When you think of the Shaolin Temple, what is your first impression? Is it a Zen holy place with green smoke and the sound of Buddha? Or is it the martial arts treasure that even Xiao Shami has a martial art?
Today's Shaolin Temple is far from the image of the imaginary monks in the temple, the green lantern ancient Buddha, crossing the world, more like a huge commercial institution.
It seems that the monk has just become a profession, punching in to work, approving robes, chanting Buddha and ringing bells; after work, the lights are red and green, and the world of flowers and flowers is at my disposal.
It can be said that it is "keeping up with the pace of the times".
A news on April 6 shocked the melon-eating crowd, and the abbot of the Shaolin Temple, Shi Yongxin, spent as much as 425 million yuan to buy a piece of land.
The company used is Henan Tiesong Digital Technology Co., Ltd., the actual controller behind it is Shaolin Temple, and the abbot Shi Yongxin has control over a total of 18 enterprises covering all walks of life.
Netizens have said that they want Shi Yongxin to teach him how to invest.
So today I will take you to understand the legendary life of Shi Yongxin and those things related to him.
PART/ 1
I have a relationship with the Buddha and yearn for Shaolin
In 1965, in a remote rural area in Anhui Province, a baby fell to the ground, and his parents named him Liu Yingcheng (Shi Yongxin used a common name), and he loved him very much. Liu Yingcheng's family is poor, but he is very obedient and sensible, he knows how to help the family reduce the burden at a young age, his biggest hobby is martial arts, and he is full of yearning for the Shaolin Temple with a thousand-year history.
Liu Yingcheng had studied under Hao Shizhai, a secluded "Shaolin Living Fist Book", and Liu Yingcheng, who had learned a martial art, made up his mind at the age of sixteen to bid farewell to his parents and go alone to the Shaolin Temple in Songshan, Henan. At that time, the Shaolin abbot Xingzheng Master, seeing that Liu Yingcheng was determined and sincere, also because he had received guidance from the reclusive Shaolin master, he thought that he had a relationship with the Buddha, so he accepted Liu Yingcheng as an apprentice.
The young Liu Yingcheng faded his common name, had the Dharma name "Shi Yongxin", and took refuge in Buddhism.
In the following three years, Shi Yongxin was instructed by his teacher to travel to major temples, such as Yunju Mountain in Jiangxi, Jiuhua Mountain in Anhui, and Guangji Temple in Beijing, to broaden his horizons and refine his Dharma.
In 1982, while Shi Yongxin was still traveling and studying, the movie "Shaolin Temple" turned out to be a movie ticket for a dime and sold 160 million at the box office. Not only was the film invited to the "altar", but the fame of the Shaolin Temple was also spread around the world.
After traveling to the temple, Shi Yongxin served with his master, and as soon as the "management committee" was established in the temple, Shi Yongxin was also elected as one of the members, and began to assist in the daily life of the temple.
In 1987, after a year of publishing Shaolin martial arts classics, Shi Yongxin formed the "Shaolin Temple Martial Arts Team", which became known as the "Shaolin Temple Martial Arts Monks", and he was full of ambition to make Shaolin Kung Fu go to the world, but something happened that made Shi Yongxin very sad.
PART/ 2
The youngest abbot of Shaolin
When Shi Yongxin was about to lead the martial arts team out of the temple gate to perform in the whole country, his master, the old abbot Xingzheng, passed away.
Inheriting the mantle of his master, the fate of the Shaolin Temple was handed over to Shi Yongxin, a young man who had just reached the age of 22, thus becoming the abbot of the Shaolin Temple, and the youngest abbot in the history of the Shaolin Temple.
Shi Yongxin, who took over the heavy responsibility of abbot, not only had to take charge of heavy temple affairs, but also innovated many rules, and also repaired or rebuilt the Dharma Hall, Bell Tower, and Drum Tower in the Shaolin Temple. In the same year, he became a director of the "Buddhist Association of Henan Province".
In 1989, Shi Yongxin finally restarted the plan of "promoting Shaolin Kung Fu" and led the martial monastic troupe to start a nationwide tour to promote Shaolin culture and show everyone this "golden signboard" with a thousand years of heritage.
In 1990, Shi Yongxin agreed to the request of Chen Tongshan, one of the "Eighteen Great Vajras" in the temple, and accepted his two-year-old son as an apprentice, giving him the title of Shi Xiaolong.
Also in this year, an eight-year-old teenager came to the Shaolin Temple and practiced martial arts assiduously, just so that he could break out of the sky through martial arts in the future, and that teenager was the future "Emperor of Ten Billion Shadows" - Wang Baoqiang.
If Shi Yongxin's life in the first 25 years has been as dramatic as a movie, then his subsequent life can only be described as "open and hanging".
