History of the  

 Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon

        The history of the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon spans over  almost 100 years (1851-1949) and its popularity reached across all of southern China.  Loved by the southern Chinese for the effectiveness of Hung Sing Choy Lee Fut,  and taking a stand in the fight for the cause of the people, all the while despised by the Qing government for their involvement with the Hung Mun Secret Society. For almost a century, the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon survived through some of the most extreme situations only to become one of the most famous  gung fu schools to emerge from southern China during the 1800's.

                At the height of the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon's fame, there were over 13 main branches with sub groups that numbered in the 100's.  Altogether,  the members of the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon reached over 10,000 students.   For their time, they were considered the largest and most structured gung fu schools of its day.

"JEONG AH YIM"

Where it all started      

His given birth name was Jeong Ah Yim, and he was born in Sun Wui's Dong Ling Village in 1824.  When he was still very young, its been said that his parents were killed and was under the care of his uncle.  From early on, according to information passed down from one of the Fut San elders (Qian Wei Fang) Jeong Yim possessed a strong passion for gung fu and first started learning the Lee Gar system from Shaolin Monk Lee Yau San sometime before 1836.            

By the time Jeong Yim turned 12 years old (1836), his life was about to change dramatically.   His uncle was no longer able to care for him, and needed to find someone to look after his young nephew.  The only logical option was to take him to  King Mui  to see if his old friend (Chan Heung) would be able to help.  

Upon arriving at the Chan Village, Jeong Yim and his uncle were met by Chan Heung, where he was informed of their difficult situation.  However, the times were heavily unstable, mistrust and suspicion of your fellow man was very common then due to bandits, and both corrupt officials and military soldiers.  So, Chan Heung-bound by the village rules-initially had to refuse help to his old friend.

But, Jeong Yims uncle plead with Chan Heung until the latter devised a plan that just may work.  Although Jeong Yim wouldn't be allowed to learn gung fu from Chan Heung, he would be able to become employed as a handy man.  This seemed to be acceptable to the uncle who then left his young nephew in the care of  his friend and well known martial artist.

  Chan Heung was a local master in King Mui, who, combined the best of his two teachers (Monks Lee Yau San and Choy Fook) styles and invented what was then known as Choy Lee Fut.  The Fut in the name was to represent the Shaolin and Buddhist roots of the new system.  Chan Heung was teaching his new system to his direct family members and those who also shared  the same last name.  According to the history as its passed down, at the time, Jeong Yim was the only outsider in King Mui Chan Village.

Jeong Yim was aware that he was forbidden to learn Chan Heung's gung fu, but his passion for it got the best of him.  From a private vantage point he observed the classes then while everyone was asleep practiced the techniques religiously.  He was discovered one night when Chan Heung happened to catch him practicing and must have been pleased with what he was seeing because for the next 5 years Chan Heung taught him the very best of the system.

Their secret arrangement would have stayed that way except while Chan Heung was out taking care of some business the seniors of the school decided to take out their aggressions on Jeong Yim.  They were searching to get a reaction out of him and must have pushed the right button because Jeong Yim beat the heck out of them. Although this altercation was verification that his hard earned gung fu was not a waste of time, the consequences cause him to be asked to leave King Mui.  The elders discovered what happened and demanded that Chan Heung kick him out.

Please with the progress Jeong Yim made in this short 5 year period of training, Chan Heung decided that if this diamond in the rough was to be polished up there was one person to do that.  After Chan Heung explained the situation to Jeong Yim, he then reluctantly instructed him to go to the Pak Pai Mountain and locate a very elusive monk and have him complete his training.

The Green Grass Monk

 Armed with the Lee Gar from Lee Yau San, and the early stages of Chan Heung's Choy Lee Fut, at the age of 17 Jeong Yim headed out for the Pak Pai Mountain. Upon arriving at Mt. Pak Pai, Jeong Yim located Monk Ching Cho Woe Serng (Green Grass Monk) and revealed why he was there searching for him.  Ultimately, the Green Grass Monk agreed to complete his training. And, for the next 8 years taught Jeong Yim Fut Ga Kuen (Buddhist Palm Style) as well as Chinese Medicine.

Jeong Yim trained hard under the Green Grass Monk.  One of the most important things he learned was called In and Out Bagua.  It contained 1080 moves in it, and was said to have some of the best fighting techniques in it.  At the same time, the Green Grass Monk was mentoring Jeong Yim in regards to the political climate, and encouraging him to aid in the fight for the cause of the people.

