Chapter 312 Shaolin Temple

Shaolin Temple is the most famous temple in the world, the ancestral court of Zen, and the birthplace of Shaolin martial arts. It is named "Shaolin Temple" because it is located in the hinterland of Zhongyue Songshan Mountain in Dengfeng City, Henan Province, in the dense jungle at the foot of Shaoshi Mountain. In the 19th year of Taihe of the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 495), Emperor Xiaowen ordered to build Shaolin Temple on the mountain in order to settle down and preach to India's Gao Mo Bhatuo every year.Bodhidharma, the twenty-eighth generation of Buddha, the eldest son of Sakyamuni, went to Guangzhou, passed through Nanjing, and crossed the Yangtze River to the north to Shaolin Temple in Songshan. The ancestor of Chinese Zen, Shaolin Temple is also regarded as the ancestral home of Chinese Buddhism.

Shaolin Temple is famous for Zen and martial arts.During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it was already famous.In the Song Dynasty, Shaolin Wushu formed its own system with a unique style, known as the "Shaolin School" in history.Become a leader in Chinese martial arts schools.During the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the Shaolin Temple had more than 2,000 people and became a famous Buddhist temple at home and abroad. After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the Shaolin Temple gradually declined. Although the Shaolin Temple has gone through many vicissitudes, the cultural relics left behind are still quite rich.For example: more than 400 stone carvings of successive dynasties since the Northern Qi Dynasty; more than 250 brick and stone tomb towers from the Tang to Qing Dynasties; The colorful murals such as Thirteen Monks Rescuing the King of Tang, etc., all have high historical, artistic and scientific value.