The Songshan Shaolin Temple

There is a Chinese saying that goes: 'All martial arts under the sky, started in Shaolin. This is 'somewhat' of an exaggeration, but like many Chinese sayings it does contain a grain of truth. China is a huge land and has since long an enormous population. The land that we know today consists of a mixture of people with many different linguistically and cultural traditions. For centuries they developed independently from each other. If we say that all the martial art systems in China come from one single tradition or temple. But we can't deny that the Shaolin temple did have a big influence on the development all Chinese martial arts. Many say that Buddhism and boxing don't combine. This is true and it is not true at the same time. Buddhism forbids damaging all living beings, but this is contradicted by an edict that teaches tolerance. Tolerance has been one of the biggest strengths of Buddhism for centuries. And this tolerance let to the fact that the martial arts training of the Shaolin temple, including weapon training, was accepted for over a thousand years.
Although the annals talk about many famous martial monks, its very likely that they were boxers first and lived between the temple monks, like so many other laymen. But still it is strange that Buddhism, know for it's peaceful character, accepted the martial arts and that the Shaolin temple, birthplace of Chan Buddhism, is best known for its martial arts.
The temple was, and still is, located on the countryside and is was important that one could defend oneself in remote areas. Only if you're healthy and strong could you survive; meditation alone was not enough to survive!
The monks went so far as to use weapons to defend themselves. How can they train themselves in killing human beings, when generally speaking monks lead an peaceful and quite life? Some say that the ones that were killed by the monks weren't humans, but demons in the shape of human beings. In many Buddhist legends, monks, or Buddhists kill dozens and dozens of demons, and they use martial arts to do this. In one story the Heavenly Prince Dharmapala kills demons and monsters with his powerful pestle. If one looks it at it that way, than the monks of the Shaolin temple are doing nothing wrong and are the martial arts for them just as important as practicing Chan, some say they ARE one.

The Shaolin temple is situated in Henan province, 13 kilometers outside the village of Dengfeng. It was build in 496 at the foot of Songshan Mountain, under edict of Emperor Xiao Wen of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534).

Map showing Dengfeng City and Shaolin temple surroundings
Songshan Mountain has many peaks and hills. The temple is located at the foot of Wu Ru Feng (Five-breast Peak), North of Shaoshi Mountain. The temple faces the south. Eastwards lies Taishi Mountain, and to the North one can find the Huanyuanguan path, which was a important passage before the modern road were paved. In front of the entrance of the temple flows the Shaoxi river (of Shaoshixi), this protects the temple according to the rules of Fengshui against bad influences. The temple is build on the spot were once was a 'young forest'. Many say that that's the reason why the temple is called Shaolin Si, which means 'Young Forest Temple'. A different explanation for the name says that it stands for the monks living in the temple; like young trees they bend when forced, but they won't break. Yet another explanation can be found in the book 'Songshan Mountain' of Jing Rizhen, dating from the early Qing Dynasty: 'Shaolin means woods on Shaoshi Mountain inside Songshan Mountain Area'.

Birdseye view from the temple before many reconstructions were carried out. Notice the absence of the Bell and Drum towers.