Yuan Dynasty

Mongolia’ s ruling class advocated religious diversity to strengthen the reign of thoughts. Then the position of Shaolin Temple was obviously enhanced, known as the ancestral monastery of Chan sect or great Shaolin Temple and so on.

Shaolin Temple had 23 affiliated temples in the Yuan Dynasty with a population of more than two thousand monks, which was unprecedented in history. A number of disciples held administrators of the Sangha at that time.

Ming Dynasty

In the early Tang Dynasty, Shaolin monks carried out extensive repair work for the destroyed temple in war in the late Yuan Dynasty, such as the Thousand Buddha Pavilion, Lixue Pavilion, the Sixth Patriarch Hall, the Kimnara Hall, the Dharma Hall, the Bell Tower and so on. In addition, many pagodas were also built in the Ming Dynasty. The pagodas reached the number of more than 140, ranking first place in history. Caodong clan of Chan school played a leading role in Shaolin Temple during the Ming Dynasty.

Japanese Monks Studying in Shaolin Temple, and Sino-Japanese Cultural Exchanges and Friendship, in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties

In the Yuan and Ming dynasties, there were Japanese monks visited Shaolin Temple to study Buddhism and also held the monk rank to manage affairs of the temple, and forged a profound friendship with Chinese monks, which has become a favourite story to this day.