The Martial Monks of Shaolin Temple

By staff reporter HUO JIANYING

A Shaolin martial monk wields a cudgel – so-called forbear of all weapons.	Martial arts students practice daily in all weathers.	Shaolin internal kungfu – one-finger zen.

Among the forest of steles in front of Shaolin Temple is that inscribed by Li Shimin, second emperor (reigned 627-650) of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) who paved the way for his father to found China’s most glorious dynasty and who, upon succeeding his father as emperor, ushered the country into a period of unprecedented prosperity. The stele commends and commemorates the 13 Shaolin monks that rescued and protected this meritorious emperor from his enemies.

Li Shimin’s Lucky Thirteen

Li Shimin’s inscription describes how supporters of the vanquished Sui Dynasty (581-618) continued to incite uprisings against the newly founded Tang Dynasty. One such miscreant was the self styled “Grand Marshall” Wang Renze, a warlord based in Huanzhou near today’s Luoyang. Having terrorized local inhabitants with their looting and pillaging, this despot and his army of bandits occupied the Shaolin Temple farmlands. In 621, Li Shimin led his troops against Wang Renze, but the rebel leader proved a seasoned and cunning commander, astute at avoiding capture. The 13 monks that guarded Shaolin Temple came to the aid of the prince, and succeeded in finding, capturing and delivering Wang Renze to Li Shimin, according to his inscription. The kungfu film Shaolin Temple (1980), based on the slightly different folk version of the monks’ brave feats, tells of Li Shimin’s capture after entering Wang Renze’s barracks disguised as a doctor, and how the 13 Shaolin monks rescued him and also captured Wang Renze.

In any event, the Shaolin monks rendered distinguished service to Li Shimin and the Tang Dynasty. After he became Emperor Taizong, Li Shimin expressed his appreciation by bestowing on the temple 260 hectares of farmland and a hydro-powered roller for grinding grain. He later issued an imperial edict giving the 13 monks official appointments. Only one, Tan Zong, accepted the position of general-in-chief; the other 12 chose to carry on chanting sutras and practicing martial arts at the temple. Rather than remonstrate, the emperor gave each monk a purple silk kasaya (a patchwork outer garment worn by Buddhist monks), on the understanding that they come to his aid at times of war. He also permitted the temple to accept and train a number of monks, destined to act as a reserve force, in martial arts. This practice continued for the succeeding three dynasties. These martial monks’ most conspicuous contribution to the nation was during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), when they were dispatched on imperial expeditions to rid China’s coastal areas of pirates.

The saying “The world’s martial arts originate in Shaolin” arose from the temple’s designation as the center of excellence for China’s martial arts. Martial arts masters from all over the country converged at Shaolin to discuss, compare and refine their respective techniques. Shaolin wushu (martial arts) is consequently a distillation of the discipline’s most respected theories, skills, moves and methods. Shaolin, and indeed all schools of wushu work on the principle of internal and external kungfu, which could be interpreted respectively as the Yin and Yang of wushu. Internal kungfu focuses on cultivating the innate vital energy that intensifies the impact of external kungfu, or the sets of movements that constitute physical combat.

Cudgel: Forbear of All Weapons

Shaolin wushu encompasses boxing, of which there are 40 varieties, hand-to-hand combat and the disciplines of cudgel-, knife- and swordplay. As the first and simplest implement, originally used for hunting and fighting, the cudgel became known as “forbear of all weapons.” From it evolved other long-handled weaponry such as the spear, pike, and halberd, and its use formed the basis of their skills. Shaolin Temple made the cudgel the ultimate symbol of martial arts, and cudgel play is most representative of Shaolin wushu. Centuries after the 13 Shaolin monks used these simple but effective weapons to rescue Li Shimin, the Shaolin “reserve force” monks used iron cudgels two meters long and weighing 15 kilograms to rout the pirates along China’s east coast. The use of the cudgel is sanctioned in Buddhism because it subdues rather than kills the enemy. There is a Chinese saying, “A spear charges along a line and kills one, while the sweep of a cudgel fells a crowd of foes.”

Shaolin boxing.	Shaolin light kungfu.

