts but make no connection between the two.[14]: 129
During the short period of theSui dynasty (581–618), the building blocks of Shaolin kung fu took an official form, and Shaolin monks began to create fighting systems of their own. The18 methods of Luohan with a strong Buddhist flavour were practiced by Shaolin monks since this time, which was later used to create more advanced Shaolin martial arts. Shaolin monks had developed very powerful martial skills, and this showed itself towards the end of the Sui dynasty.
Like most dynastic changes, the end of the Sui dynasty was a time of upheaval and contention for the throne. The oldest evidence of Shaolin participation in combat is astele from 728 that attests to two occasions: a defense of the monastery from bandits around 610 and their role in the defeat ofWang Shichong at theBattle of Hulao in 621. Wang Shichong declared himself Emperor. He controlled the territory ofZheng and the ancient capital ofLuoyang. Overlooking Luoyang on Mount Huanyuan was the Cypress Valley Estate, which had served as the site of a fort during theJin and a commandery during theSouthern Qi.[15]Emperor Wen of Sui had bestowed the estate on a nearby monastery called Shaolin for its monks to farm, but Wang Shichong, realizing its strategic value, seized the estate and there placed troops and a signal tower, as well as establishing a prefecture called Yuanzhou.[15] Furthermore, he had assembled an army at Luoyang to march on the Shaolin Temple itself.
The monks of Shaolin allied with Wang's enemy, Li Shimin, and took back the Cypress Valley Estate, defeating Wang's troops and capturing his nephew Renze. Without the fort at Cypress Valley, there was nothing to keep Li Shimin from marching on Luoyang after his defeat of Wang's ally Dou Jiande at theBattle of Hulao, forcing Wang Shichong to surrender. Li Shimin's father was thefirst Tang Emperor and Shimin himself became itssecond. Thereafter Shaolin enjoyed the royal patronage of the Tang.
Though the Shaolin Monastery Stele of 728 attests to these incidents in 610 and 621 when the monks engaged in combat, it does not allude to martial training in the monastery, or to any fighting technique in which its monks specialized. Nor do any other sources from the Tang, Song and Yuan periods allude to military training at the temple. According toMeir Shahar, this is explained by a confluence of the late Ming fashion for military encyclopedias and, more importantly, the conscription of civilian irregulars, including monks, as a result of Ming military decline in the 16th century.[16]Stele and documentary evidence shows the monks historically worshiped theBodhisattvaVajrapani's "Kinnara King" form as the progenitor of their staff and bare hand fighting styles.[11]
From the 8th to the 15th centuries, no extant source documents Shaolin participation in combat; then the 16th and 17th centuries see at least forty extant sources attest that, not only did monks of Shaolin practice martial arts, but martial practice had become such an integral element of Shaolin monastic life that the monks felt the need to justify it by creating new Buddhist lore.[16] References to Shaolin martial arts appear in various literary genres of the late Ming:the epitaphs of Shaolin warrior monks, martial-arts manuals, military encyclopedias, historical writings, travelogues, fiction, and even poetry.[16]
These sources, in contrast to those from theTang dynasty period, refer to Shaolin methods of combat unarmed, with thespear, and with the weapon that was the forte of the Shaolin monks and for which they had become famous, thestaff.[5][16] By the mid-16th century military experts from all overMing China were travelling to Shaolin to study its fighting techniques.
Around 1560Yu Dayou travelled to Shaolin Monastery to see for himself its monks' fighting techniques, but found them disappointing. Yú returned to the south with two monks, Zongqing and Pucong, whom he taught the use of the staff over the next three years, after which Zongqing and Pucong returned to Shaolin Monastery and taught their brother monks what they had learned. Martial arts historian Tang Hao traced the Shaolin staff style Five Tigers Interception to Yú's teachings.[citation needed]
The earliest extant manual on Shaolin kung fu, theExposition of the Original Shaolin Staff Method[17] was written in around 1610 and published in 1621 from what its author Chéng Zōngyóu learned during a more than ten-year stay at the monastery.
Conditions of lawlessness inHenan—where the Shaolin Monastery is located—and surrounding provinces during the lateMing dynasty and all of theQing dynasty contributed to the development of martial arts.Meir Shahar lists the martial artstai chi, Chang Family Boxing,Baguaquan,Xingyi quan andbajiquan as originating from this region and this time period.[16]
From the 1540s to the 1560s,pirates known aswokou raidedChina's eastern and southeastern coasts on an unprecedented scale.
The geographer Zheng Ruoceng provides the most detailed of the 16th-century sources which confirm that, in 1553, Wan Biao, Vice Commissioner in Chief of the Nanjing Chief Military Commission, initiated the conscription of monks—including some from Shaolin—against the pirates.[16] Warrior monks participated in at least four battles: at theHangzhou Bay in spring 1553 and in theHuangpu River delta at Wengjiagang in July 1553, Majiabang in spring 1554, and Taozhai in autumn 1555.[16]
The monks suffered their greatest defeat at Taozhai, where four of them fell in battle; their remains were buried under the Stūpa of the Four Heroic Monks (Si yi seng ta) at Mount She nearShanghai.[16]
The monks won their greatest victory at Wengjiagang.[16] On 21 July 1553, 120 warrior monks led by the Shaolin monk Tianyuan defeated a group of pirates and chased the survivors over ten days and twenty miles.[16] The pirates suffered over one hundred casualties and the monks only four.[16]
Not all of the monks who fought at Wengjiagang were from Shaolin, and rivalries developed among them. Zheng chronicles Tianyuan's defeat of eight rival monks from Hangzhou who challenged his command. Zheng ranked Shaolin first of the top three Buddhist centers of martial arts.[16] Zheng rankedFuniu inHenan second andMount Wutai inShanxi third. The Funiu monks practiced staff techniques which they had learned at the Shaolin Monastery. The Wutai monks practiced Yang Family Spear (楊家槍;pinyin: Yángjiā qiāng).
