From:	ANGLISS BRIAN EDWARD <angliss@****.Colorado.EDU>
Subject:	Re: just a thought
Date:	Mon, 25 Mar 1996 14:09:55 -0700 (MST)

On Mon, 25 Mar 1996, Mark L. Neidengard wrote:

> > An addendum to all of this: japan doesn't have anything to do with Buddhism
> > or the Shaolin Monks. Buddhism is (mainly, though definately not entirely)
> > Chinese. There are lots of Buddhist temples over in Japan, but there, the
> > main religion is Shinto. Shaolin Monks, however, are definately Chinese.
> > Kung-Fu and its animal and other variants (Mantis, Dragon, Tiger, Drunkend,
> > etc.) were created by these monks a really long time ago. I'm not saying
> > I'm a resource on it, I'm just commenting on the previous post about the
> > Meta's that were kicked out of Japan. They would not have, most likely,
> > been Shaolin. (Watch Kung-Fu, as banal and insepid as that show can be, it
> > still has some gems of truth hidden within. Whoa, that was a little too
> > philosophical)

>From speaking with Japanese people here in CO, I learned that Buddhism
and Shinto are both very prevelant in Japan, and that most people that
believe in on also believe in the other. The reason for this is that
they believe that Buddhism deals with how we live our lives today, while
Shinto deals with the afterlife.

> Well, as it turns out there is a flavor of karate (Shotokan) that is supposed
> to be descended directly from the base Shaolin style. Also, at _the_ Shaolin
> temple, so I'm told, there is a standing stone for each major martial art
> (Tang Soo Do, Tae Kwan Do, etc). Hell, the Shaolin temple is still probably
> standing in Shadowrun times. =)

Well, that depends on whether the Chinese destroyed the second Shaolin
temple like they destroyed the first. Yes, the current Shaolin temple is
not the original, even if it is something like 600 years old or so. The
original was destroyed by a Chinese warlord who didn't like the
possibility that the monks were possibly more dangerous than his army.
But it's been a long time since I read the history, so I could be
remembering it wrong. And yes, there is a standing stone, kind of shaped
like a small version of the Washington Monument, for Tang Soo Do, and I
suspect for most of the others that claim some descent or
cross-pollination with Shaolin Kung-Fu. I have pictures of Grandmaster
Jae C. Shin standing with a monk next to the stone in my TSD instruction
book.

Brian