The Shaolin Temple Myth

By Matthew Schafer

Copyright 2008, All Rights Reserved

As martial artists we have the responsibility to not only use our training wisely but also to question it and question it often. As human beings we also have the same responsibility to question everything and not to rely on blind faith. Everything must not only be questioned but thoroughly researched because at every turn there are those who seek to further their own agendas by misleading us. All elements of religion, politics, economics, martial arts, and ever other area must be researched and not be taken at face value.

Within the martial arts there are many myths, exaggerations, and downright lies. We can clearly trace the martial arts to China but when we go back into the history we find that it becomes very clouded. We know that the martial arts were developed and propagated mostly by the Chinese military and most people who received martial arts training received it there. We know that originally the martial arts were a very practical skill and were seen as only self defense or combat methods, and that originally religion and morality were nowhere to be found. Contrary to what the movies tell us the wise scholar/martial arts expert didn't exist until around 1915 and even then it was the vast exception.

In the golden ages of martial arts, the Ming and Qing dynasties, most Chinese were illiterate, had very little education, and no use for religion or morality. Martial artists rarely taught for a living and if they did it was only to a select few. Most martial artists, like today, had a day job and lived very unglamorous lives. If a martial artist did make a living with his training it was usually in the military, as a bodyguard, a criminal, or a street performer.

Martial artists were not great people, or at least not any better than anyone else. The fought, they killed, they robbed, and they lied just like everyone else. Many were also street performers or con-men. There is a record of a martial artist coming to a village and then challenging the residents to a fight, having a challenger step forwards, having the villagers place bets, defeating the opponent easily, and then collecting all his winnings. Where the story takes an interesting turn is when some villages saw the stranger and the challenger meet secretly afterwards and split the money.

Many martial artists would avoid fighting or earn a living by performing on the street using magic tricks. This is where many of the myths of "chi", internal energy, came about. Putting out a candle from 10 feet away, using "chi" to knock over an opponent from a distance or through a wall, breaking a spear against your throat, having a partner jump on your stomach with all his bodyweight from 7 feet in the air and not being injured, laying on a bed on nails, breaking a stack of boards with your pinkie, running a sword across your skin without being cut, producing smoke with your finger tips, using "chi" to boil a glass of water, and many, many other feats were merely magic tricks that used physiology, chemistry, and physics to fool people with little to no education, and still fool many people today. (It often surprises religious people to learn that turning water into wine, the famous miracle preformed by Jesus, was a very common magic trick in China well before biblical times. In fact, most of the miracles described in the bible and other religious texts were in fact established magic tricks in the Asia during those times.)

Around the mid 1800's China was invaded more and more by the west resulting in a drastic change in the economy and a change in social order with the wide availability of firearms. By 1880 almost every bodyguard was not only a martial artist but also someone packing a colt pistol under their clothes. While the martial arts remained a practical skill for the poor and lower middle class, it became something those in the upper middle class and the rich did for recreation. By 1900 more people in China practiced the martial arts for recreation than anything else. People didn't even practice the martial arts for health reasons until around 1915 when it was made popular through widely published martial art books.

In the upper classes the martial arts, being just a form of combat, were seen as "low class" as were most physical skills. To get upper class students to enroll schools would lie, overstate, and bastardize their arts. Instructors would lie about their arts history and lineage to make it more appealing (which is why martial arts lineages that stretch before 1900 or so cannot be trusted), they would overstate the abilities that the student would have after they completed their training (often using magic tricks), and they would make studying the arts more appealing to the educated upper class by connecting them with religion. Thus the philosophies of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism were attached to the martial arts. It must be pointed out, however, that any elements of morality or the developing of a person's character originally came about from books that were the equivalent of dime store cowboy novels and did not become a reality until the 1920's. Before 1920 there was little to no connection anywhere between martial arts and morality or religion.

Most of the things we consider to be part of the martial arts (such as meditation, morality, and to some extent the study of Chinese Medicine) were attached to the martial arts in stories told by authors in fantasy novels in the late 1800's and then actually connected to the martial arts in the early 1900's as a marketing tool because people liked that image. The majority of what is considered martial arts came about in the late 1800's and early 1900's. In the same way much of what people know about the samurai of Japan came from the 1700's and later when the samurai were actually around since the 1100's.

Now, as to the most famous myth in the martial arts, the Shaolin Temple, the basic story of the Shaolin Temple is this: The Shaolin Temple was built by an Emperor at the bequest of a Buddhist monk named Bato. Later a monk named Bodhidharma came from India to spread Chan Buddhism (Zen) to China and he arrived at the temple. Originally the monks of Shaolin saw Bodhidharma as a troublemaker and wanted nothing to do with him so they sent him away. He then went to live in a cave overlooking the temple were he resided in silence for 9 years. After becoming popular as a wise man with the local village the temple reluctantly allowed him in and he began teaching Chan Buddhism and quickly became the temple's abbot.

