I-Ch’ing-Ch’ing

Hundreds of years ago, a man called Bodhidharma traveled from India to China over the “silk road,” a route that was filled with bandits and highwaymen, and which one needed to be something of a great fighter even to survive. Somehow he found his way to the Shaolin Temple, a Buddhist monastery and place of meditation. Here he discovered that the monks were of poor health, and taught them a series of exercises, exercises which could be performed while sitting on their cushions. These upper body movements emphasized what came to be called “winding” or “silk-reeling” movements, after the kind of rotations seen in silk cocoons as the thread was slowly peeled away. These were also called “internal” movements, because they involved rotations of the limbs about their transverse axes, as opposed to the “external” movements characterized by waving the arms about in space. Eventually these movements were coupled with powerful stances of the legs, and became the basis of the legendary fighting forms known as Shaolin Temple Boxing, which became a source of fame and secured the place of the Shaolin monks as icons of the martial arts. These exercises have been passed down for centuries and still retain their original potency as a treatment for health and physical rejuvenation. Combined with specific patterns of breathing, they show a remarkable effect upon any who practice them, regardless of age or previous physical condition.