Did the shaolin monks create all Kung Fu?

Answer 1

No, Shaolin monks did not create Martial Arts. In fact, martial arts predate Buddhism (and even religious Daoism) in China by many centuries. The martial arts arose from battles between early people who transformed hunting tools like spears and bows into weapons of war. For most of dynastic China (11th c. BCE - 20th c. CE), military weapons like spears, bows, and swords were used with the expressed purpose of killing soldiers in battle. This emphasis on killing violates the Buddhist precepts against taking life. Most importantly, it is questionable whether the religiously devout monks of Shaolin, which is traditionally associated with the Chan School of Buddhism, ever practiced martial arts at all. Prof. Meir Shahar notes that Shaolin originally took up military weapons in an effort to protect their rich monastery against mountain bandits. They even gained a certain amount of notoriety during the 7th century when they helped future Tang Emperor Taizong (Li Shimin) defeat his enemies, thus allowing his family to found the Tang Dynasty. However, Prof. Peter Lorge suggests that the "monks" who took part in these and later battles during the Ming Dynasty were actually violent men skilled in martial arts who actually dressed as monks to avoid the law or military conscription. It is known that various dynasties had problems with people pretending to be monks. This eventually led to them issuing "ordination certificates" to authenticate a person's monkhood. It is also known that the monks who took part in Ming dynasty battles with Japanese pirates did some very questionable things, like killing an unarmed woman with an iron staff. That doesn't sound like something that a religiously devout Buddhist monk would ever do. These imposter monks were therefore most likely some type of security force hired by the more devote community to protect its interest and to help the dynasty whenever necessary.

For a broad overview of Shaolin martial history see The Shaolin Monastery (2008) by Prof. Meir Shahar. For a concise overview of Chinese martial arts history and a rebuttal to Shahar's claims, see Chinese Martial Arts: From Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century (2012) by Prof. Peter Lorge. No, the Shaolin monks did not create Kung Fu. Armed and unarmed combat in China predates Shaolin's adoption of martial skills by many centuries. They originally took to practicing military weapons sometime prior to the 7th century in an effort to protect their monastery from mountain bandits. Their fame came when they helped the soon to be Tang Emperor Taizong (Li Shimin) defeat his enemies, thus enabling his family to found the Tang Dynasty. In his paper "Ming-Period Evidence of Shaolin Martial Practice," Prof. Meir Shahar shows Shaolin did not begin to practice boxing until the Ming to Qing dynasty transition.

The legend of Bodhidharma teaching medicinal breathing and stretching exercises to the monks comes from the 17th-century. Stan Henning has shown in his paper "Ignorance, Legend and Taijiquan" that the idea of the Zen patriarch teaching the monks boxing didn't come about until the 20th-century.

For a broad overview of Shaolin martial history see Prof. Shahar's book The Shaolin Monastery (2008).

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