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A Shaolin Hero in America
Author: Ervin Nieves
Approximately 1500 years ago, the famed Indian Buddhist monk Bodhidharma, known also as DaMo by the Chinese, arrived in China at a time when the nation was divided into the Northern Wei and Liu Sung dynasties. Though Buddhism has existed in China by the time of Bodhidharma's arrival (approximately 2,000 Buddhist temples existed in the South and 6,500 temples in the North), Bodhidharma brought with him a more popular form of Mahayana Buddhism which came to be called Chan Buddhism in China, and has achieved popularity in the contemporary West under its Japanese incarnation called Zen. In addition to his significant religious contribution, Bodhidharma has also been distinctly credited with founding Shaolin martial arts at the Shaolin Temple on Mount Song, located in Henan province in Northern China.
I was curious about the link between the Indian yoga - which I assumed Bodhidharma used as the basis for developing the internal kungfu he taught his Shaolin disciples - and any internal Chinese kungfu the preceded Bodhidharma's instruction. To advance my understanding, I approached my teacher, Shaolin Monk Shi Yan-Ming (pronounced "Sher Yen Ming"), a 34th Generation Fighting Monk of the Northern Shaolin Temple founded by Bodhidharma, and posed a series of questions about Shaolin chi kung and its relationship to Indian yoga, other internal Chinese martial arts, Buddhism, Chinese external martial arts, and traditional Chinese healing methods. With Shaolin Monk Shi Yan Ming's permission, I now share the results of this personal interview with you, to unshroud the veil of mystery, myth, and misunderstanding that has surrounded writings and discourse on Chinese Chi kung history, theory and practice throughout the centuries.
Pagoda Forest
Shaolin Heritage
Shaolin Monk Shi Yan-Ming began his twenty-five year study of Chan (Zen) Buddhism and Shaolin Kungfu within the walls of the world-famous Northern Shaolin Temple at the age of five. Among his martial arts specialties are Lohan Chuan, Magic Staff and other Shaolin Weapons, fighting, and hard chi kung, just to name a few. In 1985, Monk Shi Yan-Ming won the 65kg (147 lb.) championship in the Xian National Sparring Competition. He also won the championship in the annual Shaolin Disciples Competition three years in a row (1988-1990) and was vice-coach of the Shaolin Temple Fighting Monks at Henan. In addition to wearing the yellow and red robes of a high-ranking Shaolin monk, Monk Shi Yan-Ming was one of a select group of Shaolin Fighting Monks recognized in the recently published "The Real Shaolin Gongfu of China," which commemorates he 1,500 year anniversary of the Henan Shaolin Temple, as a "Shaolin Hero," a term used only for the Shaolin Temple's most distinguished fighting monks. And near the Shaolin Temple today, four giant posters hang over the entrance to the modern Anhui Guoyang Chudian Branch of the Shaolin Wushu Center that feature Monk Shi Yan-Ming performing various styles of kungfu.
Tamo In 1992, Shaolin Monk Shi Yan-Ming came to the United States as a member of the select group of Shaolin Fighting Monks invited to the United States by the American Kung Fu Association and other Chinese American martial arts and cultural organizations to spread the knowledge of authentic Shaolin martial arts. In many respects, Shaolin Monk Shi Yan-MingÕs decision to remain in America was similar to Bodhidharma's decision 1,500 years ago to leave his native land o India and travel to China. Like Bodhidharma's call to remain in China, Shaolin Monk Shi Yan-Ming felt a special call to remain in the United States at the conclusion of his American tour to spread Shaolin martial arts, Buddhism and Chinese culture. Monk Shi-Yan Ming still maintains close contact with his fellow Henan Shaolin Temple Monks. In June of 1995, for example, Shaolin Monk Shi Yan-Ming traveled to Toronto, Canada to perform martial arts with a second delegation of his brother Shaolin monks who were sent on tour to Canada and were headed by Great Master Shi Yongxin, one of the highest ranked monks of the Shaolin Temple and my teacher's kungfu uncle. In December 1994, Monk Shi Yan-Ming opened a small temple called the USA Shaolin Temple in Manhattan, where he teaches Buddhism and Shaolin martial arts. His long-tern goal in the United States is to build a large, authentic Shaolin martial arts temple and set up a cultural exchange with China's famed Northern Shaolin Temple that will allow his fellow Shaolin monks to come to America and teach Shaolin martial arts and Buddhism.
Was Shaolin Chi Kung First?
One of the first questions I asked Shaolin Monk Shi Yan-Ming concerning chi kung history was if Shaolin chi kung was the first chi kung in existence, and if so, if it derived from an older form of yoga that Bodhidharma brought with him from India. According to Monk Shi Yan-Ming, the idea that Bodhidharma created chi kung is a common misconception among Western and even eastern practitioners of Chinese martial arts. The form of chi kung that DaMo invented during his nine year meditation in a natural rock cave located behind the Shaolin Temple is called Yijinjing (meaning "Exchange of Muscle Passages"). And though DaMo certainly must have drawn upon Indian yoga in inventing Yijinjing, what he actually did was combine his own internal kungfu theory to the already existing Chinese theory of chi kung, while taking the differences in Chinese physiology and physical environment into account. According to Monk Shi Yan-Ming, Chinese chi kung was actually invented independently approximately 3,000 years ago, curiously enough also by a religious leader, Lao Tze, the founder of Taoism.
Monk & Chiling What is Yijinjing?
Asked what Shaolin Yijinjing was and whether it was the only form of Shaolin chi kung practiced, Monk Shi Yan-Ming replied that Yijinjing was a very important part of chi kung, but that there are other forms of Shaolin chi kung in existence. Yijinjing is an internal exercise that makes the body almost indestructible, capable of withstanding tremendous physical force and even injury from knife stabbing.
In addition to Yijunjing, DaMo invented another type of chi kung called Xi Shui Jin or "Essence of Bone Washing," an internal exercise designed to cleanse the body. A later Shaolin Monk called Fu Yu Chan Shi invented two other forms of Shaolin chi kung: Ba Duan Jin, meaning "Eight Section Brocade," an internal exercise practiced to make the body as soft and as flexible as cotton to increase healthiness, rejuvenation, and longevity, and Shi Da Gong Fa, meaning "Ten Great Skills," an internal exercise to make the body hard as iron, and a very important skill in developing hard chi kung breaking skills. What Yijinjing and the other forms of chi kung have in common is chi.
Chi is usually translated as "breath," "life principle" or "power," and though all of these terms are partially correct, none alone conveys chiÕs true essence. As a typical Westerner accustomed to view the world in scientific categories, I was still puzzled by my teacherÕs definition of chi, and questioned him further. Monk Shi Yan-Ming added that chi is the essence of lie itself and is the internal force or energy that burns within each of us from the moment of birth. Chi kung allows us to combine the external forces of life through physical movements, such as respiration and different bodily postures, with the internal force called chi, thus transforming the practitionerÕs body and mind to a higher plane of physical, mental and spiritual well-being.
What is also apparent in chi kung practice, especially when viewing the physical movements of Yijinjing form, is the martial arts application of many of the chi kung movements within the form. In the position called "withdrawing the cattle tail," for instance, the chi kung practitioner stands in a Kung Bo (bow stance) position with one arm extended behind him and one before him, and there is a movement with the hands that accompanies deep chi-building breathing that resembles a grab, twist, and pull into the body by both arms, as though one were grabbing and neutralizing two foes in one combined movement. I asked Shaolin Monk Shi Yan-Ming if my perception of the direct martial arts utility of some of the Yijinjing moves was correct. He gently smiled and said that chi kung and Shaolin martial arts are inseparable. All is kung fu.
When I started learning kungfu sixteen years ago, I studied under a different grandmaster who allegedly also knew Yijinjing, but unlike the mobile movements that Monk Shi Yan Ming taught me that sent me into various stances and other bodily movements, the previous set of "Yijinjing" exercises I was taught were relatively stationary. When I asked Monk Shi Yan-Ming about this, he was very modest and reluctant to answer, but I impressed upon him the great difference between the Yijinjing that I was learning from him and the Yijijjing I leaned before. Quietly and with some reservation, Monk Shi Yan-Ming explained that though there is room for some slight deviation in form to complement different physiologies and the changes that occurred in time as Yijinjing was practiced by Shaolin lay disciples and monks from the Southern Fujian branch of the Northern Shaolin Temple, the disparity of movements should not be that large for healthy practitioners - if the form of Yijinjing is authentically Shaolin Yijinjing and not a derivative of Taoist chi kung or an inauthentic representation of Shaolin Yijinjing. Picking up on Monk Shi Yan-MingÕs reluctance to state his point more explicitly and thus criticize another, I continued my queries. Monk Shi Yan-Ming quickly added that Shaolin Temple martial arts is based on Chan (i.e. Zen) theory, and since all actions are considered to be Zen (such as sitting, walking, eating, or sleeping), one can consider all actions as chi kung, since all action contains the interchange between internal and external forces. In this impressive reply, he had avoided speaking ill through his Buddhist perspective, which enables him to reconcile what to others would be irreconcilable inconsistencies. He also added that he has himself radically altered the Yijinjing movements when teaching the severely disabled, such as his student Wen Se, who has been stricken with polio, since he must compensate for their radically different chi flow.
