Shaolin monks hone their kung fu skills. Murals in the White Hall of the Shaolin Temple.

72 Arts of Shaolin

/ 72 Secret Arts of Monks from the Shaolin Monastery /

The Mountain Gate of Shaolin Temple.
- SHAOLIN KUNG FU ONLINE LIBRARY. ONLINE STORE SINCE 2001

"72 Precious Shaolin Arts are kept in a brocade bag, they are kept like a great treasure. 18 of them are the essence of the famous Shaolin Treatises on Pugilistic Arts. 18 other Arts describe in detail training methods with the use of special tools and training equipment. Wonderful methods of attaining the flexibility of bones and joints ROU GU GONG, breathing exercises QI GONG, exercises in obtaining Hardness YING GONG and Lightness QING GONG, grappling methods CHIN NA and many other methods and techniques are written with the blood of monks in books that are kept like a treasure in the brocade bag. One can seldom meet those who really want to do exercises with zeal: to become a real hero, one must often feel bitter taste of hard labor."

- The Secrets of Pugilistic Art of Shaolin Monastery
- “The Mountain Gate” of Shaolin Monastery.

"72 Shaolin Arts are perfect exercises. First of all, it is necessary to assimilate the hornbook of mastership. Apt moment, apt time, apt mystery... Strictly observe instructions, and you will be able to become as perfect as the Dragon."

- SHAOLIN TUTOR CHUN JIN

The 72 Shaolin Secret Arts are methods of preparing the body and the mind for action under extreme conditions (first of all, in conditions of real-life hand-to-hand combat). If you train only hand-to-hand techniques and do not pay attention to special training, you will never achieve the highest mastery and your movements will lack the real force. "The fists are like flowers, and the legs like embroidery needles", laugh the old masters at such "techniques". The 72 Arts of Shaolin are the foundation of the utmost mastery in all styles of Martial Arts.

- "We collected all we had seen and heard, we gathered ancient manuscripts given to us by our tutors to compile the present edition." (Jin Jing Zhong)

If you rely only on hard toil and persistency, but do not follow the rules, you may turn into sideways and spend efforts equal to efforts of nine buffaloes and two tigers, but all the same you will not attain perfection.

- SHAOLIN TUTOR SU XI

72 Shaolin Arts represent an example of personal experience of monks from the Shaolin Monastery in the Songshan Mountains. This experience was obtained by hard exercises in Martial Arts during many epochs. The best samples of those 72 Arts are such effective methods as QIGONG (CHI KUNG), Breathing exercises, exercises to obtain Hardness YING GONG and Lightness QING GONG, Acupoint Massage DIEN XUE (DIM MAK), Art of Seizing and Grappling CHIN NA, the Art of Setting Dislocations and Bones and others.

In all practices of the 72 Shaolin Arts at first the basic theory is studied and only then exercises are done. At first those who practice the Shaolin Arts train the softness of their sinews and bones and try to make agile all their joints and articulations. Then they set into motion the Main Breath ZONG LI, strengthen the internal organs FU, improve blood state, consolidate body strength, control the Cinnabar Field and concentrate energy QI in it, overcome their desires and requirements. The strength spreads on the four extremities and the hundred joints and articulations, now a fighter is in command of unlimited power, and he can move off 1000 JINs. Your arm weighing only 10 JINs can move a thing weighing 10.000 JINs with one blow of your hand.

Your arms are a Head, your legs are a Tail. Everything is permeated with a single movement. The body moves like a Dragon. Teachers said: "Shaolin exercises develop forces of the whole human organism, all joints and bones; you are capable of striking with all parts of your body." There is one more saying: "The First is the source of all Martial Arts, and the Leg is the base, the root of the Fist." Ordinary practice of Pugilism consists of seventy percent of leg training and thirty percent of fist training. If you acquire Pugilism, you can use eighteen types of weapons. If you resort to all ruses of pugilism, you can fight against 10.000 fighters.

