is this true or just a myth?
Message/Question for Mr. Mantis
Mr. Mantis,
Your style seems intruiging. What style is it anyway? (the name).You list it as North and South Shaolin.
Best, Cloaked Justice
Northern and Southern Shaolin is the best way to describe it.
I’ve been to the Shaolin temple in Henan. The temple itself is nothing more than a tourist attraction now. There are a few monks down there, a lot of wooden carvings of people in kung fu stances. There are also a shitload of road-side vendors selling things like nunchucks, sais, glass beads, etc. There are something like 5-6 kung fu schools located near the base of the mountain that the temple is on. However, as I understand it, the monks do their real training in the 7? monastaries that are higher up on the mountains.
In Fukien provence?
in general
No, the true Shaolin Temple is floating on a cloud.
The only temple that was ever called “Shaolin” was in Henan.
Oh who the fuck really knows?
The Chinese constantly write and re write their history as it suits them to do so know one can really say where it came from or how it started. If you go to mainland China know there are these so called Shao Lin temples (operating under a communist governement of coarse)that sell their services along with uniforms and a high price tag. Apparently these places are breeding grounds for people who want to make it big in the martial arts movie industry.
Agreed, Hannibal, but there was/is only one REAL ACTUAL Shaolin temple, and that is the one in Henan Province, central China.
“Agreed, Hannibal, but there was/is only one REAL ACTUAL Shaolin temple, and that is the one in Henan Province, central China.”
I’ve always heard there were two. The northern one in Hunan and later the one in Fukien provence. I’ve never heard of the southern temple being a myth.
I’ve read that there were a series of temples all reffered to as Shaolin.
“The” Shaolin temple is at Songshan in Henan.
One style I’ve trained in (my master is a very fact-reliant sort) was supposedly developed in a “Shaolin” temple at Hengshan in Hunan, which replaced the Fujian Shaolin temple destroyed in the Qing dynasty. So that means at least 3. I don’t know what sharing the name entails, really.
They had a bad habit of getting burned down during dynastic changes.
The comment about them constantly rewriting their history is amusing. One of the things the Chinese are notorious for is their historical records. Their bureacracy has always been enourmous whish has made it particularly easy to keep consistant accopunts of the history. Si Ma Qian is noted for his frankness and was in fact castrated as a result of it.
I’ve got an Aussie mag where the owner recieved a letter claiming to be Shaolin monks. After months of bogus hype by the Chinese involved he had a gutful and visited. When he met the Bhuddist abbot of the temple, there was only the old guy and a sweeper/cleaner novice who actually lived there. Apparently the abbot found them using the Shaolin name very distasteful and said they trained in Whu Shu at a place a few houses down the road.
I’d be happy to cite my source if anyone wants to. It’ll just take me a bit of time to sift through my magazines to find the article, but I’ll happily do it! 
Correct me if I am wrong, but didn’t the communists drive out most if not all martial arts people and places of practice, until realizing what tradition they had lost, then tried to make a nationally sanctioned martial art which is commonly referred to as wushu, but is completely devoid of any real martial use?
I know of a man (now long dead) who was trained at the southern temple at fukien. He called it Shaolin, I would have no reason to doubt it.
There was an article in a recent issue of Kung Fu magazine talking about the Southern Temple and how they discovered a temple that is supposedly the Southern Shaolin Temple. They found weapons and other training items buried around it.
That sounds about right.
Ive heard that there were five temples that belonged to the Shaolin order.
Go to www.russbo.com and look in site content, shaolin temple and there are pictures of the supposed southern shaolin.
The original temple is the one in henan and the name shaolin is derived as “Little Forrest” I believe or something like that because of where the temple is situated at the base of a mountain near obviously a little forrest, I forget the name of the mountain.
I have heard that there were a number of shaolin style temples, most prolifically the southern, but who cares about heresay?