There is a famous saying that kung fu trains both the body and mind.
Body building exercises improve body abilities, including flexibility, balance, hardness, power, speed, and control of the body. These exercises are altogether called the72 arts in the folklore. However the actual exercises are not actually countable.
Combat skills (拳法;quánfǎ) include techniques, tactics, and strategies for barehanded, weapon, and barehanded vs. weapon situations.
Kung fu teaches techniques for both defense and offense. Defensive techniques are mostly four types, dodge, block, catch, and parry, and offensive techniques are feint, hit, lock, and throw. Shaolin kung fu teaches all these types of techniques.In kung fu, techniques are taught via two-person practices. In these practices, one party attacks and the other defends or counters or stands in posture for the other party to perform the technique. In Shaolin kung fu, in addition, two-person forms are taught. In these two-person forms, attacks and defenses are performed one after the other. Each technique is followed by its counter, and the counter by its counter, and so on. These forms ensure perfect memorization and exact transmission of the techniques from generation to generation.
In addition to techniques, kung fu styles teach tactics. Tactics govern combination of techniques for better results. Because tactics are not specific techniques, they could not specifically be pre-coded into two-person practices and forms. In Shaolin kung fu, tactics are taught via solo forms (套路;tàolù). Every form teaches some related tactics, which altogether shape a strategy. In Shaolin, closely related forms are coupled together, and these couples are called the small and the big forms, like the small and big hong quan, which altogether make the Shaolin hong quan style, and the small and big pao quan, etc. There are also some styles with one form, like taizu chang quan. These styles each teach a unique strategy.
Shaolin kung fu includes hundreds of extant styles. There is recorded documentation of more than a thousand extant forms, which makes Shaolin the biggest school of martial art in the world. In theQing dynasty (1644–1911), Shaolin monks chose 100 of the best styles of Shaolin kung fu. Then they shortlisted the 18 most famous of them. However, every lineage of Shaolin monks have always chosen their own styles. Every style teaches unique methods for fighting (散打;sàndǎ) and keeping health via one or a fewforms. To learn a complete system, Shaolin monks master a number of styles and weapons. The most famous styles of Shaolin kung fu are:
and many other styles.
Huang Zongxi described martial arts in terms of Shaolin or "external" arts versusWudang orinternal arts in 1669.[18] It has been since then that Shaolin has been popularly synonymous for what are considered the external Chinese martial arts, regardless of whether or not the particular style in question has any connection to theShaolin Monastery. Some say that there is no differentiation between the so-called internal and external systems of the Chinese martial arts,[7][19] while other well-known teachers hold the opinion that they are different. For example, theTaijiquan teacherWu Jianquan:
Those who practice Shaolinquan leap about with strength and force; people not proficient at this kind of training soon lose their breath and are exhausted. Taijiquan is unlike this. Strive for quiescence of body, mind and intention.[20]
Some lineages ofkarate have oral traditions that claim Shaolin origins.[21]Martial arts traditions inJapan,Korea,Sri Lanka and certainSoutheast Asian countries cite Chinese influence as transmitted by Buddhist monks.[22][23]
Recent developments in the 20th century such asShorinji Kempo (少林寺拳法) practised in Japan'sSohonzan Shorinji (金剛禅総本山少林寺) still maintains close ties with China's Song Shan Shaolin Temple due to historic links.[24] Japanese Shorinji Kempo Group received recognition in China in 2003 for their financial contributions to the maintenance of the historic edifice of the Song Shan Shaolin Temple.[25]
Several films have been produced, particularly during the 1970s and early 1980s, about Shaolin kung fu, includingThe 36th Chamber of Shaolin,The Shaolin Temple, andShaolin Wooden Men. Modern films includeShaolin Soccer andShaolin.[citation needed]
Shaolin has influenced numerous rappers, notably the members ofWu-Tang Clan.
Shaolin kung fu is one of the styles used byMortal Kombat protagonistLiu Kang. HisPao Chui,Choy Lay Fut,Monkey Fist, andDragon moves derive from Shaolin kung fu.[26]
Shaolin monks (referred to simply as "monks" in-game) appear in theroguelike gameNetHack, along withsamurai. They are one of the two roles to use martial arts skills, with monks having the most powerful martial arts skills in the game.
In the Nickelodeon animated seriesAvatar: The Last Airbender, the practice of "firebending" is based on Shaolin moves.
The ABC TV seriesKung Fu (1972–1975) starsDavid Carradine as a 19th century fugitive Shaolin monk traveling the Western United States in search of his brother. This series helped to popularize Shaolin kung fu with the general American TV audience.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
Media related toShaolin quan at Wikimedia Commons| Practical grappling | |
|---|---|
| Practical striking | |
| Styles | |
| Techniques | |
| Wushu (sport) | |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
City ofZhengzhou | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative divisions |
|   | |||||||||||||
| Attractions |
| ||||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||||
| Culture and demographics | |||||||||||||||
| Universities |
| ||||||||||||||
| Transport |
| ||||||||||||||
^* Not formal division | |||||||||||||||
Authority control databases: National |
|---|