PART/ 3
He is more like a "star" than a "monk"
Shi Yongxin is not a star, but the stars and politicians he has seen are really innumerable.
Ordinary people are "chasing stars", but Shi Yongxin has made many stars become his "fans", and even accepted many star apprentices.
In 1999, Shi Yongxin was officially promoted to abbot of the Shaolin Temple, and everyone may not know much about the concept of abbot. For example, the abbot is like the chairman of a group company, but the abbot is only the head of the subordinate company.
So later, the industry of the Shaolin Temple became more and more huge, and netizens also called Shi Yongxin the "CEO" of the Shaolin Temple.
In 1999, Shi Yongxin led the Shaolin Martial Arts Ensemble to perform in the United Kingdom, where he was received by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and contributed to the entry of Chinese martial arts culture into European and American societies. After that, he visited samaranch, the former president of the Olympic Committee, to promote the process of Chinese martial arts entering the Olympic competition.
In addition to the celebrities that Shi Yongxin brought the martial monastic order to visit, there was also a "big man" who was very interested in Shaolin martial arts himself. That is the president of Russia, Putin.
In 2006, during Putin's visit to China, he specifically proposed to visit the Shaolin Temple, and Shi Yongxin was very excited after receiving the news, because his goal was to make "Shaolin culture" go to the world, so he selected dozens of martial monks with the best skills and asked them to show the spirit of the Shaolin Temple.
In order to greet President Putin, Shi Yongxin specially laid a red carpet of tens of meters at the entrance of the temple, and 18 yellow-clad martial monks stood on the left and right in front of the door to show the hospitality etiquette of the Shaolin Temple.
Dressed in robes, Shi Yongxin followed Putin all the way to the temple gate. As soon as he entered the door, the ancient bell in the temple rang continuously, and he told Putin that this was the highest courtesy of the Shaolin Temple.
Shi Yongxin also led Putin to visit the famous Shaolin Stone Stele, which is engraved with the story of the thirteen stick monks of the Sui and Tang Dynasties who saved the Tang King, but what Shi Yongxin did not expect was that Putin even knew this story. Putin told him that the story had already spread to Russia along with Shaolin Kung Fu and culture.
The two men came to the practice room, and Putin saw that there were many depressions in the ground and expressed some doubts.
Shi Yongxin explained to him that this was a pothole that the warrior monks had stepped into over the years when they contacted Zamabu.
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Shi Yongxin not only introduced him to Putin about Shaolin martial arts, but also talked to him about Zen, tea, and classical Chinese culture. The two sides talked happily, and Putin also invited Shi Yongxin to lead a group of martial monks to Russia for performance exchanges, and Shi Yongxin gladly agreed and gave Putin a book of Shaolin martial arts secrets.
In addition to political leaders, Shi Yongxin's influence on the entertainment industry is actually more far-reaching.
In addition to the apprentice Shi Xiaolong mentioned earlier, Shi Yongxin also has an apprentice named Shi Xiaosong, who is the youngest of the Shaolin Martial Monks, and Shi Xiaosong, who was born in 2006, is not a big grade, and his kung fu is quite strong, and he has also been rated as the "most beautiful little monk".
In addition to these two apprentices, what everyone may not know is that he also has a student, named Fu Biao. Yes, it was the "good man Fu Biao", who was also an excellent actor, but unfortunately died young.
In addition to the star apprentices he had taught, the number of stars who came to the Shaolin Temple to burn incense and pray for blessings could not be counted.
The opening ceremony of "New Shaolin Temple" was presided over by Shi Yongxin, and stars such as Jackie Chan, Nicholas Tse, and Andy Lau all came to Shaolin to make a wish and pray.
Some people say that he is very envious of Shi Yongxin, he has at least met half of the stars in the entertainment industry, but you may not know that in addition to seeing more "stars", Shi Yongxin has also received some "star-level lay disciples".
Hou Xiaoqiang, the former CEO of Shanda Literature, suddenly broke the news on social media one day that he had converted to Buddhism and become a disciple of the Shaolin layman, studying under Shi Yongxin.
Li Yang, the founder of "Crazy English", also worshiped Shi Yongxin as a teacher and became a lay disciple, but unfortunately, taking refuge in Buddhism could not erase his "evil deeds".
Wu Jianhao also secretly came to the Shaolin Temple to practice martial arts, and was also accepted by Shi Yongxin as a lay disciple. There is also Cai Zhiyong, a cartoonist from Taiwan, who is the author of "Old Master" and "Oolongyuan", and is also Shi Yongxin himself shaved and accepted as a disciple.
