Thousands of years ago, some Asian entities once felt threatened in their existence. Undoubtedly, there is nothing worse than being exposed to extermination. This Is Where, out of need of survival, man invents, finds the right solution.
Since the dawn of time, hatred, jealousy, wickedness and hypocrisy have been living on Planet Earth. So men often kill men. This is how Indochinese borders were once the scene of violent events. At the time when bandits and thugs tried to take care of themselves, it was common practice for some to live at the expense of the pillaged and oppressed. Long before the Christian era, some monks of the Asian continent wondered whether, with a touch of intelligence, a man was not better protected and more powerful than another, besieged with spears and shields, but with the sole desire to destroy his fellow man.
In this perspective, Martial Arts were born a little less than five thousand years ago in China. This legendary and mysterious country, whose name alone exerts a kind of fascination, has always attracted people.Its age-old origins and traditions, what was thought to be known of its strange customs, of its life jealously hidden from foreign eyes, have long since inflamed imaginations and aroused curiosities. Of this culture and of this world, the martial Arts are the supreme expression, the visible sign, although too often misunderstood. But to study it without knowing the essence of the historical events in which it evolved, the currents of thought which made it fertile, the dreams of which it was the inexhaustible source, would be to reduce it to an insipid nomenclature of names and techniques, as would be meaningless the iconography of our cathedrals or The Art Of Versailles, without the evocation of the religious faith of the Middle Ages and the atmosphere of the court of Louis XIV.
Man in China is directly connected to the gods, and history to mythology. The Emperors are the descendants of a series of mythical characters, authors of all the great inventions, writing, metal casting, ploughing and…the martial Arts that in those days, were inspired by the fighting gestures of animals and insects, thus giving their school the name of these. As far as we are concerned, the concepts that gave rise to the present martial arts did not really begin to take shape until around 2695 B. C. When Emperor Huang-Ti had taught his men (later to be a branch of the Kung-Fu) The Chiou-Ti that was reduced to the handling of weapons.
This style proved to be very effective, as the emperor would triumph. Later, Pan-Ku (Asian author) will discuss in his writings, this school of martial Arts signed “Chio-Ti”, and its direct relationship with what will later be called”fencing”. The Japanese, invading China several times, imported these techniques, invented others, and made the whole a unique style : Jiudo. This art, at that time, included in itself the whole of almost all the techniques of all the other Japanese disciplines known today. In the 1940s, Master Jigoro Kano codified new rules and called him Judo, the name under which he is known today.
All modern Japanese martial Arts have their source in Judo, whereas Chinese martial Arts have their origin in Kung Fu. Much later, Koreans will borrow from the Japanese, while Vietnamese, Indonesians and other Asians will borrow from the Chinese. However, until the 5th century of our era, martial Arts in general, still lacked definitive patterns. To do this, it was necessary to find the “philosophy that would manage the discipline”. At the beginning of the 6th century, more precisely around 520, comes the monk Bodhidharma, spiritual leader of the Buddhism of the time.He retired to the famous Temple Of Shaolin where he would create the current “Chan” that the Japanese would later call “Zen”.
Bodhidharma will be named “Ta-mo” in Chinese. Bodhidharmaas soon, he will be able to integrate and impose himself. He judged the Chinese monks physically weak and taught them powerful educational exercises. Some time later, the Shaolin Temple will draw its fantastic fame thanks to its fighting monks. It was at this moment that some hermit monks decided to see things differently. They retreat into the mountains of Wu Tang, shut themselves up and create the “Tai Chi Chuan “.
At the same time, the Shaolin Temple became a legend. First, because it became the universal center of martial Arts in the first place, then because it became the pivot of the popular resistance under the Manchu dynasty.
The emperor, seeing the increasing importance among the people of the popularity of the monks of Shaolin, Prades that their monastery be besieged, then burned down and annihilated. There will be only a few survivors. Some of them take refuge in another temple of the same name : Shaolin, but this time in Fukien province, while others choose to go to mount Song, where they build a new temple.
Unfortunately, like the Northern Shaolin Temple, the southern one will also be destroyed. Five monks escape : Mb, Hung, Lee, Choy and Liu. On them will be built the modern era of martial Arts.