Authentic Shaolin Heritage: Training Methods of 72 Arts of Shaolin
The 72 Shaolin Arts are methods of preparing the body and the  mind for action under extreme conditions (first of all, in conditions of  real-life hand-to-hand combat). If you train only hand-to-hand techniques  and do not pay attention to special training, you will never achieve the  highest mastery and your movements will lack the real force. "The fists are  like flowers, and the legs like embroidery needles", laugh the old masters  at such "techniques". The 72 Arts of Shaolin are the foundation of the  utmost mastery in all styles of Kung Fu.72 types of the Shaolin Arts represent an example of personal experience of  monks from the Shaolin Monastery in the Songshan Mountains. This experience  was obtained by hard exercises in combat arts during many epochs.  Many  hundreds of monks gained outstanding results and brought fame to Martial  Arts of Shaolin for ever. All of them attained such unusual abilities  thanks to special secret practices traditionally called "72 Arts of  Shaolin". They are the base and essence of the Shaolin Combat Training.Chronicles of the Shaolin Monastery (Shaolin Si Zhi) preserved for us many  names of monks-warriors from Shaolin who attained mystic heights of mastery  and obtained superhuman abilities thanks to indefatigable training and  diligent observance of true methods.For instance, monk Hong Wen who lived in the XIII-th century sat into the  stance MA, put a stone slab weighing 50 kg on his head, stood a man on each  knee and stayed so until a huge incense candle, as high as a man, half  burned off. His disciple Jue Yuan could dodge several spears thrown at him,  broke stone slabs with his fist, knocked a hollow in a wall with his  finger, ground pebbles into powder in his palms, handled all kinds of  Shaolin weapons with skill.Monk Zhi Yin who lived in the XV-th century came to Shaolin at the age of  sixteen. He gained such a mastery that he could easily move a stone  weighing 500 kg with a push of his leg, break trees with kick, drive piles  into ground with his heel, knock down several people at once with a kick.Monk Shu Ran who lived in the XVII-th century perfectly mastered the art of  "Light Body" QING GONG, jumped out of one pit into another, could jump up a  wall or a high pole, and for it he was nicknamed "Genuine Master of Gong  Fu". His contemporary, monk Shu Qing mastered the art of "Diamond Finger"  to perfection, with his finger he could pierce a wooden board as it were a  straw mat and crush stones into sand with blows of his elbows.The XIX-th century also knew a lot of true masters. Monk Ji Hui gained  outstanding success in exercises for hardness YING GONG. He crushed huge  stones with his elbow like with a diamond pestle and broke thick wooden  beams with an arm blow. Besides, he was proficient in the art of "Golden  Bell", blows of a big iron hammer did not hurt him at all.Monk Hai Fa beat off arrows shot at him, was able of dodging spears pointed  at him from a few sides. Besides, he mastered the method "A Leg Weighing  1000 Jins", he could crush a stone with a "trampling" blow and kill a man  with the "Iron Fist".Monk Zhen Yue ran up a sheer wall of three meters high and mastered the art  of "Light Steps". His disciple Ru Bi achieved some success in "Hard Art"  YING GONG and additionally he perceived the "Luohan's Art" LUOHAN GONG and  could fight against several armed enemies in pitch darkness.For the first time the book describes full training methods in all 72  Shaolin Arts. Being until recently for outsiders the most secret part of  training of Shaolin monks, which made them invulnerable in fight, 72  Shaolin Arts at the present time become available to all who are ready to  practice them persistently and with an open heart. Training methods  described in the book allow to develop supernatural abilities, far beyond  abilities of an ordinary man.