Matrix Code - Your swords

Quote:

Originally Posted by KJER

dont forget..

all japanese styles came from one style...shaolin..

But don't forget...

Shaolin comes from an Indian martial arts itself

This is from http://www.shaolin.com.au/history.htm

The Establishment of Shaolin
Toward the end of the 5th Century AD an Indian Buddhist monk by name of Ba Tuo was travelling through China teaching Buddhism, helping and guiding. His great wisdom and kindness came to the ears of the Emperor who summoned Ba Tuo to come to him.

Exact details of what happened at this meeting is not entirely clear but is seems that Ba Tuo was offered a place in the palace and riches, and encouraged to continue his teachings. Ba Tao kindly declined this offer and asked for a piece of land far away from any 'civilised place in the province of Henan on the side of the Song sang Mountain. There was given a large piece of land and resources to build a monastery in an area called 'Wooded Hill or Small Forest which translates to Shaolin in Mandarin or Sil-Lum in Cantonese.

Introduction of Physical Exercise
In about 539 AD, a holy man named Bodidarma (later called Ta Mo by the Chinese) left his monastery in Southern India to spread the Buddhist faith to China, later called Ch'an Buddhism. (Ch'an is the Chinese translation for the Sanskrit word "dhyana" meaning Yogic concentration, also known as Zen in Japanese to where it migrated from China.). After travelling hundreds of miles to reach Northern China and crossing the Himalayan mountains and the Yangtze River, he headed North to Loyang, the capital of Henan Province.

There of course he found the Shaolin Ssu (Temple). It was, 40 years after it is founding, and had become famous for scholarly translations of Indian Buddhist scripture into Chinese. Bodidarma sought entrance to Shaolin but the abbot of the day, Fang Chang would not let him into the temple (as many sought entrance for various reasons).

Bodidarma was determined to enter and see the Shaolin Ssu. He located to a nearby cave on the side of a mountain (this cave can be visited when in Henan/Shaolin as well as climbing to the top where a 40 foot Buddha is erected in honour of Ta Mo), where (it is said) he sat in meditation facing a stonewall. From this event many versions exist including;

That he sat facing a wall for most of the next nine years at the end of which Bodidarma deep blue piercing eyes had apparently drilled a gaping hole in the cliff wall. (we did not find such a hole but we did find what seemed to be a permanent shadow)
That he fell asleep meditating and his eyelids closed and when he awoke, he was so distraught that he cut of his eye lids so that this would not happen again (but this would be against Buddhist teaching and he was a devote Buddhist!).
That he was visited by monks (initially secretly as they were interested in the 'foreigner') and was even supplied with food and water; and that he in this way was able to demonstrate his knowledge and skill of Buddhism to such a degree that he was finally (after 9 years?) admitted to the into the temple.
Irrespective of which stories was true, it is clear that Fang Chang at some time relented and allowed Bodidarma entry into the temple Shaolin.

Upon gaining entrance to Shaolin, Ta Mo (as he was now called by the Chinese) saw that the monks were weak and could not perform the rigorous meditations he expected that Buddhist Monks should be practicing. Whilst meditating they often fell asleep or were very restless and were not achieving inner calm or peace (which is required to reach Enlightenment, that for which all Buddhist strive!).

He spent some time in seclusion pondering the problem. Considering the time and health awareness at the time, Ta Mo came to a staggeringly accurate conclusion, that the monks were not fit to meditate. With this in mind he started working on a solution; he created three treaties of exercises.

These in-place exercises were later transcribed by monks as;

"The Muscle Change Classic" or "The Change of the Sinews,"
"The Marrow Washing"
"The Eighteen Hand Movements later named The Eighteen Lohan Shou (Lohan meaning enlightened)
and marked the beginning of Shaolin Temple Kung Fu (meaning hard work and perfection). Ta Mo later devised some self-defence movements based on his knowledge of Indian fighting systems (Bodidarma was born an Indian Prince and was well versed in Yoga and Indian Kung Fu).

Shaolin Kung Fu
Many of the Shaolin priests were retired soldiers and generals thus Ta Mo's teachings were enriched and refined by these martial art masters and thus it slowly developed in to a martial art of the hands also known as Shaolin Ch'uan [Shaolin Fist] or Shaolin Ch'uan Fa [Way of the Shaolin Fist]).

Shaolin was not a poor temple by this time and was regularly attacked by peasant armies (since individuals had no chance to penetrate Shaolin defences and walls). Often to enrich it's knowledge Shaolin would invite wandering healers, scholars and now also martial art masters into it's walls to learn from these by sharing knowledge and skills!

Shaolin became very apt at kung fu and in repelling the attacking bandits. And slowly but surly the Shaolin became renown for their martial arts prowess and fighting ability. It is to be noted that not all Shaolin Monks were warrior monks but that monks choose to specialise in areas of expertise, much like university professors. Although at this time all practiced kung fu, not all were totally focused on the practical aspect of the art, only the Warrior Monks. It is also interesting to note that Shaolin preferred not to hurt their assailants as this would have ramifications for their spirituality in this life and the next!

Only a further 30 years later Shaolin was closed and forbidden and it took some 30 years, around 600AD, before it was reopened.

Posting Rules

You may not post new threads

You may not post replies

You may not post attachments

You may not edit your posts

vB code is On

Smilies are On

[IMG] code is On

HTML code is Off