Shaolin Kung Fu

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Shaolin Kung Fu

Applicant: Dengfeng City, Henan Province

Project No.: 289

Project No.: VI - 7

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: traditional sports, recreation and acrobatics

Region: Henan Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Dengfeng City, Henan Province

Protection unit: Shaolin Temple, Songshan, China

Introduction to Shaolin Kung Fu

Applicant: Dengfeng City, Henan Province

Shaolin Kung Fu is a traditional cultural system which is formed historically in the specific Buddhist cultural environment of Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng, Henan Province. It is based on the belief of Buddhist divine power, fully embodies the wisdom of Zen Buddhism, and takes the martial arts practiced by Shaolin monks as the main form of expression.

Shaolin Kung Fu has a complete technical and theoretical system. It takes martial arts skills and routines as its form of expression, and Buddhist belief and Zen wisdom as its cultural connotation.

Shaolin Temple, founded in the 19th year of Taihe in the Northern Wei Dynasty (495), is the cultural space of Shaolin Kung Fu. With more than 1500 years of history of Shaolin Temple, Shaolin Kung Fu has been constantly enriched and improved. From the initial means of protecting the temple products, it has gradually developed into a cultural expression form with complete technology and rich connotation. According to the records handed down from Shaolin Temple, there are hundreds of Shaolin Kungfu routines handed down in the past dynasties, among which there are dozens of boxing instruments, 72 unique skills, such as capture, fighting, bone unloading, acupoint pressing, qigong and so on. At present, there are 255 kinds of Shaolin Kungfu boxing, equipment and antithesis.

Zen wisdom endows Shaolin Kung Fu with profound cultural connotation. The inheritors of Shaolin Kung Fu should first have faith in Buddhism, including wisdom belief and power belief. The wisdom belief of Shaolin Kung Fu is Bodhidharma, the forefather of Zen, and the power belief is king jinnara. Supernatural power and wisdom have always been the goal of Buddhists. This is the basic reason why Shaolin Kung Fu is a magic martial arts, and also the difference between Shaolin Kung Fu and other martial arts.

The life of Buddhist monks is restricted by Buddhist precepts. In the specific environment of Shaolin Temple, Buddhist precepts evolve into martial arts precepts. The discipline is shown as martial virtue in martial arts practitioners, so Shaolin Kung Fu often shows the characteristics of moderation and modesty, introverted and reserved, and paying attention to inner strength, short and vigorous, and late attack.

The way of spreading Shaolin Kung Fu is mainly based on pithy formula, which is combined with the traditional patriarchal system of Shaolin Temple. The core content is the teacher's words and deeds and the disciples' hard work.

Shaolin Kung Fu has reached the spiritual realm of "integration of Zen and martial arts". It is the most outstanding representative of Chinese martial arts culture, and also the most representative presentation of Shaolin culture.

With the development of the times, the overall level of Chinese Buddhist belief declined, and the number of Shaolin hospitalized monks decreased year by year. The widespread use of firearms makes traditional Wushu withdraw from the field of military attack and defense technology. Modern people are keen on the technical expression of Shaolin Kung Fu, which leads to the marginalization of its internal quality. All these have resulted in the endangered situation of contemporary Shaolin Kung Fu. It is necessary for the relevant parties to formulate a plan as soon as possible to rescue and protect Shaolin Kung Fu.