Were the guys drunk when they decided to murder Xiao Yuanshan?

[tape]

I mean the whole reason to murder them was to stop a raiding party from stealing Shaolin martial arts and letting their soldiers learn it and become unstoppable compared to the Sung army. WTF kind of reason is this to get all worked up on? There are countless martial arts manuals that they can be stealing, copying, and even buying from many sects and masters where if their soldiers learned it, they would be unstoppable (compared to regular soldiers with no martial arts). Shaolin martial arts actually seem one of the worst as they require a state of mind totally conflicting with a soldiers', and it seems to have extremely slow buildup for an average person. A number of unorthodox martial arts would be much better for an average joe looking for a quick powerup, especially when unorthodox members would be likely to sell martial arts for power and wealth. If they choose to involve themselves in this raid, they'd be committing themselves to likely be stopping hundreds of such raids as the Liao army can likely afford to send many such parties.

It just seems like this was one of those moments where drunk people think every idea is the greatest in the world and has extreme logic behind it. YEAHHHHH LETS STOP THE KHITANS FROM RAIDING SHAOLIN WOOOOO!!!

[Ken Cheng]

Given that the U.S. military has, on occasion, wrongly slaughtered innocent noncombatants during such conflicts as the Vietnam War and the War on Terrorism due to faulty intelligence (or faulty interpretation of intelligence), the Massacre of at the Gate of Ngah Mun isn't that unlikely.

[Banh Mi]

I think they were just trusting of the credibility of the leaders. Murong Bo was trusted and respected by Xuanci, so he help the plan in high regard and believed it was the best possible action. Then when he brought all the other heroes together, they believed the concerns and plans of a respected Shaolin monk to be deep and trustworthy.

[PJ]

It must have triggered a concern of nationalism as well. Shaolin was considered the pinnacle of martial arts of the Central Plains. By stealing martial arts from Shaolin, the enemy would be driving to the heart of the Central Plains, thus upsetting the heroes more than usual.

[CC]

Except for Sweeper Monk (or maybe except for attaining Sweep's level), the entire enlightenment = shaolin martial power theory doesn't apply.

From DGSD to HSDS, we have many examples of petty/selfish/evil/violent types making use of Shaolin based skills to a reasonably (say 1 to 3 tiers below Great) high level.

[kyss of the sword]

if you compare by the greats level fighters then shaolin doesn't stand out but what really matters is the overall power of the sect. sects like quanzhen temporarily were the top sect for a short while but later degraded and lost influence. shaolin has maintained it's power for over a thousand years with a huge number of elite fighters within it's walls. without taking greats into account, shaolin has had the most number of skilled fighters within it's sect. wudang was the only other sect to reach the same fame after it's founding. since shaolin has such fame, it's a likely target for the kithan's and a source of fear for the other puglist if it's manuals were stolen.

[jadebunny9]

What I never really got was why they had to try to kill the mother and child as well. Perhaps they were drunk.