Shaolin Kung Fu

Shaolin Kung Fu was developed at the Shaolin Temple in China some 1500 years ago. You can imagine its history is quite complex and it may require a few volumes to be written down, not just one book. So I am going to make a very brief presentation of what I know about it. Luckily, more and more books about the Shaolin Temple start to show up lately and there are already a series of nice documentaries available, since this and the martial arts from the Wudang Temple are the most famous martial arts in China.

Shaolin Temple started as a Buddhist temple and it is not exactly known if the monks there were practicing martial arts from the very start. Some suggest they already had a form of kung fu developed, but what is today known as Shaolin Kung Fu was born after the master Bodhidharma arrived there from India, to spread the Zen Buddhism. At first, the shaolin monks were sceptical about receiving Bodhidharma in their temple, so he went and meditated for 9 years in a cave above the temple.

Since the monks were not fit enough to meditate for so long, or to protect the temple from invaders, Bodhidharma developed a few sets of Qigong exercises to boost their health and longevity. Qigong comes from the words Qi (Chi) and Gong. Qi means life energy. You can think about it as something related to your breath, since the breath is what makes it travel, but it is not just the breath, it’s more than that. You won’t see it, like you see water or blood, but you can definitely feel it without too much practice. To feel it is not such a difficult task, but to control it is what martial artists have been trying for ages.

Just like our blood travels along our bodies through a complex network of veins, qi travels along our bodies through a network of channels, called meridians. These meridians have already been documented in the old acupuncture scriptures and in the yoga practices. Just like in the case of veins, if any of these meridians get blocked or if the qi is not strong, balanced enough, it will create disease. 

Gong means work, or practice. So together, they refer to managing and increasing your life energy. 

The two known Qigong forms that were created by Bodhidharma are called Yi Jin Jing and Xi Sui Jing. The first form was created to change the muscles and the tendons, and the second one to clean the bone marrow.

Besides this, Bodhidharma also created the basics of Shaolin Kung Fu. Shao lin means “young forest”, referring to the vegetation from the mountain on which the temple was built. Kung Fu means work/practice and time, or skill accumulated in time through practice, or hard work. This term can refer to anything, not just to martial arts, it can refer to cooking or dancing too. The martial art developed by Bodhidharma was intended to increase the strength and resistance of the monks,  since they also had to do a series of works around the temple (like gardening) in order to become self-sustainable and not depend on donations or governments. And secondly, it was meant to teach them self-defense techniques, so they can protect the temple and defend themselves against invaders or wild animals (like tigers).

Also, the shaolin martial arts emphasize the need of training both internal and external. One without the other would again put the qi out of balance. Qigong is considered to be internal training, as it helps the body from inside out. And Kung Fu is considered to be external training as it helps the body from outside in. The practitioners should find their own rythm and see for themselves just how much should they train external, and how much internal. Generally, if you are young and quite fit it is considered that you should do more external, and less internal. If you are sick, then you should train more internal, and once you notice some improvements, you should start adding external training. If you are older, it is considered that you should train more internal, and less external. 

All this training hasn’t been created just to help the body, but your whole being. The body and mind are linked together. The breath is the first that changes when something happens, in your body or in your mind. So, while practicing it is important to focus on the breath and on the movement and pay attention to your heart rythm and to what you are doing. If this training is performed while thinking somewhere else, then you waste all the benefits you can get from it. Plus, if you don’t pay attention and don’t do one thing at a time the risk of accidents and of getting injuries is increased. 

Training with a present-minded attitude helps you discover your body and yourself. The Shaolin traditional forms have been designed as a way of meditating in motion. All the training can be a meditation from beginning to end.

Soon the monks have been forced to tests their martial skills because the temple has been attacked many times and even burnt down a few times, since not all the rulers agreed with the Buddhist practices. Becoming more popular for their martial arts, they have been asked to help different generals on the battlefield or to help the officials to fight against the invading Japanese pirates. Being successful, they have been granted lands and money by some of the Chinese Emperors and so they could continue the development of their temple and practices. 

In time, their martial arts became more and more complex, as they studied different other martial arts practiced outside the temple and incorporated in their style what they found to be useful. Or, different other masters needed a retreat space for a while, so they could teach their own styles to the monks while being there. The monks also used to study the behaviour of different animals and learned fighting strategies and fighting techniques from them and so created animal forms – like tiger forms, leopard, snake or dragon,  monkey forms, praying mantis forms. 

Nowadays, this practice of absorbing different other teachings is still supported by the monks and lots of them study Taoism or Confucianism, besides Buddhism. As for the martial arts, some of them study Taiji, or Wing Chun, or Muay Thai or even Western Boxing. 

With the rise of modern competitions – such as K1 or MMA, the fighting efficiency of traditional martial arts is being more and more questioned. First of all, Shaolin Kung Fu was not designed for competitions, it was designed for real life. Competitions only accept a limited set of techniques, so the competitors will have to only train those accepted techniques and in the end each type of competition will create similar fighters, according to its rules. Competitions also don’t really have much in common with the peaceful and egoless mindset developed by the traditional training. 

It is not the style that creates a strong being, a morale person or a good fighter, it is the individual. If the individual doesn’t give his whole heart to the practice, he may learn whatever style he wishes and he won’t ever become a good fighter. 

The style is here only as a guideline, we can absorb from it that which fits us and learn more from other practices. But having to deal with such complexity, it will require a lot of time and dedication to even go through the basics. 

