In Search of Shaolin – Connecting the Roots of Karate! Part1
By
George W.Alexander, Ph.D. & John Graham
The Shaolin Temple of China
has been the progenitor of many styles of Asian martial arts. But how
did the Shaolin tradition and the legendary monks of Shaolin influence
modern karate? The Shaolin School of martial arts was born of the
Shaolin Temple. The legend of the Shaolin fighting style is well known
but it is important to distinguish the fact that there were two Shaolin
Temples, a northern temple and a southern temple. The northern temple is
the one we most often hear about and is now a tourist attraction.
However, the southern temple is the one that had the most influence on
karate’s development.
The folklore of the various marital art styles of southern China point
to the southern temple’s existence. This temple until recently was
thought to exist only in legend. John
Graham of Mobile, Alabama, a Kung Fu master recognized by the
International Southern Shaolin Wushu Federation invited me to go to
China on a fact-finding tour. This journey was to become an adventure
and a search for the Southern Shaolin Temple and the connection between
southern Shaolin martial arts and karate.
The adventure began before the actual journey
started. Researching the legend of the Southern Shaolin Temple and
sifting through historical fact and folklore was just the beginning. I
learned that during the waning years of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
China experienced a period of economic decline marked by war with the
Manchus. The Manchus, who were invaders from the northeast, toppled the
Ming Dynasty by 1644 and set up a new dynasty named Qing. As the Manchus
pushed their way south many Chinese fled southward to cities such as
Canton and Fuchow (Fuzhou). During the Ming period monks from the
Shaolin Temple in the north fled south as well and they eventually
established a Southern Shaolin Temple in Fujian Province. Some skeptics
say this temple never existed but evidence to the contrary reveals this
thinking is far from the truth.
The flight of the Northern Shaolin monks from the
Manchus, who were invaders from Manchuria, was the genesis of the
Southern Shaolin Temple. According to legend, the Southern Shaolin
Temple located in the Putien District near the city of Qingzhou (Quanzhou)
in Fujian Province is where the southern style was developed. The
southern Shaolin style consists of eighty percent hand techniques and
twenty percent kicking techniques. Another distinguishing feature of the
Southern Shaolin style is its emphasis on hand techniques for thrusting
and chopping as opposed to Northern Shaolin, which makes use of kicking
and jumping to a greater extent. Most martial arts historians agree that
the martial arts techniques of the Southern Shaolin tradition were
imported to Okinawa and greatly influenced the development of modern
karate. But just exactly what style of Southern Shaolin was imported and
what styles did it affect?
The Southern Shaolin Temple
became a center for revolutionaries who sought to overthrow the
Manchurian hegemony and to preserve the last vestiges of the Ming
Dynasty.[1]
According to legend, the Qing emperor personally infiltrated the
monastery under the pretense of learning Shaolin. This led to its
demise. The Qing Army was called in and the temple was destroyed. More
likely the Emperor was persuaded by the Manchu officials to send in
spies and then later an expeditionary force was sent against the monks
on a charge of sedition. Subsequently the temple was burned and only
five monks survived the onslaught. As a result of this event the
Anti-Manchu Triad Society was formed or Hung League as it was known with
the battle cry, “Overthrow the Qing and restore the Ming!”[2]
Accordingly, the monks were scattered throughout Asia. This led to the
further proliferation of the Shaolin style. The exact location of this
temple has been a mystery for scholars and historians. But recent
developments by several groups including the Fujian Province
Archeologists Association indicate that they have unearthed evidence of
its existence and location.
The monks at the Southern
Shaolin Temple practiced numerous martial art styles. These styles
included the crane, dog, tiger, five ancestors and Hung styles, which
were indigenous to the area. They all emphasize close range fighting
skills using fists. A style known as wuzuquan,
the five-ancestor fist was developed by a Master named Bai Yi Feng
during the Yuan Dynasty (1260-1368). The genesis of this system was
realized when Bai Yi Feng invited numerous masters who had previously
graduated from the Shaolin Monastery back to the monastery to display
their skills. Of those invited, the techniques of five masters who
demonstrated the highest skill levels were selected by Bai Yi Feng and
combined into one style. This style became known as
wuzuquan or the fist
of five ancestors. This style eventually became very popular in Fujian
even though it originated in the north. Strong-arm movements, elaborate
hand techniques, low-level kicking and solid stances characterize this
powerful system. The distinguishing feature of
wuzuquan is the form
known as sam chien
or sanchin in
Japanese. It means three battles or three conflicts and is often equated
to mean the unification of body, mind and spirit. This same form can be
seen most evidently in the Okinawan karate styles such as Goju Ryu and
Ryuei Ryu, etc. Additionally the sanchin
kata is used by many other Japanese styles as well. The practical use of
the form is for developing strength as well as combative applications.
