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History of Wado Ryu—Continued Folklore has it that Bo dharma, the original Buddha, while on his travels gathered together different fighting techniques, and on his arrival in China he taught these techniques to the monks as a form of physical exercise with which to condition the body to make it fit to carry the soul. In the absence of any documented fact, we may just as well except this story as any other. What is certain however, is that the Chinese took these fighting techniques and developed them into a high art form, and never more so than within the temples of Shoalin. Contrary to popular opinion, the Shoalin temples were not a haven for poor monks. They were highly profitable business centres and used to charge exorbitant fees for students wishing to learn Kung Fu. Sometimes over £100,000 in today's terms for a full-time residential place. It is reported that one student paid the equivalent to the cost of eleven average sized houses. Kung Fu flourished and hundreds of different styles developed. Often these were very small schools consisting of only a handful of people and many of them died out when the master himself died. In an effort to make their own styles as identifiable as a possible, many masters based their movements on creatures, monkey, snake, and so on. One of the most significant of these styles was White Crane, and this can be traced through Okinawa and into modern Karate. Parallel developments led to the blending of Kung Fu with the Traditional Chinese medicine arts of acupuncture. This resulted in the highly mysterious and still often misunderstood art of Dim Mak, or death touch. Yet another deviation concentrated purely on the physical conditioning and spiritual side, removing all martial and dangerous aspects to form Tai Chi Chuan.
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