Warrior Monk Traditions (Buddhism)

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Warrior monks in the Asian setting usually refer to members of Buddhist monastic communities who fight for their religious masters. However, beyond that very basic description, there are at least two general categories that have been treated by scholars in Western languages. First, several monasteries in East Asia, specifically in China, Korea, and Japan, employed warriors, many of them highly trained, for protection and to exercise what they considered to be their rightful political and economic rights in the premodern period, mainly before 1600. In many cases, these warriors had monastic names, though they rarely had extensive religious training. In other cases, they were merely warriors fighting for a monastery rather than a secular master. Buddhist monk warriors are similar to European Templars and crusaders only in name. Templars had their own orders and temples, and they fought against external threats, as their enemies were seen as the “other” under the banner of a different religion. East Asia’s monk warriors, on the other hand, were incorporated under the umbrella of a larger monastery, but were rarely motivated by doctrinal concerns, even if the enemy on occasion—as in the case of Japan’s invasions of Korea—was an outsider. In other words, East Asia’s monastic warriors did not fight over faith or try to convert their opponents from one religion to another, since they were mainly operating under the same religious denomination. Rather, they protected their monasteries and land from competitors, be they secular or Buddhist. The second category of scholarship centers on violence involving Buddhist monks and supporters in the modern age, which is most relevant in the regions of South and Southeast Asia. In contrast to treatments of monastic warriors of the premodern age, analyses of violent Buddhists in modern times have tended to have a stronger focus on doctrinal themes, such as the moral justification for violence in a religion that has traditionally been seen as peaceful, or at least less prone to violence than others. Accordingly, since representations of modern monastics engaged in violence differ from those of earlier times, they comprise a different set of assumptions and expectations, centering most often on how Buddhist thought can justify violence. The categories below combine a geographical focus, which is a common approach by scholars whose expertise is confined by national boundaries, with thematic approaches.

General Overviews
Owing to the country-specific focuses of most scholars, there are currently few studies that address warrior monk traditions in Asia in general, but some early works like Demiéville 1973 tended to make more sweeping generalizations, while others make brief references to them. Recent publications in this category include a number of edited volumes, such as Jerryson and Juergensmeyer 2010; Juergensmeyer 2000; Zimmermann, et al. 2006; and Tikhonov and Brekke 2013, with essays on different regions and topics.

Demiéville, Paul. “Le bouddhisme et la guerre: Post-scriptum à l’Histoire des moines guerriers du Japon de G. Renondeau.” In Choix d’études Bouddhiques: 1929–1970. By Paul Demiéville, 261–299. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1973.

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One of the first publications in a Western language treating monastic warriors, originally written as a postscript to Renondeau 1957 (cited under Japan). The essay is outdated and lacks sophistication in its analysis, but provides a decent introduction to events and rhetoric involving monastic violence in the premodern period. Originally published in Mélanges publiés par l’Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises (1957): 347–385.

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Jerryson, Michael K., and Mark Juergensmeyer, eds. Buddhist Warfare. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394832.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

A collection of essays discussing Buddhist rhetoric and involvement in violence and war in Asia. It aims to show Western readers that Buddhism has been frequently used to condone violence despite its peaceful representations outside Asia. It is mostly concerned with modern times, and concentrates on how Buddhism affected by nationalist ideologies condoned violence. Unfortunately, the question of what exactly constitutes Buddhist warfare is left unanswered.

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Juergensmeyer, Mark. Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.

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A theoretically grounded analysis of religious violence and terrorism in modern times, this work contains chapters on specific incidents involving Islam, Zionism, and Sikhism as well as Buddhism. It also discusses religious violence from a more theoretical perspective, but Buddhist violence or warriors are not central to the volume. The claim of a “global rise of religious violence” mainly hinges on the conflict between America and its Muslim opponents.

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Tikhonov, Vladimir, and Torkel Brekke. Buddhism and Violence: Militarism and Buddhism in Modern Asia. New York and London: Routledge, 2013.

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A collection of essays coming from an international conference held in 2009 in Oslo, Norway, the volume consists of eleven essays, divided into three parts. The focus is on the modern period, with a broad coverage of regions and states, giving particular attention to Sri Lanka, Thailand, Korea, and Japan. The volume provides an excellent starting point for scholars wanting to explore Buddhism and violence in Asia.

