The Shaolin Monastery. History, Religion and the Chinese Martial Arts

48 Origins of a Military Tradition or—as the emperor had in mind—a semi-independent shrine, located in the periphery of a large ...

Serving the Emperor 49 gets the impression that the magistrate had the former in mind as well. After all, He Wei addressed his a ...

50 Origins of a Military Tradition office holders). As early as the Ming period (1368–1644), Shaolin monastic authorities were s ...

Serving the Emperor 51 dained at a Mt. Wutai monastery, but abandons it for the freedom of itinerant military adventures. He is ...

52 Origins of a Military Tradition wealth. This common feature offers a clue for understanding the Shaolin mar- tial tradition. ...

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55 Chapter 3 Defending the Nation By the second h al f of the Ming period (1368–1644), Shaolin’s military reputation had been fi ...

56 Systemizing Martial Practice Shaolin monks had developed quintessential fighting techniques that warrant the term “Shaolin ma ...

Defending the Nation 57 zong) (hereafter Shaolin Staff Method), it was compiled around 1610 by a military expert named Cheng Zon ...

58 Systemizing Martial Practice Since my youth I was determined to learn the martial arts. When- ever I heard of a famous teache ...

Defending the Nation 59 the essence of movement. Even though staff fighting is called a trivial art, its explication in this boo ...

60 Systemizing Martial Practice Pushing Staff and the Shuttling [Staff] differ from the remaining three in being “free methods w ...

Defending the Nation 61 world of martial arts: one of competing schools, each professing to be the sole inheritor of the same or ...

62 Systemizing Martial Practice “Today, there is no shortage of Shaolin staff experts. And yet their methods all differ. How cou ...

Defending the Nation 63 Mount Niu, by which it probably refers to the monastic center on Mount Funiu, Henan (map 3).^19 Late Min ...

64 Systemizing Martial Practice today’s Jiangsu. Like Cheng Zong you, he was of literati background, and under his other name, W ...

Defending the Nation 65 I had heard that the Shaolin Monastery in Henan possesses a divinely transmitted method of fencing (jiji ...

66 Systemizing Martial Practice The Shaolin Monastery has a staff fighting method called “Five Tigers Interception” (Wuhu lan). ...

Defending the Nation 67 the Shaolin Monastery but at another Buddhist center, Mount Emei in Sich- uan. Cheng traveled there to g ...