Wushi Literature, Buddhism, martial and asceticism: the art of war to the historiography about the monastery of Shaolin

Abstract

The essay combines the contributions of recent historiography to understand the relationship between Buddhism and martial asceticism in the martial tradition of the Shaolin Monastery, the traditional center of culture of martial arts and one of the cradles of spirituality Chan, lo-cated in Northern China. To answer the central questions about the relationship between martial Chan Buddhist spirituality and Chinese culture, appealed to the epic literature, called Wushi, to the films that addressed the subject and interviews with Chinese masters  migrants and practitioners of Kung-Fu in Brazil.