Shaolin Quan
少林拳Martial arts connected with the Shaolin monastery in Henan. The monks’ training is documented from the 16th century, and the legend of Bodhidharma does not hold up historically.
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About Shaolin Quan
Shaolin Quan is a collective term for the martial arts connected with the Shaolin monastery near Dengfeng in Henan province. The monastery was founded in 495. A stele from 728 records the monks’ help to the future emperor Taizong in 621, but martial training is not documented until the 16th and 17th centuries, when at least forty sources describe it and when the monks fought Japanese pirates (1553–1555). The legend of Bodhidharma as founder rests on the text Yijin jing from 1624, which historians reject.
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Defensive and offensive techniques are practised in pairs and in solo routines (taolu), and paired routines alternate attack and counter-attack. The tradition lists over a thousand routines, among them luohanquan, paochui and hongquan. The first surviving manual is Cheng Zongyou’s text on the Shaolin staff, published in 1621. In the monastery, according to research from 2018–2019, students trained twice a day in basics, routines, strength exercises and jumps. At the end of 2019 the monastery introduced 18 levels, nine duan and nine pin. Competition is in routines without contact. In 2006 Shaolin gongfu was entered on the national list of intangible heritage of the PRC. The film Shaolin Temple (1982) brought tourists to the monastery, and dozens of boarding schools arose in Dengfeng. Heritage protection led to the resettlement of surrounding families and to a dispute between the monks and local teachers over who may speak for Shaolin kung-fu.
History
Shaolin Quan denotes the martial arts connected with the Shaolin monastery near Dengfeng in Henan province. The name Shaolin, however, is also used as a brand for external kung-fu styles in general, so by itself it does not document a link to the monastery. A stele of the monastery from 728 records that around 610 the monks defended the monastery against bandits and in 621 helped the future emperor Taizong defeat Wang Shichong in the battle of Hulao. The stele does not describe martial training. According to the historian Meir Shahar, no surviving source documents training at Shaolin from the 8th to the 15th century, whereas in the 16th and 17th centuries at least forty texts describe it.
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From 1553 Wan Biao recruited monks, including Shaolin ones, against the Japanese pirates wokou. Battles were fought at Hangzhou Bay and at Wengjiagang (1553), Majiabang (1554) and Taozhai (1555), where four monks fell. Around 1560 General Yu Dayou visited the monastery, found the techniques disappointing and took two monks south to teach them the staff. After a stay of more than ten years, Cheng Zongyou wrote around 1610 a text on the Shaolin staff, Shaolin gunfa chanzong, published in 1621, the first surviving manual of Shaolin kung-fu. The text Yijin jing from 1624, on which the legend of Bodhidharma rests, was written by a Taoist under a pseudonym and contains anachronisms. On 15 March 1928 the monastery was set on fire by the soldiers of Shi Yousan, and the fire destroyed or damaged many halls, about 5,480 volumes of sutras and the wooden printing blocks of the boxing manuals. The existence of a southern Shaolin in Fujian is disputed, the site is claimed by Quanzhou, Putian and Fuqing, and according to the historian Barend ter Haar stories of a burned monastery circulated in southern China at the end of the 18th century and were taken over by fighters and triads.
How it differs
Shaolin Quan is often confused with sport wushu. According to Singapore's government portal for intangible heritage, wushu divides into rehearsed routines (taolu) and fighting (sanda) and covers internal and external, northern and southern styles. Shaolin Quan is only one of the traditions it draws on. In the 2005 taolu competition rules of the International Wushu Federation (IWUF), Shaolinquan is not a separate discipline. Competitors enter unified disciplines such as changquan, nanquan or taijiquan, and a free routine is capped at 10 points. The IWUF was founded in Beijing in 1990, and wushu has been a medal sport at the Asian Games since the same year. The difference shows in teaching near the monastery too. According to a 2016 study by Su Xiaoyan, the large schools in Dengfeng have become boarding schools that teach state-approved wushu alongside school subjects, and the monks argue with local teachers over who may speak for Shaolin kung-fu. What links it to taijiquan and xingyiquan is the period of origin. According to the description of a book by the historian Meir Shahar, all three unarmed styles arose in the 16th and 17th centuries and also served religious and healing purposes. As Shaolin's fist styles, China's national list of intangible cultural heritage names xiaohong, luohan, meihua zhuang and paochui.
Technique
Defensive techniques include dodging, blocking, catching and deflecting, offensive ones the feint, strike, lock and throw. They are practised in pairs, and tactics are taught through solo taolu routines, paired as small and large. Paired routines alternate attack and counterattack against a cooperating partner, ensuring precise transmission of technique between generations. We found no training against full resistance in this style. The tradition lists over a thousand documented routines, of which the Qing monks supposedly chose 100 and from these a narrower 18. China's national list of intangible cultural heritage gives a traditional set of 172 unarmed routines. The tradition regards luohanquan as the representative style, calls paochui the king of styles and divides hongquan into small and large forms. It also names tongbiquan and taizu changquan. Order and epithets are the tradition's claims, not historians' conclusions.
