North America was inhabited long before Columbus, and both Chinese and Vikings had landed and settled with the locals also, yet many still say Columbus discovered America. Perhaps Da Mo’s popularizing Shaolin and Qigong is viewed in a similar manner.
The Shaolin Temple existed 122 years before Dat Mor (Damo) arrived. According to history, in the book The Travels of Wen Hsiang, Emperor Su Wen of the Wei of Northern Dynasty ordered the erection of the Shaolin Temple in honor of Buddhist Master Bhadra in 495 AD. This is also record in the book, The History of the Wei Dynasty, Chapter of Annals of Buddhism and Taoism,
Anyway when Bhadra died, Master Chou Kung succeeded as Head master..etc
What Damo did when he got to Shaolin 122 years later was that he popularized the doctrine of Zen Buddhism.
Dr. Yang mistakenly states that Da Mo was the founder of Shaolin and Qigong; why?
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WARRING STATES AND HAN DYNASTY (475 B.C. – 220 A.D.)
The earliest exclusive texts that deal with the meditative practices and the gymnastic exercises are the recent archaeological text discoveries.
Circulating Qi Inscription
Xingqi ming 行氣銘 (475 B.C. – 206 B.C.), scholars consider this text to be from the earlier Warring States Period. This is the earliest available text on the meditative practice solely. It appears to be an esoteric text, short but complete. According to Li Ling’s study, the text is identified as a complete “Rendu Channeling Micro-orbit Qi Gong 任督二脈小周天氣功,” and the much later concept of upper and lower dantian 丹田 was also indicated in the text. (Li, 342-346)
Above from: http://literati-tradition.com/qi_gong_text_sources.html
“Shaolin Qigong has a long history, it began round about the Tai He Years in the Northern Wei Period (477-499 AD), with more than 1,500 years of history. In the year 496Ad, a disciple of Bei Tuo (跋陀), the founder of Shaolin Temple, by the name of Chou Chanshi (Chan Master Chou) 稠禪師, can be seen walking up a wall diagonally 4 times in a row, and he can also subdue a tiger with a staff and things like that, so one can see he has a high level of Qigong skill, and we can regard him as one of the earlier Qigong and Wushu master of Shaolin Temple.”.
From The Secret Collection of Shaolin Qigong, (少林氣功秘集) written and edited by Shi De-Qian and Xu Qin-Yan (釋德虔 徐勤燕 編著)。
http://www.pcono.com/136488.html
Also see: http://ymaa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4836