Shaolin-Do students are indeed fortunate to have a lineage that was at the
temple right up to its destruction, so we now have the final version of the
Shaolin teachings. When you hear the name Shaolin-Do, you now know that it
refers directly to the art that descends from Grandmaster Su Kong Tai Djin, of
the Southern Shaolin Temple in Fukien.
The Shaolin schools under the Shaolin Grandmaster Sin Kwang
Thé trace their lineage back to the Fukien temple through a succession of
three remarkable Shaolin Grandmasters.
The first of the three Grandmasters was born in Fukien in
1849. He came in to the world covered with hair from head to toe. His
horrified parents, convinced that they had given birth to a demon, abandoned
the infant in a forest near the Fukien Temple. A passing monk rescued the
newborn and presented him to the Shao-Lin Masters. The Masters realized that
it would be nearly impossible to find a family willing to adopt such a child,
so they decided to raise him themselves. He became known as Su Kong T'ai Djin.
From
childhood on, Su Kong T'ai Djin studied the Shao-Lin art with exceptional
dedication. The Fukien Masters responded to his enthusiasm with a rare
variance from Shao-Lin tradition. Instead of assigning Su Kong's training to a
single Master, as was the practice, each of the Fukien Masters contributed to
Su Kong's martial education. Su Kong was therefore able to complete every
branch of Shao-Lin training, learning and mastering hundreds of forms and
disciplines. It was an unparalleled achievement. [Usually the 10 Grandmasters
of the temple each learned 1/10th of the Shaolin art].
Su Kong's knowledge and strong character led to his
appointment as the Grandmaster of Fukien. More than once, his exceptional
martial skills were needed to fulfill the responsibilities of his position.
For example, he once arranged a meeting with 12 Shaolin Masters,
representatives of the Shaolin Temples of China. When Grandmaster Su entered
the room for the meeting, all the Masters bowed. Instead of returning the bow,
Grandmaster Su picked up a knife and threw it up the rafters. An assassin
tumbled down from his hiding place, the knife embedded in his heart.
Grandmaster Su had heard 13 men breathing where there were only supposed to be
12!
The Fukien Shaolin monks took it upon themselves to protect
the Fukienese coast from the raids of Japanese pirates. They were tremendously
effective, earning the love and respect of the common people. When word
reached the Ch'ing Kwang Hsu Emperor in Peking at the beginning of the 20th
century, trouble brewed. Kwang Hsu saw the Fukien monks as potential rebels
with widespread popular support. He secretly dispatched imperial troops, armed
with cannons on a mission to destroy the Fukien Temple. He even sent a
renegade Shaolin Master, Chi Tao Su, the White Eyebrow Monk, to strengthen the
attacking force.
A sympathetic official warned the monks of the impending
attack. The Fukien Masters chose a surprising, ingenious solution. They
evacuated the Temple, removed all of its valuable artwork and books, and set
fire to the temple themselves. They hoped to rebuild the Temple in more
favorable times. More favorable times never came.
Grandmaster Su and his disciples retreated into the
Fukienese mountains to continue their training. One of the disciples was Ie
Chang Ming, the man who would become the second of the three Grandmasters of
our lineage. Su Kong died in 1928 at the age of 79. Ie Chang Ming was born in
1880. He was admitted to the Fukien Temple as a small boy. Like Su Kong, Ie
Chang Ming poured all of his time and energy into the martial arts training,
especially the Golden Snake style. Tied hand and foot, he could evade spear
thrusts by twisting and turning like a snake. He could also wrap his body
around a pole climb it, like a snake on a vine.
Their areas of mastery was the art of
Iron Palm , Death Touch and the Golden Snake.
From him it passed to Grandmaster
Ie-Chang Ming, and now resides with our current Grandmaster, Sin Kwang Thé.
Grandmaster Sin Kwang
Thé the son of Chinese parents, Sin Thé was born in Bandung, Indonesia. He
began his martial arts training under a sand burn master at the age of 6. When
he was 7 years old he began studying under one of Grandmaster Ie's top
students. After proving himself worthy, he then studied under Grandmaster Ie
Chang Ming as a private student until Ie Chang Ming retired and passed the
title of Grandmaster to Sin Kwang Thé (at the age of 25). As part of his
training Sin The' was required to do thousands of 1 leg squats and fingertip
pushups. Having learned the entire body of Shaolin weapon, empty hand, animal,
and internal styles, Sin Kwang Thé became the youngest Grandmaster in Shaolin
history. Any martial arts school is limited by the accumulated body of
information available to the student. In Shao-lin Do, this body of knowledge
is astounding, as Grandmaster Thé constantly unveils training and
styles from the 900-plus Shaolin forms he has inherited & mastered.
In 1964, Grandmaster Sin was preparing
to go to Germany to study engineering and physics, but the Berlin crisis
altered his plans. He met a couple from Lexington, Kentucky and they arranged
a scholarship for him at the University of Kentucky. He visited Indonesia
often to complete his training with Grandmaster Ie.
Master Sin studied academic subjects
with the same dedication that he gave to the Shaolin art. As often as he
could, he returned to Indonesia, for the time had finally come for him to
learn the Golden Snake Style.
First of all, Master Sin had to learn to
move like a snake. Grandmaster Ie tied Master Sin's wrists to his feet in an
arched position similar to the I Chin Ching #35 posture. In this position, he
learned to crawl by moving the muscles of his chest alone. Grandmaster Ie also
threw Master Sin into the ocean with his hands and feet tied. Master Sin
learned to swim by wriggling his body. Now was he ready to learn the Golden
Snake forms.
In 1968, Grandmaster Ie awarded him the
10th degree and Grandmaster's red belt. Sin Kwang The' became the youngest
Grandmaster in the history of Shao-Lin.
Grandmaster Sin was on the verge of
completing his engineering studies when Ie Chang Ming died. He had to make a
choice of his degree or Shao-Lin. He realized that there were many engineers
and he was the only Shao-Lin Grandmaster and chose to teach Shaolin Do.
He is a Graduate of the University of
Kentucky with a Degree in engineering. He currently divides his time between
Lexington Kentucky, Los Angeles, Austin, Denver, Atlanta & over 100 other
schools in the United States. He is currently making a movie that will help
promote Shaolin Do.
Grandmaster The' is an internationally known martial artist and
has been featured in Black Belt, Inside Karate, Inside Kung Fu, and Masters
magazines. He has had his own education series on Public Television. He has co
-authored 3 books about Shaolin, most recently -Shaolin-Do:
Secrets from the Temple.
http://www.buddhanet.net/flash/toc/
Yin-Yang
Symbol of the Shaolin-Do system , the symbols on it translate as the
"Golden Snake", the highest level forms in the original Shaolin Temple system