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Zimmermann, Michael, Chiew Hui Ho, and Philip Pierce, eds. Buddhism and Violence. Kathmandu: Lumbini International Research Institute, 2006.

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Relying mainly on a textual approach, the essays in this volume cover a spectrum of areas and eras, from monastic warriors and the killing of animals in premodern Japan to killing in Tibetan Buddhism and Buddhist rhetoric about suicide. Because of its wide scope, the volume lacks a common theoretical foundation, but it does demonstrate that Buddhist practitioners, like those of other religions, have been involved in violence throughout history.

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China and Tibet
Buddhist warrior monks appear early in Chinese history, but we have only a handful of scholarly accounts of them. In this context, the Shaolin monastery has come to epitomize warrior monks more than any other institution, as indicated by its first treatment in De Groot 1891. Records do in fact show that weapons were kept by temples in China in the fifth century, possibly in support of peasant rebellions against the Northern Wei Dynasty (386–534). The eventual prominence of Shaolin among monasteries with armed men made it a mecca for military training, as demonstrated in particular by Shahar 2000 and Shahar 2008. In the modern era, Yu 2005 has provided an insightful account of Buddhist resistance to the Japanese occupation during the Asia Pacific War of 1933–1945, and Maher 2008 has looked at the rhetoric of violence in Tibet, though the attention to monk warriors per se is scant in those studies. Other religious beliefs, including millenarian movements, have also had strong military connotations, but they fall outside the scope of monastic warriors and are therefore not included here.

De Groot, J. J. M. “Militant Spirit of the Buddhist Clergy in China.” T’oung Pao 2.2 (1891): 127–139.

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Likely one of the first publications in English on monastic militants in China, this article provides a very informative and useful chronological survey of Buddhist monks engaged in warfare in China. Littered with quotes from the Chinese dynastic histories, it covers the period from the sixth through the sixteenth centuries, with a particular strong and interesting focus on the Southern Song period (1127–1279). Available online for purchase or by subscription.

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Maher, Derek F. “The Rhetoric of War in Tibet: Toward a Buddhist Just War Theory.” Political Theology 9.2 (2008): 179–191.

DOI: 10.1558/poth.v9i2.179Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

This article focuses on the rhetoric used by the fifth Dalai Lama in the seventeenth century to justify violence performed by a Mongolian leader to put the Dalai Lama in power. Tracing Buddhism’s rejection of violence to the earliest scriptures, the author also demonstrates that violence was in fact condoned in certain situations in later accounts, often as merciful killing to prevent humans from sinful behavior. Available online for purchase or by subscription.

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Shahar, Meir. “Epigraphy, Buddhist Hagiography, and Fighting Monks: The Case of the Shaolin Monastery.” Asia Major 3d ser., 13.2 (2000): 15–36.

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The first scholarly publication in English focusing solely on the Shaolin monastery’s military traditions. Relying on original Chinese sources, it is a well-documented treatment that effectively analyzes the monastery’s role in warfare and the development of martial traditions.

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Shahar, Meir. The Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008.

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An insightful treatment of the Shaolin monastery’s military traditions from its origins to the twentieth century. Meticulously researched and richly illustrated, the book explains how and why the monastery armed itself in the first place, but also the process by which it became associated with a particular martial arts tradition. An indispensable tool and starting point for any project involving monastic warriors, martial arts, and violence in China.

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Yu, Xue. Buddhism, War, and Nationalism: Chinese Monks in the Struggle against Japanese Aggressions, 1931–1945. New York: Routledge, 2005.

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A theoretically grounded and carefully researched study on activities by Chinese monks in the resistance against the Japanese in the Asia-Pacific War. In seeking justification from Buddhism, Chinese monks selectively used a few texts and precedents while ignoring a much larger body of works that argued against violence. The study thus provides an insightful balance between Buddhist rhetoric on violence and historical conditions heavily dictated by nationalism.

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Korea
According to later chronicles, monastic warriors first appeared in the seventh century in Korea, an era that is treated most specifically in Ahn 1989. Vermeersch 2008 shows that these figures continued to play an important role during internal strife in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and then again in the mid-fourteenth century when monastic forces were used to defend against foreign attacks. The most significant contribution made by monastic warriors occurred during the Japanese invasions by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 1590s, when the weakening Chosŏn Dynasty (1392–1910) depended on the efforts of such forces to disrupt the raging Japanese armies on the Korean peninsula. Monastic violence appeared again in the twentieth century as part of the resistance movement during the Japanese occupation, as shown by Tikhonov 2013, but as Bannon 1996 points out, today it is usually associated with the martial arts school of Hwarang-do. Unfortunately, since few scholarly works have been written in Western languages about these important warriors, they are still poorly known outside Korea.

