The origin of "the world's kung fu out of Shaolin"
◎ Zou Xiang
The world of kung fu out of Shaolin, Shaolin kung fu A world. Shaolin martial arts is an important part of Chinese martial arts and is a precious cultural treasure in China. Shaolin martial arts concentrates the great achievements of the martial arts of the Southern and Northern Chinese schools, integrates the essence of internal and external boxers, has undergone thousands of hammers and hundreds of exercises, has a wide range of skills, is broad and profound, with rich connotations, unique styles, and characteristics conducive to actual combat, is mighty and famous all over the world, and is unique in the martial arts arena at home and abroad.
In 495 AD, Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty built the Shaolin Temple for the Indian monk Vadha Zen Master, and the first abbot of the Shaolin Temple, Zen Master Pa Tuo, attached great importance to the practice of martial arts. Since then, some celebrities with extraordinary skills have converted to Shaolin due to war disputes, and exchanged martial arts with the original senior monks, becoming the indiscriminate pursuit (origin and origin) of Shaolin martial arts. Because Songshan was the throat of Luoyang, the ancient capital of the Nine Dynasties, leading to the southeast plain, it has been a place of contention for soldiers since ancient times, and there are often robbers. In order to ensure the safety of the temple property, the Royal Shaolin Temple, with the approval of the imperial court, began to have its own standing armed force, the monks. The existence of monks and soldiers in the Shaolin Temple has created good conditions for the flourishing development of Shaolin martial arts. During the Sui, Tang and Song dynasties, the Shaolin Temple began to form the style of shangwu, in the development process of the past thousand years, Shaolin martial arts widely absorbed the essence of various martial arts schools in Chinese dynasties, set the strengths of the world's kung fu, continuously improved, developed, innovated, and gradually evolved into a martial arts system that highlights practicality and unique styles.
Shaolin Kung Fu helps the first North American Shaolin Cultural Festival (Zou Xiang photo)
During the Ming Dynasty, the characteristics of Shaolin martial arts were fully formed. The Shaolin martial arts of the Ming Dynasty did not only include sticks and fists, but also a fairly extensive martial arts system. In the forty-third year of the Ming Dynasty (1615), Wen Xiangfeng wrote in his "Song Travels": "Returning to the sixty monks, with the palm fighter, the swordsman, the whipper, and the halberd..." From this account, the Shaolin martial arts of the Ming Dynasty not only had fists and sticks, but also swords, whips, halberds, and so on. QingHong Liangji's "Chronicle of Dengfeng County" contains the late Ming Dynasty Gao Rucheng language: "Practice boxing sticks at the Shaolin Temple monks, especially the big knife." It can be seen that the big knife has been included in the important weapons of the Shaolin Temple in the Ming Dynasty. In the fifth year of the Ming Dynasty (1625), Cheng Shao, the governor of Henan, wrote in the "Shaolin Guan Wu Poem" after performing martial arts at the Shaolin Temple: "Temporarily take a break to recruit a test martial monk, and the Jinge iron rod technique is layered." Ming Wanli's Libu Shilang Gongding "Shaolin Guan Monk Contest Song": "There is a sword of light and light, and the squandering impact is galloping." "The above is enough to confirm that the types of boxing and instruments of the Shaolin martial arts of the Ming Dynasty are quite numerous.
Shaolin Kung Fu debuts at Harvard University (Zou Xiang Photo)
After shaolin martial arts began to spread to society in the Ming Dynasty, they were suppressed and banned by the Qing Dynasty due to the prohibition of religion. However, the spread of Shaolin martial arts in society was not terminated by the prohibition of religion, nor was it stopped by suppression, but the scale and scope of the spread were greater, even more than that of the Ming Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, Chu Renyu wrote in his notebook-style novel collection "Jianbao Collection": "When people talk about martial arts, they say 'coming out of the Shaolin Temple'. This is also the origin and source of the saying "the world kung fu out of Shaolin". It turned out to be so!
(The author Zou Xiang is a well-known writer, poet and scholar of Shaolin culture.) He has published many works such as "Zen Heart Rhyme", "Bodhi Blossom", "And Listen to the Wind", "Su Xin Ruohe", "ShouYuan Past" and so on. Since 2008, he has been the editor-in-chief of the official website of the Shaolin Temple and the executive editor of the magazine "Zen Lu" of the Shaolin Temple. ）