Martial Virtue

Practitioners of all schools of wushu observe a moral code at whose core are the virtues of benevolence, justice, courtesy, wisdom and sincerity. This code’s essence is expressed in the maxim: “One learns courtesy before learning a skill, and morality before practicing martial arts.” Monks at Shaolin Temple learn discipline through observance of the so-called ten unacceptable trainees, ten taboos and ten prohibitions.

The ten unacceptable trainees are coarse; disloyal and unfilial; lacking in perseverance; without moral fiber; cunning and uncultured; vulgar; impure; and without dignity.

The ten taboos are sloth; boastfulness; impatience; excessiveness; hedonism; arrogance; scandal mongering; hypocrisy; lack of respect for the teacher; and bullying.

The ten prohibitions relate to violation of the ten taboos, some of which have been modified to prohibit theft, gratuitous scrapping and disobedience of imperial edicts, the latter a reminder that monks were duty-bound to defend the nation and its people at times of siege.

Ancient wushu differs in spirit from that practiced today in being solely a form of combat rather than a sport or performance art. Sets of movements were devised with the intention of maximizing the strength of every bone, muscle and sinew, and exponents assiduously avoid seriously injuring their opponents. Among the Shaolin Temple martial arts “commandments” is the rule: “There are eight parts that may and eight parts that may not be attacked.” The eight parts of the body it is allowed to attack are those that overcome the foe without causing fatal injury; the eight prohibited parts are vital organs. All routines, therefore, subdue an opponent, but only a few mortally wound him (or her). The essence of this principle is expressed in the Chinese character wu (martial), which consists of two ideograms whose combined meaning is “stop war” – the concept advocated by master strategist Sunzi. As he said in his work The Art of War, “The supreme art of war is that of subduing the enemy without a fight.”

The Shaolin Temple code of ethics is part and parcel of the training offered at all reputable schools of martial arts. Those that violate it are stripped of their membership and blacklisted.

External and Internal Wushu

Martial arts in China can be broadly divided into the Shaolin-influenced schools of the north and the Wudang approach of the south. The Wudang school originated in Hubei Province on Wudang Mountain, famous for its Taoist temples and home of taijiquan and baguazhang.

Shaolin is perceived as external wushu and Wudang as internal wushu. External wushu, with its rapid, aggressive movements, is offensive, while internal wushu’s slower, more graceful sets are defensive, and neutralize dynamism from a more or less stationary stance.

It is wrong to assume that external wushu works on the basis of external kungfu and internal wushu on that of internal kungfu because the two principles equally apply to both and indeed all martial arts disciplines. As earlier explained, internal kungfu focuses on vital energy and external kungfu on muscles and bone. Internal kungfu entails training in breath control, through meditation, as a means to replenish vital energy. The strength accumulated through measured breathing is imbued in the exponent. Shaolin wushu relies just as much on internal kungfu as does Wudang wushu, as a physical blow backed up with correctly cultivated vital energy carries the optimum force. In taijiquan a defensive stance allows the person being attacked to gauge his (or her) opponent’s weaknesses. The measure of his or her skill is evident in the deftness with which he or she deflects an attack and redirects the strength of the opponent into a backlash. When correctly performed, such a counterattack can pitch an attacker several meters away. Despite internal wushu’s appearing slow and passive compared with the more dynamic external style it is, therefore, equally effective.

The principle of simultaneous active and passive forces that transform each into their opposite is the underlying theme of the Dao De Jing (The Book of the Way and Its Virtue) – the collected sayings of Laozi, ancient philosopher and older contemporary of Confucius. Laozi reasons that the physical body is pliant and flexible at birth and becomes hard and brittle after death, in the same way as plants. It therefore follows that people who are unbending and set in their ways are actually more vulnerable than those who can adapt and “go with the flow.”

This ideology as transposed to wushu theory was expressed in the State of Yue 2,000 years ago by a woman who excelled at swordplay. When the king complimented her on and asked the secret of her prowess she replied: “A good swordswoman contains her strength and maintains a calm exterior, but fights like a tigress. Her opponent is more easily overcome from having made assumptions based on her ostensible humility.” Internal and external wushu exemplify the dialectic of the unity of opposites: internal and external; soft and hard; fixed and flowing, solid and liquid. Laozi uses the example of water and stone: “Nothing in the world is softer than water, yet nothing can equal its power to blunt the sharp and erode solidity.”