Posted 2016/11/9
The Emei School of Martial Arts is so well-known and got its name from Mt. Emei. In a general sense, Emei is the name of Bashu (present Sichuan and Chongqing) in ancient times. Therefore, the Emei School of Martial Arts can be also called "Bashu Martial Arts". Emei Martial Arts, together with Shaolin Martial Arts and Wudang Martial Arts is one of the three major and famous schools of Chinese martial arts with the longest history and widest influences.
The origin and development of Emei Martial Arts have got everything to do with the history of Buddhism and Taoism of Mt. Emei. According to Records of Mt. Emei, Buddhist temples were first constructed in Mt. Emei in as early as the Wei and Jin Dynasties. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, Buddhist temples began to increase in Mt. Emei with the rising of Buddhism. Till the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Buddhism reached its prime time in Mt. Emei, which boasted as the top four renowned Buddhist Mountains in China together with Mt. Wutai, Mt. Putuo and Mt. Jiuhua. As Buddhism and Taoism were spread into Mt. Emei, monks and Taoist priests often practiced some martial arts after meditation, reading sutras and worshiping Buddha so as to strengthen their bodies and protect the temples. Since they had deep inner gong through constant meditation; and the Buddhist and Taoist systems would exchange experience, learn advantages from each other and create respective new approaches during the practice of martial arts, the unique school of Emei Martial Arts was gradually formed in this way. The Emei School of Martial Arts combined the advantages of both Buddhist and Taoist systems by absorbing the dynamic Taoist qigong and static qigong of Buddhist meditation to create a practicing way with both dynamic and static exercises. The practice has then been held together with various boxing, instruments, free sparring and qigong to form a huge martial arts system of Emei School.
