Shaolin Monastery

The Shaolin Monastery or Shaolin Temple (Chinese: 少林寺; pinyin: Shàolínsì), is a Chan Buddhist temple at Song Shan in Henan Province of what is now the People's Republic of China. The monastery was built by the Emperor Hsiao-Wen in AD 477, and the first abbot of Shaolin was Batuo, (also, Fotuo or Bhadra (the Chinese transposition of Buddha), an Indian dhyana master who came to China in AD 464 to spread Buddhist teachings. Long famous for its association with Chinese martial arts and particularly with Shaolin Kung Fu, it is the Mahayana Buddhist monastery perhaps best known to the Western world.

Name

The Shao in "Shaolin" refers to "Mount Shaoshi", a mountain in the Songshan mountain range. The lin in "Shaolin" means "forest". Literally, the name means "Monastery in the woods of Mount Shaoshi".

Early history

According to the Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks (AD 645) by Dàoxuān, the Shaolin Monastery was built on the north side of Shaoshi, the western peak of Mount Song, one of the Sacred Mountains of China, by Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Yang Xuanzhi, in the Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Luoyang (AD 547), and Li Xian, in the Ming Yitongzhi (AD 1461), concur with Daoxuan's location and attribution. The Jiaqing Chongxiu Yitongzhi (AD 1843) specifies that this monastery, located in the province of Henan, was built in the 20th year of the Tàihé era of the Northern Wei Dynasty, that is, the monastery was built in AD 497.

Kangxi, the second Qing emperor, was a supporter of the Shaolin temple in Henan and he wrote the calligraphic inscription that, to this day, hangs over the main temple gate.


Bodhidharma


Bodhidharma is said by the Shaolin monks to have introduced the sect of Chan Buddhism (which is very similar to the Japanese Zen Buddhism) to them at Shaolin Temple in Henan, China during the 6th century. Bodhidharma was also given the opportunity to teach what the monks called “18 Hands of the Lohan,” as well as other martial arts.
When he arrived he found the monks to be in need of physical conditioning, and also to be trained to defend themselves against bandits and other threats.

Various styles of Chinese martial arts are said in some sources to have been practiced even before the Xia dynasty (founded in 2205 BC), styles such as Jiao Di, the precursor of Shuai Jiao.[4] Not to mention Shou Bo kung fu practiced during the Shang dynasty (2,000 years before the Shaolin Temple's construction), and Xiang Bo (similar to Sanda) from the 600s BC ,along with the hundreds of other systems of Chinese martial arts that have persisted from ancient times to the present day. There is a story that Huiguang and Sengchou were martial artists before the arrival of Bodhidharma, when they became two of the very first Shaolin monks.