Ahn, Kye-hyŏn. “A Short History of Ancient Korean Buddhism.” In Introduction of Buddhism in Korea: New Cultural Patterns. Edited by Lewis R. Lancaster and C. S. Yu, 1–27. Berkeley, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 1989.

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An introduction to the early history of Buddhism in Korea, this essay touches on a range of topics, though not in much depth. Ahn’s account is limited to brief referrals to monks leading armies and monk-soldiers. He suggests that such developments were related to a decline of religious precepts, revealing a traditional approach that assumes the existence of a pure form of Buddhism in early Korea.

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Bannon, David. “Korea’s Hwarang Warrior Monk.” World of Martial Arts, November–December 1996: 60–69.

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Bannon traces the origins of the modern Korean martial art Hwarang-do to an elite youth group of individuals, supposedly associated with Buddhist temples in the Silla kingdom in the era of the Three Kingdoms (57–668 CE). The historical claims are difficult to verify, as no textual sources survive from that period, but the Hwarang (literally “flowering youth”) and Buddhism were indeed part of Silla culture at that time.

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Tikhonov, Vladimir. “Violent Buddhism: Korean Buddhism and the Pacific War, 1937–1945.” In Buddhism and Violence: Militarism and Buddhism in Modern Asia. Edited by Vladimir Tikhonov and Torkel Brekke, 227–246. New York and London: Routledge, 2013.

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As the title indicates, this essay focuses on Buddhist endorsements of resistance against the Japanese occupation, covering the political and institutional contexts following the outbreak of outright hostilities between China and Japan in 1937. It is a little dense for the uninitiated reader because of the many monks named, but the sections on rituals for the war effort and on the Buddhist discourse of a sacred war are insightful.

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Vermeersch, Sam. The Power of the Buddhas: The Politics of Buddhism during the Koryŏ Dynasty (918–1392). Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2008.

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Despite its title, this extensive work does not pay much attention to the military powers of monastic complexes in Korea during the age under consideration. However, it does devote a couple of pages to monastic armies being recruited by aristocratic elites in political conflicts and above all against invading forces in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, though without much concern about religious rationale or moral arguments.

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Japan
Whereas the Shaolin monastery in China is the best-known institution associated with monastic warriors, as historical figures, monastic warriors of medieval Japan have received more attention both in academe and in popular culture. Perhaps this is due to the prominent and prolonged role monastic forces played in Japan, influencing politics and economics on the national level for centuries, especially from the late eleventh to the late fourteenth centuries. As shown in Adolphson 2000 and Adolphson 2007, later representations of these monastic warriors have over the centuries simplified and stereotyped them into a distinct group, referred to as sōhei (“monk-warriors”) from the eighteenth century, that is today both a negative representation of a “degeneration” of Japan’s medieval Buddhism and a popular figure in videogames. For an insightful account of Buddhist rhetoric of violence during the same period, the interested reader should consult Kleine 2006, which effectively complements Adolphson’s works. Earlier accounts, such as Renondeau 1957, of Japan’s monk warriors have tended to accept the constructed image as an accurate reflection of warriors fighting for temples in medieval Japan, while others have treated them only in passing. Variations of the idealized patterns of monk warriors included rebellious bands headed by samurai under the banner of a Buddhist sect in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and twentieth-century Zen monks supporting the war effort during Japan’s expansion into mainland Asia, treated in Tsang 2007 and Victoria 1997, respectively.

Adolphson, Mikael. The Gates of Power: Monks, Courtiers, and Warriors in Premodern Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2000.

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An extensive treatment of the political and ideological roles played by Buddhist monasteries in Japan as seen through intra-temple conflicts and divine demonstrations staged to protest a perceived or real injustice against the temples. Covering in particular the period from 1100 to 1400, the book argues that such protests were not meant to be violent or staged by groups of military men, but rather exerted spiritual pressure on the imperial court.

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Adolphson, Mikael. The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha: Monastic Warriors and Sōhei in Japanese History. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007.

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The most extensive academic work to date on monastic warriors in Japan, covering the period from the first incidents of violence by Buddhist clerics in the sixth century to the subjugation and pacification of all monasteries in the late sixteenth. The author argues that those who fought for monasteries were no different from the warrior class in general, and that the separation of monastic warriors, called sōhei (“warrior-monks”), from secular warriors was a later invention.

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Groner, Paul. Ryôgen and Mt. Hiei. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2002.

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This work focuses on Ryōgen (b. 912–d. 985), one of the greatest head abbots of the monastic complex Enryakuji, located on Mt. Hiei just northeast of Kyoto. During Ryōgen’s time, Enryakuji emerged as the most powerful temple in Japan as it was awarded important ceremonies and its monastic population expanded. Ryōgen issued a set of regulations in 971, translated in Groner’s work, that deal directly with issues of violence.

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Kleine, Christoph. “Evil Monks with Good Intentions? Remarks on Buddhist Monastic Violence and Its Doctrinal Background.” In Buddhism and Violence. Edited by Michael Zimmermann, 65–98. Kathmandu, Nepal: Lumbini International Research Institute, 2006.

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Describing the Western myth about Buddhism as a religion of peace as an orientalist fantasy, Kleine brings attention to the long tradition of violence by members of Buddhist monastic communities in premodern Japan. He criticizes those who separate a “pure form” of religion from its imperfect believers, as well as the idea that expressions of violence within Buddhism are a sign of decline. Rather, he asks why and how it became acceptable for monks to engage in violence.

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McMullin, Neil. Buddhism and the State in Sixteenth-Century Japan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.

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A groundbreaking work on the secular power of Buddhist monasteries in Japan, focusing on the sixteenth-century subjugation of the powerful Enryakuji monastic complex by the great general Oda Nobunaga (b. 1534–d. 1582). It offers a useful background to Enryakuji up to the sixteenth century, with some emphasis on its military prowess, and McMullin demonstrates not only the crucial role played by the monastery but also the importance of an approach that is not prejudiced against religious institutions with secular power.

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Renondeau, G. “Histoire des moines guerriers du Japon.” Mélanges publiés par l’Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises (1957): 159–345.

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The first academic treatment of Japanese monastic warriors in a non-Japanese language. The author mainly summarizes the state of the field in Japan in the 1950s, and accordingly does not add any analyses of primary sources, but the narrative provides a thorough chronological survey of violent incidents involving members of the monastic communities of premodern Japan.

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Tsang, Carol. War and Faith: Ikko Ikki in Late Muromachi Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard East Asian Monographs, 2007.

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A study of the role played by the True Pure Land Sect in the incessant wars of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when warlords vied for control over domains throughout Japan. Honganji was one of several temples with enough military clout to challenge and resist the growing powers of the regional warlords. It did so by organizing leagues of fighters in the provinces under faith-based ikko ikki, or “leagues of one mind.”

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Victoria, Brian (Daizen) A. Zen at War. New York: Weatherhill, 1997.

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A controversial work on the role of Zen teachers in supporting Japan’s military aggression in the 1920s and 1930s. Several noted masters, such as Suzuki Daisetsu, later seen as promoters of peaceful Zen teachings, are noted as pro-war activists. Reactions from scholars and Zen practitioners varied from acknowledgements to criticism of Victoria’s translations and use of sources as being distorted, but most scholars agree that Zen monks and institutions were indeed involved in the cause of war.

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South Asia
Works on warrior monks in South Asia have become prolific in the last decade or so as violence involving religious practitioners has increased. Accordingly, these studies focus mainly on the modern period, but often intersperse it with discussions about Buddhist rhetoric and institutional contexts. The earliest foray into this area is the account in Keyes 1978 of a belligerent Thai monk, which for over two decades remained one of the few scholarly accounts on monastic violence in South Asia. It was not until the late 1990s and early 2000s, coinciding with increased fear of religious violence in the West, that new studies in this area appeared, beginning with Schmithausen 1999, a study of Buddhist rhetoric on war. This was followed by more specialized treatments of regions such as Sri Lanka, where Abeysekara 2001 criticizes the use of a Western-centered framework, while Deegalle 2009, an edited collection of essays, takes a more modern political approach. Other works deal with South Asia more broadly, such as Hinnells and King 2007, which explores the rhetoric among various religions in the area. As conflicts continue in these regions, this field promises to yield more in-depth and theoretically oriented studies.

