|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
One of the five famous mountains of China is called Sung Shan. Sung mountain is not one peak, but is a group of several mountains. There are two groups, the Tai Sut and Sut. The distance between these groups is 17 miles, with the Suiu Sut group being the most western group. Among the Siu Sut group there are 36 miles smaller peaks. On one side there are five peaks that are know as Ng Yu Fung. The Bak Siu Lum temple is located near the foot of the Ng Yu Fung near Dang Fong city in the province of Huo Lam in northern China. Since the temple was built in a small forest in Siu Sut, it was called the Siu Lam (small forest) temple. Originally erected in 495 (a.d.) by Emperor Hau Man Dai, its purpose was to spread the teachings of the Buddhist religion. The Indian monk called Bat Tuo was installed as head monk. Thirty-two years later, another Indian monk name Dat Mo came across the Himalayas to China, finally settling at the Siu Lam temple. He remained there for many years. Nine years was spent in meditation facing a wall. After this initial period he issued the Yit Gun Ging, a muscle change classic that he used to maintain his health and physical fitness during his years of meditation. Dat Mo's greatest claim to fame is that he was the first teacher or Sim (Zen) Buddhism in China. Later, during the Bak Jau dynasty, Emperor Mou Dai (572-575 a.d.) suppressed the open practice of both Buddhism and Taoism. During this three-year period, the temple was closed. During the reign of Emperor Jing Dai (579-580 a.d.) the temple was re-opened under the name Ji Gu Ji. The name was changed back to Siu Lam Ji by Emperor Man Dai (581-600 a.d.) during the Chou dynasty. In addition, the temple was given 100 Chinese acres of land by the emperor. The temple was to reach its pinnacle of fame during the Tang dynasty, which started in 626 a.d. Before the founding of this dynasty, the future Emperor Lei Sai Man asked the temple to aid him against two rival generals named Wong Sai Chung and Wong Yan Jap. The temple sent the "thirteen staff monks". Their names were:
Since these monks were fierce fighters, they not only helped Lai Sai Man win the battle, but captured the rival commanders alive. These brought both fame and fortune to the Siu Lam temple. After this, the temple was called "number-one temple under heaven". When Lai Sai Man became emperor in 627 a.d. the temple lands were increased to 10,000 Chinese acres and 5,000 dormitories and other buildings were built to house now over 2000 monks. This was in addition to the 14 main temple buildings. Three top monks at this time were Wan Jung, Ji Chou and Wai Cheung. Wan Jung the chief was made an honorary general of Lei Sai Man's army. During peacetime he was free to pursue his Buddhist studies, but in time of war, he was to revert to his military commission. In addition, 500 martial monks were allowed to form what ostensibly was a standing army. They acted as temple guards. The temple received damage on several occasions. One major time was during the Ching dynasty (1644-1911 a.d.) where loyalists of the former Ming dynasty (1368-1644 a.d.) used the temple as a headquarters. The government found out and ousted the rebels killing several hundred and destroying hundreds of temple structures. The worst damage occurred during a civil war in 1928. The two generals Sek Yau Sam and Shin Jung Sau attacked the temple in order to oust general Fon Jung Sau who was using the temple as his headquarters. On, March 15, 1928, Sek Yau Gam won the battle and entered the temple. Feeling that the monks committed an act of war by taking in Fon Jung Sau, Sek Yau Sam set fire to the temple grounds, which burned out of control for 40 days. Some structures were repaired, but most were lost. Nam (South) Siu Lam Ji (Temple) History
The Fukien or southern Siu Lam temple was built on Gau Lin Shan in Fukien province near the border of Gwan Dung province. Built in 1399 a.d. during the Ming dynasty, the temple became known as "South Siu Lam" before being utterly destroyed during the Ching (1644-1911 a.d.) dynasty. During its brief heyday, the Southern temple had a good reputation for martial arts, but its reputation was eroding because many students escaped before graduating. Thus the level of martial skill of the average person leaving the temple dropping. These "masters" helped to degrade the southern temple's reputation. To counter this trend, the abbot Jee Sim Sim See (Sim See means Zen master) put Hung Yan Sim See in charge