A reading hypothesis to the martial narrative about the 1736’s “Shaolin monastery destruction”

• Autor(a) principal: Wolff Apolloni, Rodrigo
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Aguiar, José Otávio
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Rever (São Paulo. Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revistas.pucsp.br/index.php/rever/article/view/56280
• topic: Buddhism; Shaolin Monastery; Shaolin; Fighting Monks; Kung Fu; Shaolin Kung Fu; Budismo; Shaolin; China; Monges Guerreiros; Kung Fu; Shaolin Kung Fu

Founded in 495 CE in Henan Province, Shaolin Buddhist Monastery is famous as one of the ch’an (zen) Buddhist birthplaces in China. More than that, is worldwide famous for its warrior monks, who inhabiting Chinese imagination since the 16th century and have connections with “Shaolin kung fu”, admired and practiced in many countries. The history and legends of these religious characters reached the western public just over 50 years ago, when “Kung fu Crazy” began – a media movement that inspired the practice of Chinese martial art on a global scale. In this article, we examine the destructions that Shaolin Monastery suffered along 1.500 years of history, more exactly in the Sui-Tang, Yuan-Ming, Ming-Qing transition periods and at the first Chinese republican era. Our mainly spot, however, lies in the historicity of a narrative present in Chinese and occidental Kung fu traditions: the “1736 destruction” of Shaolin monastery by Qing imperial troops. In looking for its roots, we note that they seem to point to both a historical episode and an important legend in the anti-Qing context of the 18th century.