Developing Chi
Monk Shi-Yan Ming notes that Fu Yu Chan Shi, a Northern Shaolin priest and the creator of Ba Duan Gin and Shi Da Gong Fa, was also the founder of the Southern Fujian temple in the Song Dynasty. Fu Yu Chan Shi encouraged his disciples to spread the knowledge of martial arts and Buddhism throughout Southern China, and his disciples quickly spread Shaolin chi kung theory and practice to Shangxi, Hubei, Inner Mongolia, and elsewhere. In addition, the Shaolin Temple's reputation as the pinnacle of martial arts achievement led many army generals and royal family members - including various emperors - to study chi kung and external Shaolin martial arts at the Shaolin Temple. According to Monk Shi Yan-Ming, the current commanding general of ChinaÕs military has studied martial arts and chi kung at the Northern Shaolin Temple.
This reply led me to ask him if one could not in fact develop chi strictly through the heavy practice of external Shaolin martial arts training, since as he had mentioned previously, all actions combine internal and external forces, and the Shaolin martial arts styles were certainly grueling enough. Monk Shi Yan-Ming mentioned that external and internal martial arts did in fact have something very important in common, namely chi-building capacity. For example, when a martial artist does a push-up or sits MaBu (horse stance) he tires because he loses the ability to adjust his chi. The longer one practices these activities, the longer and better one can readjust one's chi, and vice versa.
Nevertheless, chi kung is a very important part of Shaolin kungfu, without which the martial artist cannot achieve the highest level of Shaolin skills. The genuine Shaolin master must command a knowledge of both internal and external kungfu; otherwise his skill would be superficial, like an actor who plays a Shaolin Monk but has only been taught a few external movements to pull off the cinematic illusion of authenticity. There are no shortcuts in building genuine Shaolin skills.
Shaolin Monk Shi Yan-Ming then started to explain chi kungÕs benefits to overall health and the connection of external and internal forces which Shaolin chi kung facilitates. First, he mentioned that when Lao Tze first invented Chinese chi kung, he did so to improve his health and therefore mental and spiritual well-being. It was only later that people applied chi kung to martial arts and war, since the added power of chi kung training was clearly advantageous in preparing martial arts fighters and military troops. According to Monk Shi Yan-Ming, there are six key combinations in Shaolin chi kung theory: three external combinations and three internal combinations. The three external combinations are: hands with feet, elbows with knees, and shoulders with hips. The three internal combinations are: heart and mind, mind with breath (chi), and breath with power/force. All six combinations must be employed in the practice of chi kung training in order to lead to a higher level of kungfu and Buddhism.
Curing Disease
Asked about real-world applications of chi in curing diseases, Monk Shi Yan-Ming distinguished between hard chi kung and soft chi kung. Hard chi kung is the chi kung used to break objects such as bricks and stone and in martial arts strikes and kicks. Soft chi kung is the form of chi kung in which the practitioner cures illnesses by passing on chi to the diseased person and readjusting his own chi flow through the six combinations mentioned above. Soft chi kung, however, can also be extremely deadly, and just as the practitioner may use it to cure, he or she may also use it to destroy an opponent's internal organs without leaving a sign on the surface of the victim's body and sometimes without even touching the victim. For this reason, soft chi kung is taught to very few lay students by Shaolin Temple monks.
presure points
Personal testimony attests to Monk Shi-Yan MingÕs account of chi kung's power to improve or heal acute and chronic illness. Wen Se, who studies at the USA Shaolin Temple in New York City, was paralyzed at the age of three, and his thin, polio-stricken legs could not support the weight of his body. The only sensation Wen Se felt below his waist prior to coming to Monk Shi Yan-Ming was a very deep cold that hinted at poor chi circulation. Monk Shi Yan-Ming adapted Yijinjing movements to suit Wen SeÕs physiological limitations. As he explained, there are different kinds of meditation. If you cannot sit in a dou ...
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