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T h e Sh Aoli N history, religion, and the chinese martial arts MoNA sT erY meir shahar The Shaolin Monastery The Shaolin Monastery History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts Meir Shahar University of Hawai‘i Press Honolulu © 2008 University of Hawai‘i Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 13 12 11 10 09 08 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shahar, Meir. The Shaolin monastery : history, religion, and the Chinese martial arts / Meir Shahar. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8248-3110-3 (alk. paper) 1. Shao lin si (Dengfeng xian, China)—History. 2. Martial arts—China. I. Title. II. Title: History, religion, and the Chinese martial arts. BQ6345.T462S52275 2008 294.3'657095118—dc22 2007032532 University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources Designed by University of Hawai‘i Press production staff Printed by The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group For Noga Zhang Hui Contents Maps and Figures ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 Part I: Origins of a Military Tradition (500–900) Chapter 1: The Monastery 9 Chapter 2: Serving the Emperor 20 Part II: Systemizing Martial Practice (900–1600) Chapter 3: Defending the Nation 55 Chapter 4: Staff Legends 82 Part III: Fist Fighting and Self-Cultivation (1600–1900) Chapter 5: Hand Combat 113 Chapter 6: Gymnastics 137 Chapter 7: Suspect Rebels 182 Conclusion: History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts 197 Appendix: Some Editions of the Sinews Transformation Classic 203 Notes 205 Glossary 239 Works Cited 247 Index 273 vii Maps and Figures Maps 1. Location of the Shaolin Monastery 10 2. Shaolin’s contribution to Li Shimin’s campaign against Wang Shichong 24 3. Ming centers of monastic fighting 63 4. Some Henan sites associated with the Qing martial arts 124 Figures 1. Bodhidharma returning to the West on a 1209 Shaolin stele 15 2. The Rush-Leaf Bodhidharma on a 1624 Shaolin stele 16 3. Li Shimin’s autograph “Shimin” as copied onto the 728 Shaolin stele 27 4. Xuanzong’s imperial calligraphy on the 728 Shaolin stele 32 5. List of the thirteen heroic monks on the 728 Shaolin stele 34 âÿ 6. Ninth-century Dunhuang painting of Vajrap i 38 âÿ 7. Vajrap i’s sinewy physique in a Tang statue 39 â â ÿ âÿ 8. Twelfth-century Shaolin stele of N r ya a (Vajrap i) 41 9. The “Lifting-Sleeve Position” in Cheng Zongyou’s Shaolin Staff Method of 1621 60 10. Practice-sequence diagram from Cheng Zongyou’s Shaolin Staff Method of 1621 61 âÿ â â ÿ 11. Abbot Wenzai’s 1517 Vajrap i (N r ya a) stele 84 âÿ œ 12. Vajrap i (referred to as Ki nara) atop Mt. Song 86 âÿ œ 13. Vajrap i’s (Ki nara) Qing Shaolin statue 89 14. Arhat equipped with a staff; detail of an early seventeenth-century Shaolin fresco 90 15. Sun Wukong’s staff; late Ming (ca. 1625) woodblock illustration 94 16. Huiming manipulating the staff from horseback; woodblock illustration dated 1498 96 17. Late Ming woodblock illustration of Lu Zhishen manipulating the staff 98 ix

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«The Shaolin Monastery» charts, for the first time in any language, the history of the Shaolin Temple and the evolution of its world-renowned martial arts. In this meticulously researched and eminently readable study, Meir Shahar considers the economic, political, and religious factors that led Sh