Seeing the monk's poor physical condition he instituted a physical training method which combined elements of yoga and martial arts. In time the exercises he taught became the fighting methods known as Shaolin Kung fu. The Shaolin Temple then became famous all over China and was considered the headquarters of martial arts throughout the country. The monks gained legendary fighting ability and were even asked by the emperor to come to his aid and stop various attacking armies, which they did and turned the tides of many a battle.

However, the monks of the temple became so skilled that they made the emperor nervous so he sent his army to destroy the temple. The monks did their best to fight off the army but the temple was eventually burnt to the ground. Only five monks escaped and then went on to spread Shaolin Kung fu throughout China.

Great story, but nearly all of it is false. The true role of the Shaolin Temple in the Chinese Martial Arts has been thoroughly researched by both western and Chinese scholars such as the legendary author Tang Hao. When this legend stands up to history this is what we find:

1.) There was a Buddhist monastery called Shaolin

2.) A monk named Bodhidharma did reside there

3.) Martial arts were practiced there

4.) Monks from the temple were, on several occasions, conscribed by various emperors to assist or fight in lieu of his army.

That's it. That is all that provable history can come up with. What's more is that when Tang Hao researched Bobhidharma he concluded that it was extremely unlikely that he was trained in any martial art.

In order to see the Shaolin Temple in proper context it should be noted that Buddhist temples were supported by the entire community and sometimes the government or warlords. Temples were, as they still are in Taiwan today, usually quite wealthy and were large landowners. To protect their material wealth and to guard their vast lands the temples had their own militias. Shaolin Temple would have been no different from any other in that it would owned a large amount of land and had its own small army to protect it. This army would have been made up of monks who were trained in martial arts and most likely they got their training from the same place as most other people...serving in the military.

China actually had three armies. The Red Banner Army was China's main army and protected the palace, the Manchu homeland, and other key positions. The Green Army acted mainly as police within the country but according to records they were usually "unavailable" to fight. China's third army was actually made up of privately owned armies (owned by wealthy individuals, businesses, and temples), and local militias owned by villages. The Green Army could rarely be counted on so local order was usually maintained by local militias. Each village would have their own small militia that was usually made up of village locals, paid for by the village, and trained by members who served in other military units.

These small private armies and militias were often asked or conscribed by the emperor to assist the regular army in fighting or even fight in their stead. So Shaolin Temple, like every other temple, would have had their own security force who practiced martial arts (that were often brought to the temple by monks who served in various military units), were responsible for maintaining an armory, policing and guarding the temple's lands and other business interests, and sometimes these security forces were asked to fight along side the regular Chinese army. The real fighting monks of the Shaolin Temple would have spent quite a lot of time doing basic infantry drills such as marching, forming ranks, and performing facing movements.

The legend of the Shaolin Temple was most likely invented by two books; the first was a popular novel called, "Travels of Lao Can" which was written around 1904, and "Secrets of Shaolin Temple Boxing" written in 1915. On the content in the second book which talks about Shaolin Temple being the birthplace of martial arts, historian and author Stanley E. Henning writes in an article entitled "The Chinese Martial Arts in Historical Perspective" that, "Both Tang Hao and Xu Je Dong exposed this book's lack of historicity but, unfortunately, it became popularly accepted as a key source of Chinese martial arts history enthusiasts, and its pernicious influence has permeated literature on the subject to this day".

There is exactly zero credible evidence that the Shaolin Temple was the birthplace of the martial arts or even a hotbed of martial arts training. All credible evidence says that the Chinese military (the Red Banner Army, the Green Army, and private armies and militias), not the Shaolin Temple, were responsible for creating, developing, promoting, and spreading Chinese martial arts throughout China. All credible evidence says the "legend" of the Shaolin Temple was created in books and cannot be traced back further than 1904.

The only real and credible notoriety that the Shaolin Temple received before 1904 was when in 1561a General Qi Ji writes about visiting the Shaolin Temple and being impressed by their staff techniques. He was impressed to such an extent that he incorporated one of their set routines into a martial arts training manual he was writing.

It should also be noted in the early 1900's a popular martial arts organization called the National Guoshu Institute (guoshu is the same as kung fu), for purposes of classifying the styles it taught, separated the Chinese martial arts into two categories: "Shaolin styles" and "Wutang styles". Shaolin styles were styles that supposedly traced back to the Buddhist Shaolin Temple and Wutang styles were styles that supposedly traced back to the Taoist temples at Wutang Mountain. It was thought that all Chinese styles either originally came from these two places. This classification was only used by the National Guoshu Institute originally but it then spread through China and still exists today. The same lies, exaggerations, and falsehoods are true with the history of Wutang martial arts as they are Shaolin martial arts.