At the point the Green Grass Monk realized Jeong Yim's training was complete, he chose to reveal his true identity.   After explaining his role within the Hung Mun Secret Society, the Green Grass Monk changed Jeong Yim's name to one that contained the sentiments of the Hung Mun.

During this time it was common for the local men of southern China who supported the Hung Mun Secret Society to incorporate HUNG in their first names.  The Green Grass Monk then change Jeong Yim's name to Hung Sing (Hong Sheng) which had the secret reference to the Hung Mun winning the victory in overthrowing the Qing government. He then instructed Jeong Hung Sing to go to Fut San, contact the heads of the Fut San Hung Mun branch and offer to train their fighters.

 The newly named Jeong Hung Sing took his leave from Mt. Pak Pai and set out for Fut San.  In 1849 Jeong Hung Sing began training Hung Mun freedom fighters as they prepared for war. While Jeong Hung Sing's second teacher Chan Heung was busy developing HIS Choy Lee Fut, Jeong Hung Sing was teaching a combination of Lee Gar, Chan Heung's earlist Choy Lee Fut, and Fut Ga from the Green Grass Monk.

Jeong Hung Sing's new fighting method was extremely effective since it was designed strictly for combat. It spread like wild fire, and word of his success even got back to Chan Heung.  At some point Jeong Hung Sing returned to King Mui to visit with Chan Heung.  As it is passed down within the Hung Sing lineage, during this visit both Jeong Hung Sing and Chan Heung examined Jeong Hung Sing's new gung fu, and based off of that created more techniques and so forth.  It's possible that at this time Jeong Hung Sing could have picked up a few things from his old teacher as well.

"THE FUT SAN HUNG SING KWOON"

After his visit with Chan Heung, Jeong Hung Sing returned to Fut San to continue developing his gung fu.  Then because the Tai Ping Rebellion was about to get ready to launch, Jeong Hung Sing organized all of his schools in Fut San and formally established the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon in 1851.  Shortly after that The Tai Ping rebellion was set in motion and most of Jeong Hung Sing's disciples participated in this one, and the Red Turban Revolt as well.

The popularity of Jeong Hung Sing's gung fu style was so wide spread it made many teachers of different styles upset.  Some of these masters challenged and were defeated by Jeong Yim, who was so good he could predict which direction you would fall during these challenges. He would eventually earn the title of one of southern China's "Greatest Fighters."
The government kept their eye on the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon and constantly closed them down.  From 1851 to about 1863 Jeong Hung Sing and his disciples participated in every revolution southern China experienced.  Then in 1864, the Qing once again closed down jeong Hung Sing's school.  This time the latter fled to Hong Kong and stayed there for 3 years before returning to Fut San in 1867 to re-open his Hung Sing Kwoon.

 More about the Green Grass Monk

According to the history as it was passed down within the Hung Sing Branch, Jeong Yim was kicked out of the Chan Village for being an outsider and beating up some of their own. His sifu Chan Heung — who was only teaching the Choy and Lee styles at the time — was supposed to have learned from the Green Grass Monk but didn’t have the opportunity and sent Jeong Yim in his place. Under this monk Jeong Yim learned the deadly art of Fut Ga and eventually went back to Chan Heung and shared what he learned and together they completed the Choy Lee Fut Style, and had  taken the system Chan Heung started, and took it to new heights.    That, according to the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon, is said to have been how Choy Lee Fut was created.

Monk Ching Cho Wo Serng ....

According to various sources, Cai DeZhong was one of the last of the Ming Loyalists.  His monasterial name was Monk Ching Cho Wo Serng (Green Grass Monk) and given that it  was very common during the revolution the Southern Chinese to have numerous aliases,   he was also known as Monk Ng Ging.  He and a few of his colleagues fled from Henan and re-established a new Shaolin Temple at Gau Lin San under Abbott Gee Sim. He is also the one who is said to be the one to originally design the Lo-han Hall as a student's final test sometime during the reign of Ching Emperor Qian Long 32 years (1736-1796). Within the walls of the Southern Shaolin Temple Cai DeZhong established the Fut Ga Hung Mun (Buddhist Hung Mung Society) which was the secret headquarters for the revolution and was a safe haven for freedom fighters.

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At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Ching Emperor Hong Hei felt that the Southern Shaolin Temple was too strong for its own good and would eventually become a problem for him. He then sent Generals Chan Man Yiu and Jeong Gim Chow along with more than 3000 soldiers to evict all of the monks from the temple and burn Shaolin down to the ground. The two generals were well aware of the reputation of Shaolin Monks, and decided to set up camp at the base of Gau Lin San (Jiulian San) to collect information.

