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Shaolin-Do History
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Throughout history, the Shaolin
monks have been the most feared fighters in
Asia, but even more famous is their love of
peace, virtue and honor. The long standing
history of Shaolin temples and their famous
reputation of amazing feats of fighting,
flexibility, and longevity can be attributed to
an ability to train not only deadly fighters,
but masters of life.
The Shaolin temples, in addition to being religious
institutes, were martial arts research
institutions. Martial arts masters traveled to
the Shaolin Temples to share their knowledge.
The Monks and the Masters would katafy
their techniques so that the knowledge could be
passed down from generation to generation.
Shaolin-Do brings together the knowledge passed
down and carries on the tradition of being a
martial arts institute.
The ancient Chinese observed the
diverse fighting strategies of the animal
kingdom, and realized that like animals, people
also required fighting techniques suited to
their unique physical statures. Thus the animal
fighting systems were born. The animal based
forms taught in Shaolin-Do have been passed down
for more than two thousand years. Different
animal styles were developed by different monks
thousands of years ago and those monks practiced
in different provinces throughout China. Some
systems came from Honan province, from Hua and
Er-Mei mountains, and from Wu Tang mountain and
Fukien Province. All were included in the
Shaolin Temple Systems. Both the Kung Fu and Tai
Chi Programs in Shaolin-Do are rich with
material and diversity, enough to fascinate and
challenge the individual for a life time!
The Lineage of Shaolin-Do
The Shaolin-Do schools trace their lineage back to the
Fukien temple through a succession of three
remarkable Shaolin Grandmasters.
Su Kong T’ai Jin (1849-1928 A.D.)
The first of the three Grandmasters was
born in Fukien in 1849. He suffered a genetic
condition known as hypertrichosis lanuginose
which caused his body to be covered with hair
from head to toe. His parents, believing they
had given birth to a demon, abandoned the infant
in a forest near the Fukien Temple. A passing
monk rescued the newborn and presented him to
the Shaolin Masters. The Masters realizing it
would be impossible to find a family to adopt
such a child, decided to raise him themselves.
From childhood on, Su Kong T'ai studied the Shaolin art with exceptional
dedication. The Fukien Masters responded to his
enthusiasm with a rare variance from Shaolin
tradition. Instead of assigning Su Kong's
training to a single Master, as was the
practice, each of the Fukien Masters contributed
to Su Kong's martial education. Su Kong was
therefore able to complete every branch of
Shaolin training, learning and mastering
hundreds of forms and disciplines. It was an
unparalleled achievement. (Usually the 10
Grandmasters of the temple each learned 1/10th
of the Shaolin art).
Great Great Grandmaster Su Kong traveled to all
of the other Shaolin monasteries throughout his
lifetime. He never lived outside of the Shaolin
system and eventually became the Grandmaster of
the Fujian temple. Grandmaster Su had a vast
knowledge of Shaolin and mastered the art forms
of all of the Shaolin temples in China.
The Fukien Shaolin monks took it upon themselves
to protect the Fukienese coast from the raids of
Japanese pirates. They were tremendously
effective, earning the love and respect of the
common people. When word reached the Ch'ing
Kwang Hsu Emperor in Peking, at the beginning of
the 20th century, trouble brewed. Kwang Hsu saw
the Fukien monks as potential rebels with
widespread popular support. He secretly
dispatched imperial troops, armed with cannons
on a mission to destroy the Fukien Temple.
A sympathetic official warned the monks of the
impending attack. The Fukien Master chose a
surprising, solution. They evacuated the Temple,
removed all of its valuable artwork and books,
and set fire to the temple themselves. They
hoped to rebuild the Temple in more favorable
times. More favorable times never came.
Grandmaster Su and his disciples retreated into
the Fukienese mountains to continue their
training. He was a legendary Shaolin master and
is the founder of our system. His area of
specialty was the most deadly of all arts, Tien
Shieh Kung (death touch). Su Kong died in 1928
at the age of 79.
Ie Chang Minq (1880-1976 A.D.)
One of the disciples who retreated into the
Fukienese mountains with Grandmaster Su was Ie
Chang Ming, the second of the three Grandmasters
of our lineage.
Grandmaster Ie Chang was a disciple of
Grandmaster Su from an early age. Grandmaster Su
passed all of his knowledge of the vast Shaolin
system to Ie Chang Ming. This meant that Ie
Chang Ming would be the new Grandmaster of the
Shaolin order. On day while traveling outside
the temple Grandmaster Ie was attacked by a
group of corrupt soldiers. He ended up killing
eleven of the soldiers. Fearing for his life
Grandmaster Ie fled to Indonesia where he had to
disguise the system in order to teach it. To
avoid the loss of their own culture as a result
of Chinese immigration, the Indonesian
government made it illegal to teach Chinese
arts. Grandmaster Ie added the Japanese sounding
"DO" to the name of Shaolin. This essentially
changed the name to "the way" of Shaolin. He
also introduced the belt ranking system, and the
uniforms that we still use today. Grandmaster Ie
Chang Ming was master of many arts, but his
personal specialty was that of Tieh Sha Chang or
Iron Palm.
Sin Kwong Thé (1943-present)
Grandmaster Sin began his martial arts training
under a sand burn master at the age of 6. When
he was 7 years old he began studying under one
of Grandmaster Ie's top students. After proving
himself worthy, he then began studying with
Grandmaster Ie Chang. He studied eight hours a
day, seven days a week until he was awarded the
title of Grandmaster at the age of twenty-five,
becoming the youngest Grandmaster on record in
1968. He left Indonesia and moved to Lexington
Kentucky where he attended school and received a
degree in mechanical engineering. He pursued a
Masters Degree in nuclear physics, but stopped
to teach Shaolin-Do full time when Grandmaster
Ie died. Since then, he has taught full-time
producing thousands of black belts, with many
students having stayed with him for more than 30
years. Grandmaster Sin has one of the largest
martial art schools in the nation
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Light, agile,
and alive, seek understanding;
Yin and Yang cooperate mutually
without the fault of stagnation;
If you acquire the trick, four
ounces neutralizes one thousand
pounds; Expand and close,
stimulate the "drum," the center
will be steady. - Song of
Application
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