your bridge home
True Valor
A Chinese forger in 1624 needed a name nobody could argue with. He chose an Indian monk, and that choice proves more than the forgery claimed.
Everyone knows that an Indian monk brought kung fu to Shaolin. It is one of the most widely held beliefs about India anywhere in the world.
It is worth following it all the way down, because what is at the bottom is not nothing. It is a different thing, and a larger one.
The claim that Bodhidharma founded the Shaolin fighting system rests on one text: the Yijin Jing, the Muscle-and-Tendon Change Classic.
The book presents itself well. It carries two prefaces, by men of unimpeachable standing.
Li Jing, one of the great generals of the Tang, who died in 649. And Niu Gao, an officer under Yue Fei, the Song commander who is himself a national legend. Two soldiers of that calibre vouching for a manual is about as good as provenance gets.
Both prefaces are fabricated.
They were caught by internal evidence, which is how forgeries usually go. Niu Gao's preface mentions a temple that was not built until roughly two decades after the date on which he claims to be writing. It also has a senior Song officer announcing that he cannot read.
The rest of this story, read aloud, and a new one every day.