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Sitting comfortably in front of the newly opened Hall of Sakyamuni in the glow of the sunset, Shi Yanshuo wistfully envisions the completion of the Towers of Bell and Drum on the busy construction site sprawling southward.
"It's exciting thinking of the future. In 10 years, the Donglin Temple will probably resume its glory under the flagship of the Shaolin Temple," beams the 27-year-old monk.
Behind the renovation of the Donglin Temple is a well-designed cultural map of the Shaolin Temple, which has risen in the past two decades from a state of decay to a giant complex.
Shi feels grateful to his master Shi Yongxin, the abbot of Shaolin, as "he defines the right orientation for Donglin."
Late last year, Shaolin monks went to Kunming and took over the operational management of Tuzhu, Fading, Miaozhan and Guanyin temples.(Photo: Shanghai Daily)
Located on the southwest edge of Zhengzhou, provincial capital of central China's Henan Province, Donglin has a 1,800-year history that dates back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD).
Important to Buddhist tradition, Donglin was once regarded as one of the four major temples in Henan, along with Shaolin, Xiangguo and Baima (White Horse) temples.
But its reputation has declined sharply since the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). When General Feng Yuxiang governed Henan in the 1920s, he ordered that Donglin be stripped of its religious functions and transformed into a public school.
During the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), the temple was destroyed with the exception of the Palace of the Heavenly King and a pagoda built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
"It is sorrowful to see such a recognized temple in ashes," sighs Shi. In recent times, the temple has hosted neither visitors nor worshipers.
The temple's course was reversed after the visit of Shi Yongxin in the late 1990s, when he was invited to serve as Donglin's abbot.
In 2005, Abbot Shi revealed a plan to rebuild a brand-new temple on the ruins of Donglin, covering more than 81 hectares, or 10 times larger than the original.
The estimated cost of construction is 300 million yuan (US$44 million).
To Shi and his fellow monks' greater joy, Donglin will be developed into the largest school of Buddhism studies in China, enrolling 10,000 students a year.
The expansion of Shaolin has gone far beyond Donglin. In the past decade, Shaolin has incorporated or established 26 branches both in China and overseas.
In 2007, Shaolin signed a contract with Jixian County of Tianjin to build a new North Shaolin Temple at a cost of 160 million yuan.
In mid-November, Abbot Shi and his disciples advanced into Kunming, provincial capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province.
According to a contract signed by Abbot Shi and Liu Yuejin, director of Kunming's Guandu District, Shaolin monks will take over the operational management of Tuzhu, Fading, Miaozhan and Guanyin temples.
In exchange, all revenue generated over the next 20 years through donations, tourism and the sale of religious items will belong to Shaolin.
Shaolin has also set up branches or martial arts centers in Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.
Abbot Shi denies that he is deliberately seeking expansion. "We are simply helping push the religious cause in those areas where the appropriate conditions permit."
Literally meaning "monastery in the woods of Mount Shaoshi," Shaolin became famous for its "integration of Zen and martial arts." It is the home of Zen in China.
During the 6th century, Bodhidharma, the 28th successor of Buddha, came to China for exchanges on Buddhism studies. After facing a wall for nine years in a cave of Mount Shaoshi, the Indian monk created Zen. A major teaching of this school of Buddhism is the practice of meditation to ward off worldly distractions.
But Abbot Shi, the 30th abbot of Shaolin, has persisted in breaking from the established norms and is connecting the temple more closely with the secular world.
In the early 1980s, Shaolin became a household name in China, mainly through the success of a film called "Shaolin Temple" that launched martial arts film star Jet Li's career.
The impact of the film was immediately felt by tourism. The number of visitors to Shaolin climbed from 200,000 a year in late 1970s to 3 million by 1985.
But the internal situation of Shaolin was not favorable. Before Abbot Shi became director of the management committee of Shaolin in 1987, there were only a dozen permanent monks in the temple. Adding to the woe was the boom of martial arts schools, which posed a challenge to the temple.
"We were short of both people and space. Everything waited to be improved," he recalls while sipping a cup of tea.
With a pragmatic mindset, the monk was determined to make reforms to the ancient temple by adapting to the rapidly changing era.
Initially, he expanded the surrounding area of Shaolin by tens of thousands of square meters and enlarged the ranks of Shaolin to more than 200 monks.
After this, Abbot Shi pondered the cultural essentials of Shaolin.
"During its 1,500-year history, the very livelihood of Shaolin has always relied on its openness to other cultures, as the temple itself is a product of dynamic cultural exchanges. We must let the guests in, while walking out of our domains with courage," he says.
In his mind, Shaolin has been supported by three pillars: Zen, martial arts and medicine.
"Preaching the 'empty' concepts is meaningless, and these values must be represented by concrete cultural products," he says.
Abbot Shi turned his boldness into a flurry of actions.
The first experiment was the establishment of a fighting monk team, which has since toured extensively at home and abroad. In 2002, Abbot Shi applied for intangible cultural heritage for Shaolin kung fu.
"We must turn to the intellectual property rights for the preservation and promotion of Shaolin culture," says the 43-year-old abbot, who holds a master's degree in business administration.
In the next few years, the Shaolin Pharmacy was reopened to the public and an outpatient department was established.
In 2008, Shaolin stepped up the pace of its commercialization. On May 12, Shaolin opened Huanxidi (State of Joy), a business complex comprised of a shop, a restaurant and a meditation center. It is actually a subsidiary of Shaolin Intellectual Property, a fully owned company of Shaolin.
"I try to combine the traditional culture of Shaolin with modern elements so that the seeds of Shaolin are accessible to the greater public, especially the young people," says the chief designer, Mi Xiong, from Taiwan's Kaohsiung City.
For instance, students of Taiwan's Shu-Te University of Science and Technology will soon have a boot camp in Shaolin and their artistic creations will be turned into commercial products, explains Bonus Wang, executive manager of Huanxidi.
Abbot Shi hopes that more people will come to Shaolin to experience Zen, but they have to pay a price. Earlier last year, Shaolin held four sessions of walking meditation catering to businessmen and CEOs, with a charge of 2,000 yuan for two days.
Promoting walking meditation will be one of the main tasks in 2009, and Huanxidi may extend its business footprints globally if the initial operation runs well, says Wang.
"We must keep alive and boost our own culture to counter the negative impact of globalization on traditions, and Shaolin has proved to be successful in its model of cultural development," says Abbot Shi with pride. "Commercialization or industrialization, whatever term you use it, is a path leading up to the truth of Zen. My vision is that Shaolin will eventually become a source of consolidating Chinese people's confidence and wisdom."
But his ideas and acts have generated wide criticism. Long Jinghong, an expert on tourism at Zhengzhou University, says the practice of Zen requires detachment from the clamorously world and seclusion into a peaceful environment.
"Zen can hardly be disseminated through industrialization," he says. However, the determined abbot is firm in extending the cultural map of Shaolin. "The soul of Zen is aimed at liberating the mind," he says, pointing to a pamphlet of Huanxidi that reads "moving the body, saving the heart."
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