General Chan happened to come across the owner of a local hotel who turned out to be a disgruntled ex-shaolin disciple named Ma Ling Yee a.k.a. Ma Chut. He was severely punished for breaking the 100 year lamp at the temple which left him with a bitter taste in his mouth. Ma Chut revealed he knew the secret escape route for the monks and would be able to show General Chan where it was. The escape route was very clever and if Ma Chut never exposed it the monks would have gotten away, so General Chan Man Yiu paid a large sum of money to Ma Chut for the information he provided.

General Chan then packed the secret entrance with explosives and sent word to the monks that they had a total of 3 days to vacate the temple or be killed. At the time Abbot Gee Sim had already passed away and left Cai DeZhong (a.k.a. Green Grass Monk, and Ng Ging) in charge of 108 fighting monks who were enraged at the ultimatum they were given. The monks were not going to give in and decided to fight back and protect the temple. Therefore, they broke into 5 groups and attacked and killed at least 100 soldiers by the main road.

After their attack, the monks retreated back into the temple to re-evaluate their situation. All agreed to stay and booby trap all the entrances. When General Chan ordered his troops to begin burning down the temple Monk Ching Cho (Green Grass Monk) sent his monks into the escape tunnel only to be killed by the trap set up by General Chan. Including Monk Ching Cho,  5 monks survived the destruction of their temple and Monk Ching Cho instructed Wu Dak Dai, Fong Dai Hung, Ma Chiu Hing, and Li Sik Hoi  (Lee Yau San's Teacher) to all meet at the Wu Loong River. It was at that moment Monk Ching Cho stormed down Gau Lin San and   killed Ma Chut the traitor  for giving up the location of the secret tunnels and the death of his fellow monks.

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As instructed, Wu Dak Dai, Fong Dai Hung, Ma Chiu Hing, Li Sik Hoi and Cai DeZhong allmet at the river to discuss whatto do next. These five went on to organize the Hung Mun Secret Society and originated the slogan Fan Ching Fu Ming (Overthrow the Ching and Restore the Ming) as well as to be recognized as the  5 ancestors within the Hung Mun. While each one agreed to secretly promote the revolution they spread out across the land and made a vow to each other to keep a low profile. It is at this point the it is believed Cai Dezhong (Green Grass Monk) traveled to and possibly spent his last days on the Pak Pai Mountain which is located in the Kwangxi Province. 

Enter "Jeong Yim"

        Around 1831, 17 year old Jeong Yim was on a quest to find an elusive monk who went by the name of Green Grass. He lived somewhere on Mt Pak Pai  at the Shajian Temple and Jeong Yim was hoping to complete his gung fu training under such a great master. Once he found the Green Grass Monk he proceeded to learn the deadly art of Fut Gar. One of the major contributions Monk Ching Cho made was teaching Jeong Yim a hand form called "In and Out Bagua" which contained a total of 1080 moves in it. Being too long to teach to the younger generations this hand form was later dissected into 3 separate forms called Chueng Kuen, Ping Kuen, and Kou Da Kuen by 1^st generation successor Chan Ngau Sing.

By the time Jeong Yim learned all that the Green Grass Monk had to teach, his sifu still had one more gift to give him. Jeong Yim completely supported the revolution, and with this the Green Grass Monk revealed that he was none other than Cai DeZhong, Chief founder of the Hung Society ( according to the London Brithish Museum was  established during Qian Long 32 years based on original and official  Hung Society documents maintained in their possession)  He then explained to Jeong Yim he wanted him to change his name from Jeong Yim to Jeong Hung Sing. The words Hung (same as in Hung Society) Sing (Victory) were a reference to the Hung Society winning the victory in overthrowing the corrupt Ching government. But due to too much negative attention this was later changed to the currently used Hung Sing which means "Glorious Victory".
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Also, some say the current Hung in Hung Sing means "Wild Goose"; if this were a cover-up of the triad's original usage of "Hung" then it makes sense why Jeong Yim chose that character.  In Chinese the goose represents longevity, and this too can also be a secret meaning referring to "long life to the Hung." After that, the newly named Jeong Hung Sing gave his word to support the revolution and set up shop in Fut San becoming the founder of the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon teaching his gung fu to many of his revolutionary brothers, and quickly became one of Southern China’s greatest fighters.

Jeong Hung Sing Honors His Word

It is not known when Cai DeZhong passed away, but because of his doings, Jeong Hung Sing honored the Green Grass Monk's request to continue to fight for the people's rights, and work hard at overthrowing the corrupt Ching Empire. The Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon was steady at work with their involvement in man

STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION