Overview and History of the Japanese Martial Arts

[47MartialMan]

Originally Posted by Magister

Bodhidharma's life is not historically provable. Some say he existed, some say he didn't, some say he is an amalgm of several different people...The same goes for most venerated people, such as Lao Tzu or Robin Hood. However, it is a fact that he is credited as the founder of Ch'an Buddhism, the Chinese character of Ch'an being pronounced by a Japanese person as Zen. Buddhism was already in China, but Bodhidharma's version of Buddhism became known as Ch'an. We must remember that the article appeared on a resource about Karate, where anyone reading it would be assumed to have a basic understanding of Karate and would therefore recognise the term Zen over the name Ch'an.

Check out this resource:
Bodhidharma - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Refinement means a process of improvement and optimisation. The system was refined from it's original form and became recognised as being attributable to the Shaolin Temple.


Very Good Thread though, I shall try to put some of my own research here.

It is said that the oldest records of him existing is in Japan.

The temple was already built for and people were doing Ch'an before he got there.

Wikipedia, the free/biased encyclopedia

However, I was unawre that this particular article the article appeared on a resource about Karate, which would make sense to use Zen in reference.