PREFACE

This site shall not only be used by our students as a work of reference, but it is also considered to introduce our still relatively unknown style to outsiders.

Most of the disseminated styles today are mixed styles. I also studied and taught such a mixed style (a ShanDong style mixed with a HokKian style) for approx. 14 years, till a friend introduced me, in 1982, to the master of a pure HokKian style, who eccepted me as his student and later on he even integrated me into his family and gave me the name Loahim. I teach the pure, traditional HokKian SiauwLim style since 1987.

There are three monasteries in China, carrying the name ShaoLin.
(The mentioned provinces are indicated by different colours on the map of China ).

ShanDong (yellow) is the name of a northern province of China, east of the province HeNan (blue) where the northern, the famous ShaoLin monastery is placed. South of the, Peking enclosing, Province HeBei there is also a ShaoLin monastery, but it has no connection to fighting arts. FuJian (red) (HokKian, in the province own dialect) is a south Chinese province, situated opposite Taiwan and above of the province GuangDong (grey). In the province FuJian, with the rests of the former southern ShaoLin monastery, the construction was started only in 1995, unlike the northern ShaoLin monastery, which was built up repeatedly.
Often described as extension of the northern ShaoLin monastery, it became place of refuge for the Shaolin-Monks which could escape during the destruction by the Manchus and ShaoLin-Quan was also trained furthermore.
After the destruction of the FuJian monastery, their monks spread all over south China and there they have contributed essentially to the development of the many south Chinese fighting styles. The northern ShaoLin monastery of the province HeNan whose name is famous in the whole world is placed at the base of the SongShan, one of the five hallow mountains of China, 80 km south-westerly of Zhengzhou, Capital of the province HeNan, between the two cities of ZhengZhou and LuoYang.

The history of the ShaoLin monastery and the fighting art (QuanFa).

An Indian monk BaTuo, also called FoTuo came from India to China in 495, to help Chinese savants at the translation of the sacred documents of the Buddhism and to disseminate Buddhism. The emperor XiaoWen of the northern Wei-Dynasty had build a monastery for him. Some years later (in the year 527), the famous monk Boddhidharma, who came from the state Liang to the ShaoLin temple, also preached here.
He is passed for the founder of the Chan-Buddhism and thenceforward the monastery is named as origin place of the Chan-Buddhism, one of the three large branches of the Buddhism, which is still very popular in Japan and in Taiwan.

For meditation, DaMo went up the mountain behind ShaoLin and sat there, reputedly between nine and twelve years, motionless in front of a rock in a lonely cave. This rock, which shall contain the impression of his shadow, can be seen today in the monastery museum.
As his disciples tried to emulate him on the way to enlightenment, DaMo had to recognize that most of them could not stand these strenuous exercises of self-communion, they fell asleep during the meditation, they sank into lethargy.
Therefore Boddhidharma worked out a physical training against sleepiness, known as method of the physical training, for the long phases of the motionless meditation. The 18 movements of DaMo, exercises to relax the muscles, which every single one innervates a specific organ, promote the physical power and protect the body against weakness and illness, form the origin of ShaoLin boxing.
In those past times the monks watched how the animals fought each other, how they attacked and defended themselves. They tried to imitate the movements of the animals. For example a snake sneaking towards a bird. The bird twittered excitedly, hopped back and forth and when it finally was exhausted, the snake prepared the attack before snapping.
The snake reaches both conditions, YIN and YANG, soft and hard. The movements are slow and fulfilled with Qi.
The techniques of the tiger harden the bones, they are firm and unerring for beating, defending, snatching or clasping.
The techniques of the leopard promote the physical power. He is not as strong as the tiger, although faster, he beats or pushes horizontally simultaneously with both arms. The technique of the crane promotes the wisdom, the harmony of the muscles and the elasticity and tonicity of the tendons, exactly like the snake he beats on the vigorous parts of the body. The valence of these techniques are balance and stability.
The dragon is in very high favour by the Chinese and symbolizes intellectual strength. The techniques of the dragon are fluent and often perplexing in which balance and speed are more important than power.
Among other things the monks learned that no force is necessary and to make use of the efforts and the power of the opponent to enhance their own.

The beautiful to look at, traditional fighting art from the old China, talked about earlier, today are mainly used for general fitness and fortification of the spirit.
Chinese boxing is an essential component of the traditional Chinese fighting arts and there are many different styles and schools. One of the most popular is the ShaoLin boxing. Improvements during many centuries and the necessity to defend themselves against intruders, QuanFa, the ShaoLin boxing has been developed to an almost perfect manner of the fist-fight. Also many famous fighters have been invited into the monastery to raise the level of the fighting art. They demonstrated their skilfulness and brought in their comprehensive experiences. The ShaoLin monastery took on different elements of the other fighting schools and so they brought out the different varieties of the QuanFa.
QuanFa, a method of self-defence and common fitness belongs to the cultural heritage of the Chinese nation. Popular in the whole nation, QuanFa exerts a strong fascination particularly to vivacious children. Proverbial: behind the mountain there is another mountain, the basic training however is most exhausting and hard. The complete sequence (approx.60 single movements for every exercise) shall be executed precisely in 80 seconds as it is specified. These fighting arts can only be mastered by training diligently. However only permanent iterations will make this possible. Performing these fighting arts is not only to master our body and spirit but to reach also a higher age at good health. QuanFa now is no longer a monopoly of the monastery. It is performed as sport in many parts of China and the state has already established a sport school in the proximity of the monastery.
The few monks, which today became resident in the monastery again, mainly form the essential frame for the Fighting art and its tourist exploitation.

