Many people mistakenly believe that the Qing government burned the Shaolin Temple, which is incorrect. In fact, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty were very concerned about the Shaolin Temple, or the pro-book plaque, or the parade of temples. In the fifteenth year of Qianlong (1750), the Qianlong Emperor personally visited the Shaolin Temple, stayed overnight in the abbot's room, and personally inscribed a poem to erect a monument. From the murals and documents of the White Cloth Hall of the Qing Dynasty, Shaolin Kung Fu has maintained a very high level since the Qing Dynasty.
The one who really ruined the Shaolin Temple was Feng Yuxiang. In 1928, the warlords were in a scuffle, and the warlord Feng Yuxiang's subordinate Shi Yousan burned the Shaolin Temple, destroying the Heavenly King Hall, the Daxiong Hall, the Dharma Hall and the Bell Tower, and many precious Tibetan scriptures, temple records, and boxing books were burned to ashes. So, why did Feng Yuxiang slaughter the Shaolin Temple?
The reason is simple, because miaoxing, the abbot of the Shaolin Temple, in order to protect the Shaolin Temple and protect the peace of the party, turned to Wu Peifu and became the head of the regiment. In July of the fifteenth year of the Republic of China (1926), the Guangzhou Revolutionary Army began the Northern Expedition. In September, Feng Yuxiang (1882-1948) announced his separation from the Beiyang warlords and joined the National Revolution. Wu Peifu and Zhang Zuolin (1875-1928) attacked Feng Yuxiang and were defeated by the Northern Expeditionary Army.
In the spring of the following year (1927), Feng Yuxiang occupied Xi'an and cooperated with the Northern Expeditionary Army to attack Henan. In February, the first regiment led by Miao Xing was ordered to zhengzhou and then to Wuyang. On March 6, during a battle with Ren Yingqibu, Miaoxing was killed at the age of 37. In June, the body was transported back to the Shaolin Temple by the disciple Tixin and buried on the northeast slope of the temple.
In March of the seventeenth year of the Republic of China (1928), Miaoxing's superior Fan Zhongxiu took advantage of feng Yuxiang's nationalist rear empty and captured Gong County and Yanshi County, but was soon recaptured by Feng's general Shi Yousan. Fan Zhongxiu withdrew south and attacked dengfeng county, and its headquarters was located in the Shaolin Temple. Shi You's three troops pursued south, to the Yuanyuan Pass (Eighteen Plates), the Shaolin Temple monks assisted Fan in sniping, and finally collapsed. More than 200 monks were also nearly killed. On March 15, Shi Yousan chased after the Lin Temple and set fire to the Fa Tang. The next day, Su Mingqi, the brigade commander of the Nationalist Army (Feng Yuxiang's department) stationed in Dengfeng, ordered the sergeant to carry kerosene to the temple and burned the Hall of the Heavenly King, the Hall of Daxiong, the Hall of The Golden Nara, the Hall of the Six Ancestors, the Hall of the Yan King, the Hall of the Dragon King, the Bell and Drum Tower, the Xiangji Kitchen, the Treasury, the East-West Zen Hall, and the Throne Room to vent their anger. At this point, the historical buildings of the Thousand Years Shaolin Temple were destroyed. Miaoxing defected to the Beiyang warlords, served as the leader of the regiment, and participated in the conquest, which not only violated the rules of the Buddhist temple, but also attracted the disaster of the Shaolin Temple. After that, the Shaolin Temple's master monks Chunpu (a native of Huiguo Town, Gong County), Zhenxu (1893-1955, a native of Nancun Village, Luzhuang Township, Gong County, commonly known as Li) and others only maintained the mountain gate.
After 1982, the state carried out large-scale restoration and reconstruction of the Shaolin Temple in order to facilitate cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, and has now formed a Songshan Shaolin complex with the themes of the Mountain Gate, the Hall of the Heavenly King, the Hall of the Great Xiong, the Scripture Cabinet, the Abbot's Room, the Lixue Pavilion, and the Hall of the Western Saints, which has made the thousand-year-old temple shine with new brilliance.
Feng Yuxiang destroyed more than just the Shaolin Temple. Other sources also record that in 1927, Feng Yuxiang, a firm believer in Christianity, expelled monks from the abandoned temple in Henan and converted the Daxiangguo Temple into a market. It also launched a campaign to destroy Buddhism throughout the province, and all bhikkhus and bhikshunis were expelled. All property was confiscated, and monasteries were converted into schools, or as almshouses, libraries, or places of recreation. After Henan, Zhi, Lu, Qin and other places also blindly followed, and Buddhism in North China almost declined.