The Shaolin Temple was named so because the temple was built at the foot of the Wuru Peak in the north of Mount Shaoshi in the northwest of Dengfeng City, Henan Province.

In 491, the 15th year of the Taihe reign of the Northern Wei dynasty, Emperor Xiaowen ordered that the Jinglou Palace be moved from the capital to the south side of Mount Yueshan (Songshan), ushering in the trend of building Buddhist temples in the countryside. As the “Centre of Heaven and Earth”, Dengfeng has beautiful landscapes and was close to the capital Luoyang. In the Northern Wei dynasty, a large number of temples were built in Dengfeng.

The Shaolin Temple is the ancestral temple of the Chan sect of Buddhism, and is where Shaolin kung fu emerged. The Chan sect’s meditation and self-contemplation can be applied to wushu practice. Therefore, Shaolin kung fu integrates meditation and wushu.