Shi Xing Hong

Shi Xing Hong (Wang DeQing)

32^nd generation Shaolin Temple monk

DeQing was born March 27^th, 1974 in a small mountain city of Tiantai, in Zhejing province. He had the usual childhood, starting regular school in his city of about 10,000 people at the age of 5. For five years he studied the regular childhood school subjects. He was an aggressive boy, who tended to get into fights with other kids on what seemed to be a regular basis. His father, a devout Buddhist, was none too happy about his poor social interactions with other children, and decided, when DeQing turned ten years of age, to bring him to the Shaolin Temple. The father felt that some time at the Temple would straighten him out.

Upon bringing him to the Temple, the father found a Shaolin master who would take care of and train the boy. The Shaolin master liked the boy, as he was strong and gregarious. He decided to take the boy in to the Temple for training. The father left, and didn’t see DeQing again for quite a while. Nine years is quite a while….

DeQing’s master was Shi De Gong. At that time, around 1984, all of the monks lived and trained in the Temple. The wushu guan had not yet been built. The Temple took young children at that time. It was not uncommon for parents, both poor and “wealthy”, to bring and leave their “problem” children at the Temple for some gong fu and Buddhist training, in an effort to “set them straight”. DeQing lived, along with about twenty other children, in one of the smaller pavilion buildings inside the Temple. There were other groups of children who lived in other small pavilion buildings; each group having its own monk master to train them and supervise their behavior, and it was a rare opportunity when one group mingled with another. The groups were organized according to skill level. There were probably well over one hundred other students inside the massive Shaolin Temple, but DeQing rarely came into contact with them. His teenage years were spent solely with his master and the other students in his pavilion. These students became his “gong fu brothers and sisters”.

I found it kind of odd at first when DeQing introduced me to one of his “sister’s”. I had thought that this girl was actually a blood relative. But when I questioned DeQing about his family, I soon discovered that DeQing had many brothers and sisters, so many, that I had wondered in what condition his mother and father were. But after a while, I soon came to discover, that all of DeQing’s “classmates”, that he had spent these ten teenage years with, were all his “brothers and sisters”. A gong fu brother or sister is to be respected and loved as a real blood related brother or sister. To DeQing, the two are indistinguishable. I actually got the feeling that he was closer to his gong fu brothers and sisters than he was to his real family members.

DeQing’s life in the Temple during those years was fairly regimented. His master controlled basically everything. He was not allowed to leave the Temple during those years. A typical day in the life of a student at the Shaolin Temple, back then, was as follows:

• 0500-0700: Awaken, train in gong fu with fellow brothers and sisters, and master, sometimes in one of the larger pavilion buildings inside the Temple, sometimes up in the mountain. All twenty or so students would run and train together. When doing solo practice, they would sit in a big circle either out in the fields away from prying eyes, or behind closed doors in one of the larger pavilion buildings (Actually, they trained in the building that DeQing trained me; it is now used as a meeting area for the Abbot to greet outside visitors).
  
  
• 0700-0730: Breakfast. Usually consisting of a “bread” type bun, sometimes filled with some shredded pork, and a rice soup. Breakfast lasted a half hour, during which the meal had to be eaten and the dishes cleaned. There was an opportunity to wash, but it was with cold water.
  
  
• 0730–0900: During this time period, they were given the opportunity to rest. But mainly, they had to spend this time cleaning the Temple. Back in those days, there were not janitorial help nor laborers that did construction work. The monks did all of the cleaning and repairs to the Temple. This is one reason that major construction work, such as pavilion construction, did not proceed. At this time, before the Chinese Central Government allocated money to rebuild the Temple, there were still some burnt out pavilions (mainly by the entrance). DeQing, his fellow students, and the monks performed the regular maintenance duties required to keep the rest of the Temple in order. On top of the regular cleaning chores, some of the monks were required to leave the Temple to tend the fields, as at that time, they also grew their own food. As the students were not allowed to leave the Temple (I assume, for fear that they would run away and not return), they primarily were responsible for Temple cleaning duties.
  