Abeysekara, Ananda. “The Saffron Army, Violence, Terror(ism): Buddhism, Identity, and Difference in Sri Lanka.” Numen 48.1 (2001): 1–46.

DOI: 10.1163/156852701300052339Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

A theoretical article that questions the language used in discussing “religious violence,” “religious terrorism,” and even “religion” itself in an attempt to better contextualize Buddhism in modern Sri Lanka. The major flaw in previous treatments is the assumption that violence stands in opposition to an “authentic” and “pure form” of Buddhism. In contrast, the author argues that neither category is self-evident, and that the idea of a “betrayal of Buddhism” is misplaced. Available online for purchase or by subscription.

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Deegalle, Mahinda, ed. Buddhism, Conflict and Violence in Modern Sri Lanka. London and New York: Routledge, 2009.

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An edited volume focusing on the dilemmas facing Buddhists during the continued ethnic conflicts in Sri Lanka. It contains fourteen different essays by scholars from Asia, Europe, and North America, covering general topics of religion and conflict, Buddhism, and violence as well as more specific topics on the area. The focus is contemporary, as the volume was prompted by the civil war that began in 1983 between the two main ethnic groups in Sri Lanka.

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Harris, Elizabeth J. “Violence and Disruption in Society: A Study of the Early Buddhist Texts.” In Just War in Comparative Perspective. Edited by Paul Robinson, 93–108. Hampshire, UK: Ashgate, 2003.

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A theoretical essay looking at the justification for war in Buddhist doctrines within the context of Sri Lankan society and its internal conflicts. While the author does not deal specifically and directly with monastic violence, the discussion of textual and circumstantial arguments in support of war is useful as a case study.

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Hinnells, J. R., and Richard King, eds. Religion and Violence in South Asia: Theory and Practice. London and New York: Routledge, 2007.

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Another edited volume on religion and violence in South Asia, featuring essays by eleven scholars from North America and Europe. The volume reflects an attempt, in the post-9/11 setting, to explore the diverse traditions of violence among the religions of South Asia. Little attention is paid to monastics actually engaged in violence, as the editors and authors have a strong preference for theoretical discussions of Buddhism and violence in general.

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Keyes, Charles F. “Political Crisis and Militant Buddhism.” In Religion and Legitimation of Power in Thailand, Laos and Burma. Edited by Bardwell L. Smith, 147–164. Chambersburg, PA: Anima, 1978.

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An insightful account of armed monastics in modern Southeast Asia and their justification of violence in the name of Theravada Buddhism. Contained in an edited volume, it focuses on the Thai monk Kittivuddho in the 1960s and early 1970s. Staunchly anti-communist, Kittivuddho was a famous political activist, who on several occasions condemned communist leaders and even condoned their killing.

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Premasiri, P. D. “The Place for a Righteous War in Buddhism.” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 10 (2003): 153–166.

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A short article that attempts to address the issue of violence and war in Buddhism in the context of the conflicts in Sri Lanka.

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Schmithausen, Lambert. “Aspects of Buddhist Attitude towards War.” In Violence Denied: Violence, Non-Violence and the Rationalization of Violence in South Asian Cultural History. Edited by E. M. Houben and K. R. Van Kooij, 45–68. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1999.

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This essay contrasts theoretical and textual condemnations of killing with violations of such norms in actual life. Schmithausen points to early compromises by which warring kings could compensate for violent sins by making donations to Buddhist communities or justify violence in the defense of Buddhism itself, or through the idea of compassionate killing. Such rhetoric was in fact used by the leaders of the Aum Shinrikyō sect in the subway sarin attack in 1995 in Tokyo.

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Translated Sources
Warrior monks were usually of such common status that they did not produce sources, as was the case also with most rank-and-file warriors, so not much is available written by them. However, given their cultural prominence, especially in Japanese and Chinese imaginations, they are frequently referenced in contemporary and literary sources. Even fewer sources dealing with monk warriors have been translated from their original languages, but a few Japanese literary works from medieval times, translated in McCullough 1966, McCullough 1988, and Perkins 1998, contain specific narratives. From the Chinese literary tradition, some stories from the Shaolin monastery have been written down and translated, such as in Wang 1988. Shorter translations of other sources are also available in monographs and articles already mentioned in the above sections.

McCullough, Helen Craig, trans. Yoshitsune: A Fifteenth-Century Japanese Chronicle. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1966.

