As far as Shaolin culture is concerned, the most important thing is Zen and then martial arts. Zen is a combination of the hardworking and frugal living style of the Chinese people along with the practice of Buddhism in daily life. The crazy commercial operation of Shaolin culture will deprive Zen of the mystery and solemnity. Suppose the Shaolin Temple gradually loses its core values, then isn't it just another entertainment company? In that case, is it still possible to attract so many tourists from around the world?

For many foreigners who know little about Chinese culture, they may be attracted by the Shaolin Temple's business activities, but they still have independent understanding and judgment, so if the temple continues to abandon the most important part of its culture, sooner or later it will lose its attraction.

Yue Yi (Procuratorial Daily): I'm not so conservative as to oppose temples making money. Monks need money to pay for food and housing and the operation of temple affairs needs money too. This was also the case in ancient times. However, Buddhism is a religious belief and temples are not supposed to make money in whatever way they deem fit.

The Shaolin Temple has gone too far in selling their secrets. The Chinese martial arts value kungfu students' personal morality. In ancient times, even ordinary martial arts teachers would choose apprentices from people of high moral standards. Tuition could not be bought if the person was known to have a bad reputation.

It is dangerous to give martial arts secrets to people of little morality. Has the Shaolin Temple never considered the consequences of such people getting its Secret Recipe and doing harm to others?

Of course, it's possible that there are no real secrets to kungfu, which means that the monks would be lying. If Buddhist monks are said to never tell lies, then they are breaching the rules of Buddhism. It's not worth sacrificing religious belief just because of the greed for money.

Zhuang Huayi (China Youth Daily): As for the question why the Shaolin Temple is operating as a business, Principal Abbot Shi Yongxin explained, "If we do nothing, we can't expect the Shaolin Temple to be so well-known and to see so many visitors."

However, the fact is, in the years it was not operated as a business, the temple was no less famous than it is now. Undoubtedly, the Shaolin Temple gains its reputation not because of commercial operation.

When faced with criticism and debates after he announced that the Shaolin Temple would step up business development efforts, Shi Yongxin said, "Monks are also citizens."

Monks are citizens, but they are not businessmen. When this generation of Shaolin monks present themselves as businessmen in front of the public and try to profit from this famous brand of rich cultural and religious significance, many Shaolin supporters would feel sad and worried about this brand.

Commercializing culture

Ye Sai (www.dahe.cn): If the Shaolin Temple remains only a scenic spot of Buddhism culture, its influence and fame will be very limited and its value as the Chinese nation's cultural treasure can't be fully exploited. Although the preservation of traditional culture is strongly called for today, still a lot of cultural factors are vanishing due to the shortage of money. By adopting a business operation, the Shaolin Temple is not only increasing its strength and influence, but also helps save the government's input toward its cultural protection. Besides, this will also bring a lot of economic interests.