Training
The anthropologist Marta Nešković spent 16 months of field research in the monastery (April 2018 to August 2019). Foreign students trained there twice a day, two hours in the morning and two in the afternoon. Each lesson began with the basics, jibengong, and continued with routines, strength exercises, jumps or movements of animal styles. Repetition was central, the teachers were strict more with the group than with the individual, and Chinese students were judged more strictly than foreigners. According to a 2011 National Geographic report, the large schools in Dengfeng had dormitories and training six days a week, 11 months a year, from dawn. Folk tradition speaks of 72 arts, exercises for flexibility, balance, hardness, strength, speed and control. They cannot be counted precisely, and their inclusion in the tradition is itself a claim of the tradition.
Ranks and progression
During Marta Nešković’s research in 2018–2019, the monastery had no formal classification of skills, and students were compared informally. The monastery introduced the first standardisation of kung-fu theory and practice at the end of 2019, with 18 levels: nine duan followed by nine pin. We did not document belts or sashes as grades. Alongside grades, the research distinguishes the standing of a student. The fighting monks wuseng are men from the monastic community who practise and represent the heritage, need not be ordained, begin as lay Buddhists and students, and after the twentieth year may decide on ordination. Foreign students formed a separate group housed in the Shaolin Disciples’ Home in the village of Wangzhigou, under the monastery’s department for foreign affairs.
Competition
Competition is in routines without contact. As an example of a national federation, the American USAWKF lists in its draft of the 2026 championship rules, in the traditional division, a separate Songshan-Shaolinquan category. It includes routines without weapons (traditional, compulsory and imitating styles), with the short weapons dao and jian, with long ones (staff, spear) and with soft weapons, as well as the pair event duilian and the group event jiti. Registered Shaolin competitors may wear a monastic robe. We did not find a separate Shaolinquan category in the IWUF rules. The Zhengzhou International Shaolin Wushu Festival is held in Dengfeng, and its 13th edition was opened in October 2024. We were not able to document the year the festival was founded.
Today
In 2006 Shaolin gongfu was entered on the first national list of intangible cultural heritage of the PRC. In 2010 UNESCO inscribed on the World Heritage List the Historic Monuments of Dengfeng, eight groups of buildings and sites including Shaolin. The inscription protects the buildings and does not mention the martial arts. The film Shaolin Temple with Jet Li, released in January 1982, set off a revival of interest in martial arts in China and turned the monastery into a destination for tourists. A 2011 National Geographic report describes about 60 martial arts schools in Dengfeng, founded within twenty years, with students from five years old to the end of their twenties. Research in Dengfeng from 2012–2013 gives 48 registered schools for 2012. The study by Su Xiaoyan (International Journal of the History of Sport, 2016) states that Shaolin art was historically taught mainly in affiliated temples and surrounding villages, not inside the monastery. Heritage protection and the development of tourism led to the resettlement of hundreds of families to a model village about 20 km away, and in the new martial arts park only the large schools survived. According to it, the monks and local teachers clashed over who may speak for Shaolin kung-fu.
Did you know
According to a 2008 ICOMOS report, the monastery's Pagoda Forest comprises 241 pagodas from 520 to 1803, while Britannica gives 246 burial sites. The nearby Chuzu Temple, from 1125, commemorates the first patriarch of the chan school. Since 31 July 2010 the monastery has belonged to UNESCO World Heritage as one of eight groups in the Historic Monuments of Dengfeng.
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According to the traditional account in China's national list of intangible cultural heritage, the staff developed from the sticks that monks carried on mountain paths. The historian Tang Hao questioned the link between Shaolin and Bodhidharma as early as 1930, and the oldest texts on Bodhidharma as a martial master date from the early 17th century. According to a 2019 study by Su and colleagues, the fire of 1928 burned for 45 days and destroyed most of the buildings. The land reform of 1949 to 1953 took about 99 percent of the monastery's land, and 14 elderly monks remained. During the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976, Shaolin martial arts were banned. Revival was spurred by visits of the Japanese Shorinji Kempo group in 1979 to 1981 and the 1982 film The Shaolin Temple, and in 1986 about 2 470 000 tourists came. In August 2025 Shi Yinle of the White Horse Temple took over the monastery after an investigation of the previous abbot, Shi Yongxin. According to the South China Morning Post, about 30 monks left after the new rules came in.
Frequently asked questions
What is Shaolin kung-fu?
Martial arts associated with the Buddhist Shaolin Monastery in Henan Province. China's national list of intangible cultural heritage inscribed them in 2006 and names the staff and the fist styles xiaohong, luohan, meihua zhuang and paochui. The unarmed form arose, according to historian Meir Shahar, in the 16th and 17th centuries, and historians reject the Bodhidharma legend.
Is Shaolin a real monastery and where is it?
Yes. The Buddhist Shaolin Monastery stands on the slopes of Mount Song in Henan Province, and according to Britannica its construction began in 495. Since 2010 it has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing Historic Monuments of Dengfeng, and it is still in operation today.
What is the difference between Shaolin kung-fu and wushu?
Wushu today mainly means a sport with taolu routines and sanda fighting, covering many styles. Shaolin Quan is one of the traditions it draws on, but in the 2005 taolu rules of the International Wushu Federation it is not a separate discipline. According to a study by Su Xiaoyan, schools near the monastery mainly teach state-approved wushu.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.