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THE
STORY
of
HUNG GAR
Hung
Hee Gung, since a boy loved the martial arts and, before entering
the monastery, he was a simple trader of tea. A day, while he was on business
trip in the province of Kwantung (Canton),
had a dispute with some Ching nobles that forced him to shelter itself in the
temple. Than he asked to the monk Sam Tak to be introduced and admitted as a
laic disciple. At that time, Chih San was the Abbot of the temple of Fukkien,
better known as Gee Sin or Ji Sin, who persuased by the young Hung, admitted
him as disciple. Hung talent and commitments in the hard training of Martial
arts of, impressed the the temple’s seniors, so that both Sam Tak that Gee
Sin taught the young disciple. It seems that the young Hung
took lessons by another monk too, a woman whose name was Fong Wing Chun,
expert in the style of the crane white (davit), direct pupil of Ng Mui
and future bride of Hung. After six years of hard training, Hung was
recognized as the best laic disciple of his generation, the first among the
best ten disciples of the temple! But Shaolin of Fukkien was also kept under
observation by the Ching, who thought the temple the den of revolutionary
activities against the Empire and many of the students after getting a good
mastery of the techniques, left the temple offering to the Chings the
opportunity to destroy it, it was the same that had happened to the monastery
of Honan. Thirty of them survived the massacre among them the Abbot Gee Sin,
Sam Tak and Hung Hee Gung who parted in order not to be
found. Hung secretly devoted himself to the teaching of Kung fu,
he hid the methods of training learned at Shaolin but the bases remained the
same. He fused the skills he had learned from his wife, he could set up a
system most of which got to us unchanged: he called this system Hung Gar Kung
fu from the name of the Emperor Hung Wu, whose descend had been interrupted
with the coming of the Ching, also if, it refers to his family (Chinese gar).
The Hung Gar arts spread rapidly in the south of China, becoming the most know
Martial style among the greatest families of the Kwantung: Hung, Choy,
Lau, Li, Mok. The Abbot Gee Sin, knowing Hung had founded a
School and being old, sent one of his
disciple to him, his name was Lok Ha Choy he had to complete his preparation
according to the rules of Shaolin.
Under the careful teaching of Hung, Lok Ha Choy became one of the best martial
artists of every time later he
became one of the main popularizer of Hung Gar art. Lok Ha Choy moved to
Canton, among Lok Ha Choy’s disciples first Wong Tai and then his son
Wong Kay Ying distinguished: the latter got so high skill levels to be known
as one of the "ten Tigers of Canton", title reserved to the best
disciple of Kung fu. Wong Fei Hung, Wong Kay Ying’s son too, was
started off an Hung Gar by the old Lok Ha Choy, and than tought by his
father, he surpassed his father perhaps in skill but above all in fame: Wong
Fei Hung is in fact regarded the father of the Hung gar in the contemporary
age. The direct Heirs of Wong Fei Hung were, among the others, Lam Sai
Wing and Tang Fong. Lam Sai Wing had the great merit to popularize
the Hung gar through the publication of books about the forms Gung Ji
Fok Fu Kuen, Fu Hok Seung Ying Kuen, Tit Sin Kuen. The main
disciples of Lam Sai Wing were: Chan Hon Chung, Chiu Kao and Lam Jo. Great
Master Chiu Kao (1895-1995), started practising the Hung gar under the
Master Jue Juk Wing direct disciple of Wong Fei Hung and he after moving to
Hong Kong bicame disciple of Lam Sai Wing. Chiu Kao besides being a teacher of
Kung fu, he also plied the job as a doctor, that he often practised for free
to help
the poor people of the district where he had his study. Chiu Kau helped by his
wife Shiu Ying and by his sons Chiu Gim Ching, Chiu Gim Fung, Chiu Way and
Chiu Chi Ling, taught the Hung gar till he was 80 years old, then he
left the technical management of the school to his sons Chiu Way and Chiu Chi
Ling. Chiu Way applied himself to the spreading of the Hung Gar above all in
Hong Kong and, at the moment, he lives and is spreading the style in
Canada. Chiu Chi Ling has spread the Hung gar style in other countries among
which the United States and Europe : in Italy it has found several
followers too, amog whom the brothers Luigi and Sergio Martone, today they are
representatives of the European Hung Gar Association.
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