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The
History
Kung-Fu
The
temple of the "young fo rest"
(Shaolin)
was built by the Emperor Hsiao Wen in Honan, a region on the north of
China, nearby one of the five sacred mountains: mount Songshan; it was the year
495. The first link with the Martial arts must be found after the foundation of
the temple, in the 520 A.D.,when an Indian buddhish monk, Bodhidarma (Ta mo in
Chinese) retired to the temple of Shaolin. Noting the meditation sitting were
hard and the monks were so weak to fall asleep, Ta mo devised some movements
that he combined with the traditional Chinese arts
giving life to what will be known as the Kung fu of Shaolin:
strategies born to fortify body and soul became martial fighting
strategies used in the battlefields! In about 680, under the T' ang dynasty,
when the skill of the monks of Shaolin of Honan got the apex, a second monastery
was built in the south of China in the region of Fukkien (Fujian). In about 1570
a fire devasted the first temple; it
seems that the monks whokept the most skills were able to run away, they found
shelter at Shaolin di Fukkien (Siu Lam) carrying, with them, the precious books
with the secrets of their mythical invincibility. It was thanks to this episode
that Shaolin of Fukkien became very impo rtant
and it was the new sprending center of the martial arts in China, Shaolin of
Honan instead didn’t manage to regain the past fame not aven after its
rebuilding. In 1644, the Manchu, nomadic people of central Asia of Ural-Altaic
language,invaded China, toppled the Ming dynasty and established the Ching
dynasty with a hard and oppressive regime. It was for this reason that
the monks of Shaolin, inspite isolated
from the external world, thinking horrible the behavient of the governors,
decided to grant asylum to the eventual fugitives, most of them were officials
of
the former Ming government. After the temple’s seniors had examined the
fugitives’ skills, they were taught the Martial Arts according to the
fugitives’ levels and skills. Entering Shaolin wasn’t easy,
infact the candidates had to pass hard tests of patience and abstinence
before being admitted in the temple: those who passed the test
could be trained to real Kung fu of the monks.
The
Immortal Eight Men
The
story of Hung Gar
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