Because the Shaolin Temple is an ancient Buddhist temple, Shaolin Gongfu and a vegetarian diet have always been part of its culture.
During the Ming Dynasty, the Manchurians were trying to seize China by force while the Imperial government of the Ming Dynasty was corrupt and incompetent. At that time scholars, who were trying to save the country, wrote books expounding theories on how this could be done. They also advocated the practice of martial arts. When the Manchu's finally invaded China, many people with high ideals and integrity did not want to be slaves under a new regime so they fled to the mountains and lived in seclusion. Some entered into a religious life.
They focused on martial arts intensively in order to acquire the fighting skills to regain their country. Many of them already had good gongfu skills. As they were generally also highly educated they sought out and brought together the folk martial art skills which they fused with the Shaolin gongfu styles. As time went on, Shaolin gongfu constantly improved and developed; hence Shaolin gongfu is regarded as the main branch of Chinese Martial Arts in China and the world.
Another important factor in its reaching such a high level of skill and importance is the vegetarianism of the Shaolin monks, who were all Buddhist and followed Buddha’s teachings of eating no meat. The monks saw vegetarianism as a means of reaching a high level of training.
Traditional gongfu training is about saving and storing energy for every organ. We eat in order to get energy. Energy in natural food comes from the sun, the air, the water and the earth. By going directly to the earth for our food, we not only conserve energy used for digestion but also get an energy of a finer quality which can be used for a higher purpose like gongfu and meditation. The more natural the food, the more energy it has. Unfortunately, most of us are in the habit of eating the wrong things for the wrong reasons. It is common sense that our body then has to slow down and waste more energy in digesting unnatural food like meat.
In addition, being a vegetarian can aid the practitioner in achieving a better level of constancy or staying power while training and fighting. For example, animals like horses and buffalos are vegetarians -- their main diet consists of grass -- and they have a tremendous amount of endurance and stamina while running, even when encumbered with heavy things. On the other hand, tigers and leopards – with their diet of meat only -- are only able to maintain short periods of power.
From a scientific point of view, when an animal is killed, the Qi of anger and fear is trapped in the meat; in a state of shock animal cells alter and create poisons in the flesh. When people eat this meat the poisons and impurities enter their body. For this reason people can easily get sick and angry or depressed. When the mind and the body are in this unbalanced state, people cannot continue training on a regular basis.
For traditional Shaolin culture, therefore, vegetarianism is not only important for religious beliefs, it is important for maintaining a healthy body as well. Vegetarianism is a necessary foundation for attaining a high level of gongfu skills; without a healthy body your gongfu cannot improve. In addition, vegetarianism helps to cleanse the body from impurities in the blood, while making the Qi tranquil and helping to create a peaceful state of mind. Thus a vegetarian diet is the first requirement for adequate internal training.
Morality, ethics, honour are other related issues. A gongfu practitioner spends his life studying something that in a split second, without a second thought, could be used to harm or kill someone. This ability has to be controlled.
The answer is the cultivation of a caring heart for all living creatures.
A first basic principle should be to refuse to kill and eat animals. Then humanity should become an important issue for a practitioner and he should treat all people with compassion, understanding and tolerance. Such principles of caring help to create a balanced and healthy mind in which there is no place for criminal wrong-doing. To develop a balanced being and a caring attitude towards humanity is extremely important for the practitioners of martial arts.
As this level of awareness or consciousness develops and expands, it influences the consciousness of mankind worldwide, helping to diminish negative feelings and behaviour such as greed, anger, violence and criminal acts of all kinds. This in turn allows the consciousness of the practioners to rise higher and eventually reach a state of enlightenment.
An enlightened being has total awareness of his own self, his body and his environment. If the enlightened person is also a gongfu practitioner he will be aware of fear and danger before ever seeing or knowing the source of those feelings. His reactions to danger, whether in training or in real combat, will be much faster – essential for the mastering of high level gongfu skills.
Vegetarianism is a vital element in the reaching of this state of awareness.
It is a concern for many people that vegetarian food does not supply enough nutrition to the body. This is, in fact, not the case. When eating a balanced vegetarian diet, the body will receive ample nutrition for vitality and health. Masters Dejian and Wu Nanfang and their disciples are living proof of this. Vegetarianism is essential for those who are serious about mastering the highest levels of gongfu.
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