Authentic Songshan Shaolin Martial Arts

HISTORY OF SHAOLIN

The Shaolin Temple was built by order of the Emperor Wei (471-500 AD) for the Buddhist Monk Batuo (Buddhabhadra) circa 497 AD. The original construction was very simple and consisted of a shrine and a platform in which Indian and Chinese monks translated Sutras into Chinese. The first two martial monks were Huiguang and Sengchou who became disciples of Batuo. The great Indian Master Bodhidharma (Founder of Chan (Zen) Buddhism) had meditated for 9 years nearby the Shaolin Temple and imparted his knowledge of Buddhism and other methods around 540-570 AD.

The earliest record of the development of Shaolin Temple and its martial arts is in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) which included the defense of the monastery from local bandits, assisting Li Shimin to defeat Wang Shichong at the battle of Hulao on 28 May 621 AD. This includes the legend of the 13 Staff fighting monks.

Throughout history the martial arts, Buddhism, Medicine and culture of Shaolin Temple developed including in the Song Dynasty (960-1278 AD) Abbott Fu Yu (circa 961 AD) placed much effort in the consolidation and development of Shaolin Martial Arts. Later in the Song period (circa 1230 AD) the famous Masters Jue Yuan, Bai Yufeng and Li Sou also developed the shaolin skills.

Shaolin Temple has had both an illustrious history and a tragic one, as dynastic politics and wars had impacted the temple and its activities continuously. It was destroyed and rebuilt numerous times and as a result many of its martial arts have been spread amongst lay disciples more so than in the temple itself. The burining of the Temple in 1928 was siginificantly damaging as many monks were killed whilst others hid in seclusion resulting in the worst degenration of the shaolin martial arts in history.

As a result of government efforts to restore the temple in the mid 1980's and given the additional funding from tourists and visitors motivated by the classic film of that period, the temple was to be restored. Although some monks had survived such as Shi Dechan, Shi Suxi and Shi Suyang, they had only acquired a part of the shaolin martial arts. This resulted in a project to invite all masters around the temple to re-develop the Shaolin skills, such notables as Liang Yiquan, Zhang Qinghai, Liu Zhenhai and Liu Baoshan are some of those requested to assist.

Given over 1,500 years of history the Shaolin Temple has of course many events and battles which have been told throughout the world. The combination of Chan Buddhism and Shaolin Gongfu lead to an excellent path to happiness and health.