China around 3000 B.C. And 
despite attempts to repress it, king fu has spread, been adapted and continues to thrive.The ancient Chinese Shaolin monks tried to keep it a temple secret, and the modern Chinese communist government tried to suppress it. What ensures kung fu’s survival is its value as a means of defense, a path to good health and a practical philosophy.
For over 5,000 years, kung fu has been key to China’s power and the health of its people. In Chinese, kung fu means mastery of any craft or skill through hard work, but it has also become the generic name for Chinese fighting arts.
Under the kung fu umbrella, hundreds of styles have evolved. There are temple styles, family styles, styles that imitate fighting monkeys, the majestic crane, flowing water or moving shadows. Some are hard, others soft, and styles may be internal or external. Some styles employ weapons; others don’t. Within one style can be found elements of others.
Since few written records have survived the wars and the bandit brigades that ravaged China over the centuries, the exact history of kung fu is open to debate. Kung fu historian Grandmaster David Chih-Young Lin said, “One of the earliest known records about kung fu dates to 2,674 B.C., when the Emperor Huang Ti trained his troops in a kung fu style of fighting called chiou ti.” The emperor wiped out his enemies, rival war lords wanted the new fighting techniques and
the method spread.
One popular version of its origin, probably part fact and part fable, focusing more on philosophy and health maintenance, is that kung fu originated in India with Bodhidharma. Much like the Buddha before him, he was a wealthy prince from southern India who gave away all he owned and wandered the countryside seeking truth and the meaning of life. Learning of the Buddhist faith, he became a monk and took the name Bodhidharma.
Getting rid of possessions was the easy part, clearing the mind of envy, worry and hate took years of study and meditation. Current students can identify with his difficulty in meditating, concentrating on one thing to the exclusion of all else. One story has it that through meditation and the practice of deep breathing exercises, Bodhidharma became so focused that he spent nine years staring at a spot on a wall and listening to ants!
In 527 B.C., Emperor Wu Di invited Bodhidharma to visit China to instruct his court. Bodhidharma’s zen-like answers to religious questions did not go over well, and he was ejected from the court. Traveling through China, Bodhidharma arrived at the Shaolin-si (young forest) Temple in Henan province, where he found religion to be strong but the monks were weak and sickly.
Sitting motionless meditating for hours at a stretch did not make for physically healthy monks, and Bodhidharma spent nine years studying and developing two training manuals to help them. One covered exercises to develop strength while the second manual dealt with meditation, proper breathing and circulation. A final book was a choreographed series of defensive exercises called The Eighteen Muscle Change Classics. It is considered the first how-to book for the martial arts and was based on Bodhidharma’s training in India as a member of the Kshatriya ruling warrior caste.
While neither Bodhidharma nor the Shaolin monks may have originated kung fu, the role played by the Shaolin temples in the development of kung fu is well documented. Henan Temple in North China and Fukien in South China were the centers from which kung fu spread. Monks living in the Sung Dynasty traveled between temples exchanging ideas and forms, akin to today’s open competitions to demonstrate skills.
With the support of the famous 13 monks of the Henan Temple, in 621 A.D., Li Shi-ming was installed as the first emperor of the Tang dynasty, and the fighting monks were rewarded with land, privileges and the right to train their own soldiers.
Over subsequent centuries Shaolin monks would be called out to help fight off foreign invaders, overthrow oppressive governments and train guerrilla fighters to take on the hated Northern Qing dynasty. So great a power did the monks become that Emperor Yong Sheng (1722-1735) ordered the temples burned to the ground and the monks executed.
Those who survived went into hiding, teaching martial arts to guerilla groups who had formed secret societies. Over the centuries Korea, Japan and Okinawa sent disciples to learn the kung fu forms. Taking the forms home and adapting them to their needs, they evolved them into karate, taekwondo and judo.
Grandmaster Lin marked the arrival of kung fu in the United States with waves of Chinese immigrants settling in San Francisco and New York in the 1880s. Long a staple of America’s Chinatowns, actor Bruce Lee did much to popularize kung fu in the ‘70s in movies like Enter the Dragon. Martial arts schools are now established throughout the United States, and the kung fu form tai chi is today’s hot, new exercise and health regimen.
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