heres a quick idea… does anybody agree with me that Jedi Masters were based on Shaolin monks, reasons being…in return of the jedi, when Luke Skywalker goes to get the carbonated Han Solo back he walks in with his hands in the Chan meditation style (thumbs touching, and fingers ontop of each other), also te whole concept of the force being chi in an exagerated fashion. and of course Yoda’s use of Buddhist text…Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate etc. Just a thought
Lucas has talked about this on many an occasion. While he hasnt stated specifically they were this or that, he has mentioned the Jedi order was based on some Eastern Philosophies, although he tends to point towards the samurai as well.
I’ve always equated the jedi with “sci-fi taoism”. Yoda is one of the 10 Tigers of the Wu Dan System. 
In every interview I’ve heard from Lucas (including the ones they put on the Star Wars trilogy tapes), he always mentions the Samurai and “other eastern influences”. He’s never said Shoalin. Why do you really care?
Originally posted by Ford Prefect
In every interview I’ve heard from Lucas (including the ones they put on the Star Wars trilogy tapes), he always mentions the Samurai and “other eastern influences”. He’s never said Shoalin. Why do you really care?
Look at his profile man, he does Shaolin. He can claim then “I practice the art of the Jedi!” 
I’m only kidding of course.
However I do have to agree about the Jedi being based off Shaolin. Even the Jedi Temple and Shaolin Temple. The Jedi Temple is where the Jedi learned to use the Force and the Shaolin Temple is where the Monks learned to fight.
In modern times, both are fiction. 
The wise master is a universal concept
I wouldn’t limit it to Shaolin, or even Asia for that matter (Although I have also heard Lucas comment on how he was influenced by Japanese film - Star Wars was based on Kurosawa’s Samurai Epic, Hidden Fortress.) But even Merlin, or Gandalf, has the concept of the wizard/shaman/wise master.
It’s all about fraternities of alchemists. In a way, that’s all martial lineage boils down to.
Can you guys point out any interviews where Lucus mentions Shaolin? In the trilogy set that came out right before the new scenes were added to the original movies, there is an interview prior to each movie on each tape. He only mentions the Samurai there. In the “Star Wars to Jedi” documentary, he only mentions the Samurai. I was a Star Wars nut when I was younger and before I started MA. When I was first getting into MA, I was looking for JJ and other samurai arts schools because Lucas mentioned them all the time when talking about the Jedi’s. I’ve never heard him mention Shaolin once.
“In modern times, both are fiction.”
LOL @ Shaolin Tiger.
Ford, he doesnt really mention them, theres the reference to the samurai and eastern philosophy but that is as far as it goes.
however the shaolin were buddhist monks and we all know buddhism is pretty prevalant in most of the popular south-east asian cultures so one could draw a line to it, although I doubt that it was intentional on Lucas’ part, I will have to ask him next time we go to lunch
Check out the source, Lucas did an interview with Bill Moyers, and broke down a lot of his foundations for SW, If you cant find that, I would check out The Power of Myth is the transcript of a conversation between Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers that took place in 1985 and 1986 at George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch and at the Museum of Natural History in New York. Touching on the stories of the Buddha, Native American legends, Star Wars, and many other subjects, Joseph Campbell offers his illuminating ideas on myths and spirituality.
there is a book and a vidoe series
Oh Come the Fu#K ON…
Post this cr@p on a Star wars geek forum. :rolleyes:
The Jedi are based on Samurai only in that Lucas watched a lot of Kurosawa movies in college and wanted to imitate them. The Hidden Fortress’ plot is almost the same as A New Hope (Episode 4) and shares some similarities to The Phantom Menace (Episode 1). Lucas almost had to purchase the film rights to Hidden Fortress before they rewrote the script for A New Hope.
Now, movies like Sanjuro and Yojimbo also have scenes you find in various Star Wars movies. The whole Cantinia scene comes straight out of Sanjuro. In fact, Toshiro Mifune, the main samuria in all those movies, was the basis for Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Lucas at one point considered hiring Mifune to play Kenobi, but later decided the language barrier would be too much trouble.
However, that is the only similarity I see the Jedi having with samurai. Do all Samurai live in a temple together? Are the samurai renowned for their abilities to almost transcend human abilites? No…these are Shaolin characteristics. The Samurai were good fighters, but the mystical aspect of Jedi training has to be based off Shaolin.
The Jedi are a religious order that sometimes get dragged into politcal affairs. Sounds very Shaolin to me.
For crying-out loud…Luke is wearing Leggie wraps on his calves in Empire Strikes Back (in the swamp training scenes with Yoda).
Besides, there is that whole “samurai slept with each other because it is an honor to poke another warrior” thing that is inherently not a Jedi thing.
Willow Sword, I have a better idea, if it bothers you, dont read it? Or even better, if it really bothers you, dont bother replying?
But which ones could move things around with their minds? The lightning that Palpatine and later Sidious shoots is obviously from Mothra vs Godzilla which is also Japanese.
Cool topic!
There was an interview with Samuel L Jackson shortly after the release of Episode II. In the interview, he states that in preparation for his role as Mace Windu, he tried to get into the mindset of a Shaolin monk. He apparently saw many similarities between Jedis and Shaolin monks and obviously did some research on Shaolin in preparation for his role. So it seems, that although Lucas may not have necessarily had Shaolin in mind when writing these characters, some people closely associated with the films obviously saw a correlation. Cool stuff indeed. By the way, that interview was posted on Yahoo. com. So you may be able to access it in their archives. Someone actually posted the article on the bulletin board at our kwoon. That’s where I read it, actually.
Samuel L. Jackson is known to be a big fan of Hong Kong cinema. I don’t think he had to look too far to draw those comparisons.
Taoism has greatly influenced Star Wars. The Force is a direct allegory of the Tao and theory of Qi. The jedi knights symbolize the samurai of Ancient Japan, but I wouldn’t link them with Shaolin warrior monks. The most recent thing that really enlightened was Obi-Wan Kenobi’s dialog “This is your life, Anakin” meaning his lightsaber and similarly the sword was considered as the spirit of the Japanese people during the old times. There is a clear link between Star Wars and various aspects of the Eastern culture.
Interesting point, ghthomason.
shaolin samurai
I still think it’s closer to Samurai, especially how the light saber works. If it was more like Shaolin, the jedi would all be using double ended weapons, like the sith lords . Could it be that Shaolin is actually Sith? Ray Park (Darth Maul) is actually a wushu champ, so it makes some sense. And sith lords are bald with bumps on their head. I think you’ve misread this analogy entirely. 
TWS: I thought about moving this thread to another forum, but couldn’t decide if it should be Shaolin or Martial Media, so I let it stand here. Beware of star wars geeks - the force is with them…