During the period of the Qing Dynasty, Shaolin Gongfu was declining to the stage and it was almost lost. Today many Wushu practitioners are lost as well due to the fact that they have train hard for years but still not sure weather there art is authentic, whether the essence of gongfu is there? And for the past 70 years, Shaolin Gongfu was starting to change and make it look more flowery with high jumps and made it to look very beautiful. Less people were practicing traditional Gongfu and few had any knowledge at it .

However there have been a selected few training privately during the Qing Dynasty that have managed to preserve the genuine essence of Shaolin Gong fu. So far there have been 4 masters who have devoted there lives to the preservation of Traditional Shaolin Gong fu and various other aspects of Shaolin culture. Masters including Wu Gulun,Wu Sanlin, Zhang Qinghe and the present Master Shi Dejian.

At present Traditional Gongfu has been replaced to modern Wushu. Most people are somewhat blinded by the beautiful movements in the forms, and are not able to fully comprehend the essence and value of Traditional Gongfu.

The origins and development of Shaolin Gongfu

As we know, Shaolin Temple is not only famous for its Ch'an Buddhism, but also for its Shaolin Gongfu. The Shaolin Temple is a place for spiritual development and to practice Buddhism.

So why would peaceful monks study martial arts in a Buddhist temple?

There are two reasons for this. The first is to promote health and fitness to enable the monks of Shaolin to practice Ch'an meditation.The second was to defend themselves and their temple.

In the past, the Shaolin Temple was very rich and it would get attacked by bandits. The temple was situated in the mountains so there were many wild animals and the monks needed a way to defend themselves. On another hand, some Gongfu practioners came to Shaolin and become monks to avoid persecution; some of them brought advanced skills in the martial arts to the Shaolin Temple.

Tang Dynasty
The 13 Gongfu monks of Shaolin Temple rescued the prince Li Shi Ming . After the prince became emperor he rewarded the monks in many ways and gave the temple a lot of land. He gave the temple permission to train 500 warrior monks so they could be called if the country was in danger. At that time, the warrior monks fought in the battle fields with the Gongfu they developed in the temple, so the forms and movements were very adequate and realistic for fighting.

Song Dynasty
The emperor Zhao Kuang Yin trained at the Shaolin Temple when he was young. After he became the emperor he realized the value and importance of Gongfu. He ordered many famous Gongfu practioners throughout China to come to Shaolin Temple to exchange skills and theoretical knowledge. At that time, many different types of Gongfu was developed including external and internal Gongfu.

They practiced together at the Shaolin Temple for many years under the support of the emperor. In those years the monks created a form using many advanced skills from different lineages of Gongfu and named it after the emperor's name--Tai Zu Chang Quan. During the Song Dynasty the art of gongfu was developed to a very high level.

Yuan dynasty
China was taken over by the Mongolian emperor Hu Bilie. In order to unite the whole country, the emperor was eager to recruit someone who had knowledge in politics and military affairs. One of his ministers, named Ye Lu Chu Cai recommended a monk called Fu Yu from Shaolin Temple .

After two years of Fu Yu assisting the emperor, China was finally all united. The emperor was overwhelmed by Fu Yu's contributions to the country and he entitled Fu Yu as Jing Guo Gong (a person who is attributed the honor and the power of the country). Besides this, the emperor ordered Fu Yu to be the abbot of Shaolin Temple and to be in charge of all the Buddhist temples throughout China , as well. Fu Yu made great contributions to Buddhism and managed all the other Buddhist temples well. He also wrote a poem to derive labels for the future shaolin generations. Since then, the Shaolin Temple used this poem to classify the different generation of monks. That is still in use today, for example, su (as in ¡ su¡ xi ) means 30 th generation. The name of the present Abbot of Shaolin Temple yongxin includes the word ¡ yong¡ which means 33 rd generation.

During Fu Yu's years of being in charge of the Shaolin Temple, the monks still kept on training gongfu, which became an integral part of the Buddhist monks' practice.

Ming dynasty
The country was back under the Han people again. The emperors of Ming Dynasty also regarded Shaolin Gongfu as an important tool to the country, and they often ordered the warrior monks to battle. Just as an example, the monk named Xiao Shan was sent three times by the emperor to fight the Japanese pirates who invaded China. Xiao Shan ' s pagoda is now still erect at the Shaolin Temple 's pagoda forest.

Since the shaolin monks often fought in battles, traditional Shaolin Gongfu developed and became more and more realistic for fighting. For a lot of years, many monks who have made great contributions to China became heroes. The Shaolin Temple prospered and became known as the number one temple under heaven.

Qing Dynasty
China was taken over by the Manchu emperor. In order to avoid the Han people fight against him, the emperor outlawed the practice of martial arts for normal citizens except people who were in the military and so forth. The shaolin monks were also ordered to stop practicing gongfu. This emperor's order lasted for more than 100 years and therefore, less and less people were practicing gongfu. Only a few shaolin monks continued to practice gongfu behind close doors. The traditional Shaolin Gongfu was at the brink of extinction.

However; there was a monk from shaolin living in a small temple called Shi Gou Si who was associated with the Shaolin Temple. This monk had inherited and had a well-rounded knowledge of traditional Shaolin Gongfu and its culture. His name was Ji Qing and his secular name was Wu Gulun. After more than 30 years of training in the Shaolin Temple, he finally reached the top level of Shaolin Gongfu; when he was around 40 years old he fought his way out of the Shaolin Temple against the 18 guardians. Any shaolin warrior monk who wished to leave Shaolin Temple and return to secular life had to fight his way out. As he was the only son of his family, his parents insisted he must leave the temple and get married. After he left the Shaolin Temple, he lived like a hermit, and passed down all his knowledge to his son Wu Sanlin. The name of the style was Xin Yi ba.
To be continue...