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Message: <blockquote data-quote="NoOneofConsequence" data-source="post: 388714" data-attributes="member: 5400">As I understand it.Shaolin kung fu has had a massive influence on Chinese fighting arts or wu shu, dating back at least a thousand years. But even in China, there are kung fu arts that owe nothing to the Shaolin tradition - Chin Na is one, IIRC.Also, a vast number of Chinese arts have weapons forms, but not all Chinese weapons were mastered by the Shaolin monks, the Nine Dragons Trident being one that comes to mind.On the subject of weapons though, I would hazard a guess that the influence of Shaolin is the main reason why Chinese hand to hand combat has a number of extremely complex weapons as a part of its "standard" arsenal (Case in point, the three section staff). In Europe the simpler weapon drove the more complex off the battlefield (by and large), whereas the more complex weapons have remained in CHinese fighting arts due to the influence of Shaolin (at least in part).This can lead to an interesting observation concerning Japanese martial arts. As I understand it Japanese martial arts tend to teach relatively straight forward weapons, due I would think to the Japanese preference for simplicity as a philosophical principle. So I'd have to say that Shaolin's influence on Japanese MA can't be too great, since the Japanese have shown a brilliant capacity for taking what they want and leaving the rest.This excursion into historical musings was brought to you by the guy who should be writing a report to the CEO.edited for spelling</blockquote>

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