 There are many types of traditional training developed at the Shaolin, the most common of them being:

- holding a stance for long periods of times; generally, it is the horse stance that it is practiced (ma bu). Your feet are spread a bit more than your hip width(a 3 feet and a half length) and your knees are bent to around 90 degrees, so your tights are parallel to the ground and your knees stay above your ankles. Your hips are tucked in and your back is straight. Your palms stay in a prayer position in front of your chest so you can keep your shoulders down and your upper back straight. You may keep your eyes closed, your chin a bit down towards your chest so your neck is straight and your mouth closed, with your tongue resting against the rooftop of your mouth. Your feet gently grab the floor.

This stance not only trains your lower body really well, but it also brings your qi at the center of your body, this way making it more “available” for your body to use. At the same time, although there is a lot of physical pressure involved, it calms down your nervous system since you are in a meditative state.

In the beginning, the stance should be practiced just for a few minutes, and gradually you can increase the duration. It is believed that the monks maintain this stance for even one hour or longer. If you are not used to training, despair and pain will strike you after 2 minutes or so. 

There are many other stances in Shaolin Kung Fu and 5 basic ones and all of them are practiced for long periods of time, but this one is practiced the most. 

- crawling like an animal in your hands and feet; many times this is practiced on stairs, going downwards so there is more pressure on your upper body. Most of the training developed at the Shaolin was intended to train all your body at a time, and not train it on parts – like in other modern sports. This exercise too trains all your body, but especially your arms and your core. For instance, push ups also train your arms, upper body and core. But in the case of push ups the motion of your arms is always the same. I love push ups, don’t get me wrong, but in this case crawling makes your arms move more natural, in different ways and the pressure doesn’t always go in the very same spots.

- hitting bags, walls, trees or candle flames and hitting yourself with sticks and stones; hitting stable or dynamic targets is practiced to sharpen the attack techniques and increase cardio resistance and power. Hitting candle flames is practiced to increase explosive power. Hitting yourself with sticks and stones is practiced not just to make your body more resistant to shocks and receiving hits, but it is also a way to eliminate toxins. Some of the monks use bamboo brushes or even metallic brushes to hit themselves with for a few good minutes after the training. This stimulates your blood circulation and your lymphatic system. The hit creates a wave in your body so it can act as a massage for your internal organs and crush toxins inside your muscle and joints. This way toxins can go from solid form to liquid form and can be eliminated easier.

- slapping water; this kind of training not only trains your slapping technique but it also trains your eyes. Naturally, our tendency is to close our eyes in case something gets to close. One big problem in a fight, especially for somebody who hasn’t experienced it, is that when you get hit in the face you have the tendency to close your eyes so you can protect your eyes. The problem is you no longer know what is happening and you become more vulnerable. Slapping water will get a lot of water drops in your face so this helps you strengthen your eyes so you can keep them open and focused whenever needed.

-training on poles or heights; this way you can develop your balance skills and strengthen your ankles and your core muscles. A lot of muscles around our ankles are there to help us keep balance, but we don’t always train these muscles, since we mostly use our ankles for standing or walking. Training in such a way can better develop your ankles and make them more resistant to injuries and accidents. It also teaches you how to regain balance easier, since loosing balance in a fight is really not wanted. 

There are many other types of such trainings but I have only mentioned a few so you can become more familiar with what is happening here.

One of the most common way to train is to practice the traditional forms. They may seem a bit too fancy to be real, but they are very real, very practical. Besides being a beautiful way to meditate in motion, they can help you strengthen  your body and promote health. Each form has a set of movements which can be interpreted in many ways. A block and punch is not always just a block and punch. If you analyze the movement and use the same type of motion you can create multiple self-defence techniques starting from just one block and punch, or even from just one stance. So all the movements incorporate fighting techniques. Of course, those who created the forms never expected anybody to throw a punch from such low, standard, fix stances. The low stances have the role to train your lower body and your stamina. Imagine, if you can throw 10 punches at a certain speed and with a certain power from a low stance, it is obvious that you can throw them easier when being in a more comfortable position.

Also, the stances are a way to train your flexibility. Stretching is performed statically and dynamically. For static stretching there are lots of traditional stances and training routines which stretch all your body parts. For dynamic stretching, the monks mostly use the 5 basic kicks and the traditional forms. Kicks are generally seen as a way to dynamically stretch your legs, and not always as a way to hit somebody. The stances put a lot of pressure on your lower body muscles, but as with all the rest of the shaolin training, they train all your body at the same time. 

The cardio resistance, memory, balance, coordination and focus are also trained by these forms. Each form has its own rythm, and they usually go up and down a lot so you can easily get exhausted just from practicing them. And sometimes, you can add small weights around your wrists , ankles and core to make it more fun. Memory also gets improved, since some of the forms are quite long and some other ones, even if they are not long, they are very confusing – repeating similar techniques and stances in multiple directions, so if you are not focused enough you can get lost in the middle of the form. Balance and coordination are key to executing a form beautifuly, and regardless of how much you practiced the basics, these two are always trained when learning a new form.

Shaolin Kung Fu is more than just a fighting system or a workout routine. The focus on fighting and getting fit are mostly put in the modern world, but the fighting skills and a fit body are merely side effects of the training. This is a health insurance that can never cheat us. We get from it just as much as we put into it. Constant practice can transform our mind and body and restore health and peace.