The Shaolin Temple and the Fighting Monks
The Shaolin Temple has many legends and mysteries surround it. The origin of martial arts, the origin of kung fu surround the vague mysteries of the Shaolin Temple and the shaolin monks. Shaolin Temple is probably the most famous temple in China, not only because of its long history and its role in Chinese Buddhism, Shaolin Temple Pagodabut also because of its martial arts or Wushu Chan. Shaolin Temple is situated in the beautiful Songshan Mountains, which is only eight miles of Dengfeng and about 50 miles southwest of Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province. Shaolin Temple was established in 495 during the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534). Batuo, an Indian monk, came to Luoyang, the ancient capital, for spreading Buddhism at that period. Emperor Xiaowen was a believer of Buddhism so he decided to build the temple in the Songshan Mountains to house Batuo, who translated many Buddhist works and had a few hundred followers there.
Damo (Bodhidharma), the legendary Indian monk, came to Shaolin in 517, who was the creator of Chinese Zen. There are many legendary stories about him. One of the well-known stories says he was meditating in a cave for nine years. The cave is now called Damo Cave. Many people believe he wrote the famous 'Yijinjing,' the base of Shaolin martial arts or Gongfu. But there is no record about the book before and during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) so experts think Damo has little to do with Shaolin Gongfu. Zongheng, a Taoist priest of Tiantai Mountain, wrote 'Yijinjing' in 1624, but to add mystery to it, he made up a story saying 'Yijinjing' was originally written by Damo.
Shaolin does have a long tradition of Chinese martial arts, as the saying goes 'All martial arts (gongfu) are from Shaolin.' This is partly because Shaolin was located in a strategic area so they had to protect the temple themselves from wars or any invading, and partly because of the support of most emperors from different dynasties, which came after the 13 Shaolin monks once saved Li Shimin, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Since then Shaolin was allowed to have solider-monks. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Shaolin housed over 1,000 solder-monks at its peak and they were often used by the government to combat rebellions and Japanese bandits. But martial arts were forbidden during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Even with the protection of solder-monks, Shaolin was severely damaged by fire a few times. The largest fire set by the army of Shi Yousan in 1928 destroyed most of the buildings of Shaolin Temple.
There are many noted relics at Shaolin. There are over 300 ancient stone inscriptions, some of them by famous calligraphers. The large mural of 500 arhats in the Qianfo Hall was from the Ming Dynasty. There are 232 pagodas from different dynasties, known as the forest of pagodas. The oldest one was from the Tang Dynasty. The pagodas are the tombs of the celebrated Shaolin monks. The Shaolin martial arts are an important part of the relics.
Believe it or not, the Shaolin Temple was built for the practice of Buddhism. Its greatest master was famous not for his pugilism, but for nine years of uninterrupted sitting meditation. His disciple, Huike, cut off his own arm to receive the Chan teachings; clearly Huike wasn’t a great boxer either. Apparently, the Wu-Tang Clan is a pack of liars! How did the temple became so strongly associated with martial arts, in the minds of the public? Those of you familiar with martial arts history know that these accounts are largely unreliable; every generation of teachers seems to make a few adjustments to the records, for their own benefit.
In 1979, the young wushu forms champion Li Lianjie accepted his first starring role in the movie Shaolin Temple. The movie was filmed on-location. As Jet Li himself remembers.
When we arrived in the area in 1979 to start filming the first movie, the temple and the grounds were very dilapidated. The Cultural Revolution had only ended a few years before. There was nothing left inside, and the exterior of the buildings hadn’t been kept in very good order either. There were only three monks living at the temple. One was the abbot, one the gatekeeper, and the last one was the caretaker/cook. As far as we knew, none of them had any particular martial prowess and nobody in the area practiced wushu.
After the movie came out, though, the temple gained fame throughout China and the world. By the time we returned three years later for more filming, the place had changed completely. All the roads within a four or five kilometer radius of the temple were lined with signs promoting Shaolin businesses of all kinds: Shaolin cola, Shaolin beer, Shaolin cigarettes…and school after school of Shaolin martial arts.
Millions of tourists are now flocking to the Songshan monastery every year. If there is one person responsible for ending its quiet serenity, wouldn’t it be Jet Li? His work of historical fiction inspired the visitors, who financed the local government, who engineered the reclamation of the village.
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