Shi Yan Ming

Shi Yan Ming trained as a warrior monk at China's Shaolin Temple, an institution that has sat at the centre of Chan Buddhist practice for fifteen centuries. Entry into that tradition carries a generational lineage: he is recognised as a 34th-generation Shaolin monk, a designation that marks both his place in an unbroken line of transmission and the rigour of the training he undertook. That formation — equal parts physical and philosophical — shaped the work he would carry beyond the temple walls.

Shi Yan Ming established the U.S.A. Shaolin Temple, where students of all ages and backgrounds train alongside one another in the martial and mental disciplines of Shaolin kung fu. His book The Shaolin Workout sets out the practice in full: not as a fighting system, but as a physical and mental training that builds calm, confidence, and composure under pressure. International action stars including Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-Fat have acknowledged him as Sifu — the term for a respected teacher and master.

The U.S.A. Shaolin Temple remains the primary home of his teaching, drawing practitioners who train not in a spirit of competition but of collective effort and support. The Shaolin Workout continues to circulate as both a practical training guide and an introduction to the broader principles that underpin the tradition — principles Shi Yan Ming frames as inseparable from the physical work. His lineage, carried from the Shaolin Temple to an American setting, keeps a 34th-generation practice alive in a context far removed from its origins.