why shaolin doesn't impress me.

Anyone who’s practiced martial arts, or watched more then one Kung-Fu flick has heard of the Shaolin Temple. Most believe it to be the “birthplace of martial arts,” and revere it as some sort of holy site for all practitioners. While it is certainly a significant site of development, and I would love to join the throngs of tourists who flock to it, I remain thoroughly unimpressed by its current incarnation.

myth and truth

A large part of Shaolin’s continuing appeal is the legend that has surrounded it for so long. Exciting tails of warrior monks saving the Prince from rebellious pirates and serving as a recluse for anti-Manchu patriots abound. While many of these are true, most are exaggerated and the idea of Shaolin being the originator of all Kung-Fu simply isn’t true. The mythical Bodhidharma is credited with bringing Ch’an Buddhism and exercises that laid the ground work for what was to become Shaolin Kung-Fu to the temple. Dates vary but he is generally noted to have arrived at Shaolin somewhere around 500CE. Right here we can see that Shaolin is not in fact the birthplace of kung-fu as there is significant evidence that organized Chinese fighting systems existed for at least a thousand years prior to this. An excellent timeline of Chinese martial arts development can be found in this book.

This of course begs the question of what is Kung-Fu and were these developments at Shaolin perhaps the origins of “modern” Kung-Fu as we know it. It is a point well taken but I still believe that valid systems of self-defense existed independently all over China as well as other parts of the world.

Shaolin is extremely important to the development of Kung-Fu in that it served at different periods as a center for cross-pollination of styles as many different masters sought out the Temple for either refuge or study. As well, it is widely accepted (this author included) as being the birthblace of Ch'an (the Chinese name for Zen) Buddhism.



tourist trap

Unfortunately, stories also abound about the commercialized state of the modern Shaolin Temple. Simply put- it is a tourist trap. Receiving millions of tourists a year, the Temple is thoroughly modernized and marketed to travelers, with monks alongside professional actors “training” for the visiting throngs’ amusement. Monk’s routinely request “donations” in exchange for impromptu demonstrations and the surrounding area is filled with training halls and souvenir shops.



wushu not kung-fu

By the end of the Cultural Revolution there were only 7 monks left living (hiding might be a more accurate wording) in the Temple. All over China, since the Communist victory, monks and martial artists both fled in fear of The Red Guard. In the 34 years since the end of Mao's reign, the Temple has flourished and is doing amazing financially with non-stop restoration and new building projects. But what has been “preserved?” Speaking strictly to the Kung-Fu of the Temple, not much. Watching any demonstration tour, Youtube video or film you will see that the monks are clearly practitioners of modern Wushu. Indeed this is publicly admitted without a hint of irony or shame.

After the Communist Party's initial condemnation of martial arts, it was decided around 1958 that they were a national treasure and ordered codified into what is now modern Wushu- a sort of generic system of Kung-Fu geared toward aesthetics and competition rather than practicality or tradition. And, perhaps owing to the decimation of the Temple’s ranks, that is what you now have at Shaolin. Not authentic, unique traditional martial arts but commonplace competition material.



what does impress me

There’s no denying the intense discipline technique of Shaolin monks. They train extremely hard and it shows through intensity especially with regard to flexibility, acrobatic capabilities and so-called hard Chi-Kung. No Shaolin demonstration is complete without exhibition of certain feats of strength and internal power such as breaking different materials, having material broken over the monk’s body and different types of iron body techniques such as groin, head and throat point.

Generally, the hard Chi Kung abilities are trainable by anyone. Looking at general conditioning however, the Shaolin monks’ pedagogy is not adaptable for modern Western life. Simply put, they developed their abilities by training all day since childhood, something completely incompatible with today’s modern world.



final thoughts

Shaolin is amazing in a lot of ways, it is a cultural and historical treasure. As regards the martial arts it will (hopefully) always be a hugely significant destination and its tales, both fact based and mythologized will continue to inform martial tradition. Here lies the greatest current opportunity for would-be martial historians: English (and other) language histories of Shaolin. While there is some documentation of the oral histories and legends, it is scarce at best in non-Chinese and scholarly works are all but non-existent.

Turning from antiquity, Shaolin, except as a historical site offers little. If one wishes to learn “true” Shaolin martial arts, she must look elsewhere. Those recent disciples and monks “spreading Shaolin” are instead propagating a modern, generic, government sanctioned art. The true inheritors of Shaolin’s martial arts are scattered, the initial Communist persecution and then Cultural Revolution causing a massive diasporas of Chinese martial arts masters across the world, but particularly to Taiwan, Hong Kong and the United States.

If you want to learn Shaolin techniques, don't look toward Shaolin.