of the Historian, tell us of epic battles and martial derring-do dating back to the Chou dynasty (1122-221 B.C.). Judging from these accounts and the ancient arms and armor that have been unearthed by archaeologists, the Chinese were using relatively sophisticated combat techniques even during this early period.
Regardless of whether the inspiration for Chinese kung-fu came from Greece, India, or China itself, there is little doubt that the Shaolin temple evolved into the most influential martial arts center the world has ever known. According to legend, the Shaolin monks did not engage in any martial arts training prior to the arrival of Bodhidharma, but within a scant 150 years of his death they had already earned a reputation as formidable fighters. By A.D. 600, their fighting prowess was so renowned that the founder of the T’ang dynasty (A.D. 618-907) enlisted their support in his bid for the throne.
For a period of one thousand years, beginning with the T’ang dynasty, the Shaolin temple experienced a golden age. Living in relative peace and prosperity, the monks were free to pursue the twin disciplines of Buddhism and kung-fu. It was during this millennium that additional Shaolin temples were constructed, the most famous of which was the southern Shaolin temple, established in Fukien Province around A.D. 1399.
The Fukien temple was supposedly the site of the celebrated thirty-five chambers in which Shaolin disciples learned different Kung-fu techniques. This temple is also said to have featured a corridor containing eighteen wooden dummies, which served as a kind of graduation examination for students who had completed the training program. In order to qualify as a kung-fu master, acolytes had to pass through this corridor without being injured or killed by the mechanically operated dummies. According to legend, those who made it all the way through faced one final challenge: Using only their forearms, they had to lift and carry a heavy iron urn filled with hot coals. One side of the urn featured a relief of a dragon, while the other was inscribed with a tiger. If the acolyte succeeded in lifting the urn, the dragon and tiger emblems were branded onto his forearms, forever marking him as a Shaolin master.
The invasion of the Manchus and the subsequent founding of the Ch’ing dynasty (A.D. 1644-1911) signaled the decline of the Shaolin temple organization. The Manchus, as foreign invaders attempting to assert control over a vast territory of hostile natives, made it a priority to eliminate all possible sources of resistance. They naturally regarded with great suspicion the famous fighting monks of the Shaolin temple organization. In 1736, the Ch’ing emperor ordered an attack on the Fukien Shaolin temple. With the assistance of a traitorous monk, the temple was destroyed and many of the monks killed.
While Ch’ing harassment was undoubtedly unpleasant for the Shaolin monks, in a strange way it ultimately proved beneficial to the growth of the Chinese martial arts. Prior to the Ch’ing dynasty, the practice of Chinese kung-fu was largely restricted to disciples of the Shaolin temple organization. With the destruction of the Fukien temple, however, a number of Shaolin monks fled into the countryside, where, for the first time, they began to teach their arts to ordinary people. Throughout the remainder of the Ch’ing dynasty, Shaolin kung-fu continued to spread outside the confines of the temple walls. In this manner, just as a forest fire sparks the growth of new trees, the persecution of the Shaolin temple organization was the catalyst for the dissemination and renewed growth of Chinese kung-fu during the nineteenth century.
In the waning years of the Ch’ing dynasty, the Shaolin temples were allowed to resume activity without interference, but their importance as the center of Chinese kung-fu continued to diminish into the early years of the twentieth century. In 1911, the imperial government was overthrown, and the country was subsequently divided into territories controlled by various local warlords. Eventually, the Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek embarked upon a campaign to strip the warlords of their power and reunify the country under central leadership. This campaign proved to be the final undoing for the Shaolin temple in Honan Province.
In 1927, Chiang dispatched General Feng Yu-hsiang to Honan Province to fight the warlord Fan Chung-hsiu. It so happened that the abbot of the Shaolin temple, Miao Hsing, was a good friend of Warlord Fan. General Feng soon rousted Fan in battle, forcing the latter to take refuge in the Shaolin temple. When Feng arrived to capture Fan, Miao Hsing ordered his monks to attack the government troops in a bid to save the vanquished warlord. In the ensuing skirmish the monks were no match for the guns of Feng’s soldiers and many were killed, including Miao Hsing. After the battle, Feng ordered the temple burned to the ground.5
Although this was the final straw for the Shaolin temple organization, the study and practice of Chinese kung-fu continued to flourish in the countryside. It was during this period that a number of lay organizations dedicated to the martial arts were founded. The first of these, the Ching Wu Association, was established in Shanghai in 1909.
In 1927, the newly restored Republican government created the Central Kuo Shu Institute in Nanking to consolidate, organize, and promote Chinese kung-fu. The institute brought together five famous martial artists, known to posterity as the Five Tigers of Northern China. One of the Five Northern Tigers was the Pek Sil Lum and ch’i kung expert Ku Ju-chang, whose student Lung Tze-hsiang was later to become Lai Hung’s Pek Sil Lum instructor.
A few years later, the Five Northern Tigers went to Canton and established a second institute along with a group of renowned masters known as the Five Tigers of Southern China. One of the Five Southern Tigers was a Choy Lay Fut expert named T’an San, whose pupil Li Ch’ou was later to become Lai Hung’s Choy Lay Fut instructor.
In 1937, the Japanese invaded China and the nation spent the next eight years at war. Later, as World War II drew to a close, the Chinese became embroiled in a civil war between the Nationalist government and Communist insurgents. After the Chinese Communists ascended to power in 1949, Chinese kung-fu came to be regarded as an unpleasant relic of the past. Many Chinese martial artists eventually emigrated to Hong Kong, Singapore, and other parts of the world, where they could continue to practice their arts without interference. And so this tradition lives on today.
There is a curious footnote to the story of the Shaolin temple organization. During the kung-fu craze that swept the world in the 1970s and again in the early 1980s, a number of movies featuring heroic Shaolin monks were filmed. Before long, kung-fu fans around the world came to regard the Shaolin temple organization as the ultimate martial arts academy. When China eventually opened its gates to tourism, visitors clamored to see the Honan temple. Unfortunately, by this time the temple had fallen into a state of great disrepair. The Chinese government soon recognized that the temple represented a potential tourist gold mine, and initiated a program to have it refurbished. While there is currently some debate over whether the monks now inhabiting the Shaolin temple in Honan are truly Shaolin disciples or simply kung-fu performers capitalizing on the tourist industry, it is now possible for anyone to pay for instruction at this historic site!
Chapter 3
The Origin of Pek Sil Lum
The roots of Pek Sil Lum are obscure and open to debate. No one knows I for sure when the system originated, what styles influenced it, or who exactly was responsible for developing its ten primary forms. Yet without exception, all legitimate Pek Sil Lum instructors today trace their lineage back to one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated martial artists: Ku Ju-chang (Fig. 1).
Ku Ju-chang was born in Chiangsu Province around 1894. His father, Ku Lei-chi, owned a business that provided armed escorts for merchants and rich civilians traveling through the bandit-infested roads leading to and from Nanking. Ku Lei-chi apparently had a connection to the Honan Shaolin temple and was himself an accomplished practitioner of the martial art style known as t’an t’ui, which originated within China’s small Muslim community. The elder Ku died when Ju-chang
