Who is the "ancestor of China Wushu"?

Since the release of films such as Shaolin Temple and Shaolin Kid, Shaolin Wushu has become famous all over the world, especially a group of enthusiastic young people. People say that Dharma is the ancestor of Shaolin Wushu. It is said that when Dharma saw the tired appearance of monks during the lecture, he taught Shaolin Boxing to drive away fatigue. In various martial arts books, Dharma is also described as the founder of Shaolin Wushu, and even regarded as the "father of China martial artists". In Shaolin Temple, there are many Buddhist relics and relics. For example, there is a "Dharma Pavilion" in front of the Ping Buddha Hall, which is dedicated to the idol of Dharma Zen Master; In the northwest corner of Tianwang Temple site, there is a stone tablet statue of "Crossing the River with a Reed in the Desert" built during the apocalypse of Ming Dynasty. At the foot of Shaoshi Mountain, there are "Hokkeji" and "Hokkeji Side Wall" stone tablets inscribed by Cai Bian in Song Dynasty. At the top of Shaoshi Mountain, there is the "Dharma Cave", which is said to be the place where Dharma faced the wall for 9 years, and now there are traces of "wall stones" ... It can be seen that Buddhism has an indissoluble bond with Shaolin Temple.

Dharma, also known as bodhidharma, a native of Tianzhu (India), is the twenty-eighth generation descendant of the orthodox Western Buddhism. He came to China to preach and founded Zen, a kind of China Buddhism. There are controversies in academic circles about his life, time of coming to China, year of death and even nationality. But on the whole, he affirmed the existence of Buddhism and admitted that he was the founder of Zen in China. The biggest problem is his relationship with Shaolin Wushu. There is no record of Dharma and Shaolin Wushu in the early biographies of Dharma. Many Tang Dynasty inscriptions in Shaolin Temple have no records of Shaolin monks often practicing martial arts, nor of Buddhism teaching martial arts or theories related to martial arts. For more than 0/000 years after Dharma's death, there is no material to prove that he taught martial arts or related martial arts theories. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, a martial arts book named Yijinjing signed by Dharma was published. The preface and postscript of this book tell the origin of this book: Dharma spent nine years on the wall of Shaolin Temple and was buried in Xiong 'er Mountain after his death. His side wall began to break, and the monks renovated it and dug up a stone box. I opened the stone box and found two books in it, one of which was Yijinjing written by Tianzhu. After Zhu Xi was translated into Buddhist monks, monks began to practice martial arts accordingly, and Shaolin Boxing was born. Since then, people believe that Dharma is the ancestor of Shaolin School.

However, this traditional view has been questioned in recent years. Zhang Chuanxi pointed out in the article Shaolin Wushu has nothing to do with Buddhism that "Shaolin Wushu originated from Buddhism" and "Buddhism is the ancestor of China martial artists" is untenable. Because China has had martial arts since the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and the legends about Buddhism, Shaolin Temple and Shaolin Wushu were invented by later generations. The theory of "Buddhism spreading to martial arts" comes from the false book Yijinjing, stealing the name of Buddhism, which was actually forged by Taoist Zong Heng in Zi Ning in the Ming Dynasty. Shaolin Temple was famous for its martial arts in the middle of Ming Dynasty, and it was formed by absorbing many excellent martial arts boxing methods. Zhang Wen's words are eloquent, but they are just the words of one family. Whether Dharma is the founder of Shaolin Wushu, whether China Wushu and Indian Wushu are in the same strain, and so on, are still at a loss.