Overview And History Of Shaolin Martial Arts

By Dominique Martin


The actual Kung Fu is a term from a successful achievement or an accomplishment after doing a lot of hard work and mastery. It must not be connoted as a term for the martial art itself which a lot of people have already thought of. A simple example would be for the individual to deliver a side kick towards an opponent and make them go down and drop, then would be regarded as kung fu.

Martial arts of various styles have been branched from one main style. The Shaolin Martial Arts has been the main style that a lot of others are being referred and derived from. It was initially taught at a Buddhist monastery as a primary martial art in Songshan Mountain in the Henan province of China. This is where it started and where other fighting and defense art has begun.

A Buddhist monk arrived from India and travelled China around four hundred ninety five A. D. It was during the Northern Wei Dynasty where the Emperor Xiaowen offered Buddhabhadra, also known as Ba Tuo by the Chinese people, to teach Buddhism. Although he refused this offer altogether.

Although he turned down the offer, he was given a piece of land in order to build a temple. As mentioned, it was in Songshan Mountain which the word Shaolin literally translates to small forest. So for fifteen hundred years, this is where the art was developed and where the biggest schools had been located, as well the derivation and development of other styles.

In between fifty eight and seventy six A. D., the relations between the Indian and the Chinese began to flourish. Because of this, the concept of the art became more prominent in China due to the number of monks being sent to and from there. Bodhidharma, an Indian monk, has more or less likely preached Buddhism in the Shaolin Temple. Although this claim has already been disputed, his arrival had made significant changes in the styles and practices in this martial art.

Recently, this has still been practiced by the monks in Henan until today. The fact is that it has also become an entertainment value for the international audience due to the beauty of its form and art. Although it is believed that the value for self defense has been diminished due to this form of entertainment and has been replaced by a more lavish style which one of them is Wushu.

Jin Jing Zhong was able to publish a book in 1934 called 72 Arts of Shaolin. This actually lists the methods and practices for training that is authentic and based more on self defense rather than for presentation. This was possible to be documented because of the author acquiring a scroll from Shaolin Abbot Miao Xing for him to use as reference.

This style utilizes punches, blocks, and kicks in order to stop any attacker from striking. Although the attention for this art was mostly focused due to the form and its movement which gives beauty to it. A mixture of open and closed handed strikes are utilized for defense as well as soft and hard techniques to either absorb or deliver force to an opponent.

There have been a lot of movies and films already that has used this style for the scenes. Also, it has been inculcated in fitness programs which trainers have studied this along with stuntmen. A few training facilities have opened up to deliver education and skill training for this art form aside from the origin which is in Henan. They teach the basic forms for kids and adults.




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