Shaolin

The temples Shaolin (少林寺; Pinyin: Shàolín Sì, EFEO: Chao-flax) are a whole of Monastère S Buddhist Chinese famous for their association of Buddhism Chan with the Martial arts, the Shaolin quan. They are the Buddhist monasteries most known in Occident. The name “Shaolin” means “young (or news) forest”.

Original the Shaolin temple is located on the mount Song (Songshan in Chinese), one of the five mountains crowned of China, in the province of Henan to approximately 600 km in the south of Beijing. Founded towards 497 under the dynasty Wei of north, it is one of the oldest Buddhist temples of China. It is reported that it was used as residence to the Indian monk Batuo at the time of the thirty years that it passed to preach Buddhism nikaya in China.

History

The most known person associated with Shaolin is undoubtedly Bodhidharma or Tamo (Pinyin: Dámó ), an Indian monk who travelled to China at the 5th century to preach Chan Buddhism. According to the tradition, one would have initially refused the access to the Shaolin temple to him, and it would not have been allowed that after having spent nine years with Méditer vis-a-vis a wall. It would be then under its direction that the temple would have developed the base of what will be then called Chan Buddhism.

By discovering the lamentable physical status of the monks who passed their life to be studied and meditate, it would have decided to learn to them from the respiratory techniques and 72 techniques from defense, bases Kung fu, in order to perfect their physical condition to support the long hours of meditation and to defend themselves against the brigands and the animals of the forest.

It seems that the arrival of Bodhidharma with Shaolin is a legend born between the X {{E}} and 11th centuries. One indeed finds no mention of it before, not more than of trace of his name on the old steles preserved at the monastery.

The military reputation of the temple dates from the beginning of the Dynastie Tang (618 - 907). According to documents, monks combatants shaolin would have saved the life of the future emperor Taizong (Li Shimin) and would have assisted it in its fight against the rebellious forces. Once become emperor, this last showed his recognition by increasing the monastic complex and by authorizing certain monks to continue their military formation. The kung fu shaolin reaches its apogee under the Dynastie Ming (1368 - 1644), when several hundreds of monks shaolin accepted a military statute and directed campaigns against rebels and gangsters Japan board. At that time, they had developed their own style of martial arts, the Shaolin quan.

The original temple was plundered, destroyed and rebuilds several times. The Mandchous destroyed it in 1647 and massacred almost all the monks. It will not be rebuilt before 1800. A fire lit in 1928 by the lord of the war Shi Yousan destroyed many invaluable Manuscrit S of the library of the temple.

In 1972, at the time of its visit in China, the US president Richard Nixon in company of her adviser Robert W. Smith, insisted to visit the monastery. Official Chinese who had never heard of this Shaolin tried to dissuade it, but Richard Nixon remained inflexible. To reach the forgotten monastery, it was necessary to release a road with the bulldozer and to dynamite the heavy doors which refused to open. The temple was restored in the Années 1970 by Japanese funds of the Master So Doshin, founder of the powerful school Shorinji Kempo. It is only in 1981 that it was officially D-open. Official Chinese then attended a demonstration of Kung Fu Shaolin carried out by Japanese martial artists. In a few years, a Shaolin style will be reconstituted starting from illustrations, of exercises of gymnastics, and Kung Fu sporting (Sanda). It is in the Années 1980 that Kung Fu started to be a planetary success thanks to spectacular demonstrations and with well ground numbers.

If there remain still remote regions in the history of Shaolin, the modern specialists and authors agree all on a point: it is well there that a system of combat developed complexes and singular which will remain during centuries the reference of the majority of the Asian schools of martial arts. Many Shaolin temples were born through China during the centuries, in particular a temple famous (and mysterious) in the province of Fujian. Nowadays, in China like in the rest of the world, of the thousands of temples without relation with Shaolin claim to teach its style.

There exist several troops of Shaolin disciples, whose majority are based in China. One of most famous is the troop of WUSHUKUNGFU which, after the exit of its DVD " The Masters Shaolin " , is in round in Europe and envisages a round on the other continents by September 2007.

Internal bonds

References

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