Triads. Problem child of shaolin?

[kfstudent]

i have heard this phrase used before.
This rose from the benevolent associations members becoming crimnally active.
Lots of tong/Triad members had kung fu skill and some of them were si fu.
How come criminals possessed kung fu? that is the one thing i do not understand when i hear and read about how a person should have good character before being given even the basics of kung fu training.
Yet here are all these references about triad members with great skill.
I also read and have heard that some great kf masters had some questionable activities under their belt.
also interesting to note that there is apparent extortion of lands going on at the shaolin temple itself in this very day and age!
bizarre!
what do you think?

[premier]

I'm in no way expert on this subject, but weren't the triads first just associations to overthrow the Ching government?

Even if they were criminal organisations before that the martial arts teachers joined at this point? the collaboration would have been a good idea, because the criminals were experts on doing things secretly and they had the connections.

After the rebellions most of the teachers stopped messing with them, but some of the propably stayed, because there was a lot of money involved. And of course the martial arts knowledge stayed too.

These are just my thoughts.

[Gold Horse Dragon]

Hi,

This can be summed up in one word...'Corruption'. Not all Shaolin monks and sifu were beyond it...there are even stories about it, ie. the destruction of the Temple made possible at the hands of a renegade monk. Not everyone can keep their ethics and morals to a high standard and end up taking a dark path.
All the Best!
GHD

[Jimbo]

A little off-subject, but many kung fu masters engaged in what we now would consider "immoral" behavior. People who trained in martial arts were just a cross-section of the human population, like anyone else. There were good persons, and there were self-serving types, and there were seedy types, too.

A lot of people seem to think that kung fu masters in China were like Master Po on the Kung Fu TV series, and the students acted like Kwai Chang Caine. IMO, that is a western stereotype of an idealized China. Besides, not all kung fu training was not done in temples, but even more took place within families and other civilians.
I'm sure many just did what they had to do to insure they and their family's/sect's survival.

Also, long-term martial arts training does not necessarily always make a person's character "good." We see that today, too. Students often emulate the environment in which they surround themselves. Some can have so much natural talent for a system that some sifus might overlook questionable behavior because of that student's kung fu potential.
Jim