Shaolin monks hone their kung fu skills in the courtyard of the Shaolin Monastery. Murals in the White Hall of the Shaolin Temple.

Authentic Shaolin Heritage: Training Methods of Shaolin Monks

72 Arts of Shaolin: (9) Iron Shirt

TIE BU SHAN GONG

Iron Shirt | Brief Description 

Excerpt from the book: Jin Jing Zhong. Authentic Shaolin Heritage: Training Methods of 72 Arts of Shaolin >
The exercise “Iron Shirt” is hard Shaolin GONG FU for the development of the external force. If you combine this exercise with training the internal power by means of TONG JIA GONG (“The art of a child”, or “Children’s exercises”; a complex of 16 exercises for teaching children develops flexibility, equilibrium, control of breath, steadiness, and speed), you can attain the same result as in GONG FU “Covering with Gold Bell”. However, it is not easy to reach success, that’s why the people in command of this GONG FU can be seldom found...
A full description of the training procedure is available in the book: Training Methods of 72 Arts of Shaolin >

...It is necessary mobilize the internal energy QI during training, concentrate attention and direct force to the spot at which you deliver a blow. It will take another three years...

...you will be able to mobilize internal energy QI and concentrate the force Li, your body will become as hard as iron or stone. A punch or a blow with a solid object will not do you harm. But all the same, blows with a cold weapon should be avoided.

Some of Shaolin monks are able to use this GONG FU. Once my tutor, esteemed master Wang, gave a stage performance in Peking. I was only ten years old at that time. I, moved by curiosity and forgetting about decency, took a short pike and delivered a stabbing blow at his stomach with all force. But at the same moment I was thrown off and fell flat on my back. I stood up, surprised and ravished: master Wang instantly had concentrated his internal energy QI for defense, and my attack failed
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72 Arts of Shaolin: (9) Iron Shirt

72 ARTS OF SHAOLIN | Brief Descriptions

(1) Diamond Finger - (2) Twin Lock - (3) Striking with Foot  (4) Pulling out Nails - (5) Ringing Round a Tree - (6 ) Four-Part Exercise - (7) One Finger of Chan Meditation - (8) Iron Head - (9) Iron Shirt - (10) A Series of Blows - (11) Sweeping with an Iron Broom - (12) Hand - a Bamboo Leaf (13) Jumping Centipede - (14) Raising a Weight of 1000 JINs - (15) Celestial’s Palm - (16) Method of Hardness and Softness - (17) Cinnabar Palm - (18) Lying Tiger - (19) Swimming and Diving Skill - (20) Sluice Shutter weighing 1000 JINs - (21) Covering with a Gold Bell - (22) Finger Lock - (23) Luohan’s Exercise - (24) Lizard Climbs the Wall - (25) The Art of Lash - (26) PIPA - (27) The Pole of a Falling Star - (28) Poles of Plum Bloom - (29) The Art of Stone Padlock - (30) Skill of the Iron Arm - (31) Fist like a Bullet - (32) Soft Bones - (33) Frog - (34) Piercing the Curtain - (35) The Force of Eagle’s Claws - (36) Iron Bull - (37) Skill of Eagle Wings - (38) Hand of Sun Rays - (39) Exercise for Groin - (40) Iron Bag - (41) Method that Reveals the Truth - (42) Skill of Tortoise Back - (43) Skill of Deft Jumps - (44) Skill of Light Body - (45) Iron Knees - (46) Technique of Jumps - (47) Palm of Iron Sand - (48) Pulling a Silk Thread - (49) Method of drawing in YIN - (50) Rubbing and Thrusts - (51) Stone Pile - (52) Neither Lances nor Broadswords Can Wound - (53) Gong Fu Flight - (54) Hand of Five Poisons - (55) Skill of Water Separation - (56) To Fly Up to the Ridge and to Walk on a Wall - (57) Skill of Somersaulting - (58) Pole of Cypress - (59) Ba Wang’s Elbow - (60) Pinching a Flower - (61) Pushing a Mountain with Palm - (62) Technique of Horse Saddle - (63) Skill of Nephrite Belt - (64) YIN Fist Method - (65) Skill of Sand Bags - (66) Piercing Through Stones - (67) Pulling Out a Mountain - (68) Claws of Mantis - (69) Gong Fu Bag - (70) Palm of Guan Yin - (71) Raising a Pot - (72) Rubbing Palms