The History Of Shaolin
Shaolin Kun Fu is a martial art developed in the 6th century in the Honan Provence of Northern China by Buddhist Monks as a means of self defense and of disciplining mind and body. Centuries of practice and application have formed a system unparalleled in combat as well as phisical and mental development.
The Legend of Bodhidharma
Ferociously ugly, with piercing blue eyes and wild curly hair, the Indian Monk Bodhidharma is known as the founder of Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism and of the Shaolin fighting arts.
Sometime around 500 A.D., Budhidharma traveld by ship from southern India to eastern China. He traveld hundreds of miles crossing the Yangtze River and the Himalayan Mountains, eventually finding his way to the Shaolin Templ in the Honan Provence. When the monks would not admitt him, he went to a nearby cave and meditated for 9 years, finally boring a hole in the wall of the cave by the fierceness of his gaze. With this feat the monks admitted him into the temple, and he taught them his direct, meditation based form of buddhism, which involved long hours of sitting still. But he found that the monks were weak, unable to withstand the pressures f static meditation, so he taught them breathing practices and physical techniques which gave rise to Shaolin Kung Fu as we know it today.
The Shaolin Temples
The Fukien Temple became the second temple of Shaolin around 650 A.D. Through the centuries, the fortunes of the Sholin monks rose and fell with political and Dynastic changes of Chinese history, and other Temples became part of the Shaolin system. With their superb fighting skills, the Shaolin monks were alternately courted and renowned by those in power who wish to have the monks on their side, or vilified or suppressed when those who feared them came into power.
The Temples were burned and rebuilt, but the knowledge of the art survived while the monks continually added to and improved upon it. For the most part, the Temples prospered, becoming widely known as centers of learning and philosophy as well as martial arts.
Gaining admission to the Temple was difficult. Young students were expected to wait outside the Temple gates for what must have seemed an eternity to them while their temperment and attitude was observed by the monks. Once admitted, they endured years of service and menial chores before being accepted as disciples. Once accepted, they would recieve and unparalleled education in philosophy, fine arts and martial arts. In Order to graduate from the Temple, they had to exhibit phenominal skills, and pass through 18 testing chambers. If they survived the first 17 (and there were those who did not), they would have to grib a burning hot Iron cauldron with their bare forearms, which would brand them with a raised relief of a tiger and a dragon.
For Hundreds of years, the Shaolin masters developed new styles and forms of combat, bringin back the variations and innovations in the martial arts they had encountered in their travels. Their arts flourished in the Temples during the Ming Dynasty. But this golden age did not last.
In the mid 17th century, Manchurian invaders began to systematiclly and brutally take control of China. Internal rebellion contibuted significantly to the fall of the Ming Dynasty, and betrayal of an insider was the cause of the almost utter destruction of the Honan Temple in 1647 A.D. Many monks fled to the Fukien Temple where they continued to support the resistance fighters. This, in turn, led to the distruction of the Fukien Temple and other Temples and the outlawing - punishable by death - of the practice of Shaolin Kung Fu.
Outlawed, the Shaolin continued to teach in hiding and in exile. It took many years before the Temples were reopened in the early 1800's, and even then, they could only be used for religious purposes.
The Disasterous Boxer Rebellion in 1900 caused another wave of escaped resistance fighters, most of whom were Shaolin monks. They scattered to the United States, Australia, Korea, Brazil, Indonesia and many other countries. The third burning of the Shaolin Temple happened in 1927. In recent years, the gvernment of China has come to realize the importance of the cultural heritage of Shaolin, and reopened the Temples.
Hsing Yi
By Daniel Mattson
The origin of Hsing I Chuan is unknown, but it is most often attributed to General Yue Fei. Yue Fei was a general for the Chinese military in the Song Dynasty and died around AD 1130. Most historians and scholars agree he did not invent the system of Hsing I, but it is attributed to him for his promotion of Hsing I in the military. Although the general has been accredited to founding several different styles including Eagle Claw and the health exercise known as the "Eight Pieces of Brocade". Some scholars have traced it back as far as the Liang Dynasty AD 550. Although this still does not prove that it started at that time. Hsing I is an “internal” martial art. Although it is difficult to master, it is considered to be the simplest of the three major internal systems (Tai Chi Chuan, Pa Kua Chang, and Hsing I).
(Statue of Yue Fei, from the Yue Fei Mausoleum in Hangzhou. The four characters on his banner say, Huan wo he shan , or "Give back my rivers and mountains".)
The only recorded record of Yue Fei’s teacher proclaims him as a wandering Taoist with no name actually mentioned. Hsing I is a predominant subject of many stories, songs, and poems throughout Chinese history. Several theories have been made by well known martial artists including General Yue Fei with his “Ten Important Thesis”.
As with any system without origin and claim to ancestry heritage, Hsing I has some variations. When a family adopted a system or style they usually critiqued its contents to either make it their own or improve it. Today Hsing I is practiced within all over the world by not only Chinese schools, but others who have incorporated it’s theories into their own system. The first five forms learned are a representation of the “Five Elements”; water, wood, earth, metal, and fire. Then the system of Hsing I’s twelve animals is practiced; tiger, bear, eagle, ostrich, turtle, snake, dragon, monkey, swallow, pheaquefo (bird), horse, and chicken. These are the most well known aspects of Hsing I Chuan. Combined together form and meditation have made this one of the hardest hitting systems known.