of 36 chambers. Here, Siu Lam's warrior monks and unshaven disciples learned the Siu Lam martial arts in a step-by-step manner, not advancing until each skill had been mastered. (an "unshaven disciple" was a person who stayed at the temple primarily to study the martial arts and did not take Buddhist vows and become a monk) Jee Sim is also credited with devising the "wooden dummy hall". The wooden dummy hall was erected in the Lohan Tung or Buddha hall. The 18 wooden dummies purpose was to test the kung fu skill of potential graduates. The dummies names and movements were as follows: 1. Lohan Or Ga Yit: When the student entered, this dummy was in a seated position holding a monk's ornamental staff. As the student approached, the dummy swung the weapon toward the middle of the student's body. If the student retreated, the dummy would close, swinging the weapon faster and faster until the rear wall was reached. The student in this case would have to either duck or jump over the weapon, which could shatter the student’s bones if it connected. If the student avoided the blow, he was expected to kick the dummy over, defeating it. All of these dummies were activated by the pressure of the students weight on the floor. Also, defeating all the dummies was achieved similarly by knocking them over. 2. Lohan Or Lan Tor: Thu dummy is seated with hands together as in prayer. The student is alternately punched and kicked by this dummy. The blows must not be directly blocked because contact with the dummy would result in broken bones. The student must avoid the blows and knock the dummy over. 3. Lohan Mook Jit Lin: One foot of the dummy is on top of a lion with the other standing on the floor. This dummy tries to use a low sweeping kick to hit the student. Once it starts the move is repeated faster and faster while rushing toward the student. The correct response is to use a jumping kick to floor the dummy while avoiding the sweep at the same time. 4 Lohan Seh Lei Fut: This dummy stands holding a staff in the right hand and holding its left hand at the breast. It uses the staff to block the student's path and attacks with the free hand. The student must lock the arm and sweep the dummy to down it. 5. Lohan Ah Lah Luet: This dummy stands holding a begging bowl. It tires to slam the bowl on the student's head. If the bowl land precisely, the student will be unable to easily remove it. Avoiding the initial attack is the most essential element in defeating this dummy. 6. Lohan Seui Pou Tai: This dummy stands holding prayer beads. When approached, the dummy tries to hit the student in the abdomen. Suddenly the beads are swung toward the student’s head. The second blow was designed to catch the student unaware as he was trying to stop the first blow. 7. Lohan Fu Lao La: The dummy stands with a wine cup in its left hand. The dummy strikes with one hand using drunken style and than throws the cup at the student. The student must avoid these movements and immediately counter. 8. Lohan Ga Jim Ting: As it is approached, the dummy stands erect. If the student comes close, the dummy uses low kick to the student. The dummy must be kicked down before it can continue its attack, which comes faster and faster. 9. Lohan Fuk Law Lei: The dummy stands in a bow and arrow stance facing the student. When the student comes into range, the dummy attacks with repeated thrust punches to the body. The student must sidestep to kick the dummy over. 10. Lohan Dat Mo: The dummy is seated sideways holding a book. If the student tries to pass, the dummy throws a sidekick as the student goes by. If he can avoid the kick, the student must fell the dummy from behind. 12. Lohan Chung Haw: The dummy stands hold a head sized temple bell. As the student approaches, the bell is thrown, which the student must avoid. 13. Lohan Jang Chan: The dummy sits facing the student holding a book next to a pile of stones. The student is shot with projectiles that shoot out of the head of the dummy. The difficulty is in trying to close with the dummy while it shoots these projectiles. 14. Lohan Dou Shuen: The dummy is holding a staff, but is making awkward, stupid looking movements. This is an attempt to lure the student into thinking that the dummy is not functioning properly. The student is attacked as soon as he attempts to go by. The student is expect to be able to avoid such surprise attacks. 15. Lohan Yan Lang: The dummy stands looking at the ground. When the student stands on the proper part of the floor. The dummy will thrust its fingers toward the student’s eyes. Obviously, students failing at this point may never graduate! 