"Tell me about the so-called southern Shaolin temple."

The so called southern Shaolin temple was the result of a battle fought between the Chinese and the Japanese in the seventh or eight century, in the region of Fukien province. Apparently, the Japanese had invaded China in that region of the country, and, the emperor, needing help to repel the invaders, requested that the Shaolin temple send some of its warrior monks to assist. The warrior monks helped turn back the tide, so to speak, and the battle was won. However, many warrior monks had fallen in battle, so to commemorate their fallen comrades, some of the Shaolin monks stayed behind and built a temple in Fuzhou. The southern Shaolin temple was formed. It has been in and out of existence for centuries. Rumors have it that the temple was destroyed hundreds of years ago, but at this time, not one, but three, are currently being built in it's place. However, according to Shi De Cheng, the Fuzhou temple is still in existence, having been rebuilt a few times in its career, and gong fu to a degree, is still being practiced there. He was there last year. Southern style gong fu relies more on upper body movements than lower, thought, by legend, to be because one of the initial founding monks had a serious leg wound from battle. But, more importantly, southern style seems to be more remarkable for its recently past away master, who was famous for the "one finger handstand". To this day, there are monks who train to imitate this feat, however, most of them can only master the "two finger handstand". This, of all things, is what the southern temple is renowned and remembered for. (There is one monk in Shaolin who can do the "two finger handstand". Don't try it at home.)

-----------from russbo