This style still exists today and is practiced in Fujian by the
International Nan Shaolin Wuzu Federation. It consists of basics,
catching (two-man prearranged sparring sets) and set sparring
(spontaneous reaction set sparring). More recently Sifu Lin Xian taught
Sifu Chee Kim Thong (1919-2001) of Putien and he has passed this style
on to the current generation. After witnessing a performance of this
style there is no doubt that this is the grandfather of Okinawa’s
Naha-Te style of karate.
In the latter part of the
nineteenth century when the Ming revolutionaries were still active and
many secret revolutionary societies had been formed, an Okinawan by the
name of Kanryo Higashionna (1851-1915) arrived in the city of Fuzhou in
Fujian Province. He eventually found a teacher by the name of Ryuryuko
or Xie Zhongxiang in Chinese who lived from 1852 until 1930. According
to Higashionna, Ryuryuko taught at his house and is said to have studied
at a temple in the mountains of Fujian. We visited numerous temples high
in the mountains above the clouds on our trip to China. After spending a
number of years in China he returned to Okinawa and founded the Naha-Te
tradition of karate. His successor was Chojun Miyagi (1888-1953). Miyagi
built upon Higashionna’s teachings and founded the Goju Ryu style of
karate. He introduced the Okinawan practice of using closed fists during
the performance of the sanchin kata.
Miyagi made several trips to China after Higashionna’s death in order to
further study the Chinese martial arts and to find Ryuryuko. Supposedly,
Miyagi was successful in finding Ryuryuko’s grave. But much of Miyagi’s
information and notes regarding his trips to China were lost as a result
of WW II.
This accounts for one side of
the development of Okinawan karate. But the other style practiced on
Okinawa was called Shuri-Te, literally the Hands of Shuri. Interestingly
enough, today it is called Shorin Ryu, which actually means Shaolin.
Developed in the town of Shuri, Okinawa some authorities claim it is a
combination of both the northern and southern styles and that is why it
looks different and has a different set of kata or forms. This doesn’t
seem likely in that most of Okinawa’s contact with China was through
Fujian. Although, if one looks at Shuri-Te it [Shorin Ryu] does in fact
look like a combination of both the northern and southern styles of
Shaolin. The fact is that Naha-Te was much more influenced by the
Southern Shaolin style and Shuri-Te is a combination of the original
indigenous Okinawan martial art (Okinawa-Te) and the Southern Shaolin
tradition. Because of the seafaring adventures and maritime trade of the
Okinawans their kicking methods and martial arts style may have been
influenced long ago by the martial arts kicking techniques of Thailand.
These methods were brought back when sailors returned from numerous
trading missions (See Okinawa Island of
Karate, Yamazato Publications, Alexander).
Additionally, Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands have had contact with many
other Asian countries throughout its economic history. Therefore, it is
safe to say that Shuri-Te is a more eclectic Okinawan karate style and a
composite martial art with a long history.
Matsumura Soken (1809-1898) is
considered the fountainhead of this system. However, many generations
before Matsumura’s time the Okinawan style of martial art was influenced
by Chinese immigrants known as the Saposhi. These were the thirty-six
families (sanjuroku seito)
sent to Okinawa by officials of the Ming Dynasty to help with Okinawa’s
development and relations with China. They are known to have taught the
Okinawans martial arts as early as
Other teachers of karate in Okinawa preceded
Matsumura, but nonetheless Matsumura is considered the organizer of the
kata system and nomenclature of modern karate. As the king’s bodyguard
and royal envoy he traveled to Fuzhou on several occasions and it is
believed that he studied at or at least visited one of the Shaolin
Temples in Fujian. What is most interesting is that Matsumura was known
to have brought back a Chinese Shaolin white crane master to Okinawa by
the name of Iwah in the 1860s. And together they taught many Okinawans.
To understand Okinwan karate
you have to understand the roots of the martial arts of southern China
and their migration to Okinawa and the Ryukyu islands. Okinawa was a
satellite or vassal nation of China for over three hundred years. These
close geopolitical and cultural relationships led to the migration of
the southern Shaolin style that so strongly influenced Okinawan martial
arts. This will be further discussed in part two of
In Search of Shaolin.
The authors will discuss their new findings as a result of their trip to
China and will trace the roots of karate and the location of the
Southern Shaolin Temple.
About the authors: George W.
Alexander, Ph.D. is a ninth-degree black belt and president of the
International Shorin Ryu Karate Kobudo Federation. He is the author of
Okinawa: Island of Karate, The Bubishi Martial Art Spirit, The Japanese
Martial Arts Dictionary and Warrior Jujitsu. To contact him write to
ISKKF Honbu Dojo, 180 Yellow Jacket Drive, Reliance, TN. 37369. Or email
to
alexyama@mindspring.com
[1]
Kit Kiew Wong, The Art of Shaolin Kung Fu,
(Rutland, VT, Charles E.Tuttle & Co., 2002), p. 38.
[2] Donn F. Draeger, Asian Fighting Arts, (Palo Alto, CA, Berkley Publishing Corp., 1974), p. 44.
[3]
George W. Alexander, Okinawa Island of Karate,
(Reliance, TN, Yamazato Publications, 1991), p. 22.