The Shaolin martial arts or Shaolin Kungfu is an important part of Chinese traditional martial arts. Shaolin martial arts is considered to be the authentic Chinese kungfu, an outstanding representative of the Chinese Wushu and Shaolin culture.

Where does Shaolin Kungfu originate from, and when was it created?

The Shaolin Temple, built in the Nineteenth year of Taihe Period during the Northern Wei Dynasty (495), is a cultural space for the development of the Shaolin Kungfu.

Shaolin Kungfu is a type of martial arts practiced by monks under the special Buddhist culture of the Songshan Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng City, Henan Province.

The Shaolin Kungfu was originally practiced by Buddhist monks whose duties were to protect the temple. While cultivating in the thick forest of the high mountains, monks created a set of body-building exercises by learning the postures of flying, jumping and running from birds, beasts and fish. These have been gradually developed into an art of perfect technology, abundant meanings and high reputation in the whole world after more than 1500 years of development.

According to martial art books registered by the Shaolin Temple, there are several hundred sorts of routines of Shaolin Kungfu practiced by monks of generations, among which, several dozen are the representative of boxing routines that have been handed down. In addition, there are 72 stunts and types of Kungfu, such as; capture, wrestle, discharging bone, point percussion and Qigong. Altogether there are 255 routines of boxing art, weapon and mutual practice, all of which are still practiced today.

Today the Shaolin Kung Fu is the largest and most well-known martial art in China. It is felt that "ll styles of Kung Fu come from Shaolin, but the Shaolin Kung Fu is the best one."?

The Buddhism belief and Zen wisdom and the cultural meanings, the Shaolin Kungfu, has a complete theoretical system. The Zen wisdom of Buddhism has endowed the Shaolin Kungfu with profound cultural connotations. The Buddhist commandment has evolved into the commandment of Kungfu practicing, displayed by the Kungfu morals of the practitioners.

This evolvement has endowed the Shaolin Kungfu with the characteristics of abstention, modesty and reservation. On the other hand, Shaolin martial arts lay much emphasis on the inner strength, terseness and aim to win by striking only after the enemy has struck.

Taking martial art skills and actions as the performance form, Shaolin martial arts include boxing, spear art, stick art, sword art and so on.

Shaolin boxing is strong and powerful. It is a combination of attack and defence thus making it practical for real fights. Spear is regarded as the king of the ancient weapons. Spear arts are various, including Shaolin spear, Yezhan spear, Lanmen spear and so on. Stick art played an important role in wars.