An Attempt to Answer about Shaolin Temples
YuM Cha,
I want to make an attempt to answer part of your first original question.
“What and where were the Shaolin temple(s)?
and when?”
The information about Shaolin temples that I'm citing here is what I was able to translated from Wan Li Sheng’s book, Wu Shu Nei Wai, 1927. Wan Li Sheng was not only one of the famous Five Tigers from the North who went South but he was also very well educated and a martial arts scholar.
In his book, it discuss the Shaolin temples, but it does not cite references of where he obtained the knowledge. However this was the general belief during this period of our history about the Shaolin temples as our fore fathers learned it from their teachers either orally or written words. Typically, classical Chinese style of writing does not cite references or sources like we use in the Western World.
Here what it said:
The Honan Shaolin temple was built in 495 AD during the Wei of the Northern Dynasties. By the time Yuan Dynasty came, there were five large Shaolin monasteries; Honan, Fukien, Kwangtung An Hui, Shansi Wu Tai and Yang T’ung Fu. The last two were destroyed sometime during the next dynasty, Ming Dynasty.
By the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were five large Shaolin monasteries. They were Honan, Wu Tang, Omei, Fukien, and Kwangtung. By this time CMA had divided into three classifications; Hung Gar (not referring to the style of Hung Gar) which stresses hardness, Kung Gar which stresses softness and flexibility and Yu Gar which combines the two Hung and Kung making it hard and soft. Each Shaolin monastery stressed one specific classification and as a result developed a variety of styles that we see today. The Shaolin monasteries Kwangtung and Fukein stressed Hung while Kung was stressed in the Wu Tang monastery and in the Honan and Omei monasteries, they encouraged Yu Gar. You can observe how these different classification influenced the various styles that still exist today.
:) :cool: