Origin and Development of Shaolin Kongfu
Shaolin Kongfu is an important part of Chinese martial arts owing to its diversity, rich content, distinctive feature, unique style and combination of merits of various martial arts techniques. Shaolin Kongfu has gained international reputation for its comprehensive system, mature technique and wide application. Shaolin Kongfu is a technical clan which has absorbed quintessence of traditional Chinese martial arts. Since the appearance upon the establishment of Shaolin temple in the 19th ruling year of King Taihe of Northern Wei Dynasty (494 A.D.), Shaolin Kongfu has become a body building activity of monks during spare time.
A great many eminent Kongfu players had joined Shaolin temple during the period Batuo took charge of Shaolin temple. Huiguang, Batuo’s apprentice was one of them. According to records in Biography of Eminent Monks written by Hui Jiao at the early period of Liang Dynasty, Batuo met Huiguang during his visit to Luoyang. At the first sight of Huiguang, the 12 years old Huiguang was kicking shuttlecock on well fences in street. Huiguang had kicked 500 times for a single run and attacked a large audience. At the sight of Huiguang kicking shuttlecock at such dangerous place, Batuo knew that Huiguang could play Kongfu excellently. Learning that Huiguang could master the eminent Kongfu skills at such a young age, Batuo asked him to join Shaolin temple as his apprentice.
Batuo had taken another apprentice at Shaolin Temple, Seng Chou who was a more skillful martial player. According to legend, Seng Chou had chased two fighting tigers apart on Wangwushan Mt with help of a single stick. Hence, it could be learnt from the joining of a great eminent Kongfu players that Shaolin temple had become cradle of traditional Chinese martial arts ever since its establishment, which has paved good foundation for development of Shaolin Kongfu.
After establishment of Shaolin temple, monks began to practice Kongfu to display their talents and to cater for the natural environment thereof. With Shaolin temple locating in deep steep mountain of Songshan, the environment was dangerously arduous and monks needed to practice Kongfu to have good physique. In addition, with beasts often appearing in woods of Shaolin, monks of Shaolin temple had been put into frequent danger and therefore, they had to practice Kongfu to fight against beast attacks. Another apparent fact is that as the custom of playing seat Zen prevailed after Batuo took charge of Shaolin temple, monks began to entrench themselves after sitting for long time, which had promoted the practice of Kongfu.
The practice of playing Kongfu had been promoted and Shaolin temple had become famous at the end of Sui Dynasty and early Tang Dynasty.
Later, when Li Shimin claimed the throne as King Taizong of Tang Dynasty, he had given generous rewards to the 13 monks of Shaolin temple, which had earned Shaolin temple great honor and made it well known. At the end of Sui Dynasty and in early Tang Dynasty, a General of Sui named Wang Shichong had proclaimed emperor in Luoyang and sent his nephew Wang Rence station with a great many military weapons at Boguzhuang village of Shaolin temple area. As a result, a great deal land of Shaolin temple had been taken away. Thirteen monks including Zhizao, Tanzong and Huiyang led out of dissatisfaction with Wang Renze the monks of Shaolin temple to fight against Wang. Finally, Wang was captured and handed to Tang’s army by monks. Thus, Shaolin temple had made great contribution in suppression of rebellions. The awarding of monks by King of Tang Dynasty was high approval of the monks’ behavior to safeguard national interests, which had provided sound foundation for practicing Kongfu in wide area. Later, Mahayana meditation’s avocation for protection of man against becoming evil had provided theoretical basis for the Kongfu practice in temple.
According to records of Biology of Fan Zhixu in Chronicle of Song Dynasty, Fan Zhixu was administer of Henan during rule of Huizong of Song Dynasty. Fan had appointed monk Zhao Zongxin as his military adviser. In order to save military resources, Zhao had reorganized an army of Shaolin monks to fight against Jin’s army. The army of the monks was named Zunsheng army. When Fan Zhixu worked as administer of Henan, Shaolin temple was within his charge, so Fan had close relation with Shaolin temple. He had erected in Shaolin temple a stone tablet with inscriptions Mian Bi Zhi Ta. Fan’s monk army was comprised of key monks of Shaolin temple and the monk army reorganized by Zhao was in fact expansion of monk army of Tang Dynasty.
