The histories of the various martial arts are inextricably entwined with the histories of the countries in which they originated and practiced today. For example, the Shaolin Temple, built by emperor Hsiao-when, was a focal point in the evolution of martial arts in China.

CHINA

SHAOLIN TEMPLE Chinese Buddhist monastery of the "Chan" school located in the Sung-Shan mountains of Tung-Feng county, Honan province. The temple is named after its surrounding "small forest" of trees. Built by Emperor Hsiao-Wen in the late 5th century AD, its construction honored the Indian monk Bodhiruchi. Robert W. Smith, in his book Asian Fighting Arts, quotes a source describing the temple: "(It) had twelve upper and lower courts and was ringed almost completely by mountains, festooned with bamboo, casia, and cedar trees, and laced with waterfalls."

In the Sui dynasty, early Ch'ing, and once again in the early 20th century, the temple was seriously damaged. Surviving structures renovated by the People's Republic of China include the front gate, guest hall, Bodhidharma pavilion, and the white-robe hall, with two frescoes depicting monks exercising and sparring-the northern wall depicts sparring exercises of the liu-he ch'uan (six-methods boxing) and on the southern wall are a number of monks engaged in weapons training. Also surviving are the thousand-Buddha hall and the forest of stone tablets.

This temple became a focal point for martial arts training at one period in China, but not on the grand scale Western journalists and film makers depicted, More often than not, kung-fu styles have little if any religious background. Religion's role in the martial arts was quite small in the overall scheme of things. The Shaolin order was the exception, not the rule.

Evidence identifying the creators of the Shaolin style itself is inconclusive. Three theories have emerged. The first attributes the creation to the Indian priest Ta-mo (Rodhidharma), who followed his predecessor, Bodhiruchi, to the middle-kingdom several decades after the construction of the temple. This story, though unsubstantiated, is the most popular. It paints a colorful picture of Ta-mo as a staunch ascetic, confining himself to a cave for nine years, where he sat facing the wall in meditation (the cave can still be viewed). The second theory attributes its creation to Hwei-Kuang and Sung-Chou, monks preceding Ta-mo's arrival in China by several years. Yet another theory, the most probable, attributes the style's origin not to any single individual, but to the collective efforts of the priests over the years.

The People's Republic of China has been investigating the temple's origins and development. One source, the History of the Shaolin Monastery, appeared as a four-volume work. Yang-Ya-Shan referred to this work in a translated article, stating that the Shaolin school was actually the oldest school of ch'uan-shu (kung-fu), and that it originated in the Southern and Northern dynasties (420-589), flourished in the Sui (581-618) and T'ang (618-907) dynasties, after which it branched into a number of subsystems.

"Shaolin," he explains, "first served military purposes in the early T'ang dynasty when the first emperor, T'ai-chung, appealed to the Shaolin monastery for reinforcements against Wang'She-Ch'ung, who sought to establish a separate regime in Lo-Yang. Joining the punitive expedition, the Saolin monk-soldiers captured Wang alive. Thirteen of them were cited for meritorious service, including monk T'an-chung, on whom was conferred the ti Ue of Major General. In addition, the monastery was granted 400 mu of land and allowed to set up barracks to give the monks military training. At its peak, Shaolin boasted a force of 5,000 monk-soldiers. It was known far and wide as the 'number-one monastery under heaven.'

"Apart from the barehand Shaolin ch'uan exercises, monks also learned chi-kung (breathing exercises), horsemanship, and combat with weapons. They became, in effect, a special detachment of the Imperial army.

"In the middle of the Ming dynasty, China's coastal areas were subjected to frequent Japanese harassment. In 522, monk Yueh-kung led a crack force of 40 Shao-lin monks to the Sun-Chiang river area to resist the invaders. Using iron rods as weapons, they won many battles before patriotically laying down their lives. As willing tools of the court, the Shaolin monk-soldiers were not exempt from being used as elements of repression: in 1341, they attacked the Red Turbans-an army of peasant insurgents (and a secret society which opposed the Chting government). The battle is portrayed in a mural in the white-robe hall.

"Though monks are supposed to lead a secluded life, those in Shaolin, being versed in the martial arts, were often involved in political strife. Using them for its own end, the ruling class kept a wary eye on them. During the Ch'ing dynasty, the monks were once forbidden to practice martial arts.In 1723, when the monastery was to be rebuilt, the blueprint had to be submitted to examination by the Emperor. He decreed the monks be placed under strict supervision by a court-appointed abbot."

Yang-Ya-Shan is here referring to the monastery located in Honan province. Several authorities have claimed the existence of a second Shaolin Temple located in Fukien, south of the original. Indeed, there is a Buddhist temple at this location, though not of the grand scale of its alleged sister temple in the north. Several other authorities dispute the existence of an authentic Shaolin order in Fukien. Be that as it may, many stories concerning this Fukien-based temple are told.

One tradition concerns a Shao-lin monk's aid to the emperor of the K'ang-hsi reign, i.e., the Emperor Sheng-Tsu, who turned back one of the western border raids, and the subsequent praise lavished upon the temple. Another is the story of the later destruction of this temple. Supposedly, five monks, who later became known as the "Five Ancestors," escaped this destruction.

Concerning the temple's destruction, however, there are two accounts. The first is an oral tradition passed down through the "Triad" society, a secret society reputedly formed by the members of the temple who escaped its destruction, the second is handed down through the martial arts community in general. According to Leung-Ting in his book Wing Tsun, the story perpetuated by the Triads lists the "Five Ancestors" as Choy-Tak-Chung,Fong-Tai-Hung, Wu-Tak-Tei, Ma-Chiu-Hing, and Li-Sik-Hoi (note: their Mandarin romanizations would be T'sai-The-Chung, Mang-Ta-Hung, MaCh'ao-Hsing, Hu-The-Ti, and Li-Shih-Kai). "But according to the story retold by people of the martial arts circle," he explains, "they were Ng-Mui, the Buddhist nun; Chi-Shin, the Zen master; Pat-Mei, the Taoist master; Fung-To-Tak, the Taoist master; and Miu-Hin, an unshaved Siu-Lam follower. These two sources greatly differ in details regarding names, identities, and sex."