  
• 0900-1100: They again trained in gong fu at this time. Basic maneuvers and forms were all done. Remember, this was at a time before competitions were popular, so most of the gong fu training, if not all, was in traditional forms, and not in competition forms. Regardless, his training consisted of a lot of acrobatic jumps and kicks and the like, as they train now, all of the stuff that ignorant westerners look at and think is just pretty ineffective ballet style fighting.
  
  
• 1100-1200: An hour rest period was allowed prior to lunch. One must remember, that these students were not only responsible for the general cleaning and maintenance of the Temple, they also had to maintain their own sleeping quarters in a fairly pristine condition. No doubt some of that was done during this time.
  
• 1200-1230: Lunch period, usually consisting of rice or noodles, and vegetables. As for meat, pork seems to be the most common ingredient.
  
  
• 1230-1500: Another rest period. The students basically had this time to themselves.
  
  
• 1500-1700: More gong fu training.
  
  
• 1700-1800: Another rest period.
  
  
• 1800-1900: Dinner. Again, more of the same food.
  
  
• 1900-2100: This time period was basically the only time period that the students got some sort of “formal classroom training”. The time was spent studying Shaolin history, Buddhism, and Chinese. DeQing’s Buddhist teacher was Shi Su Xi. (Shi Su Xi was also a gong fu master, but at this time, he was around 62 years old, and primarily taught Buddhism instead).
  
  
• 2100-2130: At this time, the students were to wash (again, no hot water, though in the winter, some water might be heated for washing), and by 2130, they were to be in bed.
  
  
• 2200: The master turned off the lights, and all were to be sleeping.
  

At age 18, he was offered the opportunity to become a monk. One cannot become a monk until one is 18 years of age. So, he, along with around thirty of his gong fu brothers took the vows in what was at that time a fairly large ceremony. The vows were taken at the Thousand Buddha hall (one of the oldest existing pavilions where I took mine; the pavilion that has the “footprints” imbedded in the stone floor). The vows are made to the Shaolin Temple, to Buddha, and to one’s master. He had decided that he was going to spend his life learning Buddhism, and training and teaching gong fu.

As a monk, his life was changed, at least by his daily schedule. It was as follows:

• 0500-0700: Meditation, and some gong fu practice.
  
• 0700-0900: Breakfast, and the usual cleaning of the Temple and other chores.
  
• 0900-1100: The new monks would take classes in Buddhism during this time.
  
• 1100-1200: Rest period.
  
• 1200-1500: Lunch, and rest period.
  
• 1500-1700: Train in gong fu with one’s master.
  
• 1700-1800: Rest and wash period.
  
• 1800-1900: Dinner and wash period.
  
• 1900-2100: Study Buddhism.
  
• 2130: Bedtime.
  

There is an obvious shift towards studying Buddhism after one takes the monks vows, with a continuation, though a diminution, of gong fu training. At this time however, the monks start to learn the true secrets of the gong fu that they had been learning as students.

From 1991 to 1995, DeQing (now Shi Xing Hong) started traveling internationally with other monks to other countries, to do performances and to teach some gong fu. At this time the Chinese government had already built the wushu guan, and was interested in furthering the exposure of gong fu to the country and to the world. He initially went to Italy in 1991 with four other monks to do training and performances. After that, he went with other groups of monks from the Shaolin Temple to Thailand, Malaysia, Canada, Japan and Taiwan. These groups of monks tended to be small in nature, less than ten. They tended not to be large tours or performances.

In 1995, with the 1500^th anniversary of the Shaolin Temple, and a European promoter that I met and whose name I cannot remember (Herbert Fechter?) the Shaolin Temple monks, and some non-monks, (but members of the wushu guan gong fu performance team) went on a large tour of Europe. There were twenty-five of them who traveled throughout Europe, giving large performances to many people of many countries. A video was produced of their abilities (and of all people, me, was included on it…) and it was widely marketed, especially throughout Europe.  This greatly increased the Shaolin Temple’s exposure to the people of Europe, which no doubt is the main reason why most “foreigners” training here are from Germany, France, Spain and Italy. (It has also had the inadvertent effect of increasing my exposure, as when I run into these foreigners here at the Shaolin Temple, they widely refer to me as “the guy on the video tape”).