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A chronicle focusing on the twelfth century legendary warrior Minamoto no Yoshitsune (b. 1159–d. 1189), who fought bravely for his older brother, Yoritomo (b. 1147–d. 1199), to victory in the Genpei War of 1180–1185. A falling-out between the siblings resulted in a nationwide hunt for Yoshitsune, leading to his eventual suicide. His most loyal retainer, who stayed with him until the very end, was the larger-than-life monk warrior Benkei (?–d. 1189), whose bravery and ingenuity are depicted as well.

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McCullough, Helen Craig. The Tale of the Heike. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1988.

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A translation of the most famous war tale of premodern Japan, which focuses on the rise and fall of the Taira family, culminating with its defeat at the hands of its rival, the Minamoto, in the Genpei War of 1180–1185. Compiled in different versions in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the tale contains numerous battle accounts, with frequent references to violent incidents involving members of the largest monastic communities.

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Perkins, George W. The Clear Mirror: A Chronicle of the Japanese Court during the Kamakura Period (1185–1333). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998.

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A translation of a late-fourteenth-century tale that deals primarily with political matters in Kyoto. The story is creatively told by a fictitious old nun, with a strong focus on courtly matters and the imperial family. It contains occasional references to armed monastics, and while they are incorrectly translated, they do offer a literary view of such figures from the period in which the tale was written.

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Wang, Hongjun. Tales of the Shaolin Monastery. Hong Kong: Joint Publication, 1988.

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A collection of tales from former monks of the Shaolin Monastery recorded in the second half of the twentieth century, translated into English by C. J. Lonsdale. The tales themselves deal with a variety of topics, but many recount martial exploits or the martial prowess of the monastery’s inhabitants. The tales themselves are obviously of limited value as records of the times they portray, but they are invaluable in reflecting popular beliefs about Shaolin.

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Monastic Warriors in Popular Culture
Needless to say, images and narratives of monk warriors in popular culture can hardly be taken as accurate descriptions, but they nevertheless offer valuable insights into the characteristics attached to such figures. Overall, it is the monastic warriors of premodern Japan and those of the Chinese Shaolin Monastery that have come to dominate. There are multiple examples in animated movies and series, cartoons, and video games, but very few scholarly treatments of them. The works noted here are more part of popular culture than anything else, as evidenced in particular by the articulately illustrated but uncritical treatment in Turnbull 2003. Having written numerous articles, especially in Kung Fu Tai Chi (see for example the 1999 and 2003 special issues), for which he has served as associate publisher, Gene Ching has become a popular source of information about the Shaolin tradition. Ching, born and educated in northern California, bases his insights into Shaolin on having served as head instructor under the abbot Wing Lam in the mid-1990s, but some critics question the validity of those claims.

Special Issue: Shaolin. Kungfu Qigong (January 1999).

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Magazine issue that includes articles on the history of the Shaolin temple, such as Gene Ching’s “How Jet Li Saved the Shaolin Temple” (pp. 62–65). See also the December 1999 issue for additional articles on Shaolin, e.g., “Shaolin Brothers Go West: Shi De Shan and Shi Xing Hao, Two Shaolin Temple Monks Begin Teaching in America” (pp. 50–57). The articles are useful as representations in popular culture of Shaolin traditions.

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Special Issue: Shaolin. Kung Fu Tai Chi (December 2003).

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Includes several articles by Gene Ching on the Shaolin tradition, such as “Battling to Be Shaolin’s Best” (pp. 40–45), “In the Dragon’s Den: Grandmaster Chen Tongshan and his Superstar Son, the Little Dragon, Shi Xiaolong” (pp. 50–53), “The ‘One’ of the Top Ten: Shaolin Grandmaster Liang Yiquan” (pp. 54–57, 103), and “13,000 Warriors of Taguo” (pp. 46–49). These treatments are representative of the popular understanding of Shaolin traditions and masters, but there is a lack of verifiability in their claims.

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Turnbull, Stephen. Japanese Warrior Monks, AD 949–1603. Oxford: Osprey, 2003.

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A short and richly illustrated narrative of monastic warriors in Japan. Unfortunately void of critical analysis, the survey simply reiterates ingrained representations in Japanese and Western imagination, a trend that is reinforced by the artistic but exaggerated and misplaced images. For those interested in the deconstruction of such images à la Derrida, however, it is an excellent source.

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