During Yuan Dynasty, Shaolin temple had been given high attention and awarded high status as fist Buddhist temple. Shaolin temple in turn upheld the rue of Yuan government and had shown great fidelity therefor. There was a period in Yuan Dynasty where civilians were forbidden to practice martial arts and make weapons, but the rule was actually not applied to Shaolin temple where monks were allowed to practice Kongfu to protect themselves. In later Yuan Dynasty, great social chaos had occurred and the contradiction between Shaolin temple as protector for the Yuan government and rebellion army was no longer inevitable. Shaolin temple had organized an army to fight against the rebellion Red Scarves Army, but the army of Shaolin temple was ended up in failure and Shaolin temple was captured as well. The fight between monks of Shaolin temple and the Red Scarves Army had been made into a great many tales and stories. It was said that when Red Scarves Army had captured Shaolin temple, the fire monk Kimnara King stood high between Taishishan Mt. and Taishishan Ti., hold up tightly a lighting club in his hand and Red Scarves Army had been frighten away. In fact, the vise verse is true. Instead of Red Scarves Army having been frightened away by Kimnara King, monks of Shaolin temple had been defeated and the temple was captured by Red Scarves Army. Later, Kimnara King was entitled as Gunshu master and Kongfu monks entitled General Zengyun and Kimnara King as Grandfather and father of Kongfu monks respectively.
After practicing Kongfu for a long period from Northern Wei Dynasty to Yuan Dynasty, monks of Shaolin temple had inherited, developed and integrated Shaolin Kongfu, which helped to form a complete Shaolin Kongfu system. In terms of development of sects, Ming Dynasty had witnessed the formation process of different sects of Shaolin Kongfu. And the martial arts practiced by monks of Shaolin temple during Ming Dynasty had been named formally as Shaolin.
Martial arts of Shaolin monks had witnessed significant development during Ming Dynasty and a comprehensive system had been formed. As recorded in Diary to Visit Songshan by Wen Fengxiang in the 43rd year of King Wanli of Ming Dynasty (1615A.D.), among the 60 monks of Shaolin temple, some play palm stroke and sword; others play halberd and whip. Hence, Shaolin temple has developed mature techniques, especially in club playing, during Ming Dynasty, which was contributed considerably by communications among the monks going to war. During the rule of King Zhengde, monks of Shaolin temple had guarded Shaanxi borders and conquered Yunnan under the leadership of Kongfu monk Zhou You. During the rule of King Jiajin, the monks had joined the fight against Japnese pirates. The experience of joining war had significantly improved Shaolin Kongfu. Shaolin Kongfu had soon become popular national wide after Ming Dynasty and monks had been invited to coach national army. In addition, Shaolin monks had participated in war in east coastal region, which had won Shaolin Kongfu great reputation in the South.
Ming Dynasty had witnessed prime period in development of Shaolin Kongfu. It had become a custom for monks to practice, perform and teach Kongfu therein and a great many monks had been asked to go to war by government.
During Qing Dynasty, the government had forbidden Kongfu practice and Shaolin Kongfu had been suppressed and forbidden without exception. Monks begun to practice secretly instead of doing it in public. The prohibition had not been cancelled till the end of Qing Dynasty. However, Shaolin Kongfu had become more popular and practiced in wide areas among the civilians. One important reason resided in the religious groups and gangs that fought against the Qing government. They had made use of Shaolin Kongfu and helped to spread Shaolin Kongfu. In later period of King Qianlong, Shaolin Kongfu had won national fame. Not only Tiandihui members but also civilian players could say that their Kongfu belonged to Shaolin Kongfu. No wonder it had been said by Zhu Renzhi that “today’s Kongfu all comes from Shaolin temple”. This is the earlier expression of today’s saying that world’s Kongfu comes from Shaolin temple.
In the Republic of China, Shaolin temple had declined, but monks of Shaolin temple had observed the tradition of practicing Kongfu. The most reputed Kongfu monks of Shaolin temple in early period of the Republic of China included Hengxing and Miaoxing. Hengxing was a great master of various skills of Shaoling Kongfu and had been coach and abbot of Shaolin temple. He had a great number apprentices in various places of the country. In early period of the Republic of China, a great many pirates had appeared and Henglin, the general of protection unit of Shaolin temple, had led shaolin monks to won a great many battles. There were two other famous generals from Shaolin temple in the Republic of China, namely Xu Shiyou and Qian Jun who had been awarded title of general and lieutenant general respectively in 1955.
In 1928 where National Army started Northern Expedition, Henan army with Fan Zhongxiu as general and based in Shaolin temple launched an attack to National Army but had been defeated out of expectation. National Army had put major temples on fire, all martial arts documents had become ashes and monks escaped out of the temple. Shaolin temple had gone into slowest development in history. Then, resident Kongfu monks including Zeng Xu and De Chan had called back the eminent secularized monks such as Jiqin and Wu Sanlin, trained the monks to practice Kongfu and cultivated more than 40 monks such as Degeng and Xingzhang. In addition, middle school had been set up in Shaolin temple to teach Shaolin Kongfu classes. This had made Shaolin Kongfu famous again. To short, Shaolin Kongfu practicing and teaching by Kongfu monks as Zhenxu and Degeng had helped to inherit Shaolin Kongfu during the Republic of China.
After the foundation of People’s Republic of China, Shaolin Kongfu had been included on World’s Heritage List and gained important attention from the government and general public. The functions of Shaolin Kongfu have changed from fighting to a body building activity. And Shaolin Kongfu has obtained high reputation and wide application.