Shaolin quan

The Shaolin quan or “boxes of Shaolin” indicates Martial arts which are connected by their systems or their origins with the various monasteries of Shaolin. In fact styles belong to the great whole of Chinese martial arts, i.e. with the Wushu gong fu.

The term “Shaolin” indicates a monastery being on the Mount Songshan of the province of the Henan. It is that which the legend retains in priority, but there were historically various temples bearing this name and which developed specific boxings.

The “legend” of Bodhidharma

It is about a buddhist monk coming from India and going, towards 475 after JC, to the temple of Shaolin, recently built in the south of China, but the monks refuse to let it enter. Bodhidharma assoit then and meditates during nine years, fixing the enclosing walls of the temple until making holes there, which involves the respect of monks who allow him to enter. There, he discovers the monks, who pass their life to recopy crowned texts, in a terrible physical status. He then subjects them to a mode martial exercises, techniques which will be at the origin of the various schools of Shaolin quan.

This “legend” still today is largely perceived like a “historical truth” by many publications of martial arts. Undoubtedly is necessary it to recall:

a legend is the rewriting on a symbolic system mode, allegorical or poetic of historical facts.
the oral or written transmission of a legend obeys considerations philosophical, religious, variable morals or ideological according to the times.

The tendency is today, as much in China that in Occident, to join the Shaolin term with any style. The reasons are often commercial, of supposed or ideological prestige (that makes it possible the Chinese authorities to show a face of tolerance with respect to the Bouddhisme which makes counterweight with the persecution of the monks who claim Buddhism of the Large Vehicle, i.e. Buddhism Tibetan directed by the Dalaï Lama).

Currently, the Chinese media tries to accredit the idea that the whole of Chinese martial arts (as well internal as external) would come from Shaolin. The Reverend Shi Yong Xin, lately named as administrator of the monastery by the Office of the Religious affairs of Henan, would intend to deposit the term “shaoilin” like trade mark protected by a copyright. In 2004, the monastery accommodated 2 million visitors and the many schools in which “modernized” versions of Shaolin are taught lodged approximately: 20000 pupils.

Styles of Shaolin

Shaolin quan is an old generic term which indicates several styles not having inevitably a whole a historical relationship with the monastery of Shaolin and its legends. To find itself there, while waiting for “serious” studies, one distinguishes the styles:

Shaolin of North

Beishaolin quan, Erlang quan, Luohan quan, Shaolin shisan Zhua, Shaolin wuxingbafa quan, etc…

Specificities: the postures are broad, full displacements, the techniques are connected without idle period, the force alternating with the flexibility at the moment of the impact. The stress is laid on the coordination of the movements with the size ( the size directs the arms and the hips direct the legs ).

Shaolin of the South

The Shaolin styles of the South (subject to historical studies on the genealogy of these styles):

Hung Gar, Mo Gar, Choy Lee Were (or choy lay was), etc

Specificities: the postures are often high except for certain styles such as Hung Gar, the rather short movements, the stress is laid on the physical force and speed.

Other styles

In the surroundings of the monastery one finds also schools being claimed of Shaolin quan:

Shaolin quan of the family Jiu
Shaolin quan of the family Liang
Shaolinluohan quan of Zhu Tianxi (recent style)
Shaolinchan Men de Wang Ziren (recent style)

If one analyzes and recuts gestural styles of Shaolin, one can note correspondences with many other styles not having no bond with Shaolin. It would seem that the styles of Shaolin were built on a syncretistic mode, borrowing largely from the already existing styles.

To note

The monk Lei Fei, a Character of video game of the series Virtua Fighter, practical this Article.

External bonds

the commercial site of the Temple of Shaolin
Topicality of the wushu
Federation of Wushu and Sanda FWS

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