Kung Fu is considered to be the mother of all East Asian forms of fighting.
It is a form of martial arts originating in China.
However, one school of kung fu claimed the greatest notoriety for its lethal effectiveness.
That school is called the Shaolin Fist.
The Shaolin sect is a group of Buddhist monks commissioned by the emperor in 447 AD to station their religious services near Mount Song, one of China's four sacred mountains.
Like all other ascetic monks, they are most vulnerable to bandit attacks and pillaging.
The emperor funds the religious communities, but the disgruntled portion of China's rebellious population sought a life of anarchy and violence.
Institutions like the Shaolin temple are prospective targets that earn these brigands a fortune.
The monks are as helpless as a flock of sheep from a butcher who feasts on mutton.
Everything changed when a holy man from India came to visit China and preach his new and controversial perspective of Buddhism.
Bodhidarma is not like other bodhisattvas (a pope in Christian ranking).
He was known to be ill-tempered, violent and he has no compunction of taking another man's life when necessity demands it.
He was once banished from the Shaolin temple and forced to dwell in a cave.
But when the brothers found out that he possessed superior virility and health compared to the rest of them who are sickly and out of shape, he instructed to the rest of them a physical exercise that saved a lot of lives from dying of illness.
He called these "muscle washing" and "bone-marrow washing" and these extremely rigorous set of calisthenics became the foundation of Shaolin Boxing.
Many centuries after Bodhidarma's death, the Shaolin monks continued to improve the principles and methods of the physical discipline.
During this later period, the monks incorporated animal movements in their rhythm.
The Buddhist monks have grown invincible throughout the next generations that at one point in history, they were hired by the emperor to defend the southern coasts against ferocious Japanese pirates called the Woku during the 13th century.
It was believed that a single battalion was able to defeat fleets of these invaders in a 3-day melee.
Among the Buddhist monks, there was not a single casualty while the Japanese pirates succumb to defeat, piling up their corpses while the rest of them sailed back to their island.
The Shaolin monks continue to become more powerful, politically and religiously, throughout the whole of China.
They were highly regarded scholars and teachers during the Ming dynasty in 14th Century, along with their Confucian competitors.
But everything changed by the time the imperial regime was also replaced by a new dynasty, a ruthless Mongol clan called the Qing in the 16th Century.
This new regime sought to consolidate power and aimed for absolute rule equal to dictatorship.
The autonomy of the Shaolin sect threatened the emperor and thus, bolstered by the conspiracy of the jealous religious rivals, Qing government issued total obliteration of the Shaolin sect and the suppression of their doctrines.
A surprise attack from the imperial forces at night caught the monks by surprise and they were nearly wiped out.
It was believed that three survivors fled and staged their own mock funeral to escape notoriety.
According to the legend, the three of them were buried alive and for a single night they breathed through a very thin straw jutting out of the grave site.
The imperial soldiers nearly discovered them but fate was on their side and they escaped unharmed and later forgotten.
From that day onwards, it was believed that the three of them part ways and pursued their martial arts lifestyle.
One traveled to Okinawa and taught the unarmed farmers and fishermen the means to stand up against the Japanese samurai.
It sooner evolve into an unarmed fighting discipline called Karate.
Another went to Korea and contributed greatly to the improvement of Tae Kyon (now Taekwondo).
The last one remained in southern China and passed on his knowledge, which, theoretically speaking, could be the Five Sacred Animals technique (Tiger, Mantis, Crane, Snake and Monkey).
Because of this legend, Shaolin kung fu is considered to be the progenitor and the prototype of all East Asian fighting forms.
It is a form of martial arts originating in China.
However, one school of kung fu claimed the greatest notoriety for its lethal effectiveness.
That school is called the Shaolin Fist.
The Shaolin sect is a group of Buddhist monks commissioned by the emperor in 447 AD to station their religious services near Mount Song, one of China's four sacred mountains.
Like all other ascetic monks, they are most vulnerable to bandit attacks and pillaging.
The emperor funds the religious communities, but the disgruntled portion of China's rebellious population sought a life of anarchy and violence.
Institutions like the Shaolin temple are prospective targets that earn these brigands a fortune.
The monks are as helpless as a flock of sheep from a butcher who feasts on mutton.
Everything changed when a holy man from India came to visit China and preach his new and controversial perspective of Buddhism.
Bodhidarma is not like other bodhisattvas (a pope in Christian ranking).
He was known to be ill-tempered, violent and he has no compunction of taking another man's life when necessity demands it.
He was once banished from the Shaolin temple and forced to dwell in a cave.
But when the brothers found out that he possessed superior virility and health compared to the rest of them who are sickly and out of shape, he instructed to the rest of them a physical exercise that saved a lot of lives from dying of illness.
He called these "muscle washing" and "bone-marrow washing" and these extremely rigorous set of calisthenics became the foundation of Shaolin Boxing.
Many centuries after Bodhidarma's death, the Shaolin monks continued to improve the principles and methods of the physical discipline.
During this later period, the monks incorporated animal movements in their rhythm.
The Buddhist monks have grown invincible throughout the next generations that at one point in history, they were hired by the emperor to defend the southern coasts against ferocious Japanese pirates called the Woku during the 13th century.
It was believed that a single battalion was able to defeat fleets of these invaders in a 3-day melee.
Among the Buddhist monks, there was not a single casualty while the Japanese pirates succumb to defeat, piling up their corpses while the rest of them sailed back to their island.
The Shaolin monks continue to become more powerful, politically and religiously, throughout the whole of China.
They were highly regarded scholars and teachers during the Ming dynasty in 14th Century, along with their Confucian competitors.
But everything changed by the time the imperial regime was also replaced by a new dynasty, a ruthless Mongol clan called the Qing in the 16th Century.
This new regime sought to consolidate power and aimed for absolute rule equal to dictatorship.
The autonomy of the Shaolin sect threatened the emperor and thus, bolstered by the conspiracy of the jealous religious rivals, Qing government issued total obliteration of the Shaolin sect and the suppression of their doctrines.
A surprise attack from the imperial forces at night caught the monks by surprise and they were nearly wiped out.
It was believed that three survivors fled and staged their own mock funeral to escape notoriety.
According to the legend, the three of them were buried alive and for a single night they breathed through a very thin straw jutting out of the grave site.
The imperial soldiers nearly discovered them but fate was on their side and they escaped unharmed and later forgotten.
From that day onwards, it was believed that the three of them part ways and pursued their martial arts lifestyle.
One traveled to Okinawa and taught the unarmed farmers and fishermen the means to stand up against the Japanese samurai.
It sooner evolve into an unarmed fighting discipline called Karate.
Another went to Korea and contributed greatly to the improvement of Tae Kyon (now Taekwondo).
The last one remained in southern China and passed on his knowledge, which, theoretically speaking, could be the Five Sacred Animals technique (Tiger, Mantis, Crane, Snake and Monkey).
Because of this legend, Shaolin kung fu is considered to be the progenitor and the prototype of all East Asian fighting forms.