ShaoLin boxing split off into two schools. The southern school puts the regards on the fists while the whole attention of the northern points at the feet. Every school disintegrates into subgroups again. However ShaoLin boxing mainly concentrates on the attack and is used both for fitness and the practical fight.
Not pure muscle power decides, but right breathing technique, supple use of the whole body and the ability to transform the energy of the movements into snatch and beating techniques.

This wonderful fighting art, where very sudden, fluent movements, change with powerful, rooted stances, or complicated floor techniques passes into fantastic jumps, is open to every age.

On the national fighting-art meetings, very often one can see older people ( till over 80) at demonstrations, which causes reverential surprise to every person. In spite of the confusing variety though the fighting-art can be easily divided up into three groups: fist-fight, the fight with swords and other weapons, the training with two and more people.
Among the fist-fighting arts we find the most and different subgroups. Particularly Long-boxing, ChangQuan, indicated by skilfulness, speed and elasticity, is very popular with children and youths.
TaiJiQuan, which is rhythmical and harmonic but sooner slow, counts to the internal or soft school and is performed often by older and sick persons. Inwardly it emphasizes the circulation (the circuit) of the Qi.
XingYiQuan, is powerful, balanced with firm movements, generally is performed of the age-groups in between.
Nan Quan is mainly located in the south of China. It will be executed with smaller jumps, powerful arm-stretching movements, which occasionally are accompanied by loud shouts on purpose of greater power and effectiveness.

ShaoLinQuan, spread in the north, is assigned to the external or hard school (external means the physical power and the strict movements) its origins will be found in the Buddhist ShaoLin monastery and counts to the ancestors of this kind of sport. Short and not too difficult exercises of great speed and power signify this style.

Also, still other boxing styles are known, such as eagle-claws-boxing, monkey-boxing and the grasshopper-boxing, which combine the movements of these animals with those of the QuanFa. ZuiQuan where the fighter acts like a drunk, to confuse the opponent, is another well known style.
Various weapons are at the disposal to the masters of the ShaoLinQuan. There are 3 main subgroups: long cut-and-thrust weapons like spears, sticks and broad swords; short weapons like daggers, short swords and hooks; flexible weapons like the nine-jointed whip, the three-piece stick; to name a few.

Within the third group, the training with two or several partners, whether with weapons or without, very much skill of the partners and precision is required. It is important to coordinate the movements of eyes, body, hands and feet perfectly. The purpose of each style is, that the sequence and the rhythm of the movements, give one wholeness. It has to be visually beautiful as well. So it is not surprising that, also outside Asia, the manner to toughen body and spirit becomes more popular.

When the Shaolin school was developed and its fame spread out more and more, strict regulations were introduced to assure that the fighting monks, if they entered the society later, would not misuse their enhanced powers. Deliberately life was aggravated to the students, to toughen their body and spirit. ShaoLin students were selected very carefully. The secrets of the masters only should be entrusted to people with high morals. People say, the masters would have kept certain secrets for themselves to be able to use them against malicious people if necessary. It is known that today some classic techniques are not taught any more in the state school of DengFeng.

The ideal QuanFa fighter should practise patience and modesty, he is able to keep wishes and emotions under control. Fighting art is a form of the intellectual purity and expression of completed personality.
The QuanFa fighter, if he has studied the Buddhist or Taoist breathing, for the development of the Qi, can reach a quite particular step of achievement. The Taoist doctrines of physical exercises continued, in using difficult breathing techniques, by the nutrition of the spirit, the concentration on the sole truth, they tried to attain immortality. They tried to eat carefully selected foods, to nourish the breath and saliva, to use herbs, use massage techniques to awake vitality and to promote the elimination of the harmful body liquids.

During meditation, lasting several hours, the body must be completely motionless but the spirit has to be awake. Watchers, equipped with bamboo bars, beat the ones, whose attention has fallen off, with one stroke on every shoulder, than the monks concerned bow thankfully because one has looked after him.
In addition the monks were trained in the art to smoothen the tensed muscles with creams and vegetable infusions.
Massage techniques against weariness, cold, pain as well as the effect of the herbs and plants used in traditional Chinese medicine, soothing pains with compresses or treating burnings, but also in the production of immediate or slow effecting poisons.

