Shaolin Quan is named after the Shaolin Temple in Mount Song, Henan Province. It is based on ancient Chinese fitness techniques and has gathered the strong points of various martial arts. Renowned both at home and abroad, Shaolin Martial Arts hold the reputation that “All martial arts originated from Shaolin.”

The determined effort of Shaolin monks in learning and teaching martial arts can be found in the original tale of The Biography of Zen Master Chou in Old Book of the Tang. After being studied, practiced and summarized through so many generations, Shaolin Quan has converged the best techniques of various schools, and gradually developed into a complete and content-rich system of martial arts, passed on from generation to generation.

Shaolin Quan stresses practicality, with compact structures in forms, simplicity in moves, masculine toughness in actions, and quickness and fierceness in agility. It has a tightly connected network of offense and defense, a repertoire of changeable forms and a flexible way of using power. A distinctive feature of the Shaolin Quan lies in the motto that “punches should follow a straight line.” Rolls of punches are delivered and advances and retreats are made all along straight lines.

Shaolin Quan demands that in fighting, when the body moves forward, the steps should be brought along and the heart is to regulate the breath, or Qi, before an action is taken. The stress is laid on that an attack should be “elegant like a cat, vibrant like a tiger, maneuverable like a dragon, fast like a bolt of lightning, and loud like roars of thunder.” The body has to rise unexpectedly, fall smoothly, and move flexibly. There are eight key points in moves: Qi (rise), Luo (fall), Jin (advance), Tui (retreat), Fan (return), Ce (sideway move), Shou (restrain), and Zong (release). Footwork should be low in advance and high in retreat, agile but yet firm. The Zhan Zhuang Gong (Static Stance) is a basis of Shaolin Quan. The stance includes the Horse Stance, the Chair Stance, and the “T” Stance. At the same time, the practice of sight, hearing, grasping, pulling, pushing, lifting and kicking among others is also demanded.

The rich contents of Shaolin Quan include various fist fighting forms and weapon techniques among others. There are two kinds of fist fighting disciplines, Dan Lian (single-man drills) and Dui Lian (paired-up fighting drills). The single-man forms include the Xiao Hong Quan (small Hong Fist Fighting), Da Hong Quan (big Hong Fist Fighting), Luo Han Quan, Pao Quan (Cannon Fist Fighting), Chang Quan (Long Fist Fighting) and Mei Hua Quan (Plum Flower Fist Fighting) among others. The paired-up sparring includes Liuhe Quan (Six-direction Fist Fighting) and others. There are also San Da (free style) and Qi Gong (breathing exercise). Aside from bare-hand martial arts, Shaolin Quan also has the techniques of the 18 Arms of Martial Arts, such as the blade, spear, sword, staff and others.