Shi Yan Ming

Shi Yan Ming (born Duan Gen Shan; February 13, 1964) is a 34th generation Shaolin warrior monk, teacher and actor, best known as the founder of the USA Shaolin Temple. Trained at the Shaolin Temple in Henan, People's Republic of China (PRC) since the age of five, Shi Yan Ming came to the United States in 1992, before opening the USA Shaolin Temple in Manhattan, where he has taught hundreds of students, including numerous celebrities. He has made various media appearances in television, film and print, including National Geographic, PBS, History, Time magazine, and the 1999 American samurai action film, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.

Early life Shi Yan Ming was born Duan Gen Shan in Zhumadian, Henan Province, China, on Chinese New Year's, February 13, 1964, the Year of the Dragon, the seventh of nine children. His father grew up in a family so poor that they were essentially homeless, and begged for food door-to-door. Duan's father, who never went to school, slept under a wood-burning stove, or would dig a hole in a stack of wheat for warmth. Despite these hardships, he taught himself to be a very literate reader, writer and calligrapher. Duan's mother's family was slightly better off financially. As was typical, she was not educated either, had her feet bound, and was raised solely to be a mother and housewife. Duan's parents eventually acquired jobs for the Chinese government under Mao, and worked underground as telex operators.

Prior to his birth, two of Duan's older brothers and one older sister died of starvation in Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s. Duan himself almost died when he was approximately two or three years old, prompting his parents to spend all their money on numerous doctors, and his father to sell his special calligraphy pen. Doctors eventually gave up on him, and after thinking their seventh child had died, his parents wrapped him in blankets, intending to throw him away, before being stopped by an acupuncturist outside their village who saw them crying, and performed acupuncture on the infant Gen Shan, who promptly recovered. Yan Ming believes the man was a bodhisattva sent by Buddha to save his life.

Shi immediately started learning kung fu, Chan Buddhism and acupuncture from his masters, Liu Xin Yi and Shen Ping An, who were Shaolin disciples living outside the temple, rather than monks. Because of the open nature of the temple, where people could come and go easily, he says he learned to read people. Despite his training, Shi also amused himself by playing pranks on his masters, who would punish him either with beatings, or by making him do the horse stance until his legs were numb and swollen, or making do headstands until the blood draining into his head caused pain. Shi's daily routine consisted of awakening at 4:30 am to practice for two hours, followed by a breakfast of steamed tofu and vegetables, prayer, meditation or relaxation for an hour, and then another three and a half hours of practice. This would be followed by more prayer, Buddhism studies, and cleaning or other temple work. Although Shaolin monks do not necessarily follow the practice of other monks who do not eat past noon, those at the temple would eat a lunch of noodles, rice or mantou at 11:30 am, out of respect to monks visiting from other temples. After an hour of relaxation, Shi would practice and pray again from 1:00 pm to 5:30 pm, followed by dinner, more relaxation, and more practice until 10:00 pm. From then until 4:00 am the monks would work in shifts to check the temple's incense. The monks slept on a piece of wood with a blanket on it, sometimes using their clothes for pillows, which Shi says is good for the back, compared to American beds, which he says are too comfortable. Although Shi met his Buddhism Shifu, Shi Yong Qian, almost immediately after entering the temple, he did not begin seriously studying with him until he was about 14 or 15. Because the temple did not have running water, the monks had to transport it from mountain rivers just outside the temple, draw it from a well, and collect rainwater. When the temple acquired running water in 1986, the monks were dissatisfied, because under the system of feng shui, digging up the ground and laying in pipes was, as Shi puts it, akin to "cutting your veins out". During the cold winter months, bathing was restricted to washing selected body parts, rather than immersion in or under water. Even today the temple only has cold water.

In 1980, a young Jet Li arrived at the temple to shoot his feature film debut, Shaolin Temple. Though Shi barely noticed him at the time,

In the United States

After the tour's last show concluded in San Francisco, Shi secretly left his hotel in the middle of the night and escaped in order to defect from China to the United States. Speaking no English, Shi directed a cab driver with hand signals to an unknown destination, but the frustrated driver dropped him off in the middle of nowhere and called the police. Shi showed the police his passport and some newspaper clippings featuring him, so the police requested the driver take him to a Chinese restaurant in order to find someone who could communicate with him. However, since the staff at the restaurant spoke only Cantonese and not Shi's Mandarin, the monk wrote down his communications, since both dialects employ the same characters. The restaurant staff helped Shi call a friend in New York City, who had someone pick up Shi, who hid in a basement for a week, eating only bread and cereal, while the news media were reporting his escape. After a week, he traveled to New York. because he saw it as the "capital of the world", Shi opened the first USA Shaolin Temple at 96 Bowery Street in Chinatown in December 1994. where he teaches Shaolin martial arts and Chan Buddhism in two-hour classes

Abilities

According to The New York Times, as a young monk, Shi Yan Ming learned to break rocks with his skull, deflect blades with his skin, and sleep while hanging upside down from a tree branch.

Shi's punching strength has been measured at of force. In 2005, National Geographic filmed a documentary on him titled "Kung Fu Monk". He has also worked as a model, and the tourist bureau of his native village, Henan Province, put him on a billboard advertising their most famous native son. In 2006 Rodale Books published Shi's own book, The Shaolin Workout: 28 Days to Transforming Your Body and Soul the Warrior's Way.

Throughout his career, Shi has been featured in advertisements for Hewlett-Packard, Burberry, Adidas, Chase Bank, Sprite, & multiple magazine covers including twice on Black Belt Magazine.

He has also been featured in numerous publications & interviews across the world including The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, VICE Sports, VICE China, Grazia Homme (France), Vogue, Great Big Story, NPR, WRUR on Journeys Through The Arts with Josef Verba & more.

On May 21, 2020, Shi appeared on ABC's To Tell The Truth.

On August 13, 2020, Shi appeared on Discovery Channel's reality series with Caroline Wozniacki & David Lee as 1 of 3 super humans to train the family to summit Mt. Kilmanjaro.

Personal life Shi lives in New York City. Shi never took the Shaolin celibacy vows, as he entered the Shaolin Temple at the age of five. Explaining his eschewing of celibacy, Shi remarks, "I'm too handsome for that."