Shaolin Kung Fu
01 · Historical Records
In the nineteenth year of the Taihe era of the Northern Wei (495), Emperor Xiaowen ordered the Shaolin Temple to be built for the eminent monk Batu from Tianzhu (India); Shaolin Kung Fu was gradually formed within this Buddhist cultural space. At the end of the Sui and the beginning of the Tang, the monastery monks aided the Tang prince Li Shimin with their martial skills, and Shaolin became famous for its martial arts; from then on, monks of successive generations practised martial arts without interruption, and the boxing manuals, stele inscriptions and pagoda-forest records were handed down unbroken.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Shaolin Kung Fu refers to a traditional cultural system historically formed in the specific Buddhist cultural environment of the Shaolin Temple on Mount Song at Dengfeng, Henan; it is founded on the Buddhist belief in divine power, fully embodies the wisdom of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, and takes the martial arts practised by the Shaolin monks as its principal form of expression. Shaolin Kung Fu has a complete technical and theoretical system: it takes martial skills and forms as its mode of expression, and Buddhist belief and Chan wisdom as its cultural content. The Shaolin Temple, founded in the nineteenth year of the Taihe era of the Northern Wei (495), is the cultural space on which Shaolin Kung Fu depends. Shaolin Kung Fu has been continually enriched and perfected over the fifteen-hundred-odd years of the Shaolin Temple's history, developing from a means of protecting temple property in the earliest days into a cultural form of expression with complete technique and rich content. The principal deity of the wisdom belief of Shaolin Kung Fu is Bodhidharma, the first patriarch of Chan Buddhism; the principal deity of the power belief is King Jinnaluo (Kinnara). Extraordinary divine power and extraordinary wisdom have always been the goals that Buddhist practitioners devote themselves to pursuing. Belief governs combat technique, and combat technique expresses belief. This is the fundamental reason why Shaolin Kung Fu appears as wondrous martial arts, and also the point at which Shaolin Kung Fu differs from other martial arts. The daily life of Buddhist monks is bound by the Buddhist monastic precepts; in the specific environment of the Shaolin Temple, these precepts in turn evolved into martial-arts precepts. Precepts manifest in the practitioner as martial virtue, so Shaolin Kung Fu characteristically displays restraint and humility, inwardness and reserve, and a style that emphasises internal power, is compact and vigorous, and strikes only after the opponent has moved. Shaolin Kung Fu has attained the spiritual realm in which "Chan and martial arts are one"; it is the most outstanding representative of Chinese martial arts culture and the most representative manifestation of Shaolin culture. As the times have developed, the overall level of Buddhist belief in the Chinese (Han) lands has declined, and the number of monks residing at Shaolin has fallen year by year. The widespread use of firearms caused traditional martial arts in general to withdraw from the technical domain of military attack and defence. Modern people have been keen on the technical display of the "Shaolin Kung Fu" movement forms, which has consequently pushed its inner qualities to the margin.
Seventy-two skills and 255 routines
The temple's manuscripts record several hundred routines, dozens of well-attested boxing and weapon sets, seventy-two special skills and 255 routines still in use.
Bodhidharma and Kimnara
Bodhidharma is the deity of wisdom and Kimnara of strength; faith governing combat and combat expressing faith is what makes Shaolin unique among martial arts.
Precepts become martial virtue
Monastic precepts became training precepts and then martial virtue, giving Shaolin its restrained, inward, short-range and counter-striking style.
Clan-lineage teaching through formulae
Transmission works through oral formulae tied to the temple's clan-lineage system, centring on the master's example and the disciple's diligence.
Withdrawal in the age of firearms
Firearms pushed martial arts out of military use, while declining monastic numbers and a modern taste for routines alone have marginalised the art's inner qualities.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Shaolin Kung Fu takes the Shaolin Temple on Mount Song at Dengfeng, Henan as its birthplace and centre; it spread to all regions as monks travelled in search of instruction and martial monks left the mountain to teach, and hence the folk saying that there is a northern and a southern Shaolin. Villages in the area of Dengfeng, Yanshi and Yichuan still set up martial-arts associations and martial-arts schools today, carrying on the practice of this tradition.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
According to the boxing manuals handed down at the Shaolin Temple, there were several hundred Shaolin Kung Fu forms transmitted through the generations, of which several dozen orderly transmitted fist-and-weapon representatives remain, together with 72 special skills and exercises distinctive of their own categories such as qinna (joint locking), combat, bone-releasing, pressure-point striking and qigong. At present the Shaolin Kung Fu forms in circulation at the Shaolin Temple — boxing, weapons and paired exercise — number 255 in all. Chan wisdom has endowed Shaolin Kung Fu with profound cultural content; the inheritors of Shaolin Kung Fu must above all possess a belief in Buddhism, including both the belief in wisdom and the belief in power. The transmission of Shaolin Kung Fu chiefly takes the form of verbal formulas, combined with the traditional zongfa-mentou (lineage-and-branch-house) system of the Shaolin Temple; its core content is the master's teaching by word and example and the disciple's diligent and assiduous practice. All of this has brought contemporary Shaolin Kung Fu to an endangered condition, and the departments concerned need to formulate plans as soon as possible to rescue and protect Shaolin Kung Fu.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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