Shaolin tiger catching

少林心意把秘笈图解

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shaolin arhat arranges flowers

Shaolin Lohan Arrages Flowers

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Brief Biography of master shi deJian

Master Shi Dejian has been practicing Shaolin ChanWuYi for almost 20 years. The highest level and ultimate goal of any Shaolin monk is to achieve the unity of Chan, Wu, and Yi in one person. Because of the inherent difficulty in attaining such a state, only a few Shaolin monks throughout the many generations have been able to attain this state. Master Dejian is perhaps the only contemporary Shaolin monk in Songshan working towards this goal. Because Master Dejian is considered the representative of the Shaolin ChanWuYi culture, he has been invited by different countries to explicate on Shaolin ChanWuYi, including Japan, Italy, and Korea.
Master Dejian is the disciple of Master Xingxing, the 3rd Grand Master of Shaolin ChanWuYi. Master Dejian also became the disciple of the Master Shi Suxi, Abbot of the Shaolin Temple at that time, and became a 31st generation monk of the Cao branch in Shaolin. In 1997, Master Dejian was instructed by his master to go to the subsidiary of Shaolin Temple - Sanhuang Zhai, with the aim of deepening his knowledge in ChanWuYi, and strengthening his skills in the esteemed Shaolin Wu, Xinyiba (Heart-Mind-Control). In 1999, Dejian was named by Grand Master Xingxing as the 4th Grand Master of the Wu Gulun branch of Shaolin ChanWuYi. In 2005, Master Dejian founded the Henan Songshan Research Institute of ChanWuYi, with the aim of establishing a place to unite the different fronts in society in promoting the Shaolin ChanWuYi culture.

Mind-mastering Chan

The essence of Chan can be understood as the essence of Chi.” In the principle of Mind-mastering Chan, mastering the mind means to master Chi and one’s actions. “Mind”, in this sense, means teaching without scriptures - through persuasion and a meeting of minds to train the heart. Mind-mastering Chan is not merely simple sitting meditation, though this can be one of the methods. If one knows how to master the mind, one can achieve “mastering-Chi” and enlightenment through standing, simple movements, or wushu. The way to master the mind (or train the heart) includes focusing on specific points on the body, visualizing the senses, deep concentration, and inner-body observation. The purposes are to cultivate, smoothen and master the Chi. Beginners can start with sitting and standing meditation, focus on points, and visualization. If one can enter the stage of deep concentration, one’s breathing will become slow, continuous, and deep. One will have entered a stage of semi-consciousness, like sleeping but not really sleeping, like dreaming but not really dreaming. One becomes very relaxed, may see wonderful senses, and feels intensely satisfied and blissful. To balance and enhance one’s internal energy this way is to direct the Chi naturally. Another approach is through self-control, which can only be practiced after one has practiced the natural approach for a lengthy period. The self-control approach is to perform inner-body observation after entering the stage of deep concentration, to understand the Chi and blood circulation of the body. This is done through directing the “real” Chi to fill the whole body, guiding the Chi to flow freely, even to the tips of the hair. The highest level is to be able to direct the Chi with the mind and focus it into a force. If one can reach the level of letting go of the self, one would have attained unlimited power. One can use this power to treat illnesses, through utilizing one’s real Chi to affect others, to guide the flow of Chi in others to unblock Chi stagnation. Sometimes, unblocking the Chi can also be facilitated by Chinese medicine and diet. This is the essence of Mind-mastering Chan, also known as Pusa Xing / Bodhisattva character.

wu nanfang lohan chui(arhat pound)

Shaolin Xinyi Arhat Pound belongs to one of the traditional Wushu series it is passed by the famous warrior monk Jiqin in the late Qing Dynasty. its The characteristics are simple and unadorned well with fighting capabilitywith strong attacking and defensing skills, attackAttacking and defend defense echo with each other and taking in and sending out coincide with each otherbreath in and out are combined together the strong and the weak mutually assist each other tempered toughness with gentleness, mixture of truth and deceitreal and cheating moves can not be recognized, every trick and skill not attacking but defendingevery actions are either attack or defend like a hungry tiger pouncing on its prey powerful and valiancy at the mean time, its fighting sound like the tiger's whistle fist The style and manner of the boxing like having root on the groundactions goes very steadily, like spring-water has no wave when quiet stand like a quiet spring pool and overturn the river and upset the sea when attackingacts like a terrific ocean and overturn the river and upset the sea when attackingthe fist like a stone which can pouch a hole.





