Master Shi Yong Xin is the Abbot of the Songshan Shaolin Temple in Henan Province. Supporting the promotion of Shaolin Martial Arts, the Abbot gave his support and blessing for the founder Master Shi Yan Jia to set up the Qufu Shaolin Martial Arts School in 2008. We also take our students to visit him at the Shaolin Temple.


Shi Yong Xin was born in 1965 and joined the Shaolin Temple in 1981. He took office as the Shaolin Temple Abbot in 1999 after his long study as a monk at the Shaolin Temple and other monasteries. He became the thirtieth successor after the previous Buddhist Abbot Xue Ting Fu Yu. He is the chairman of Henan Province Buddhists Association, vice-chairman of China's Buddhist Association, representative of the Ninth National People's congress and also the first Chinese monk ever to get an MBA degree. The Venerable Abbot Shi Yong Xin is renowned for his work in promoting Shaolin Buddhist culture, his writings as a scholar, and for his continuous efforts of restoring the Shaolin Temple.


Here is the Shaolin Abbot, Master Shi Yong Xin’s handwriting for our headmaster, Shi Yan Jia, paying homage to his disciple on his work.
It reads: “xue yin xin zhu”; this phrase was first written by the Qing dynasty Emperor Qianlong after he visited the Shaolin Temple. This is to show his respect to the Second Ancestor “Hui Ke”. 
Here is the most famous story of Hui Ke: He was born to a Taoist family. He heard about Bhudidamo (Bodhidharma) and followed him all through his meditation in the cave for nine years. Bhudidamo was so strict to choose his successor. On a snowing winter day, Huike asked his master again: ”Shifu, when will you teach me seriously?” Damo smiled and said: ”on the day we have red snow." Kuike understood it and cut his left arm off. He let the blood drop on the snow. In this time, he bore the pain and spoke with his master. After he saw the snow-covered in red, he told his master happily: “we have red snow now, will you teach me seriously?” This behavior finally moved and persuaded Damo. 
The writing is still hanging in the Lixue (stand in snow) Pavilion of the Shaolin Temple above the Damo statue with Huike standing by his side. Xue is snow, yin is sealed or verified, xin is heart, zhu is pearl or bead. xīn zhū is also a Buddhist terminology, to say the mind is as pure as a pearl. This is to that Huike's absolute sincerity and mind is as pure as the snow.

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The Abbot re-write this and give this to our headmaster as a praise for his working on spreading Shaolin Kung Fu worldwide.