"Train yourself so that all the bones and the joins of your body would become mobile and lively, the Tiger and the Dragon of your body would freely move. Master the strength of your heart, and it is then that one of your fingers will be more powerful than thunder and stronger than ten thousand people"

- Shaolin Tutor Qiu Yue chan (Meditation of the Autumn Moon)

72 Shaolin Arts. General Requirements to the Way of Carrying-Out Exercises.

The Breath-Chi must unite with the Force - Li, the Mind must be in unity with the Heart, the Heart must be in unity with the Mind, the Mind must guide the Breath-Chi. Besides, the internal vision should be available in the Mind and create plans; the Mind must implement those plans, as far as the guidance of the Breath-Chi is concerned. The Breath-Chi strengthens the Force Li which is a motive force of the Breath-Chi.

With the use of the breath an effort is made and the effort must reach the eyes and vision. When doing external exercises, one must go from small coercions to deep ones, from simple coercions to complicated ones. The intensity of loading should be increased smoothly and step by step, excessive efforts do not lead to success.

During external practices the secret of success lies in constant observance of the principle
"Toil and Persistency". All the men who reached the top in the Shaolin practices got their high abilities in hard toil and reached successes only after a lot of regular exercises. One must rely only on his diligence. If you are not persistent in your heart, you will abandon your training half a way and loose what you have obtained during your practice.

72 ARTS OF SHAOLIN | Brief Descriptions

(1) Diamond Finger - (2) Twin Lock - (3) Striking with Foot  (4) Pulling out Nails - (5) Ringing Round a Tree - (6 ) Four-Part Exercise - (7) One Finger of Chan Meditation - (8) Iron Head - (9) Iron Shirt - (10) A Series of Blows - (11) Sweeping with an Iron Broom - (12) Hand - a Bamboo Leaf (13) Jumping Centipede - (14) Raising a Weight of 1000 JINs - (15) Celestial’s Palm - (16) Method of Hardness and Softness - (17) Cinnabar Palm - (18) Lying Tiger - (19) Swimming and Diving Skill - (20) Sluice Shutter weighing 1000 JINs - (21) Covering with a Gold Bell - (22) Finger Lock - (23) Luohan’s Exercise - (24) Lizard Climbs the Wall - (25) The Art of Lash - (26) PIPA - (27) The Pole of a Falling Star - (28) Poles of Plum Bloom - (29) The Art of Stone Padlock - (30) Skill of the Iron Arm - (31) Fist like a Bullet - (32) Soft Bones - (33) Frog - (34) Piercing the Curtain - (35) The Force of Eagle’s Claws - (36) Iron Bull - (37) Skill of Eagle Wings - (38) Hand of Sun Rays - (39) Exercise for Groin - (40) Iron Bag - (41) Method that Reveals the Truth - (42) Skill of Tortoise Back - (43) Skill of Deft Jumps - (44) Skill of Light Body - (45) Iron Knees - (46) Technique of Jumps - (47) Palm of Iron Sand - (48) Pulling a Silk Thread - (49) Method of drawing in YIN - (50) Rubbing and Thrusts - (51) Stone Pile - (52) Neither Lances nor Broadswords Can Wound - (53) Gong Fu Flight - (54) Hand of Five Poisons - (55) Skill of Water Separation - (56) To Fly Up to the Ridge and to Walk on a Wall - (57) Skill of Somersaulting - (58) Pole of Cypress - (59) Ba Wang’s Elbow - (60) Pinching a Flower - (61) Pushing a Mountain with Palm - (62) Technique of Horse Saddle - (63) Skill of Nephrite Belt - (64) YIN Fist Method - (65) Skill of Sand Bags - (66) Piercing Through Stones - (67) Pulling Out a Mountain - (68) Claws of Mantis - (69) Gong Fu Bag - (70) Palm of Guan Yin - (71) Raising a Pot - (72) Rubbing Palms