Читать книгу Complete Shotokan Karate. History, Philosophy, and Practice онлайн

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The exercises that Bodhidharma taught his monks are said to have been written down in the Hsien-Sui Ching and I-Chin Ching. The former book has been lost, but the I-Chin Ching has supposedly been passed down through the ages. Some feel that none of the current versions is authentic; perhaps many of these texts were designed to perpetuate the myths about the monk. In spite of all the legends about him, however, it is generally accepted that he was in China sometime around A.D. 520 and did spread the Dhyana school of Buddhism there.

Chinese martial arts became increasingly popular during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). However, with the rise to power of the Manchu, a Mongoloid people, many of the practitioners were forced to flee southward. They joined secret societies in order to help fight against the Manchu rulers and restore Chinese sovereignty. Opposition to the Manchu led to an increase in the number of boxing schools and secret Chinese societies, thus helping spread the arts throughout the country. Since the societies were instituted for the purposes of combat, it became necessary for the pugilists to become masters of Chinese weapons—the broad sword, the hooking sword, the plum-blossom sword, and the halberd—as well.