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Shaolin history from the Cultural Revolution onwards

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  • Shaolin history from the Cultural Revolution onwards

    my name is xxxxxxxxx and I'm a student of sinology at the university of xxxxxxx. I'm in the process of doing research for my master thesis. Although I haven't come to the final research question, I want to write on the current state of shaolin, what's left of the "real" gongfu and the whole commercialization that took place after the the end of the cultural rev.

    I have a couple of questions and hope you can help me!

    First of all, your homepage is huuuge and it's kinda hard for me to orient myself. I would be very happy if you could give me some hints or point me in the right direction concerning the above mentioned topics.

    Also, I'm planning to travel to Dengfeng next year (btw, i have already spent a couple of months in the old xiao long near zhengzhou in 2006) to so some interviews. I know you have very good contacts to De Yang and De Cheng, do you think it would be possible to meet one or both and ask a couple of Qs? Is it maybe even possible to meet the Abbot? And do you have any suggestions for other persons/monks I could ask?

    It would be interesting to get their views on the current state of shaolin gongfu.

    Sorry for the long mail but I know you are THE expert on everything objective concerning shaolin and I really hope you could help me a bit.

    Thanks a lot & best wishes,
    Well, I'm not the expert on anything, but there are many observations about Shaolin buried within the ever increasing morass of this website. My sincerest apologies for failing to provide a better method of navigating through russbo.com. I realize that its a mess.

    We'll start with the last questions first. I'll return to this thread as various thoughts pop into my mind. I don't remember everything that's in this site, which is why I post this, as no doubt some of the fellow russboians, if they ever stop thinking about sex in Asia, might be able to help you.

    As for the abbot, given the fact that we are "best buddies", as "bestest" as can be, I can't help you with that. I have stories of the threats that I underwent on one trip, because of the various things that I had uncovered and published. Let's just say that I won't be getting invited to his Christmas party.

    As for meeting with DeCheng and DeYang, I have no doubt that arrangements can be made with DeCheng. We still stay in touch, though recently, his mother just passed away, and he's been busy with family life. I'm not sure when I'll see him again, as I've been busy with my own family life. Hopefully, we'll catch up sometime this spring, in Thailand, if we both make it there.

    As for DeYang, I don't stay in touch with him, but I have monk friends here in the US that do. When you're ready to go to Dengfeng, let me know and I'll start sending the emails.

    OK, more replies about navigating the site, on the way. This was just a start. Sorry for my delay in answering, I try to get these things out as soon as possible, but with the holidays around the corner, and an almost two year old demanding my constant attention (to kill zombies, ride bike, watch Wow Wow Wubzie, get lap dances, OK, just kidding..) and a wife who's even worse, getting the time to devote to the site has been difficult.
    Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

    "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

    (more comments in my User Profile)
    russbo.com



  • #2
    OK, some places to start exploring.

    On the main russbo.com site, there is a navigation bar on top of every page. There are main sections (Shaolin, Shaolin Foundations, China, etc). Focus on the Shaolin section first.

    In that, Shaolin Books. There are some booklets that I've made, that you can read, in that page. Two of them are based upon the upheaval after Yongxin took over the abbot position. Want to see where some of the major changes started in gong fu? Start with him.

    I've actually written a lot about the changes in gong fu over the years, all based upon my personal observations, from 1995 to about 2008. You can find these little ditties, and some of them are pretty extensive, in the Shaolin Journals section. Its in there, you just have to read about it.

    Continuing on, same Shaolin section, is an area called Shaolin FAQ, subdivided into Health FAQ (ignore, for this request), Training FAQ (might be useful), GongFu FAQ (might be useful), Monk FAQS (probably not useful), etc. There may or may not be useful information in there.

    Same Shaolin section, there's a subsection called Shaolin History. There's stuff in there.

    That should take care of that. Move on to Doc's Hood.

    In Doc's Hood, which is my personal section, for my bullshit, related and unrelated, there is a section called Fugue. Within that, are various little stories and stuff that I've written over the years, about my travels to Shaolin. Within those stories, you'll find a lot of relevant happenings. And on each article, there is a date of when it was first written. Now, since I moved the site from the old HTML version to this new CMS version sometime in 2006 or 20007, the article dates might be off (the page hits are definitely off). But it should be close enough to reflect the current thinking at the time that it was written.

