Encyclopedia of Buddhism Volume One A -L Robert E. Buswell

M ARTIAL
A RTS
his feet bears close similarity to some of the martial exercises
emphasizing balance exhibited in Shaolin martial
forms.
By the seventh century the Shaolin Monastery had
developed the cudgel as its weapon of choice. The
heavy cudgel, while capable of great devastation, was
neither metal nor sharp, and thereby was rhetorically
legitimated as a nonweapon appropriate to Buddhist
monks. According to popular histories, in 621 the
monastery offered its cudgel-wielding monks, thirteen
in all, to the service and ultimate victory of Li Shimin
(d. 649), who became the first emperor of the Tang
dynasty (618–907). Whether or not this tale is true, the
monastery seems to have enjoyed imperial favor during
the Tang dynasty, having been granted extensive
land and wealth. Such increased holdings would have
provided even greater incentive to maintain a martial
presence in the monastery. Over the centuries, Shaolin
monks developed other styles of combat, both armed
and unarmed. By the fifteenth century, Shaolin had become
synonymous in China with martial arts and has
remained so to the present day.
The existence of monastic defense forces can also be
found in Tibet and in medieval Japan, though in very
different political and social circumstances and with
different consequences. Some of the more important
Japanese shrine-temple complexes and Buddhist sects,
which were thoroughly integrated into the social and
political ethos of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
built legions of monks trained in military skills and
maintained militias not only to protect their existing
wealth in land and power but also in some cases to expand
it. The MONASTIC MILITIAS of Mount Hiei developed
as a formidable force during this period, not only
defending their own domains but also attacking the
domains of neighboring monasteries and even attempting
to intimidate the emperor in his Kyoto
palace. Their existence, however, was abruptly ended
in 1571 when Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582) surrounded
Mount Hiei with his soldiers and slaughtered all the
people associated with the monastery, including every
man, woman, and child living on the mountain. He
subsequently destroyed another Buddhist force, the legions
of the Exclusive (Ikko) Pure Land Buddhist sect,
which had used its power to dominate entire provinces.
What emerges from this brief overview of early Buddhist
history are two important observations about the
relationship of Buddhist monasticism and the martial
arts. First, the phenomenon of monastic warriors and
militias, while a historical fact, was nonetheless relatively
isolated in time and place. Second, there is no
compelling evidence in the texts dating from the early
periods to indicate that martial training was carried out
in the context of traditional Buddhist ritual or cultivation
practices such as meditation, sutra explication,
or chanting. Rather, martial training in Chinese,
Japanese, and Tibetan monasteries appears to have
been regarded not as a practice leading to awakening
or liberation, but as an expedient deemed necessary in
the circumstances in which many medieval Buddhist
institutions found themselves.
Zen Buddhism and martial arts
Although there is little or no Buddhist doctrinal rationale
for the activities of the monastic militias of the
early period, the modern practice of Asian martial arts,
particularly those that developed in Japan, are frequently
characterized in terms that suggest modes of
spiritual practice directly informed by the Buddhism
of the CHAN SCHOOL (Japanese, Zen). Most contemporary
martial arts have thus taken on a quasi-religious
character. The student is encouraged to strive to attain
a state of pure consciousness while in the midst of combat.
In a psychological state of equanimity and oneness
with the adversary, the student is assured that his
or her actions will flow with effortless spontaneity. Initiations,
practices, and successful progress are generally
marked by formal rituals, including bowing,
processions, and the award of certificates or insignia.
These can be seen as stripped-down secularized versions
of Asian religious rituals and practice. The distinction
between the achievement of a state of
awakening, understood as the ultimate goal of Buddhist
practice, and the effortless defeat of an adversary
in battle coalesce. The monk becomes warrior; the warrior
becomes monk. Not surprisingly, many popular
texts on martial arts trace their lineage to the Shaolin
Monastery in China.
By the eight century, Shaolin Monastery had become
identified with the fifth-century semilegendary
figure of BODHIDHARMA, popularly regarded as the
person who introduce Chan Buddhism to China. According
to legend, Bodhidharma spent nine years meditating
in a cave above Shaolin Monastery. However,
the earliest text to mention Bodhidharma, the sixthcentury
Loyang qielan ji (Record of Monasteries in
Loyang), describes him not as a wall-gazing meditation
master, but as a wonder-working thaumaturge from
the Western (barbarian) Lands. The thaumaturgic tradition
in China contains accounts of such shamanlike
characters performing prodigious feats of physical
516 E NCYCLOPEDIA OF B UDDHISM