108 Systemizing Martial Practice
these binding rings (gu) a relic of the ring staff’s original loose ones (huan).
If so, the resonance between the names “Jinhuan zhang” (“Golden Rings
Staff ”) and “Jingu bang” (“Golden Rings Clasped Staff ”) is not incidental.
In its divine provenance, Sun Wukong’s original ring staff resembled the
magic weapons wielded by Mulian and Moses. According to the Southern Song
Master of the Law, it was bestowed upon him by Vašravaÿa of the North, Mahâ-
brahmâ Devarâja (Beifang Pishamen Dafan Tianwang).^71 The staff is impreg-
nated with such extraordinary powers that it can be brought to life. In two
instances the monkey transforms it into supernatural creatures that fight on
his behalf, once into an iron dragon and, on another occasion, into a yakºa
spirit, “its head touching the sky and its feet the earth, and brandishing in its
hands a Demon-Felling Club.”^72 This magic, not uncommon in Chinese Bud-
dhist lore,^73 is reminiscent of the biblical miracle, in which the prophet trans-
formed his staff into a mythic snake:
And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “When Pharaoh says to you,
‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron,
‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a
serpent (ta’nin).” So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did as the
Lord commanded; Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his
servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh summoned the wise
men and the sorcerers; and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the
same by their secret arts. For every man cast down his staff, and they
became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.^74Conclusion
We may not be able to ascertain why Chinese monks chose the staff as their
weapon. However, it is likely their preference was due to its Buddhist signifi-
cance. Monastic regulations instructed monks to carry a staff, which gradu-
ally became a symbol of their religious authority. Buddhist literature and
popular lore accorded magic powers to the emblem, which was originally
adorned with rings, but sometimes fashioned without them. Perhaps because
they regularly carried it, fighting monks who went to battle transformed the
staff into a weapon.
Whichever its origins, the staff became so prominent in the Shaolin’s mili-
tary regimen that it influenced the monastery’s lore. According to a Ming
Shaolin legend, the god Vajrapâÿi was incarnated at the monastery as a lowly
menial equipped with a divine staff. When the monastery was attacked by ban-
dits, he repelled them with his emblematic weapon. The legend illustrates the
reciprocal relations between martial mythology and martial practice in the
Buddhist tradition. On the one hand, violent deities such as Vajrapâÿi inspired
Buddhist military training, providing physical strength to martial monks and