The Origin of Shaolin King Fu is attributed
in part to the founder of Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism, the Indian Monk Bodhidharma,
who spent nine years at a Shao Lin temple in the Songshan Mountains of China
sometime around 520 AD. Martial arts existed in China long before then – there are references in the Spring and Autumn
Annals, composed between 800–500 B.C., to “hard” and “soft” fighting techniques. However, after nine
years of meditation facing the wall of a cave located nearby, and concerned by
the physical state of some of the monks, the Bodhidharma set forth a series of
exercises to be practiced by monks to strengthen both mind and body, and introduced
a set of physical exercises consisting of (in Japanese) the Ekkinkyo and Senzuikyo.
The Ekkinkyo are a series of exercises and
breathing techniques to enable one's body to withstand the long hours of
meditation and other severe forms of training, while the Senzuikyo shows how
monks should develop their mental and spiritual strength. From these exercises an additional method, or
kata, was developed known as the Shih Pa Lohan Shu (the "Eighteen Hands of the
Lohan").
These breathing exercises came to be held
in very high regard in Okinawa by many of the great karate masters, and have played
a key role in the development of karate training. Morio Higaonna refers to them
as “the most fundamental precepts of present day karate-do.” Gichin Funakoshi, who initially popularized
karate on mainland Japan in the 1920s, is quoted in his “Introduction to Karatedo" as saying: “By strengthening the body through the method described in the Ekkin
sutra, one can acquire the prowess of the Deva kings. Polishing the mind
through the Senzui sutra develops the strength of will to pursue the spiritual
path.”
The power of correct breathing, and the importance of traditional techniques to develop it, cannot be underestimated in karate training.
