Shaolin Ch’uan-Fa Kung Fu

About 1500 years ago, a royal monk named Bodhidharma, left India in search of enlightenment. After years of travel over the Himalayan Mountains, he came upon a monastery in the Honan province of China. There he found the monks in extremely poor health. He taught the monks a system of physical and mental discipline from the I-Chin-Sutra of Indian Yoga. This system evolved into the incredible art called Ch’uan-Fa.

The monks discovered that this art had practical applications since it could be used to defend the monastery against attacks. The Way of the Shaolin was soon in demand and the people sought to learn this art. Because of the tremendous power of the art, the monks protected it by refusing to train students who simply wanted to learn how to fight. Nominees were told to kneel outside until they were invited into the temple. Those who were serious about learning the art stayed kneeling for days. Those who were insincere eventually tired and departed. The remaining few were invited to an audience with the master of the temple. The nominees then had to demonstrate the utmost respect and humility in the presence of the master. Those who did not were dismissed with a recommendation to a lower quality training facility. The Shaolin masters wanted dedicated students who were open-minded, eager, willing to learn, and were prepared to endure the discipline of the art. As the art spread throughout Asia, it splintered into many other art forms; each one concentrating on very narrow aspects of the original. The original Chinese art, Ch’uan-Fa, remained a birthright to Shaolin descendants.

During the Gold Rush, the Chinese migration to San Francisco brought with it the introduction of secret societies of Ch’uan-Fa into the United States. Westerners could only watch in awe when a Master would defeat a gang of attackers using Shaolin Ch’uan- Fa. They would ask the Chinese how anyone could defend so well. The Chinese would explain that the man was "gungfu" which means "very good" or "very skilled". Westerners then mistakenly began calling this strange but wonderful art, Kung-Fu.

It is important to note that there is no such style as "Kung-Fu". Chinese systems adhere to a set of names determined by the school from which the concept is drawn. No legitimate Chinese system will use the term "Kung-Fu" to describe what they do. They will always use the correct stylistic reference such as: Wing Chun, Chin-Na, Tai Chi, Chi-Kung, Hsing-I, Pak-kua, Choy Li Fut, Ying Jao, Hung Gar, etc.