More on Street Fighting and What’s Wrong with This Picture

By Matthew Schafer

Copyright, 2008, All Rights Reserved

I’ve gotten a fairly interesting response to the article “The Street Fighting Myth” and I feel that maybe I wasn’t as clear as I should have been. So let me be a little more clear on the matter…street fighting is bullshit!

Let me tell you a little story about something that just happened here. A few nights ago a young man in his early 20’s left a bar where he worked to make the night deposit. As he walked to his car another car pulled up, two guys got out, walked up to him and engaged him in conversation, jumped him, hit him until he fell to the ground, repeatedly stomped and kicked him, then took the money that he had on him and fled.

I’m not sure if that kid has come out of his coma yet but his doctors say that he will never “be right” again, and that he will need direct care assistance for the rest of his life. This kid was in his early 20’s and his life is basically over. He will be a vegetable that his family will have to take care of for the rest of their lives.

Another story, a young man was standing by his car in the parking lot of his apartment building. Two other young men come up to him and started to argue with him. A friend on the third floor saw the altercation and decided to come to his friend’s aid but he was so intoxicated that he decided to jump off of his balcony and promptly broke both of his legs. One of the individuals then pushed this young man who then falls and hits his head of the pavement.

One little push and this young man is now a vegetable and his family cannot afford to take care of him. They depleted their savings, his father’s business had to file bankruptcy, and his siblings have been reported as using drugs to cope with the situation. This young man can no longer regulate the temperature of his body so his family has to watch him around the clock because he could easily catch pneumonia and die. The thing is though, the family has admitted that maybe it would be best for their son and themselves if he did pass on. They even considered taking the family or Oregon where doctor-assisted suicide is legal.

This is the reality of violence and injury. The Chinese knew this and they had a saying that, “when two tigers fight, one will be killed, and the other will die later of his injuries”.

If somebody is going to try to victimize you, seriously injure you, then there is a very good chance that one of you will be killed or messed up so bad that you will never “be right” again and your family will have to bear the burden of taking care of you for the rest of their lives. The only question is which one of you will it be?

If you are going to try to street fight then it will be you. You cannot fight with a criminal, but you can use various methods of self protection.

The first thing is that you have to know how criminals think, how they commit their crimes, how they pick their targets, what vulnerabilities they look for, and what will make them pick you as a target. Then you have to make a plan, constantly be aware of your surroundings, be looking around, and asking yourself, “what’s wrong with this picture?” and “is this necessary?”

You’re walking to your car and another car suddenly pulls up…what’s wrong with this picture (everything so turn and start running). Two guys get out to “talk” to you…what wrong with this picture? Is it necessary for them to get out of their car? Is it necessary for two of them to get out? Is it necessary for them to try to get close to you? NO! None of that is necessary so the second it starts happening you should run like hell.

If two guys approach you is it necessary for them to do so? What’s wrong with this picture? If you have the distance you should run like hell. If you don’t have the distance between you then you should become assertive, establish your boundaries, and then become aggressive, not with your words but with your voice. This tells them that if they come closer that they have a fight on their hands, alerts others who may be able to call for help, and immediately tells you their intentions. If they leave, which most will, that’s fine, but if you do all that and they don’t then you are in a situation where you could possibly be killed.

If they approach you, guess what you should have in your hands…pepper spray. I always tell my students to have pepper spray in their hands if they’re out and about and I always do the same. If it is in your pocket or purse then it does you no good, you need to have it in your hands.

Getting into a fight with a criminal is a method that just doesn’t work. Your first line of defense is your will to survive and your decision to do so, second is making a plan for when things do happen and then following that plan, third is your awareness of your surroundings, fourth is making brief eye contact with everyone and displaying your level of alertness by making sure that people see you looking around, fifth is your ability to run, sixth is your display of aggressiveness when cornered, seventh is pepper spray or another personal weapon (I much prefer pepper spray, even to carrying a gun), and last is self defense techniques designed to cause debilitating injury to your attacker that will require medical attention. Anything else won’t work.

If someone attacks you chances are they will do it by surprise and your clue that its time to defend yourself will actually be being attacked. If someone does come up to you, you don’t get into a fighting stance because that will just escalate the situation and may cause them to pull a weapon. Instead you assume an aggressive posture with your palms outward and elbows in and down, and aggressively give them short commands that tell them to leave. If they don’t leave then you maintain your structure and your focus until they are close enough to use pepper spray or, if you don’t have it, strike them first.

