Defending the Nation 73
Several decades earlier, the most powerful eunuch in Emperor Zhu Hou-
zhao’s (r. 1506–1521) court, Zhang Yong (1465–1529), lavishly supported the
monastery. Zhang might have become acquainted with Shaolin through his di-
verse military responsibilities—chief of the capital garrison and director of the
imperial military training corps, among others. Around 1519, he donated to
Shaolin a gilded statue of the monastery’s patron saint Bodhidharma. His gift
may be admired to this day inside Shaolin’s Standing-in-the-Snow Pavilion (Lixue
ting), which name recalls the trials undergone by Bodhidharma’s disciple; Huike
was guided to enlightenment when standing motionless in the snow.^61
It might have been Zhang Yong who suggested to the emperor that Shaolin
monks be invited to the palace. We know that Zhu Houzhao employed Shaolin
monks at the Leopard Quarter (Baofang)—the pleasure grounds he built
himself within the forbidden city. It is unclear what the monks’ role within this
private palace was, whether they served as bodyguards, or whether the em-
peror was fascinated with their religious powers, as he was with Tibetan Lamas.
At any rate, that they served the emperor in his private chambers indicates that
Shaolin monks enjoyed unprecedented access to the imperial throne, main-
taining an intimate connection with the reigning emperor himself.^62
The Ming dynasty’s patronage of Shaolin is apparent to this day in the
monastery’s splendor. The court’s financial support ushered in a period of
spectacular growth at the monastery. Many of Shaolin’s most impressive monu-
ments were built during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The
largest number of stupas (more than 130) in Shaolin’s Stupa Forest date from
the Ming, as do the largest number of inscribed steles (more than thirty). Shao-
lin’s biggest structure, the “Thousand Buddhas’ Hall” (Qianfo dian) was con-
structed in 1588 to house the empress dowager’s gift of Buddhist scriptures. Its
magnificent fresco of the “Five Hundred Arhats” (Wubai luohan) was likely
drawn by court painters.^63 Thus, Shaolin’s grand architecture was largely the
product of Ming benefaction, itself due to the monastery’s military support of
the dynasty.
Other Monastic Troops
In the spring of 1512, the government investigated accusations of brutality lev-
eled against an imperial army deployed in Huguang (today’s Hunan and
Hubei). It was alleged that the imperial forces—made of regular army units as
well as monastic troops—looted the civilian population. The soldiers, lay and
clerics alike, were so rapacious that they were “worse than roving bandits.”^64
It is not surprising that we do not know to which monastery the rapacious
fighting monks belonged. During the late Ming, the term “monastic troops”
(sengbing) was widely applied to martial monks all over the empire, from Fujian
in t he sout hea st to Shanxi in t he nort hwest, from Yunnan to Henan. Recall t hat
in his “Monastic Armies’ First Victory,” Zheng Ruoceng alluded to various Bud-