What was so great about the martial arts monks who went into battle during the Ming Dynasty?

Since ancient times, monks in many places have had a tradition of practicing martial arts. In their eyes, in addition to chanting sutras and sitting in meditation, practicing martial arts is also an effective means to improve personal cultivation. The monks have been practicing martial arts for thousands of years, and there are many ancient temples of the millennium that have been known as ''martial arts temples, temples because of martial arts''. The Shaolin Temple in Henan Province is one of the outstanding representatives. But historically, Shaolin Temple is not the only temple known for practicing martial arts.

In the Ming History, it is recorded, ''Monk soldiers, there are Shaolin, Fuyu and Wutai.'' It indicates that at that time, in addition to the Shaolin Temple, the monks of Mount Funiu and Mount Wutai also practiced martial arts. According to the Ancient and Modern Book Collection, ''the martial arts must be promoted to Shaolin, followed by Furniu, and this is Wutai'', and ''under the command of the conscripts, no one could not win''. In addition to the Shaolin monks and soldiers once ''thirteen stick monks to save the king of the Tang Dynasty'', ''Song History'' records that the Wutai Mountain's martial arts monks Zhenbao, at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty when the invasion of the Jin soldiers, once organized monks and soldiers to fight against the Jin soldiers, and finally martyred in the end of his life.

During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the martial arts monks, who had been practicing their skills all year round, finally found a place to use their skills. As the southeast coast of the Japanese invaders continue to infringe, the scale is getting bigger and bigger, more and more harmful, killing and looting, has become a major border trouble of the Ming Dynasty. But most of the Japanese pirates are ferocious plagiarism outlaws, martial arts strong combat bravery, the hands of the Japanese sword knife killing power is particularly amazing, coupled with good at guerrilla warfare, erratic, strong combat power.

And at that time the Ming army generals, because the world has been peace for a long time, many teams of martial arts relaxation, fighting spirit is weak, relying on the favorable situation of the local combat, but not rivals, even ate a defeat. For a time the southeastern area of the wind, into panic. The worst thing is, the southeast of Suzhou, Hangzhou, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, are the Ming Dynasty's financial resources, is an important source of national revenue, Japanese invasion, has seriously threatened the Ming Dynasty's fundamentals. Under this imminent crisis, some officials thought of enlisting monastic monks and soldiers who were highly skilled in martial arts.

In the historical book Jiangnan Jingliu, an interesting incident occurred during the period when the monks and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were helping to fight the Ming army. At that time, when the Japanese army threatened Hangzhou, the local officials of Hangzhou enlisted more than 40 monks to fight in the war. Before the battle, the Ming generals were skeptical of the monks' ability because they had never seen them in action, so they decided to find an opportunity to test them. So they set up a ''Hongmen Banquet'' outside the Chungjin Gate in Hangzhou, invited the monks to the banquet, and secretly ambushed 8 Ming military martial arts instructors.

On the day of the banquet, a martial arts monk with the Dharma name Lone Boat was the first to arrive. The eight instructors suddenly jumped out, holding a long stick, and struck at Lone Boat with their heads. Lonely boat is unprepared, see the situation is critical, ''to partial shirt sleeve but stick'', waving a wide robe sleeve to defend against the crowd. Between the melee ''a stick for the sleeve wrapped'', was seized by the lonely boat, immediately like a tiger with wings, waving a big stick to start counterattacks, in a moment ''eight people should stick and fall''. The officials who watched from the side were greatly impressed, ''Three Secretaries of Departments struck a sigh of appreciation'', the martial arts monks used their real kung fu to win the trust and respect of the crowd.

In the ensuing battles against the Japanese invaders, the martial arts monks put on their armor, and by virtue of their superb martial arts skills and courageous fighting spirit, they repeatedly defeated the enemy army, and became an extremely important armed force in the struggle against the Japanese invaders. Ming officials at all levels realized the importance of the value of the monks, have begun to vigorously recruit and conscript monks, even Hu Zongxian, such as the governor of the governor are extremely important to the monks. According to the historical records of the Ming Dynasty, the monks ''fought in Wengjiagang, and then again in Baishatan, and our people knew that the Japanese could be the enemy, and the sound of success was increasing. Their ability to secure the country's spirit is not a small feat!'' Their ability and achievements are highly recognized.