Japanese led the practice of native arts (many of which were Chinese in ori-
gin) to move “to the Buddhist monasteries, a traditional place of refuge for
out-of-favor warriors” (1997, 33). Similarly, in the African Brazilian mar-
tial culture of capoeira, the traditional oral history of the art ties it to the
quilombo(Portuguese; runaway slave settlement) of Palmares. Under the
protection of the legendary King Zumbi, capoeira was either created in the
bush or retained from African unarmed combat forms (sources differ re-
garding the origin of the art). Preserved in the same place were major ele-
ments of the indigenous African religions, from which were synthesized
modern Candomble (a syncretic blend of Roman Catholicism and African
religions) and similar New World faiths. Thus, capoeira’s legendary origins
are associated with both ethnic conflict and religions of the disenfranchised
in a manner reminiscent of the Shaolin traditions.
Traditional texts of this sort should be read as political rhetoric as
much as—or perhaps more than—history. As James C. Scott argues, much
folk culture amounts to “legitimation, or even celebration” of evasive and
cunning forms of resistance (1985, 300). Trickster tales, tales of bandits,
peasant heroes, and similar revolutionary items of expressive culture help
create a climate of opinion.
Folk Hero Legends
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 se-
ries 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.
Similarly, several styles of boxing are attributed to the Song-period pa-
triot Yue Fei (1103–1142), who counseled armed opposition against,
rather than appeasement of, encroaching Jin tribes and was murdered for
his efforts. Yue Fei is known to have trained in archery and spear, two key
weapons. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that he also studied boxing,
considered the basic foundation for weapons skills other than archery, but
we have no proof of this. Not until the Qing, about six centuries later, and
Folklore in the Martial Arts 129