Hung Gar
Hung Gar (;
Pinyin: Hóngjiā;
Jyutping: Hung4 gaa1; literally "Hung clan"), also called
Hung Kuen, is a
southern Chinese martial art associated with the Chinese folk hero
Wong Fei Hung, who was a master of Hung Gar.
According to legend, Hung Gar was named after
Hung Hei-Gun (洪熙官), who learned martial arts from
Jee Sin, a
Chan (Zen) master at the Southern
Shaolin Temple.The temple had become a refuge for opponents of the
Qing Dynasty, who used it as a base for their activities, and was soon destroyed by Qing forces.Hung, a tea merchant by trade, eventually left his home in
Fujian for
Guangdong, bringing the art with him.
Even though Hung Gar is supposedly named after Hung Hei-Gun, the predominant Wong Fei-Hung lineage of Hung Gar claims descent not from him but from his classmate Luk Ah-Choi (陸阿采), who taught Wong Fei-Hung's father
Wong Kei-Ying and, by some accounts, Wong Taai (黃泰), who is variously said to be Wong Kei-Ying's father or his uncle.Because the history of the
Chinese martial arts was historically transmitted orally rather than by text, much of the early history of Hung Gar will probably never be either clarified or corroborated by written documentation.
Because the character "hung" (洪) was used in the
reign name of the
emperor who overthrew the
Mongol Yuan Dynasty to establish the
Han Chinese Ming Dynasty, opponents of the
Manchu Qing Dynasty made frequent use of the character in their imagery.(Ironically, Luk Ah-Choi was the son of a Manchu stationed in Guangdong.)Hung Hei-Gun is itself an assumed name intended to honor that first Ming Emperor.Anti-Qing rebels named the most far reaching of the secret societies they formed the "
Hung Mun" (洪門) which, like "Hung Gar," can be translated as "Hung family."The Hung Mun claimed to be founded by survivors of the destruction of the Shaolin Temple, and the martial arts its members practiced came to be called "Hung Gar" and "Hung Kuen."
The hallmarks of the Wong Fei-Hung lineage of Hung Gar are deep low stances, notably its "sei ping ma" horse stance, and strong hand techniques, notably the bridge hand and the versatile tiger claw.The student traditionally spends anywhere from months to three years in stance training, often sitting only in horse stance between a half-hour to several hours at one time, before learning any forms. Each form then might take a year or so to learn, with weapons learned last. However, in modernity, this mode of instruction is deemed economically unfeasible and impractical for students, who have other concerns beyond practicing kung fu.Hung Gar is sometimes mischaracterized as solely external—that is, reliant on brute physical force rather than the cultivation of
qi—even though the student advances progressively towards an internal focus.
The Hung Gar curriculum that Wong Fei-Hung learned from his father comprised Single Hard Fist, Double Hard Fist, Taming the Tiger Fist (伏虎拳), Mother & Son
Butterfly Knives (子母雙刀), Angry Tiger Fist, Fifth Brother
Eight Trigram Pole ("郎八卦棍), Flying Hook, and Black Tiger Fist (黑虎拳).Wong distilled his father's empty-hand material along with the material he learned from other masters into the "pillars" of Hung Gar, four empty-hand routines that constitute the core of Hung Gar instruction in the Wong Fei-Hung lineage:
"工" Character Taming the Tiger Fist 工字伏虎拳
pinyin: gōng zì fú h" quán; Yale Cantonese: gung1 ji6 fuk6 fu2 kyun4: The long routine Taming the Tiger trains the student in the basic techniques of Hung Gar while building endurance. It is said to go at least as far back as Jee Sin, who is said to have taught Taming the Tiger—or at least an early version of it—to both Hung Hei-Gun and Luk Ah-Choi.
The "工" Character Taming the Tiger Fist is so called because its footwork traces a path resembling the character "工".
Tiger Crane Paired Form Fist 虎鶴雙形拳
pinyin: h" hè shuāng xíng quán; Yale Cantonese: fu2 hok6 seung1 ying4 kyun4: Tiger Crane builds on Taming the Tiger, adding "vocabulary" to the Hung Gar practitioner's repertoire. Wong Fei-Hung choreographed the version of Tiger Crane handed down in the lineages that descend from him. He is said to have added to Tiger Crane the bridge hand techniques and rooting of the master Tit Kiu Saam as well as long arm techniques, attributed variously to the Fat Ga, Lo Hon, and
Lama styles. Tiger Crane Paired Form routines from outside Wong Fei-Hung Hung Gar still exist.