16. Lohan Hung Lung Sau: This dummy stands holding a shiny begging bowl. Suddenly, the student has a blinding light in his face. As soon as this happens, the dummy throws a barrage of blows. The key point is to not get blinded by the light reflected from the bowl. If this is avoided, then the dummy may be kicked over. 17. Fuk Fu Lohan: The dummy stands with his foot on the back of a tiger. In one of its hands is a large ring. The dummy tries to put the run over the student's head while kicking him from below. The student must avoid the ring in order to not get kicked in the groin. 18. Lohan La Gum Luet: The dummy stands holding a monk's spade. The dummy charges while spinning the spade in a figure 8 pattern. The student who had stopped this dummy had graduated! His certification was still to come. However, the door to the hall was blocked by a 150-pound urn containing hot coals with the mark of the tiger head/dragon body on the handles. The student had to hug the urn with their forearms. This branded him with the mark of the s Siu Lam master. The highest experts had marks on only one arm, having used one are to lift the urn. One man to have passed this test was Hung Hei Guen, later to be considered founder of the Hung Ga System. Many great teachers were trained at this temple. After the end of the Ming dynasty, the Ming loyalists used this temple as the headquarters in Southern China. Eventually, the Ching Emperor Hong Hei (1662-1723 a.d.) found this out and ordered two generals Chan Man Yiu, and Jeung Gim Chao to take 3000 soldiers and rout the temple. General Chan Man Yiu knew well the reputation the Siu Lam people had earned for their martial arts. Instead of attacking right away he went to the area at the base of Gao Lin Shan to collect intelligence. As it happened, the owner of the hotel Chan Man Yiu stayed at was a former Siu Lam student. His name Ma Ling Yee, also know as Ma Chut. (Ma #7) When Ma Chut was a student at Siu Lam, his martial skill was not bad. However, his morality was poor and he was punished after destroying a valuable item known as the Man Nin Deng or 10,000 year lamp. Instead of taking his punishment in stride, he resented the monks, and escaped. He tenuously used his skill to accumulate enough to run the hotel at the base of the mountain. When Chan Man Yiu found out about Ma's past, he paid Ma handsomely for inside information, which Ma was very happy to provide. Armed with this new knowledge. Chan Man Yiu believed he could defeat the monks of the Siu Lam temple. At some distance from the temple, there was a secret tunnel, which could be used to get off the mountain unobserved. The monks would use this in case of dire emergency. Knowing of the tunnels existence, Chan Man Yiu advanced troops to the foot of the mountain. He sent word to the monks that they were to leave the temple within three days or they would all be killed. Since Master Jee Sim had already passed away, the head monk Ng Ging Wo Seung, also known as Ching Cho, was in charge. He had 108 martial monks in the temple who were enraged by Chan Man Yiu's ultimatum,. It was decided that the monks would fight back. One night, the monks separated onto five groups. They attacked by the main road, but using arrows and even stones, the monks killed more than 100 soldiers. After this skirmish, the monks pulled back into the temple to re-think their options. It was decided that they would stay in the temple and booby trap all the entrances. General Chan Man Yiu ordered his men to set fire to the temple. While the general's men were doing this, Ching Cho ordered the monks to go to the tunnel to escape. They didn't realize that Chan had filled the far end of the tunnel with gunpowder devices. Many monks were trapped and killed in the tunnel. Ching Cho ordered the remaining men back to the temple. By then, it was almost morning, and the temple had burned to the ground. Upon counting, Ching Cho descended that the survivors would later meet the Wu Lung river. Ching Cho descend the mountain in a rage, seeking out the only person who could have given away the secret of the tunnel escape route. He later found Ma Chut and killed him on the spot. At the river, there were only five men. They were:
These men were later honored and know as the Ng Jo or five ancestors. They agreed to spilt up so that they would never be caught together and then they would form pro-Ming associations. There is still a system call the Ng Jo Kuen that reminds us of their men. These men spread the Siu Lam martial arts all over China among the common people. History of Hung Kuen The Hung Ga system began in the Ching dynasty during the reign of Yung Jing (1723-1736 a.d.). Hung Ga was the number one style among five family styles of the south. These were:
Each of these systems is unique and possesses distinctive and special techniques. Originally, Hung Hei Guen's surname was Jyu. His grandfather was an official of the Ming government and the family was well off. Hung was originally a tea merchant before becoming a student of master Jee Sim and graduating from the south Siu Lam temple. As a staunch supporter of the deposed Ming regime, he changed his surname from Jyu to Hung in honor of the first Ming emperor Jyu Hung Mo (1271-1368 a.d.). Hung would have referred to his martial arts as Siu Lam kung fu, but out of fear that the Siu Lam connection would get him and his followers in trouble, he called the art Hung Ga of Hung family kung fu to hide its true source. Later, his followers would continue this practice, in honor of their venerated master. After the burning of the Siu Lam temple in Fukien, he met and married Fong Wing Chun, a former student of Buddhist nun Ng Mui. Fong was knowledgeable in Crane style kung fu. He later moved to Fa city in Gwang Dung province and later died there at the advanced age of 90 years. His tomb is still located there. In addition, historical records at Fukien Chan Jau Fu Ji indicated that Hung Hei Guen killed someone there with a single punch. In addition to this as evidence of Hung's existence, it also attests to the devastating power of Hung's fist. Hung Kuen became known for two things: 1. The "thousand pound foundation" or horse stance 2. The "iron fist" and "iron arm" or fists and forearms continuously conditioned on sandbags and wooden posts. For example, when Hung Hei Guen sank into a horse stance, more than ten people with staffs were unable to move him. This is a difficult achievement, requiring 3-7 years practice. Some others occasionally say that Hung Kuen is slow. This is untrue. Like many systems, Hung Kuen emphasizes fast strikes. However, it believes that a firm root is the most indispensable feature of the training. It is that when people are mobile and flexible but do not have a solid foundation it is easy for them to lose. Thus, Hung Kuen is solid first, and mobile and flexible secondly. Wong Fei Hung In recent times in southern China, there were many famous masters of martial arts. On the Hung shuen or red boats, which carried the Chinese opera companies, Leung Yee Tai and Wong Wah Bo, both of Siu Lam descent, were well known. On land, the strongest masters were known as the "ten tigers of Gwan Dung". Their names were:
These were the ten best martial artists as seen by their peers in south China. After Wong Fei Hung's induction, it was known that his martial skills had to be good. His life story has been immortalized in books and movies for 40 years. During a party at the Ying Ging restaurant in Hong Kong for the opening of Wong Fei Hung's school there, the plans for the movie starring Kwen Tak Hing were made. The first movie played to packed housed and this continued until over 100 Wong Fei Hung pictures were filmed. These movies made his name famous and his legend grew steadily to fold-hero status. In fact, fictionalized accounts of Master Wong's life are again popular in cinema. When he was a young man Wong Fei Hung taught martial arts to the army. Wong Fei Hung has married four times. His first wife surname Law died three months after they were married from an illness. His second wife, surnamed Ma, bore him two sons, Hawn Sum, and Hawn Lum. She died soon after. Wong's third wife also bore him two sons, Hawn Hei, and Hawn Hsu, but she also did not live long. By this time, the word was out that Wong Fei Hung was bad luck for women, and no women wanted any part of him. Even Wong resigned himself to this, and stopped trying to remarry. Unfortunately, Wong's son Hawn Sum was killed by gangsters with pistols after an altercation. This caused Wong to withhold his knowledge from the other sons, in order to protect them. In addition, he had several good students including Lueng Foon, famous for his horse stance, and Ling Wan Gai, who was famous for his kicking skill. These two good students died at a young age and did not go on to having their own schools and disciples. Other famous students of Wong Fei Hung include the popular Lam Sai Wing, a former pork butcher who had many students and wrote three volumes on Hung Kuen, and Tang Fong, of whom we will speak later. Many years later, in Fatsan Dip Gao Heung, Wong's school was performing a lion dance in honor of the anniversary of the Lam Hoi Association. Wong Fei Hung's good students Leung Foon and Ling Wan Gai performed the head and tail respectively. After the lion dance, a martial arts demonstration was held outside on the stage. After all the students had show their shown their kung fu, Wong stepped up to the platform to perform the Yu family trident, a type of weapon now considered the king of southern Chinese weapons. During his performance, he accidentally kicked his shoe off into the crowd. The shoe struck a young woman, and she was incensed. Despite attempted apologies by Wong, she slapped him in the face, yelling that he had no excuse, since he was a famous master of martial arts. "What if that had been your weapon", she retorted, "I could have been killed". After this, a rather chastened Wong returned to the stage to perform his set. Later on, though the woman was plain in appearance, he could not get her out of his mind. She was young and strong and, he thought, maybe she would last longer than the other women! He investigated and found out that her name was Mok Gwai Lan and was in town with her number two aunt looking for a husband. As it turned out, the aunt, fearing that Wong would want revenge for his humiliation sought him out to apologize and he told her of his feelings. She agreed to act as a go-between and eventually Mok Gwai Lan and Wong Fei Hung were married. Mok Gwai Lan had a strong foundation in her Mok Ga kung fu, so Wong Fei Hung taught her Hung Kuen. She eventually became the instructor for a all woman's class in Hung Kuen, Which women had not had a chance to learn form before. She lived long, indeed, surviving her husband by many years and later teaching as Tang Fong's assistant. Tang Fong Tang Fong was born in Sam Soy village. In these days, the oldest mail member of the village was in charge. Villages often hired martial arts instructors to teach them so the village could protect itself. During his youth, Tang Fong Learned from Sifu Wong Yau, and Sifu Yuen Yin, learning "village" style Hung Ga, also know as "old style" to distinguish it from the orthodox line of Wong Fei Hung, and Mau Shan, a form of folk sorcery. Later, he studied with Wong Fei Hung, completing the traditional Hung Ga style. During his tenure with Wong, he was classmates with Lan Sai Wing. During this period, there was a famous incident. A rival of Wong Fei Hung trapped Lam Sai Wing, Tang Fong, his brother Tang Yee and others inside the Luk Sin theater. Having only 10 people, and being outnumbered 6 to 1, Tan and Lam were hard pressed to escape. During the fight Tang Fong used an iron ruler to douse the light, and they fought their way out. They escaped, despite the fact that Tang was stabbed during the incident. After this both Lam and Tang left town to avoid trouble. Lan Sai Wing went to the Gwang Dung/Gwang Sai border area because there were fewer people there. Tang Fung went to work in Singapore as a miner. Later, Tang Fong returned to Gwang Dung. After Wong Fei Hung was quite old, Tang Fong and his brother opened a school called Yee Ying Ton or "chivalrous/brave hall". Also, he renewed his relationship with Lan Sai Wing, learning forms that were not part of Wong Fei Hung's original curriculum. Because of this period, many erroneously considered him Lam's disciple, but as he had mastered all of Wong Fei Hung's curriculum before leaving Wong's school, he is rightly considered a junior classmate of Lam Sai Wing. Eventually, Tang Fong took over the position of head of security at the Sau Kay Wan fish market from Lam Sai Wing. Tang Fong had several well-known students, of which Ho Lap Tin was most senior, and Yuen Ling, who was considered the best. It was Yuen Ling who would eventually take Tang's place at the fish market when Tang was elderly. Yuen Ling Yuen Ling was originally born in Fatson, Gwang Dung province China. He learned "old style" Hung Ga, Which is a branch of the art from Hung Hei Guen, but not through Wong Fei Hung. He learned this system from Sifu Luk Fung Seh. He also learned Dog Boxing from Sifu Gum Yuen Dang. In 1949, he went to Hong Kong and began to learn Hung Kuen with Tang Fong until the latter's death, where upon he took over Tang's position at the Sau Kay Wan fish market. During his tenure at the market, he had a school at 73 Dong Tai Street, in Hong Kong.
|