In 1996 DeQing started teaching at the wushu guan. Remember, the wushu guan is government built, owned and operated, and after a little “coercing” years ago, got some of the monks of the Shaolin Temple to teach students there.

In 1997, DeQing spent six months in Spain teaching with a martial artist by the name of Juan Carlos. I met Juan in 1995; he is a Spanish martial arts instructor who had spent about six months training here in 1995 (with DeQing as his master). He actually has the distinction of being the only “foreigner” to perform with the monks and wushu guan performance team in professional performances. 

In 1998, DeQing, as did many other monks in the past, decided to open his own gong fu school. He has a small school of about fifty students, and five senior instructors, in Deng Feng, about 10 to 15 kilometers from Shaolin village. DeQing was also teaching at the wushu guan, but recently gave it up, as his time demands were too great. He has slowly learned a bit of capitalism here, with the running of his own school, especially since the school is not profitable. Many students from his hometown want to train at his school; I assume in China, as they don’t find their politicians to be their “heroes” (I’m certainly not assuming that we do in the US…) the children find their gong fu masters to be their heroes. And in DeQing’s hometown, he is their local hero. So, many children try to get their parents to take them to Deng Feng to train there. But the economics of running a school are a bit much for someone whose sole training has been in gong fu and Buddhism.

DeQing has a very lenient attitude towards his students when it comes to payment for training, food, and lodging. The average student pays about seven thousand Yuan a year for the whole experience. Included in this is lodging, training, and food. If one does the math, with fifty students, one would expect a yearly income of 350,000 Yuan a year. The school’s expenses are many. The yearly rent for the building and land is around 170,000 Yuan a year; electrical power comes to around 25,000 Yuan a year. Each instructor makes on the average 700 Yuan a month; with five instructors, that comes to around 45,000 Yuan a year. Add in two cooks and food for around sixty people for a year at around 120,000 Yuan, and you start to see that at DeQing is not making much money with this school, especially in light of the fact that not all of the students pay the whole yearly fee of 7,000 Yuan. DeQing does not turn anyone away, and some of the students just pay what they can. From a purely economic standpoint, it is not a worthwhile venture.  But the martial arts training is fabulous. And the effect that it has on the students, and I don’t mean from a gong fu standpoint, is incredible. We need more of this kind of discipline in our culture.

DeQing makes ends meet at his school by making money on the side, so to speak. DeQing makes money when he does performances, though the monthly income for a wushu guan teacher (about 500 Yuan) is not all that much. He makes money teaching foreigners, whether he is in another country or here in China. And all of the money that he makes goes towards making his school function. I asked him about all of this, as economically, it was a strain. He strongly feels that it is important for him to teach gong fu as it was taught to him. The tradition here is a strong one, and is one that is not to be played with or insulted. I find in my travels through China that gong fu is almost like a religion to these people, a long standing tradition that is to be respected. DeQing treats it with the respect that he thinks it deserves. And so he goes on, teaching and practicing, all for the end result of continuing the gong fu tradition.

His future plans consist of returning to Hungary to continue teaching at a Hungarian school, and to watch a European tournament in October. As for entering tournaments, he told me that he doesn’t do that anymore. After winning five Chinese national tournaments in gong fu, he thinks that he’s too old to keep doing that (he thinks he’s old at 25, wait until he gets to be my age….) Winning tournaments bores him, now his sole interest is in teaching. After the European gong fu tournament in October, he is thinking of coming to the US to open a school and start teaching in America.

Specifically, he's thinking of coming to the US to spend time with me here in Las Vegas, for a period of a year or two. I've told him that I would help him as much as he needed, to fulfill his goal of opening a school here and teaching gong fu, and he had graciously accepted. This whole thing puts me in an interesting position, as De Qing is not officially my master, that is, I never underwent a ceremony with him. He became my teacher, and my good friend, but he never officially became my master. And as I had already promised Shi De Cheng any and all assistance that he would need to come to the US (as he is my master), the obligation to help one's true master before helping any other seems paramount. But with De Cheng's rapidly growing popularity in Europe, (and subsequent commitments there), and with De Qing's frequent phone calls from Hungary ("I come America"), it looks like I'm going to have a long term house guest at some time in the future. 

And that is going to be quite the experience....