Shaolin Duanpin

**fredericsimon** · 10-17-2003, 05:53 AM

As long as remember and since i met them they are only 2 nine duans in China.
Duans ,expect for chen taiji self made duan, were made by the government as a standart point of reference.
It is pretty new and amongs shaolin monk the highest duan is 7...
duans depends pretty much on the numbers of student like 30 for 1, 100 or so for third.
passing fourth requires demonstration of skill
also you need to have attended some competition
sixth duans require you write some reference book and practice for 15 years..
ect etc
more books more student more years in the joint...
duans are not very important but they should also not be neglect

in shaolin people use tatoo some dots on their head showing the level of skill they had attain....
well, it is all about recognition....

**GeneChing** · 10-17-2003, 10:57 AM

You're a little behind the times.

There are now 10 masters recognized as 9th duan in China - we listed them on page 44 of our NOV DEC 2003 issue. We covered the Duan system in a sidebar when we covered one of the 9 Duan grandmasters, Ma Xianda, in our NOV DEC 2002 issue. Check out page 25 of that issue for the hierarchical breakdown. Last year, there were only five 9 duans, only 4 of whom were still alive. We listed them on p. 32 of that issue. Simply put, duan is a government-based recognition system where 1-3 duan means municipal recognition, 4-6 means provincial, and 7-9 means national.

Most of the Shaolin monks have not engaged the Duan system. Some of the warrior monks have. Right now, I think there are two 8 Duans at Shaolin, both folk masters - Liu Baoshan and Liang Yiquan. You'll find them both covered in our 2003 Shaolin special.

As for burning their heads, that is a practice of Chinese Buddhist monks, not a martial rank. Typically, it denotes how many monk vows they have taken. Only a few older monks burned their heads, since it was banned during the Cult Rev. A few of the younger monks have got them, but it's still pretty rare. Also when you see them, the marks are very faint, not like in the movies.

KL - Thanks for the props. Antonio has a refreshing voice, and a lot of more material, so if more people support his work, we'll publish more here.