The name T'ai Tsung was chosen for the organisation to commemorate the support for the Shaolin monks by T'ai Tsung, the first emperor of the T'ang dynasty around 695 AD.

Legend maintains that the Shaolin temple at the foot of the Song Shan mountain was built around 495 AD by the royal decree of the emperor Hsiao-Wen.  Two hundred years later the emperor T'ai Tsung appealed to the fighting monks to help him defeat the usurper general Wang-Shih-Ch'ung.  The Shaolin monks aided the emperor and together defeated Wang.  In recognition of their meritorious deeds the emperor conferred upon Shaolin the title "Number One Monastery Under Heaven".