Section 1
Preparatory posture

Posture number Name of posture
Posture 1 two hands holding fist

Posture 2 cross hands

Posture 3 double vertical block

Posture 4 flying cracker

Posture 5 protecting body fist

Posture 6 towing cannon in leaping step

Posture 7 hacking fist for two times in body squatting posture

Posture 8 Lifting the body and revolving fist
Posture 9 Face-covering palm
Posture 10 Protecting body towering fist
Posture 11 Wringing body, squatting and stretching claw forward
Posture 12 Sparrow hawk shrinking body
Posture 13 Towering cannon



Section 2
posture number Name of posture
Posture 14 Turing over and hacking with the two
Posture 15 Blocking hands for two times
Posture 16 Heart separating
Posture 17 Attacking-rib palm
Posture 18 Circling and rolling body
Posture 19 Failure posture
Posture 20 Hacking palm in coiling hands and squatting step
Posture 21 Lifting body and striking with fist
Posture 22 Black tiger attacking heart
Posture 23 Wringing hand and hacking fist
Posture 24 Monkey washing face
Posture 25 Throw up one’ s hand in galloping hands
Posture 26 Circling and wrapping body
Section 3
posture number Name of posture
Posture 27 Picking on the sky
Posture 28 Chopping hand palm
Posture 29 Stirring palm for two times
Posture 30 Rolling body and riding on a tiger
Posture 31 Wringing hand and attacking heart palm
Posture 32 Protecting body and wrapping for two times
Posture 33 Towering cannon
Posture 34 Rolling body and hacking palm
Posture 35 Blocking hand and hacking palm
Posture 36 Circling and sitting on mountain
(hero in horse stance)

The Explanation of ChanWuYi by master Xingxing

My master Wu Shanlin had taught over ten disciplines during his life, and most of them had followed him for only three to five years. However, I had followed my master for 20 years, and became the successor of ChanWuYi. With my limited ability, I had only taken two disciples, they are Shi Dejian and Wu Nafo. Among those who learn Kungfu surrounding and within Shaolin Temple, only we have followed the ChanWuYi approach taught to me by Wu Shanlin (that was original form Wu Gulun). I only had one year of schooling, my academic level may be low. Thus, I must say my understanding of Shaolin’s ChanWuYi culture was also originated from my master, and with my own reflection and experience.

First of all, Chan is not superstition. My master and mine followed and respected Buddism, we have enhanced our own life by life with Buddism – to develop a kind heart, a high moral standard, and many charity sets. We understand that Buddha is within our heart but not in the heaven – that was what Buddha taught. Buddha, nowadays, is worshipped by people as God; in fact he was a holy person but not God. My master and mine do not believe in superstition God and specter.

I had followed my master to learn a specific approach of Chan Practice that is called Mindmastering Chan, also known as Pusa Xing. ChanWu (Chan Kung Fu) and Chan Yi (Chan Medical Approach) are different form of Mindmastering Chan, but the fundamental principal is the same. Practicing Chan is a way to enrich one’s inner-self, moral standard and wisdom. Those who practice Chan will eventually break the self-center mind and reach a level that beyond self.

Practicing Chan can help an individual to live naturally, with a trouble-free mind, a fruitful and wonderful life. However, an individual must go through a diligent and persistent practice of Chan in order to reach this level of awareness.

My master had taught me: Chan is Heart (thought). In order to understand Chan, one must first learn how to enlighten one’s heart (thought). To enlighten one’s heart, one must live accordingly to Buddism’s guidelines, clean one’s inner self, establish high moral conduct and practice charity acts. Those practicing Chan should develop an internal self that consist of several elements: original, nature, kindness, and to be a benefactor to society. The most difficulty to practice Chan is to understand and control oneself, that is what Buddism said “purity of thoughts” or Chan observation. In another word, Buddism’s basic guideline:

1. No killing
2. No stealing
3. No lust
4. No drinking
5. No dishonest

The most challenging enemy for learning Chan is oneself, but no other people. Buddism advocated control “evil”. How to control the evil? First, one must polish oneself by following the methods mentioned above, and then gradually one will be able to the evil thoughts within one’s self. We are all originally ordinary people, and are always troubled by matters and others people in the world. It is not easy to be Bodhisattva; however, we can develop a thought of Bodhisattva to do everything. Those with evil and unrightrust thoughts can never reach to level of Chan, because unkind thoughts destroy the thought of Chan. Mindmastering Chan can be achieved by Chan Kungfu and Chan Medical Practice. These two approaches are both based upon “Guiding Chi”. One must maintain a serenity heart (mind), without much trouble thoughts, can forget oneself to order to be able to experience to unity of Chi and thoughts and reach the level of Chan. For individuals with unkind thoughts, immoral conducts can never know Chan nor to experience the undescribable level mysterious Chan.

