White-eyebrow developed from Chan Buddhism some 300 years ago. According to legend, the senior of the Five Shaolin Elders was Bai-mei. He was so called on account of his silver eyebrows. He taught Chan monk Kwong-wei. Kwong-wei taught Chan monk Jok Fah-yuen who in turn taught monk Lien-sang and Chang Lai-chuen.

The word Jok, as in Jok Fah-yuen, has been most misunderstood. It has been used as one of the two family names of Buddhists in China. It refers to the ancient name of India: Tien-chu and Chuen-tu. Jok is the shortened form of Tien-chu and Chuen-tu on account of Chu and Tu as used in the Chinese language of the Han and Tang periods (202BC-907AD). It reminded all Buddhists that Buddha came from India. Another common surname for the Buddhists is Sak. It is the shortened version of Sakyamuni, the name of Buddha, founder of Buddhism. For example, the Shaolin monks have Sak as their generic family name; in their given names, the second word indicates their generation in the genealogical chart, and the third word is the given name (for instance, Sak Su-i).

Shaolin as used in martial arts circles refers to its origin at the Buddhist spiritual site in one of the highest mountains of China, called Song, in the province of Henan. It was first built in 495 AD. In 527 AD, an Indian monk named Boddhidarma came to settle down in this monastery, preaching Chan [Zen in Japanese] Buddhism. He was given credit for two developments: the beginnings of Chinese Chan Buddhism and Shaolin martial arts. As the fountainhead, the Shaolin Temple is one of the most important places on earth. The residents and elders are Chan monks who produce disciples in Chan Buddhism. There are also Taoist temples on Song mountain who produce Taoist priests. The monks do not produce priests and vice-versa because these are different faiths with separate doctrines. In Chinese, there are three different characters referring to three different spiritual sites: Chih refers to the temple for Buddhist monks and nuns, kuan to the Taoist temple, and mu to the temple for cultural hero like Confucius, Lord Kuan, and for other deities such as gods of household or kitchen. The principal icons or objects or worship in the Buddhist temples are Buddha in his various forms, and his disciples. The Taoist temples present Lao Tzu and his two other transformed spiritual bodies. Their costumes are different: the laymen of religions should find the monks and nuns baldheaded with burned marks on their head; the Taoists keep their hair. Their spiritual goals are different: the nirvana [total void] is the ultimate destination for the Buddhists' spiritual path. The ideal spiritual world for the religious Taoists resembles a similar hierarchy for all the spiritual beings who are ruled over by one Supreme Lord after they have purified their human elements and ascended to the spiritual pure land.

In the area of martial arts, I emphasize the training differences at the elementary level between the Shaolin and Taoist approaches. The Shaolin approaches are marked by four concepts: escape, strike, hopping, and control. In the Taoist approaches it is the conquest of softness over stiffness, and stillness over excessive actions. Having presented the visible important differences between the Buddhists and the Taoists, I hope the readers find it difficult to accept our system founder of White-eyebrow as a Taoist priest.

As a footnote to the history of White-eyebrow Shaolin, I would like to mention one interesting point. Before Chang's family moved to Kowloon, Hong Kong, in 1959, Chang taught this system as a form of Emei Shaolin because his teacher, monk Fah-yuen, came from Sichen province of China where Emei mountain was the center of Buddhism and Shaolin kung-fu. He named his 18 schools as sites of Li-chuan Kuo Shu. This name means sites of national martial arts for the commendable effort in preserving life. The name sounds close to his given name (Lai-chuen). In this way, he identified himself with his school and revealed the starting point of Chinese Shaolin training in the strong sense of survival, which is shared by all members of the animal kingdom. Ignorant of this chapter of modern White-eyebrow history, some writers present White-eyebrow (Emei Shaolin before 1959) as one Taoist element of their system. After reading the relevant facts here, I hope they will be more accurate in future accounts of our system.

To summarize: White-eyebrow had its origin in the Shaolin Temple of Chan Buddhism. In its lineage up to Chang's death, it did not embrace any trace of Taoism. In its mainstream development since Chang, we have not been able to document any trace of Taoism.