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Shaolin history from before first burning?

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  • Shaolin history from before first burning?

    Hi
    I wondered if you guys knew of any good sources for the history of the shaolin temple before the first burning? Obviously by that i mean written before the first burning. Also are their any essays detailing the changes in shaolin over time or at least a view of any changes in the view of the populace had on the temple?

    Thanks for any help
    help me, i'm confused

  • #2
    Before the 1st burning? That was a very long time ago…

    Over the past 1 500 years the temple has been destroyed several times by war and arson.
    The first destruction would be early in the 7th Century, around 605 C.E. According to Shi De Qian, one of China's ten Grandmasters, and Shaolin's present historian, it was due to some sort of natural disaster.

    The second destruction of the temple was in the Yuan Dynasty. (Controversy runs amok that it was a myth created by the secret societies that the temple had actually been destroyed during the Qing Dynasty, or that it was the Southern temple that the Qing destroyed.) There are reports of the temple being overrun at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, that the monks repulsed a group of armed marauders, but in the process the temple suffered considerable damage.
    "Shaolin Temple was destroyed by wars in the Yuan Dynasty, and had been under repair and rework in both Ming and Qing Dynasties," abbot Yongxin.

    It is also believed that it was at this time (Yuan) the monastery decided to train a group of monks specifically to defend the temple from future raids. This new group of warrior monks successfully fought off a number of peasant troops following the initial attack.

    The final burning of the temple was during the chaos after the decline of the Qing in 1911, when Warlords vied for power in their various fiefdoms. One named Shi Yousan, was a junior officer of Warlord Feng Yuxiang who sacked Beijing. Whether the monks felt it their duty to protect the citizens from the cruelty of the Warlord's armies, or if they actually were supporting an opposing army, as Shi Yousan believed, he decreed the monks dangerous and had the temple burned.
    "In the seventeenth year of the Republic (1928), Shi Yousan, one of the Warlords, set fire to Shaolin Temple, which lasted for over 40 days, burning some of the buildings and invaluable historic relics," abbot Yongxin.

    Sui Dynasty 581-618
    Yuan Dynasty 1271-1368 (Mongol rule. Capital moves to Beijing, closer to Mongolia.)
    Ming Dynasty 1368-1644 (Han people reclaim their country.)
    Qing Dynasty 1644-1911 (Manchu [another northern tribe] rule.)
    Republic of China 1912-1949
    People's Republic of China 1949-present

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    • #3
      thanks for the reply. So you would say there has been a good continuous line of monks from start until finish? No time when the temple was empty for a number of years where all the monks had fled?
      help me, i'm confused

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      • #4
        After the burning in 1928: Of the over 1 000 monks that had populated the temple only 150 would remain at Songshan. They left the front of the temple in ruins, locked the main gates, stopped taking in newcomers, and lived quietly in the rear of the temple as they eeked out a survival with intrusions from the outside world.

        In 1931 the Japanese army seized control of Manchuria as a spearhead to the Sino-Japanese War prior to World War II. By 1941 Japanese invaders had taken over the temple again damaging what was left, & using it as a school. In 1948 Mao's Communist rebels took control of the 13 000 acres belonging to the temple leaving them with only 5. The practice of wushu was also banned as being "counter-revolutionary," and a threat to the state.

        The monks continued to practice their martial skills in secret where ever they might have been. Those that left the temple practiced in private at other temples or alone in their wanderings or new vocations, occasionally teaching others, passing on the Shaolin tradition. Of 150 or so that remained at Songshan the world would intrude on them yet again during Chairman Mao's "Great Leap Forward" (Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976). The "Old World" was bad; this was to be a "New" China. Mao's band of zealots, the Red Guard, left no stone unturned in their zeal to fret out enemies of the People: the rich & bourgeois, "religion is the opiate of the masses" according to Karl Marx, and religious practices were banned throughout China. When the Communist government came to power in 1949 they forbid the ordination of new monks. During the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards destroyed shrines, statues, burned books, & even brutalized monks. Of the Daoist and Buddhist temples that remained open the monks and nuns were thus harassed for 10 years. In Shanghai I was in a Catholic Church where all the windows had regular panes, all the stain glass had been smashed out during the Revolution; the Priest & nuns had been sent to work in the fields. The Church had been used as a tax office; other churches had been used as stables. In 1978 the 1949 policy was rescinded and religious freedoms eventually restored.

        Fearing reprisals during the Revolution, more monks left Songshan. Thirteen remained retreating further up into the mountains.


        When the insanity of the Cultural Revolution ended with the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, thirteen of the original monks returned to Songshan. These monks found their temple in ruins and the surrounding fields decimated. Without funds, nor the ability to farm to look after themselves as had been done in past times, the monks had to think of new ways to survive. Eventually it was decided to do what they did best, teach. Only this time they would not be teaching fellow monks but ordinary citizens the art of gongfu; in this way they could keep their traditions alive and make enough money to get by.


        According to Mr. Chen Wen Long, a former monk himself, "Monks were forbidden to train in the temple from 1965 to 1976 during the Cultural Revolution. At that time Shaolin gongfu monks had to go outside to hide and practiced gongfu 'in family', but they were registered in the temple; some monks kept this book list until the temple reopened again and reassembled most of the monks back to the temple. The Chinese government invested to rebuild the temple to be a tourist place. So after Shi Yousan burned the temple, the monks never stopped to rebuild but trained there, inside, until 1965.
        "You see Shaolin gongfu monks not all trained in the temple, but we call them Shaolin monks, they are Shaolin monks not from the original time (prior to 1928). Its name depends on the monk's gongfu skill. In China there are thousands of Buddhist temples."

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        • #5
          Good reply RJW. But, let's be careful here:
          You see Shaolin gongfu monks not all trained in the temple, but we call them Shaolin monks, they are Shaolin monks not from the original time (prior to 1928).
          Some monks have direct lineage to masters of pre 1928 times, Shi De Cheng, Shi De Yang, Shi Xing Hong, are just some of them (through Shi Su Xi or Shi Su Yuan, who's master was Shi Zheng Xu (spelling?)). Shii De Qian is also one of this group, being one of the fourteen who returned. His master, who's name I cannot remember at this time, was of pre 1928 lineage. I'd be careful how people interpret that quote.
          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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          • #6
            thanks
            help me, i'm confused

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            • #7
              Thanks Doc always meant to run that by you. Was never sure what he meant by "original time", his English is difficult to translate, but I got the impression that was what he was getting at. They couldn't train at the temple at the time but learned from monks who had left & so they were considered Shaolin.

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              • #8
                Excellent post

                These are some nice posts and pretty much in line what I have myself.


                Good Job!

                Uwe

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                • #9
                  during the cultural revolution, part of the library was burned, but a monk recopy it years before, when he was a child...
                  anyone know who is this monk?
                  martial way is mine, death one is yours
                  call me last bodyguard of the lohan chuan, call me the one who will bring wu de to occident, call me, the one

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                  • #10
                    Kind of a complicated story. Shi De Qian is part of this. I have to try to remember the details here....
                    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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                    • #11
                      Then off the 135 monks who fled after maos cultural revolution there should still be a bunch left!. Not to mentioned how many monks probably being around 80- 100 years-old from the first burning of the 1000 that left still going strong.How come we never hear of these monks, there should still be quite a bunch alive!

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