Xin Yi Ba

Xin Yi Ba

Xin Yi Ba is the highest level of the secret skills of traditional Shaolin gongfu. It is of considerable interest to many people. The information given below has been translated from a copy of the original manual, combined with some explanations from Shi Xingxiao’s own training experience at the Shaolin temple. The theory of Xin Yi Ba is very difficult to translate, but a brief outline has been attempted here.

Xin Yi Ba is also known as Chu Jue Tou (锄镢头). It was developed by Shaolin monks through using Gongfu movements while farming. The exact date of the founding of Xin Yi Ba can not be traced because of the number of disasters which befell the Shaolin temple -- resulting in the loss and destruction of many valuable historical manuscripts. Xin Yi Ba was, however, already very famous during the Song Dynasty.

At present some wushu practitioners in Dengfeng claim that they know Shaolin Xin Yi Ba. They may have been taught a few movements when Master Wu Shanlin was invited back to the Shaolin Temple to teach for three years in the 1960’s but in actual fact the Xin Yi Ba they claim to know is not the real thing.

Xin Yi Ba consists only of a few main sequences of movements and some secondary movements. When one becomes proficient in mastering these movements, he can create infinite postures of his own. In fact, the study of Xin Yi Ba is to practice and fortify one’s Qi and one’s outer strength with the purpose of manipulating one’s Qi to nourish one’s internal organs and to enrich the muscles of the body. Then one can move the Qi out of the body as well – even, in some situations, protecting the body from being injured. It also helps to create a calm mind, prevent illness and make the body strong.

The study of Xin Yi Ba includes many aspects of different theories and practical training, such as: the three sections (Ming San Jie), the four sensations (Qi Si Shao), guarding the five elements (Bi Wu Xing), The Three Voids -- as well as an understanding of the six combinations (Liu He).

Ming San Jie明三节 – the understanding of the three sections

The body has three main sections: hands to shoulders (upper section), chest to waist (middle section) and hips to feet (root section).

Each main section consists of three other sections:
Upper section: hands (upper), elbows (middle) and shoulders (root).
Middle section: chest (upper), heart (middle) and lower abdomen (root).
Root section: feet (upper), knees (middle) and hips (root).

The relationship between the three sections has its own unique function. For example, when a movement is performed from one of the three sections, the other two sections must be in harmony in order to generate the power from the movement performed. This means any movements must be supported by the power generated from the whole body. This is explains how important it is for practitioners to understand the San Jie.

Qi Si Shao-齐四稍 – the four internal sensations

According to the original gongfu theory, all parts of the body are connected to the central nervous system; for example, the hair is assumed to be the ending of the blood, the nails are the ending of the ligaments, the teeth are the ending of the bones and the tongue is the ending of the muscles.

While practicing, it is possible to experience sensations such as the hair lifting the scalp, the nails trying to penetrate the bones, the teeth biting through steel and the tongue trying to push the teeth out of place. These sensations are symptoms of the internal power that is being generated. As the Qi rises from the Dantian, an involuntary sound is produced with each movement, all parts of the body are set into motion and the internal power can expressed maximum effectiveness.

Bi Wu Xing 闭五行 -- guarding the five elements

Our Chinese ancestors used the theory of the five elements to explain the relationship between the five major organs of the body. They considered the world consists of five elements: metal, wood, water, fire and earth -- which should exist in a balance and harmony with each other. In later years, the ancient gongfu practitioners use the theory of the five elements in gongfu training as well. For example, the hand is linked to the heart which represents the element of fire and the nose is linked to the lung which represents the element of metal. Fire is capable of melting metal, thus the nose can be damaged easily by the hand. The five major organs are like five entrances of the body: one has to guard one’s own entrances and restrain one’s opponent from attacking them.

San Kong -- three voids

The key points of practicing are about the “void” -- also known as “Emptiness”. These consist of “the Emptiness of the heart” (心空), ”the Emptiness of the body”(身空） and “the Emptiness of the eyes”（目空）.

The Emptiness of the heart, (心空) Xin Kong, enables one to purify the heart and calm the mind, which makes one thought-free and fearless.

The emptiness of the body, (身空) Sheng Kong, enables one to release any tightness in the body so that one can move fluently and smoothly.

The emptiness of the eyes, (目空) Mu Kong, enables one to consider everybody and everything as beneath one’s notice so that one assume superiority and thus shows no fear when facing the enemy.

When practicing gong-fu, it is very important to understand the theory behind the method. Only by understanding what every part of the body is used for in each movement will one's practice be effective and efficient.

The theories explained above are only some of the requirements of the practice of Xin Yi Ba. There are many more which can not be put into words but must be experienced personally through training.