| Kung Fu emerged in
the 5th Century AD, in the Hunan province of China at the
Northern Shaolin Temple on Songshan mountain witch was
also the birthplace of Zen Buddhism. The beginning of kung
Fu is attributed to a
Buddhist monk called Da Mo or Boddhidarma, Da Mo originated
from India and went to China 527 AD or there about.
Da
Mo found that the Buddhist monk’s health suffered
because
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frailty and old age, they where unable to
meditate for long periods
of time which their religious beliefs demanded. Da Mo began to setup a
system of physical exercise to help the body, and a method of
breathing that helped to increase the amount and power of a
persons Chi, and in turn strengthen the bodies inner organs, to
bring health and long life. |
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It
was these physical and breathing exercises as well as two
texts that Da Mo wrote Yi Jin Jing and Xi Sui Jing that
formed the basis of Kung Fu, the exercises were devised by
watching and following the movements of animals. By
imitating animals as they fought many fighting styles
evolved like Tiger and Crane. Da Mo ideas and teachings
spread throughout China, then to Japan (Karate) and Korea
(Taekwando). The monks living in the Northern Temple
created many new and differing styles of Kung Fu most of
which are still performed today. |
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History
of Kung Fu in Southern
China...
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| In
1399 AD the second of the Kung Fu Shaolin Temples was
built in Southern
China in Fukien province (now Fujian province), the
styles where based on the Northern Shaolin Temples Kung
Fu, and developed along the same road until 1644 AD when
the Ming Dynasty fell to the Ching (Manchu)
Dynasty. In the South
of China there was great resistance to the Ching
Dynasty, the Fukien Temple was the centre of the rebellion
cause of many uprisings.
The
Southern
Temples monk’s along with many Martial
artists like Gee
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Sim Sin Si who was the last Abbot
of the Fukien Temple and his pupils Fong
Sai Yuk,
Luk Ah Choy and Hung Hei Guen and many others defended the
Temple against attack from the Ching’s for over 150
years. With the help of the traitor Ma Ling Yee who was
also a pupil of Gee Sim Sin Si, in 1800 AD the Ching’s
sent the full force of the Imperial Army. Many monks where
killed and the Temple was razed to the ground. But many
monks escaped and went underground. |
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Ching's hunted the escaped monks and killed as many as they
could find, but some of the fugitives carried on the teaching,
Luk Ah Choy and Hung Man Ting disguise their kung fu and
renamed it Hung Kuen. Kung Fu in South
China from that time on consisted of family styles that
where handed down from generation to generation. So there may
not be
a Shaolin Temple in Southern
China, but the development of Kung Fu in the south
continues to this day. And the Northern Shaolin Temple in
Hunan province is considered a national
centre for learning and the development
of Kung Fu.
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