While teaching his disciplines how to practice meditation, Bodhidharma (菩提達摩) found some of them
becoming drowsy and starting to sleep. It's only natural for the young learners to fall asleep in "meditation." Nowadays, a senior monk carries a birch with which to beat novices awake at every Zen temple when he sees any of them begin to drowse.
One way to chase away drowsy boredom, of course, is to get those people sitting unmoved in meditation to stand up and move around a bit -- or stretch their legs. For his disciples Bodhidharma developed a form of calisthenics, which has come to be known as the Eighteen Tricks of the Arhat or Lo-han shipa shou (羅漢十八手). An arhat or arahat or arhant is a Buddhist monk who has attained Nirvana. The last Sanskrit word was transliterated into Chinese as A-lo-han (阿羅漢), which is abbreviated to Lo-han. It actually means a person deserving respect. Its Japanese counterpart is Rakan.
One way to chase away drowsy boredom, of course, is to get those people sitting unmoved in meditation to stand up and move around a bit -- or stretch their legs. For his disciples Bodhidharma developed a form of calisthenics, which has come to be known as the Eighteen Tricks of the Arhat or Lo-han shipa shou (羅漢十八手). An arhat or arahat or arhant is a Buddhist monk who has attained Nirvana. The last Sanskrit word was transliterated into Chinese as A-lo-han (阿羅漢), which is abbreviated to Lo-han. It actually means a person deserving respect. Its Japanese counterpart is Rakan.
There is a well-known story of how Shaolin monks -- thirteen of them, to be exact -- saved Li Shimin (李世民), the Emperor Tai-zhong of the Tang Dynasty (唐太宗627-650).
Shimin's father, the Emperor Gao-zu (高祖), founded the dynasty in 618, but there were many rebels who resisted his rule. One of them was Wang Shichong (王世充), a marshal of the previous Sui Dynasty. In 620, Li Shimin led a Tang army to suppress the Wang rebellion. He asked his younger brother Li Yuanji (李元吉) to engage Wang's well-trained army, but the Tang troops were routed battle after battle. In the last encounter, however, the soldiers led by thirteen Shaolin monks rushed into the battlefield. They turned the tide of the battle, and annihilated Wang's rear-guard to take his nephew Wang Renze (王仁則) prisoner. The nephew was a general commanding the rear-guard. After the battle, Li Shimin was able to defeat Wang Shizhong. The Shaolin monks saved the future Tang emperor from the brink of a certain defeat. In appreciation of their succor, he had a special monument erected at the Shaolin Temple. The eulogy inscribed on the stone monument, signed by Li Shimin, is still extant.
Gao-zu abdicated in favor of his son Li Shimin in 627. The son was one of the ablest monarchs and had one of the most brilliant reigns in China's long history. Still only twenty-one years of age when his father ascended the throne, he contributed markedly to the latter's triumph, and although he opened his own way to the succession by killing two of his brothers, including Li Yuanji, he proved to be, for an autocrat, fairly magnanimous, frugal in his private life, usually affectionate to his family, and one who could attract and hold the loyalty of subordinates. During the nearly quarter of a century of his reign, he succeeded in thoroughly unifying the country, in stimulating its culture and increasing its prosperity, and in placing it on a new pinnacle of power.
One of the Shaolin monks given imperial applaud was Jueyuan (覺遠) or Know-Far. He learned the Shaolin boxing art at the temple for a long time, winning fame as a top kung-fu trainer. He wasn't satisfied, however. He left the temple to seek a new master for himself, and finally found Pai Yufeng (白玉峰), a Shaolin boxing art champion. In the end, however, both of them returned to the temple to continue practicing to perfect the Shaolin pugilistic art.