Step into them aggressively and try to drive two of your fingers all the way through their eyeballs, drive your forearm through their throat, use your palm or knee to hit upwards into their groin, stomp on the sides of their ankles, repeatedly slam your palm into their ears with all your body weight, or you might slap their eyes to give them a concussion in their optical nerves. Don’t just swing your arms at them but step into them and when you hit them keep your back straight and bend your knees to drop your bodyweight into the strike.

I don’t care how big, mean, under the influence, or murderous a man is, if they are standing in front of you and you look at their ear, step in aggressively while keeping your back straight, slap your palm into the ear, push all the way through it and bend your knees on impact, you will rupture their ear drum (which takes their balance, leaves them very nauseous, and 9 times out of 10 they want to lay down on the floor) and most likely, provided you followed all the way through and bent your knees, drive them head first into the ground. If you want to make sure you drive them head first into the ground all you have to do is bring your arm down towards the ground during your follow through from the slap. If that individual goes head first into the ground it could kill him.

One of you is most likely going to be killed or end up as a messed up vegetable for your family to take care of, and it is far better that it is him instead of you.

The Street fighting Myth

By Matthew Schafer
Copyright 2008, All Rights Reserved

The other day I heard an all too common story from a friend. This friend trained at a mixed martial arts club in Grand Rapids, Michigan that had two star members. These two members were brothers who had been training in a martial art called Kajukenbo for over 15 years and who were now certified instructors in the art. Kajukenbo is a martial art known for its aggressiveness and for being "martial arts street fighting". For 15 years these guys had been training to fight, both with and without weapons, and recently they decided that doing mixed martial arts would be right up their alley so they joined a local club and were really impressing the other members. From what I was told these two guys were just about how one might envision them: big, mean, avid bodybuilders, and covered in tattoos.

A week or two ago both these gentlemen, who were arguably very, very tough, made a trip to Flint, Michigan and while walking down the street they were approached by two other men and a physical encounter ensued leaving both of these Kajukenbo black belts in intensive care. These two men were not only black belts but instructors in a street fighting art, were in exceptional shape, and were trained in the use of weapons but still they were not only beaten but severely beaten to such a degree that they are in intensive care. How could this be, especially in a two on two fight?

The answer is actually very simple. These men had spent years learning all about street fighting but the truth is that there's no such thing as street fighting. Street fighting doesn't exist. There's only three types of fighting: 1.) sport fighting (boxing, wrestling, mixed martial arts, etc.) which takes place in an agreed upon place with agreed upon rules and usually has a referee, 2.) brawling which is an ego based encounter and usually resembles sport fighting with no rules or referee, and basically consists of people becoming angry, pushing each other, swinging their fists at each other like gorillas, and then walking away with bloodied lips, and 3.) assault which is when one person walks up to another person and violently attacks them with the intent of causing serious injury or death and often includes weapons and multiple attackers. That's it, all fighting and violent encounters fall into these three categories.

What people consider to be "street fighting" is actually just sport fighting or brawling. Sport fighting is 99% of what people consider fighting: two people fighting in an agreed upon way with agreed upon rules. Brawling is people getting mad because their feelings are hurt and lashing out in an uncontrolled and undisciplined manner and if any injuries happen they are typically very minor. Assault is someone wanting to seriously injure, forcibly rob or rape, or murder you. Sport fighting only happens if you agree to it, brawling can usually be avoided by being polite and respectful to people then knowing de-escalation techniques, but assault can't be avoided, you can reduce your chances of having it happening to you but you can't all together avoid it.

The idea of meeting someone on the "street" and both of you getting into fighting stances and duking it out just doesn't happen. If you look at the information provided to us by the FBI about crime you'll see that criminals attack by surprise and don't assume fighting stances or give you the opportunity to duke it out.

The two brothers lost their encounter because they were trying to street fight and the only place street fighting happens is in the minds of people who don't understand violence and the realities of injury. If you think that when a criminal comes up to you and tries to victimize you that you can get into a fighting stance, dance around, do your boxing or whatever, and outfight a criminal then 99% of the time you're dead wrong. If a criminal isn't very experienced then maybe he'll give himself away and you can get a shot in before he hits you but most of the time the best you can do with all that stuff is act really aggressive and scare him away. Criminals will take you by surprise so the idea of putting up your hands and fighting them just isn't realistic; most experienced criminals will approach you and knock you out or disable you first and then rob you.

From what I heard two guys just walked up them, said something to them, and then started punching them until they knocked them down, then kicked and stomped them until they stomped moving, and then took their wallets and ran away. In no way was that street fighting, it was a crime plain and simple. Street fighting just doesn't exist, what does exist is people of very low moral value using speed, surprise, and violence of action to victimize others.