Which weapons?

[YuLi]

Hi @ all!


I´m from Germany, so my English isn´t so good! ;)

Does anybody know, which weapons were used by the Shaolin monks of the southern and northern temple?
I heard , in Fukien , the using of swords , weren´t allowed .
And many KF weapons of today, didn´t exist in the Shaolin Temple .

Thank you for all answers!

[Shaolinlueb]

from what i know, their main weapon they used of choice was a staff. because it could be sued for wlaking stick and such. reason i have read that they started training with other weapons is to get to know their enemy.

[Banjos_dad]

Hi Yuli.
Not bad English.
They explored the use of edged weapons so that they could learn how to defeat armed attackers. I have read in more than one source, mention of the "18 weapons of Shaolin."
In our school there are 13 weapons. To learn just one form of each would represent a long time's study. For me, anyway, I am not a quick learner.

[GeneChing]

...but traditionally, they relied most heavily upon staff (http://store.martialartsmart.net/tckprgs210.html). There are many possible reasons for this - the most common being the fact the Buddhist monks were forbidden to touch weapons, at least according to the Brahma net suttra. This gave rise to the idea that they couldn't use swords based on some disjointed reasoning when you consider that they were often reported as using metal staffs. Buddhists carried what was called a 'ring staff' (xizhang in Mandarin, khakkhara in Sanskrit) - monks were limited to 18 possesions, this being one, a prohibitions knife (jiedao being another. Sometimes, the prohibitions knife was as long as a sword.

[YuLi]

Thanks a lot for all answers!

I´ve heard, that there were more weapons in Northern Shaolin,
than in the South . Is that true ? Which weapons exactly were used in the Southern Shaolin Temple ?

[Scythefall]

Edged weapons were brought to Shaolin by soldiers that sought to learn the arts. That's where the sword, spear, and shield came into play. In very old staff forms, like Fire and Water staff, you can see that the applications are performed as if there were a spear-point on the staff. Many of the "Longfist" forms can be performed easily with a sword and shield in hand as well. You don't see that in newer forms. Learning the very ancient forms and comparing them to newer forms is kind of neat in that you do get to see the evolution of Shaolin kung fu.