Who are they and what do you know about Shaolin Temple in Henan Province China Part 1

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00:00Who are they? And what do you know about Shaolin Temple in Hunan Province, China?

00:06Part 1. We continue to tell a stage of the life of Kung Fu in the Shaolin Temple.

00:13Here are the answers to the most frequently asked questions about the Shaolin Temple.

00:18What is the Shaolin Temple? The Shaolin Temple is a Buddhist

00:22temple in Hunan Province, China, known as the Cradle of Kung Fu.

00:26It was founded in the 5th century by the Indian Chinese monk Bodhidharma and has a long history

00:31in the field of Buddhist spirituality and Kung Fu training.

00:35Where is the Shaolin Temple located? The Shaolin Temple is located in Hunan

00:40Province, China, near the city of Dengfeng. What is the history of the Shaolin Temple?

00:47The Shaolin Temple has a long and fascinating history dating back to the 5th century.

00:52It was founded by the Indian Chinese monk Bodhidharma and quickly developed into one

00:56of the most well-known Buddhist monasteries in China.

01:00Over the centuries, the temple has undergone many changes in significance and has had both

01:05highs and lows in its history. What kind of Kung Fu was taught at the Shaolin Temple?

01:11The Shaolin Temple teaches various types of Kung Fu including Shaolin Kung Fu, Tai Chi,

01:16and Qigong. Who founded the Shaolin Temple?

01:20The Shaolin Temple was founded in the 5th century by the Indian Chinese monk Bodhidharma.

01:26What is the significance of the Shaolin Temple in Chinese culture?

01:30The Shaolin Temple holds significant importance in Chinese culture as the

01:34birthplace of Kung Fu and one of the most famous Buddhist monasteries in China.

01:38It also has a great impact on Chinese history, culture and spirituality.

01:44Inscribed as a key national Buddhism monastery in 1983, Shaolin Temple or Shaolin Monastery of

01:50Zhengzhou enjoys a great reputation for over 1,000 years since Tang Dynasty, 618-907.

01:58It is the birthplace for both the famous martial arts of Shaolin and the Chan sect of Chinese

02:03Buddhism. Approved as a 5A tourist attraction in 2007, the Shaolin Temple set a background

02:09against a Wuru Peak and enjoys a natural barrier by right of surrounded multi-peaked

02:13mountains and beautiful sceneries. The temple is so named as Shaolin just because it is seated in

02:19the hinterland of Xiaoxia Mount and hides in the thick forest called as Linnan Chinese.

02:24A renowned temple in China with a history of over 1,500 years, Shaolin Temple additionally

02:29boasts for 11 historical architectures which are World Cultural Heritage as approved by UNESCO.

02:35Shaolin Kungfu called Shaolin Wushu or Shaolin Quanche

02:38elinquent is one of the oldest, largest and most famous styles of Wushu or Kungfu of Chan Buddhism.

02:45It combines Chan philosophy and martial arts. It was developed in the Shaolin Temple in Hunan

02:50Province, Greater China during its 1,500-year history. Popular sayings in Chinese folklore

02:57related to this practice include all martial arts under heaven originated from Shaolin and Shaolin

03:02Kungfu is the best under heaven, indicating the influence of Shaolin Kungfu among martial arts.

03:08The name Shaolin is also used as a brand for the so-called external styles of Kungfu.

03:13Many styles in southern and northern China use the name Shaolin.

03:18Chinese historical records, like Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue, the bibliographies

03:22in the Book of the Han Dynasty, the records of the Grand Historian, and other sources document

03:27the existence of martial arts in China for thousands of years. For example, the Chinese

03:32martial art of wrestling, Shuai Jiao, predates the establishment of Shaolin Temple by several

03:37centuries. Since Chinese monasteries were large landed estates that made a considerable regular

03:43income, monks required some form of protection. Historical discoveries indicate that, even before

03:50the establishment of Shaolin Temple, monks had been armed and also practiced martial arts.

03:55In 1784 the boxing classic, Essential Boxing Methods made the earliest extant reference to

04:01the Shaolin Monastery as Chinese boxing's place of origin. This is, however, a misconception,

04:07but even the fact that such a mistake could be made helps to show the historical importance

04:11of Shaolin Kungfu. In 495 AD, Shaolin Temple was built among the Song Mountains in Hunan Province.

04:19The first monk who preached Buddhism there was the monk named Buddha Bhadra,

04:23simply called Batua by the Chinese. There are historical records that Batua's first

04:28Chinese disciples, Huiguang and Sengcho, both had exceptional martial skills. For example,

04:34Sengcho's skill with the Tin Staff and Empty Hand Strikes is even documented in the Chinese Buddhist

04:39canon. Bodhidharma is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China

04:45and regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. In Japan, he is known as Daruma.

04:51The idea that Bodhidharma founded martial arts at the Shaolin Temple was spread in the 20th century,

04:56however, this idea came from a debunked apocryphal 17th-century legend that claimed

05:01Bodhidharma taught the monks philosophies of Chan Buddhism, in which the monks were then

05:06able to use these philosophies to create their own combat techniques of Shaolin Kungfu.

05:11The idea of Bodhidharma influencing Shaolin Boxing is based on a Qigong manual written

05:16during the 17th century. This is when a Taoist with the pen name Purple Coagulation Man of the

05:22Wei wrote the Sin is Changing Classic in 1624, but claimed to have discovered it.

05:28The first of two prefaces of the manual traces this succession from Bodhidharma to the Chinese

05:32General Li Jing via a chain of Buddhist saints and martial heroes. P165 the work itself is full

05:39of anachronistic mistakes and even includes a popular character from Chinese fiction,

05:43the Jurong Kabushi bearded hero, as a lineage master.

