Are there "eighteen bronze men" in Shaolin Temple? Why Shaolin? What do the words "Shaolin" mean?

The world-famous Shaolin Temple is located at the foot of Wuru Peak in Shaoshi Mountain in the northwest of Dengfeng County, Henan Province. It is surrounded by Shaoshi Mountain and mountains, with numerous peaks, circulating streams, lush trees and elegant scenery. Buddhist circles call Dharma the "ancestor" of Zen in China, and Shaolin Temple is known as the "ancestral court" of Zen. Because it is located in the forest of Shaoshi Mountain, it is called Shaolin Temple.

Shaolin Temple was founded in the 19th year of Taihe in the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 495). It was built by Justin, Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, to solve the missionary problem of the Indian monk Batu. Because the temple is located in the jungle of Shaoshi Mountain, it is named. There is a saying in Shuo Song on a sunny day in Qing Dynasty that "Shaolin is a forest with few rooms".

After Postoto went to Shaolin Temple, he lived here for a long time to teach Hinayana Buddhism. Bucheng is a Buddhism aimed at self-liberation in early India. At that time, hundreds of people came to Shaolin Temple to seek the Dharma, and the high-footed disciples included Hui Guang, Hou Monk and others. After the postscript and extension spread, lanterns were moved and did not continue to develop.

In the third year of Xiaoming Xiaochang in the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 527), bodhidharma, the 28th Buddha of Sakyamuni, crossed the ocean to China, passed through Guangzhou and Nanjing, and then crossed the Yangtze River to Shaolin Temple. On the basis of the establishment of Postuo, temples were gradually expanded, and the number of monks increased. Shaolin Temple became the ancestral home of Zen Buddhism. Zen is a school of Buddhism. Zen is the abbreviation of "Zen" in Sanskrit, which means to be stable and not worry anymore. Its purpose is "to see nature clearly, and everything is empty". The Zen method of Zen is called "wall view", which is to sit quietly facing the wall and practice. For nine years, Dharma has been facing the wall in the cave of Wurufeng in the back of Shaolin Temple. Due to the long time, his figure was cast on a stone, leaving a "face stone" that has been praised for centuries. Now there is a famen stone in Shaolin Temple. Buddhism practiced in Shaolin Temple for many years, and it was spread to Hui Ke, Tian Ping in three years of Northern Wei Dynasty. Since then, Zen has spread in Shaolin Temple.

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhism prevailed and Buddhist temples spread all over the world. In the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Emperor Wu adopted Song Yuan's suggestion of "teaching by turns", and in the third year of Jiande (AD 574), the spread of Buddhism and Taoism was prohibited. At that time, Shaolin Temple was not spared, and the monks were in serious exile. During the elephant period in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, in order to maintain the feudal ruling order, Jingdi restored Buddhism and Taoism, reorganized Shaolin Temple and renamed it Shaolin Temple.

During the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen ascended the throne and attached great importance to Buddhism. Therefore, in the first few years of the emperor's reign, Qinong Temple was changed to Shaolin Temple and a hundred hectares of land was given as a temple manor. Since then, Shaolin Temple has become a big manor with a hundred hectares of fertile land. At the end of Sui Dynasty and the beginning of Tang Dynasty, thirteen Shaolin monks were generously rewarded by Emperor Taizong for their contributions, giving thousands of hectares of land and a water mill. The monks who participated in the war also had their own gifts. Since then, Shaolin Temple has become famous all over the world, known as the "No.1 Temple in the World", and has also become a place frequented and played by the supreme ruler of Li Tang. For example, Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetian kept visiting Shaolin Temple, and every time they got approval, Shaolin Temple was greatly built. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, Shaolin Temple had a land area of 1.4 million mu, a temple base of 540 mu, more than 5,000 pavilions and more than 2,000 monks and nuns, which was very prosperous.

Shaolin Temple was still prosperous in Yuan and Ming Dynasties. At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the ancestors ordered Fuxi, a monk, to preside over Shaolin and all the monasteries in the Song and Yue areas. When Fuyu presided over Shaolin, he founded the bell tower and drum tower, and built more corridors and kitchens. The hall is resplendent and magnificent, and monks gather to perform martial arts and pay tribute to the Buddha. "There must be two thousand people." Hou Fuyu was named Duke Jin by Yuan Di.

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the temples, pavilions and pavilions in Shaolin Temple were repaired and added many times. During Jiajing period, the monks of the temple made great contributions to the anti-Japanese war, and the temple was repaired on a large scale by Emperor Chengzu of Ming Dynasty, and the temple enjoyed the privileges of being granted by the Ming government, such as free of poor food.

In the early Qing Dynasty, Shaolin Temple was also quite prosperous. Kangxi personally wrote plaques for the mountain gate and the Hall of Ursa Major. When Yongzheng made the mountain gate; Emperor Qianlong also visited Shaolin, stayed in a room for the night and wrote many poems and plaques. After the end of the Qing Dynasty, Shaolin Temple suffered repeated battles and defeats, especially Chiyan Temple, 1928 warlord Shi Yousan. The fire lasted for more than forty days, and the architectural cultural relics in the temple were seriously damaged.

Shaolin Temple, from the mountain gate to the Thousand Buddha Hall, from Tallinn to the desert cave, and from the ancestor temple to the second ancestor temple, is famous for its tower architecture, Buddha sculpture, temple murals, Zhong Qing casting, column carving, bench masonry, stone inscriptions and paintings, and ancient pagoda stone workshops. Therefore, Shaolin Temple has become a famous temple in China and has been widely visited by Chinese and foreign tourists. As Pei Yi said in the Tang Dynasty's "Imperial Tang Song Yue Shaolin Temple Monument": "The spirit of the sea is like Song Mountain, and the Dojo in the mountain is the hall of victory."

After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), especially in recent years, with the development of tourism, the state allocated huge sums of money to repair the Shaolin Temple, restoring and repairing most buildings and cultural relics, beautifying the environment, adding facilities, and making the Millennium glory reappear.

The main building of Shaolin Temple is often hospitalized, which is the place where abbots and deacons of the temple conduct Buddhist activities and live, also known as "Shaolin Temple". Often hospitalized, built on the mountain, there are seven axial buildings, namely, the Mountain Gate, the Heavenly King Hall, the Mahatma Hall, the Sutra Pavilion, the abbot's room, the Dharma Pavilion and the Thousand Buddhas Hall. There are six ancestral halls, Kinnara Hall, Dongxi Zen Hall, Sutra Pavilion and White House on both sides, covering an area of more than 30,000 square meters.