In addition, the first story is supported by authors such as ShuaiHsueh-Fu in his Chung-koo
pang-hut shih (History of Chinese Secret Society), and Hsu-K'o in his Ch'ing-pei /ei-ch'go (Incidents of the Ch'ing period). Both of these works, however, seem primarily interested in recounting the history of secret societies. Still other sources support the probably less accurate second story. One noted authority believes this second story to have stemmed directly from the fictional novel Ch'ien-lung huang yu Chiang-nan (The Chtien-ung Emperor Visits the South), in which the monk Chih-Shan (or Chi-Shen) is portrayed as the abbot of the Shao-lin Monastery who is killed by the monk Pak-Mei-before the destruction of the temple ever took place.

The facts in kung-fu, for several reasons, have often been systematically distorted. In the much quoted Chung-kuo pang-hut shih, Shuai-Hsueh-Fu states that in the eleventh year of the K'ang-hsi emperor (1662-1723), Tibetans invaded China's borders and were successful enough to prompt the government to place posters before the public requesting volunteers to bolster its army. At the lesser Shao-lin Temple in Fukien, one of the priests, Cheng Chun-Ta, rallied behind him some 128 other monks to aid the effort. His plan, however, was not to help strengthen the current Chting government. He and his fellow monks were "Ming' loyalists who, in fact, opposed the government. Cheng had in mind a plan to infiltrate the government by gaining political favor through this particular war effort to attack the government from within. The 128 Shaolin priests managed to push back the Tibetan invasion without help from the Ch'ing troops. For this, official titles were conferred upon them. Only Cheng, however, accepted a title, in accordance with his plan. The other monks allowed the emperor to help renovate the Fukien temple.

An antagonist appears in this story, a monk named Ma Fuel, who seduced Cheng's wife and sister. He was, consequently, ostracized from the temple. Ma later came to be known as a A-tsat (literally, seven) in the secret society vernacular, because he had ranked seventh in the temple in physical prowess.The Triads considered the number seven taboo due to its relationship to Ma. In its place, the word "kat" (good luck was substituted while the name A-tsat was given to a white rooster, sacrificed during an inductee's blood oath to the secret organization (signifying "should I prove a traitor, may I perish as did A-tsat"). Ma sought revenge after being ousted from the temple. He went to the governor of the province, who was himself jealous of the attention Shao-lin was getting. He convinced the governor and his two officers, Ch'en-Wen-Yao and ChangChin-Ch'in, to appeal directly to the emperor for support in destroying the temple.

Stories differ here once again. Shuai-Hsueh-Fu states that K'ang-hsi was the emperor who received the appeal f rom the governor and his officers, and who eventually was responsible for destroying the Shao-lin Temple. Other sources place K'ang-hsi's successor, Yung-Cheng, in this position, while still another source insists the whole event was drummed up as a ploy to foment anti-government feeling. Accounts seem to agree that the official formation of the Hung-Men-Hui or Triad society (which could only have been formed after the fall of the temple, if we are to believe the story), was in 1674. If this is the case, it is reasonable to assume the burning of Shao-lin could not have occurred in the reign of Yung-Cheng, who did not come to the throne until after K'ang-hsi died in 1723. Some 3,000 Ch'ing troops were sent to destroy the Shao-lin Temple. Led by Ma, they successfully entered the temple grounds and killed all but eighteen of the monks. Thirteen more died soon after escaping. The remaining five became known as the "Five Ancestors" and formed the Triad secret society.

The distinctive features of the Shao-lin style of kung-fu, according to Yang-Ya-Shan, include a blending of both the hard and soft elements of movement, following six core principles including skill, tact, boldness, quickness, ferocity, and practicality. "In a word," Yang explained, "emphasis is on striking effectively. Naturally, this involves long years of painstaking practice, as is evidenced by the three rows of 20 hollows-each about 50 centimeters in diameter-on the brick floor of the thousand-Buddha hall of the Shao-lin Monastery. It is said that these were shaped through generations by the monk's stamping their feet during training." By the 7th century, China had officially recognized Japan as an independent political entity. At various times diplomatic and cultural missions made up of Japanese priests, soldiers, and statesmen passed between the Chinese mainland and Japan. It is plausible that these and other travelers introduced a martial art to Okinawa. Japanese Buddhism students in Chinese monasteries were undoubtedly exposed to the Shao-lin kung-fu techniques of Bodhidharma; it is reputed that the more adventurous of them, following their training, set sail eastward to spread the teachings to the known world. But such possibilities remain in the realm of conjecture.

There is a widely held view that kung-fu entered the Ryukyus by way of China's Foochow district during the 6th- and 7th-century reign of China's Sui dynasty Such Chinese-Ryukyuan contacts are first mentioned in the section on Eastern Barbarians of the Sui Shu, the dynastic history of the Sui rulers. The definitive Japanese encyclopedia, Dekai Dai-Hyakkaiiten, states that karate or a type of kung-fu was probably brought to Okinawa from China during the T'ang dynasty (A D 618-906). From the end of the T'ang dynasty to the beginning of the Ming period in 1368, a span of 450 years, development of karate in the Ryukyus is unrecorded. Perhaps the strongest support for the claim that karate is innately Okinawan is based on some of the Ryukyu islander's classical dances