05:47Scholar-officials as far back as the Qing Dynasty have taken note of these mistakes.

05:52The scholar Ling Tin Kang, 1757-1809, described the author as an ignorant village master.

06:00Even then, the association of Bodhidharma with martial arts only became widespread as a result

06:04of the 1904-1907 serialization of the novel The Travels of Lao Tiesan in Illustrated Fiction

06:10Magazine. One of the most recently invented and familiar of the Shaolin historical narratives

06:16is a story that claims that the Indian monk Bodhidharma, the supposed founder of Chinese

06:20Chan, Zen, Buddhism, introduced boxing into the monastery as a form of exercise around A.D.

06:27This story first appeared in a popular novel, The Travels of Lao Tiesan,

06:30published as a series in a literary magazine in 1907.

06:35This story was quickly picked up by others and spread rapidly through publication in a popular

06:40contemporary boxing manual, Secrets of Shaolin Boxing Methods, and the first Chinese physical

06:46culture history published in 1919. As a result, it has enjoyed vast oral circulation and is one

06:52of the most sacred of the narratives shared within Chinese and Chinese-derived martial arts.

06:58That this story is clearly a 20th-century invention is confirmed by writings going back

07:02at least 250 years earlier, which mention both Bodhidharma and martial arts but make

07:07no connection between the two. During the short period of the Sui dynasty, 581-618,

07:14the building blocks of Shaolin Kung Fu took an official form, and Shaolin monks began to create

07:19fighting systems of their own. The 18 methods of Luohan with a strong Buddhist flavor were

07:24practiced by Shaolin monks since this time, which was later used to create more advanced Shaolin

07:29martial arts. Shaolin monks had developed very powerful martial skills, and this showed itself

07:35towards the end of the Sui dynasty. Like most dynastic changes, the end of the Sui dynasty was

07:41a time of upheaval and contention for the throne. The oldest evidence of Shaolin participation in

07:47combat is a steel from 728 that attests to two occasions, a defense of the monastery from bandits

07:53around 610 and their role in the defeat of Wang Shichong at the Battle of Hulao in 621.

07:58Wang Shichong declared himself emperor. He controlled the territory of Zheng and the

08:04ancient capital of Luoyang. Overlooking Luoyang on Mount Huanyuan was the Cypress Valley Estate,

08:10which had served as the site of a fort during the Jin and a commandery during the Southern Qi.

08:16Emperor Wen of Sui had bestowed the estate on a nearby monastery called Shaolin for its monks to

08:20farm, but Wang Shichong, realizing its strategic value, seized the estate and there placed troops

08:25in a signal tower, as well as establishing a prefecture called Yuanzhou. Furthermore,

08:31he had assembled an army at Luoyang to march on the Shaolin Temple itself.

08:36The monks of Shaolin allied with Wang's enemy, Li Shimin, and took back the Cypress Valley Estate,

08:41defeating Wang's troops and capturing his nephew Renzi. Without the fort at Cypress Valley, there

08:46was nothing to keep Li Shimin from marching on Luoyang after his defeat of Wang's ally Dou Jianda

08:51at the Battle of Hulao, forcing Wang Shichong to surrender. Li Shimin's father was the first Tang

08:57emperor and Shimin himself became its second. Thereafter Shaolin enjoyed the royal patronage

09:02of the Tang. Though the Shaolin Monastery Stele of 728 attests to these incidents in 610 and 621

09:10when the monks engaged in combat, it does not allude to martial training in the monastery

09:15or to any fighting technique in which its monks specialized. Nor do any other sources from the

09:20Tang, Song, and Yuan periods allude to military training at the temple. According to Meir Shahar,

09:27this is explained by a confluence of the late Ming fashion for military encyclopedias and,

09:31more importantly, the conscription of civilian irregulars, including monks,

09:35as a result of Ming military decline in the 16th century.

09:40Stele and documentary evidence shows the monks historically worshipped the Bodhisattva

09:44Vajrapani's Kanara-king form as the progenitor of their staff and bare-hand fighting styles.

09:49From the 8th to the 15th centuries, no extant source documents Shaolin participation in combat,

09:54then the 16th and 17th centuries see at least 40 extant sources attest that,

09:59not only did monks of Shaolin practice martial arts, but martial practice had become such an

10:03integral element of Shaolin monastic life that the monks felt the need to justify it by creating new

10:08Buddhist lore. References to Shaolin martial arts appear in various literary genres of the late

10:14Ming, the epitaphs of Shaolin warrior monks, martial arts manuals, military encyclopedias,

10:19historical writings, travelogues, fiction, and even poetry. These sources, in contrast to those

10:25from the Tang Dynasty period, refer to Shaolin methods of combat unarmed, with the spear,

10:30and with the weapon that was the forte of the Shaolin monks and for which they had become famous,

10:34the staff. By the mid-16th century military experts from all over Ming China were traveling

10:40to Shaolin to study its fighting techniques. Around 1560 Udayo traveled to Shaolin monastery

10:46to see for himself its monks' fighting techniques, but found them disappointing.

10:51You return to the south with two monks, Zongqing and Puzong, whom he taught the use of the staff

10:55over the next three years, after which Zongqing and Puzong returned to Shaolin monastery and

11:00taught their brother monks what they had learned. Martial arts historian Tang Hao traced the Shaolin

11:05staff style Five Tigers Interception to use teachings. I stop at this point today.

11:11Until next time, stay curious. Stay informed, and keep exploring the world's incredible stories.

11:20Soon we will publish. Part. 2. Thank you. For watching.

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