Shaolin kung fu: Difference between revisions

The idea that Bodhidharma founded martial arts at the Shaolin Temple was spread in the 20th century, however, this idea came from a debunked apocryphal 17th century legend that claimed Bodhidharma taught the monks philosophies of [[Chan Buddhism|Chan Buddhism]], in which the monks were then able to use these philosophies to create their own combat techniques of [[Shaolin kungfu]]kung fu. The idea of Bodhidharma influencing Shaolin boxing is based on a [[Qigong]] manual written during the 17th century. This is when a Taoist with the [[pen name]] 'Purple Coagulation Man of the Way' wrote the ''[[Yijin Jing|Sinews Changing Classic]]'' in 1624, but claimed to have discovered it. The first of two prefaces of the manual traces this succession from Bodhidharma to the Chinese general [[Li Jing (Tang dynasty)|Li Jing]] via "a chain of Buddhist saints and martial heroes."<ref name=shahar/>{{rp|at=p165}} The work itself is full of anachronistic mistakes and even includes a popular character from Chinese fiction, the 'Qiuran Ke' ('Bushy Bearded Hero') ({{lang|zh|虬髯客}}), as a lineage master.<ref name=liu/> [[Scholar-official]]s as far back as the Qing dynasty have taken note of these mistakes. The scholar Ling Tinkang (1757–1809) described the author as an "ignorant village master."<ref name=shahar/>{{rp|at=p168}} Even then, the association of Bodhidharma with martial arts only became widespread as a result of the 1904–1907 serialization of the novel ''The Travels of Lao Ts'an'' in ''Illustrated Fiction Magazine'':<ref>{{sfncite journal|last=Henning|first=Stanley|title=The Chinese Martial Arts in Historical Perspective|journal=Journal of the Chenstyle Taijiquan Research Association of Hawaii|volume=2|issue=3|year=1994|pages=1–7|url=http://themartialscholar.yolasite.com/resources/henning.pdf}}</ref>

{{quote|One of the most recently invented and familiar of the Shaolin historical narratives is a story that claims that the Indian monk Bodhidharma, the supposed founder of Chinese Chan (Zen) Buddhism, introduced boxing into the monastery as a form of exercise around a.d. 525. This story first appeared in a popular novel, ''The Travels of Lao T'san'', published as a series in a literary magazine in 1907. This story was quickly picked up by others and spread rapidly through publication in a popular contemporary boxing manual, Secrets of Shaolin Boxing Methods, and the first Chinese physical culture history published in 1919. As a result, it has enjoyed vast oral circulation and is one of the most "sacred" of the narratives shared within Chinese and Chinese-derived martial arts. That this story is clearly a twentieth-century invention is confirmed by writings going back at least 250 years earlier, which mention both Bodhidharma and martial arts but make no connection between the two.<ref>{{sfncite book |last1=Henning |first1=Stan |last2=Green |first2=Tom |year=2001 |chapter=Folklore in the Martial Arts |editor-last=Green |editor-first=Thomas A. |title=Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia |place=Santa Barbara, Calif |publisher=ABC-CLIO}}</ref>{{rp|p=129}} }}

From the 1540s to the 1560s, [[Pirate|piratespirate]]s known as ''[[wokou]]'' raided [[China]]'s eastern and southeastern coasts on an unprecedented scale.