What do you guys think Shaolin monks USED to be like - before the 20th century?
Personally, I doubt that they were all THAT different from today’s monks.
My belief is that anytime you have a place like Shaolin, it’ll house a motley crue of different folks at different skill levels.
But if you did think they were different, it would be great to see WHY.
Hi-
You’re probably right about them being very much like a typical buddhist monk today in a typical buddhist monastery.
Except for the Martial Arts and ch’an practice.
peace
Kung Lek
Who can tell, The Communist have rewriten history, Religion is Poison etc. I doubt the present day monks even resemble those of old. The origional monks were either killed or fled Hunan. What is there now is a museum and some very good Wu Shu.
I would not say that there is even very good Wushu there - Modern OR Traditional.
If they were good, they would be in Beijing or Shanghai with the teams there or coaching at one of the major colleges.
They are at Shaolin so they are not so bad that they would get sent to an engineering school to teach, but not good enough to be national level.
They’re still better than ME - and a lot of other folks out there.
Do you think YOU can do better, GLW? Should you say yes, I would respect your claim 100%.
Watching kung fu movies burned into my brain the image of the white haired kung fu Shaolin abbot who could fight against anyone in hand-to-hand combat.
I can easily imagine how in days of yore (or even today under the right circumstances), this type of person existed.
Very different
Shaolin monks used to be VERY different to what they are now.
Even the Chinese govt. has acknowledged that the Shaolin arts need to be revived and has invited old masters who fled during the Cultural revolution back to China to revive the art.
I am not doubting that the monks now are any good - in fact they are. But the monks of old, while not quite being what they are portrayed as in the movies, were on a completely different skill level to what today’s monks are.