In the tradition is reported about further legendary skills of the ShaoLinQuan. While practicing ChingGong, the trainee will fasten weights at his body, in order to make the body light and to make very high jumps possible. The mysterious art of TienHsue enables ShaoLin boxers by pressing nerve centres to cause paralysis, unconsciousness, injury and even death. For not deadly injuries there are medicinal herbs and antidote.
Ever since, it has been tried to make out the ancient, mysterious, legendary recipes to soothe the pains, get by without breathing for some time, make the body light, make parts of the body invulnerable, injuring from distance, revealing the secret of the iron hand or being able to use controlled Qi.
The monks themselves are selling a booklet with secret recipes against injuries now.

TieShaZhang, the hands will daily be sodden in a herbal liquid and then treated with iron powder. TaJing, the student is standing at the fountain beating the water in a certain distance. Then after years of training, he will be able to knock down his opponent from distance.
QuanFa fighters also know how to use quite a number of weapons but their most terrible weapon is their body, toughened during the training of many years. A monk shall have said that the hands are the gates to hold off the enemy and the feet are the hammer to kill him.

At the height of its history, it is supposed that among the up to 2000 monks, which lived in ShaoLin, up to 500 were trained fighters.
The young monks toughened up their hands, their legs, their joints, their heads, their bodies in permanent repetitions by beating themselves mutually with sticks and stones. They developed techniques to sharpen their eyesight. After DaMo had demonstrated it to them, they tried to hear also the movements of the ants.

The spirit of the QuanFa is time-honoured, honourable and respected, never unnecessarily forcibly nor life-destroying. Who ever operates the QuanFa different, breaks both with the Chinese culture and with the Chinese history.
The ShaoLin monastery passed through many heights and depths in the course of its long-standing history. There was a special highlight during the Tang-Dynasty. When a certain Li ShiMin was captured by a Wang ShiChong and because this Wang had already attacked the monastery very often, 13 battle-proved monks took hold of the plan to free Li. The plan was successful, Li soon became first emperor of the Tang-Dynasty and thanked the monks by providing them country and offering them high military positions. A large wall painting, with the title the rescue of the Tang-emperor by thirteen monks and a stone panel with the engraved signature of the emperor, still tells about this. After this event a definite blossom time came for the monastery. Since ShaoLin had own fields now, the monks did not need to beg anymore. Farmers sought their help in the fight against bandits and emperors ensured themselves on the support of the battle-proved Shaolin-monks, to be able to stick at the throne.
One thousand years later when the Manchu's came into power (a nation from the north, which was able to set up a non-Chinese Dynasty in China), resistance rose against this strange power. The population formed secret federations in which the fighting arts were taught.
To keep the influence of the cloister as low as possible and the Manchus were afraid of the Shaolin-monks because of their fighting arts, they withdrew practically all privileges from the monastery, which led to a gradual fall in the meaning of the monastery. The introduction of firearms contributed its part also, that the traditional fighting arts lost their importance. The monastery have not been spared from firing catastrophes either. The first already took place during the Sui-Dynasty, the second during the Manchu power and the third, the devastating, happened in 1928. While the monastery reputedly burned for 45 days, not only the complete library was irretrievably destroyed but also many buildings burnt down except for the foundation walls. Even the bell burst by the great heat. The 20 cm deep hollows in the brick floor next to the hall of the one thousand Buddha´s which testify the hard training of the monks, practising here daily the riding stance (following the motto: you shall stand fix on your legs first before you put an opponent down to floor) and their jump techniques with weights tied to the legs, still remained.

Fighting spirit, courage and heroism for centuries belonged to the Chinese culture. When, during the cultural revolution, the red guards also came to ShaoLin to remove the rest of the past and the old culture, none of the monks obstructed their way. They knocked over the Buddha statues, crushed them, smeared paroles all over the walls, the monks were dispelled and the monastery was closed. The knowledge of ShaoLin however kept on living, but beyond the limits of China and all the supporters of the different fighting sports know that all fighting arts are given birth in ShaoLin and take the old monastery in HeNan as their sacred shrine furthermore.

Just in the country of its origin, during the cultural revolution, the fighting sport had been forbidden. In the year 1949, as the Communists came to power with Mao ZeDong, many QuanFa masters went to the neighbouring countries to practise their fighting arts. Today, everybody can study the fighting-art-techniques in China again.
WuShu which is very popular in China today however it shall not be mistaken for the QuanFa, because of the rather acrobatic than self-defending elements. The traditional QuanFa, only found seldom in China now, can easier be found in the neighbouring foreign countries as well as in some schools of Europe and the USA.

If the rest of the bequests of the old masters, shall not get lost, we should choose the student cautiously. Everyone who has decided to practise these fighting arts, should, as well, check whether the school selected is traditional or profit oriented.

QuanFa fighters traditionally salute by raising the right fist, against the left palm. The hand symbolises the Yin-powers and the fist stands for the Yang-powers.