Start a company, make friends with celebrities, collect star disciples... Therefore, some people say that Shi Yongxin is not like a "monk" with six pure roots and four emptinesses, but more like a profit-seeking "businessman", and this "businessman" has long had "Internet thinking".
PART/ 4
"Out of the dust" to "join the WTO", Shi Yongxin's Internet thinking
Looking back at Shi Yongxin's actions, some people found that from the moment he took over as the abbot of Shaolin, the Shaolin Temple seemed to have changed from "dusting" to "entering the world".
In 1996, Shi Yongxin was first exposed to the Internet, and as soon as he returned to the temple, he immediately plugged in the telephone line, applied for the domain name of the Shaolin Temple, and created a website. At this time, Ma Yun is still running business, and zhang Chaoyang, the "godfather of the Internet", has just had a venture capital.
After a few years, the official website of the Shaolin Temple unexpectedly published the Shaolin martial arts secrets and cultivation methods such as the "Yi Jian Jing", the Point Cave, and the 72 Stunts on the website, which made the number of hits of the Shaolin Temple break 100,000 every day, to know that the "Yi Jian Jing" is placed in the film and television works are the "divine skills" that are competed for by thousands of people, who can think that one day the Shaolin Temple will be released for free?
Shi Yongxin has also publicly stated that he has to go online every day, mainly to browse current affairs and information.
Shaolin has also opened official accounts for various platforms, and even you can see Shi Yongxin live and see him in various interview programs.
At this time, some people found that the original Internet thinking of Shi Yongxin was far beyond most business owners.
When attending major meetings, it is even more obvious that Shi Yongxin's "equipment" has been updated, and some people think that monks should not have mobile phones and do not think about foreign objects. Shi Yongxin is a trend of technology products, when people still use heavy laptops, Shi Yongxin changed the tablet early; when peers were still new to smart phones, Shi Yongxin has been replaced with the latest model.
In 2014, Shi Yongxin traveled to the United States to visit the headquarters of Apple and Google, and the domestic technology media at that time shouted shock: "Is the Shaolin Temple going to enter the mobile phone industry?" ”。 He spoke to Apple President Tim Cook, experienced Google Glass, visited Stanford University...
People were surprised to find that the monk could have such a deep understanding of the Internet and technology.
Shi Yongxin once explained the Internet in Buddhism: "We live in a vast world, and the relationship between people and all things is like the Indra network (Buddhist vocabulary), there are endless possibilities and connections, just like the Internet can connect online and offline life, and it is indeed very convenient to present it more intuitively through the screen." ”
In addition to Cook, Shi Yongxin and Ma Yun also had a conversation. Up to now, the headline of the report on the two "meeting and hating late" can still be searched on the Internet.
During the conversation, Ma Yun asked Shi Yongxin, what is the Shaolin Temple's shop in Taobao? According to the media at the time, the Shaolin Temple registered a Taobao store in 2008, and the shelves were full of goods, ranging from the cheapest handguard of more than ten yuan to the 10,000 yuan "Chinese Shaolin Temple" album.
Netizens found that the original Taobao shop of the Shaolin Temple was so "normal", which was somewhat different from the imaginary monks opening shops.
This is the cleverness of Shi Yongxin, who laid out various directions such as books, film and television, and industry early on, making the Shaolin Temple a brand and integrating into everyone's life.
Some netizens said that the monks are now full of "copper smell", all because of the Shaolin Temple. But Shi Yongxin, who has been called an "entrepreneur," has also done many good things that have been overlooked.
Deviant? A high-ranking monk?
In fact, as early as 1988, In order to help patients in the surrounding areas, Shi Yongxin established the "Shaolin Temple Red Cross Society", and later founded the "Shaolin Temple Charity Welfare Foundation", adopting countless displaced orphans.
Some people say that the Shaolin Temple is no longer like a temple that gives porridge and rice, but in fact, Shaolin has been silently doing these donation relief activities; others say that the Shaolin Temple is becoming more and more "inflated", and the tickets cost a lot of money, which are all ordered by Shi Yongxin, but in fact, Shi Yongxin has publicly proposed to cancel the tickets for the Shaolin Temple several times.
From the beginning of changing the development strategy of the Shaolin Temple, Shi Yongxin has been on the cusp of the storm, and all kinds of gossip and rumors have emerged endlessly.
But it is undeniable that under his leadership, the influence of the Shaolin Temple has indeed been magnified as never before.
Some people marvel at his shrewdness and vision, some people despise his "pursuit of profit", some people admire his good deeds, and some people admire his persistence...
Some people think that Shi Yongxin is a high-ranking monk, and some people say that he is deviant... So what do you think of him?
All phases are illusory. If you see that the phases are not phases, you see them as they are.