190 Fist Fighting and Self-Cultivation
1666), who had held the post during the last years of the Ming. In 1646 he was
officially approached by the Ministry of Rites, but he declined the offer due to
a “leg illness.” This lame excuse most likely concealed the Shaolin monk’s re-
fusal to cooperate with the new regime. By 1657, however, Haikuan had
changed his mind.^27 We are told that he had “completely recovered,” where-
upon he assumed the monastery’s leadership, handing it to his disciple Yongyu
in 1661. The latter filled the office for three years before departing abruptly to
Hebei, leaving no heir behind him. The monastery was to remain without an
officially appointed abbot all through 1999—three hundred years later—when
Yongxin was assigned the post by the communist authorities.^28
We do not know why Yongyu resigned his post, but we may conjecture that
his decision was related to the monastery’s uneasy relations with the Qing, of
which there are other indications. Between 1652 and 1654 Shaolin monks con-
ducted a series of elaborate requiems, which were supported by donors from
three Henan counties: Dengfeng, Yanshi, and Gongxian. As Wen Yucheng has
suggested, the masses were most likely directed to the salvation of the souls of
the victims from the Ming-Qing cataclysm.^29 Two and a half decades later, the
monks were still paying their respects to the previous regime, as evinced by the
1677 stele that honored the Shaolin warriors who had fought under the Ming
minister of war, Yang Sichang.
Cherishing the memory of the Ming, Shaolin monks bitterly complained
of its successor. Gu Yanwu recorded their grievances (which he might have ex-
aggerated in accordance with his own political inclinations): “They tell me of
harsh new orders, land allotments by corrupt officials. Taxes increased even on
a monastic estate, caring not which dynasty had bestowed it.” The complaints
were likely not unfounded. Consider the indifference of the Qing governor
who in the 1650s had compared the Shaolin monks to street beggars. That the
monastery had remained for decades in ruins is an indication of the authori-
ties’ lingering suspicions. Had the Qing officials entertained any sympathy for
the monastery, they would not have allowed it to disintegrate.
By the late seventeenth century, the mutual suspicion that had character-
ized the monastery’s relations with the regime gradually abated. As the Ming
dynasty faded from the memories of monks and officials, Qing authorities
were willing to recognize the Shaolin Temple’s religious significance. In 1704
the Kangxi emperor signaled the dynasty’s changing attitude when he graced
the temple with two specimens of his calligraphy, which were promptly en-
graved on the Heavenly Kings Hall (Tianwang Dian) and the Buddha Hall
(Daxiong Dian).^30 In 1735 the Yongzheng emperor approved an ambitious res-
toration plan for the monastery, which amounted to nine thousand silver taels.
Finally, in 1750, the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736–1795) capped the imperial
honors, personally visiting the temple and staying there overnight. The sover-
eign penned four poems for the occasion, celebrating the monastery’s scenery
and the religious lore of its Indian patriarch Bodhidharma.^31
The eighteenth century might have ushered in a new era in the monastery’s