    That pretty much sums up what's on the main site. As far as I can remember.
    Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

    "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

    (more comments in my User Profile)
    russbo.com


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    • #3
      Now, there's more. A lot more. But it's going to be more difficult to find.

      Lots and lots of commentary and discussion in the forums. Start first with the Forum Archive, which you can find in the Site Resources part of that navigation menu. It's not the first forum that we've had (it's the second) but a lot was put into it in the late 1990's. Browse through there.

      Lastly, you've got this forum. Now, this place is a monstrosity; I've used basically the same organization here, for the last ten years or so. It's pretty big, but we try to keep it organized. Start browsing through the relevant sections of this forum, and you'll find a lot of commentary (with dates attached of course), which will show you how things have changed over the years, with a timeline built in.
      Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

      "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

      (more comments in my User Profile)
      russbo.com


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      • #4
        One of the things that I've found interesting, since Yongxin took over the abbot position, is how he maneuvered and altered his positions with respect to how he governed, based upon current discussions on the internet. And many of those discussions were based upon my observations of what he was doing, and the publishing them here on russbo.com. Now I have no proof of this, other than my own personal observations of what was going on there over the years, and what we had talked about here on the site (and stuff which eventually made its way to other related sites). I've never fully approved of some of the things that Yongxin has done, but I have never lost my respect for the man; he's an intelligent critter who keeps tabs on his critics, and, I might add, has his group keep an eye on what's being written about him. One might go as far as to say that the people on this site, who have contributed to it over the years, had some effect on the direction that the temple has taken over the years. I've mentioned this before, but I've never pursued researching this aspect of Yongxin. I just don't care.
        Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

        "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

        (more comments in my User Profile)
        russbo.com


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        • #5
          hi, first off a plug. i just watched a documentary called Food Inc. watch it, learn, change little or big but change help someone...

          as for shaolin. shaolin is a 1500 year old temple that is the origin of modern zen buddhism. if you want to focus on shaolin temple gung fu you have to focus atleast half your thesis on chan(zen) its only fair and any real practitioner will tell you how inseperable the practice of gung fu and aspects of chan are

          no you dont have to lite incense and chant to practice chan, but the required state of mind to actually perform(forget application but this to) shaolin gung fu requires a meditative state of mind

          in buddhism part of your development spiritually is to acquire a better control over your mind, empty your mind be formless..shapeless...bruce lee, it all correlates to shaolin gung fu because this style of exercise/fighting etc demands this state of mind otherwise your gung fu doesnt work, if your intent isnt localized at certain points you wont be doing anything but dancing around and basically doing wushu although every practitioner is different

          so stuff like that is important. the state of the actual styles is whatever shaolin temple gung fu is what it is god knows what it was 200 years ago i wasnt there and neither were any of these monks who barely have any education at all , so dont take their word as gospel, there just guys who grew up in a little shanty town and started training gung fu and shaving their heads and eventually, SOME of them embraced buddhism

          like i said above the chan is a big part of this style even if your looking at it merely from a martial perspective you cant seperate these aspects from one another. but for instance a strong mind doesnt mean your a good moral or ethical person... you can be on a high level mentally and still be ...ignorant to knowledge and also lacking in morals and ethics.

          and i might go to shaolin next year...i dunno because it will cost me quite a bit, ive wanted to go for awhile but i cant just go for a few weeks or a month, if i go its for a purpose and not to just go on some whim of a fairytale i know exactly what it is and someday i may go maybe this next year maybe not, my budget will decide

          and i guess...thai girls have a say, ill see how they effect me lol
          "did you ask me to consider dick with you??" blooming tianshi lotus

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          • #6
            I may have directed you to the "docBooks" section, which was in doc's Hood. However, I just found out that the component which generates those "books", which we've been using for years, doesn't work with this new web site software anymore. So, it's gone.

            But I've recreated the books; they can be found in doc's Hood, and also the page that is most relevant, Shaolin Destruction, which can be found in the main Shaolin section of the navigation bar. I think you'll find that most interesting, with respect to government intervention and its effect on Shaolin (and eventually, gong fu)
            Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

            "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

            (more comments in my User Profile)
            russbo.com


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            • #7
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              • #8
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