These exercises are believed by some people to be the basis of shaolin, the category of hand-to-hand martial arts named after the temple at which Ta Mo meditated.

             History.

             Little is known about the history of the Shaolin Temple. Most that had been said by scholars has not been confirmed. There are many variations of how the Shaolin came to be. Even today, there is no certainty about how everything all started and the ways the Temple had effected the Chinese society. .

             The first Shaolin (Little Forest) Temple was located at the foot of China"s mountain range, the Sung Shan which is in Honan province. The temple was built by Emperor Hsiao Wen of the Northern Wei dynasty (386-534 AD).3 Built around the same time as the Honan Temple, a temple called the Fukien Temple was integrated into mainstream Shaolin around 650 AD and became the "Second Temple" of Shaolin.4 It was a much larger temple than the Honan temple and served as a second main temple when the one in Honan was occupied or damaged. The third Shaolin temple was integrated into Shaolin around 800 AD. It was an old temple named Wutang Tiger Temple located near Manchuria and the Korean Peninsular.5 Later, during the Ming dynasty(1368 AD-1644 AD), the O Mei Shan (Great White Mountain) Temple was added to Shaolin. It became a library and medical temple.6.

             By the seventh century the temples had greatly expanded to include land and building housings for approximately 1,500 monks. Five hundred of the monks were monk-soldiers trained at the temple by the request of Emperor Tai Sung. On a stone tablet still in existence, the story of how thirteen monks were sent into battle to help the Emperor when he was in danger was recorded.7 The monks did such a great job that the Emperor asked them to remain at the court afterwards. Instead they wanted to return back to the temple and promised to return when ever the Emperor needed them. From then on, the Temple trained monk-soldiers.