Five Animal Fist "形拳/Five Animal Five Element Fist "形"行拳
pinyin: w" xíng quán; Yale Cantonese: ng5 ying4 kyun4/pinyin: w" xíng w" xíng quán; Yale Cantonese: ng5 ying4 ng5 haang4 kyun4: These routines serve as a bridge between the external force of Tiger Crane and the internal focus of Iron Wire. "Five Animals" (literally "Five Forms") refers to the characteristic
Five Animals of the Southern Chinese martial arts: Tiger, Crane, Leopard, Snake, and Dragon. "Five Elements" refers to the
five classical Chinese elements: Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, and Earth. The Hung Gar Five Animal Fist was choreographed by Wong Fei-Hung and expanded by Lam Sai-Wing (林世榮), a senior student and teaching assistant of Wong Fei-Hung, into the Five Animal Five Element Fist (also called the "Ten Form Fist"). In the Lam Sai-Wing branch of Hung Gar, the Five Animal Five Element Fist has largely, but not entirely, superseded the Five Animal Fist, which has become associated with Tang Fong and others who were no longer students when the Five Animal Five Element Fist was created.
Iron Wire Fist 鐵線拳
pinyin: tiě xi� n quán; Yale Cantonese: tit3 sin3 kyun4: Iron Wire builds internal power and is attributed to the martial arts master Tit Kiu Saam (鐵橋三). Like Wong Fei-Hung's father
Wong Kei-Ying, Tit Kiu Saam was one of the
Ten Tigers of Canton. As a teenager, Wong Fei-Hung learned Iron Wire from Lam Fuk-Sing (林福成), a student of Tit Kiu Saam.
Wong Fei-Hung was known for his Fifth Brother
Eight Trigram Pole ("郎八卦棍), which can be found in the curricula of both the Lam Sai-Wing and Tang Fong branches of Hung Gar, two of the major branches of the Wong Fei-Hung lineage, as can the Spring & Autumn
Guandao (春秋大刀), and the Yiu Family Tiger Fork (瑤家大').Both branches also train the
broadsword (刀), the
butterfly knives (雙刀), the spear (槍), and even the fan (扇), but use different routines to do so.Mother & Son Butterfly Knives (子母雙刀) can still be found in the curriculum of the Tang Fong branch.
Beyond that, the curricula of different branches of Hung Gar differ tremendously with regard to routines and the selection of weapons, even within the Wong Fei-Hung lineage.Just as those branches that do not descend from Lam Sai-Wing do not practice the Five Animal Five Element Fist, those branches that do not descend from Wong Fei-Hung—sometimes called "old" or "village" Hung Kuen—do not practice the routines he choreographed, nor do the branches that do not descend from Tit Kiu Saam practice Iron Wire.Conversely, the curricula of some branches have grown through the addition of further routines by creation or acquisition.
Nonetheless, the various branches of the Wong Fei-Hung lineage still share the Hung Gar foundation he systematized.Lacking such a common point of reference, "village" styles of Hung Kuen show even greater variation.
The curriculum that Jee Sin taught Hung Hei-Gun is said to have comprised
Tiger style, Luohan style, and Taming the Tiger routine.Exchanging material with other martial artists allowed Hung to develop or acquire Tiger Crane Paired Form routine, a combination animal routine, Southern Flower Fist, and several weapons.
According to Hung Gar tradition, the martial arts that Jee Sin originally taught Hung Hei-Gun were short range and the more active footwork, wider stances, and long range techniques commonly associated with Hung Gar were added later.It is said to have featured "a two-foot horse," that is, narrow stances, and routines whose footwork typically took up no more than four tiles' worth of space.
Ha Say Fu Hung Gar 下四虎洪家
The Ha Say Fu (下四虎) Hung Gar of Leung Wah-Chew is said to fit this description, though the implied link to the legendary Jee Sin is more speculative than most because of its poorly documented genealogy.Ha Say Fu Hung Gar is a Five Animal style with a separate routine for each animal.
Five-Pattern Hung Kuen "形洪拳
Like Ha Say Fu Hung Gar, the Ng Ying Hung Kuen ("形洪拳) of Yuen Yik-Kai—conventionally translated as "Five-Pattern Hung Fist" rather than "Five Animal Hung Fist"—fits the description of Jee Sin's martial arts, but traces its ancestry to
Ng Mui and Miu Hin (苗顯) who, like Jee Sin, were both survivors of the destruction of the Shaolin Monastery.From Miu Hin, the Five-Pattern Hung Kuen passed to his daughter Miu Tsui-Fa (苗筴花), and from his daughter to his grandson
Fong Sai-Yuk (方世玉), both Chinese folk heroes like Jee Sin, Ng Mui, and their forebear Miu Hin.Its conventional translation into English notwithstanding, Five-Pattern Hung Kuen is a Five Animal style, one with a single routine for all Five Animals.
Northern Hung Kuen 洪拳
There are even Northern styles that use the name "Hung Kuen" (洪拳;
pinyin: hóng quán) though these predate the
Ming Dynasty (
1368–
1644) and therefore could not have been named for the
first Ming emperor or anti-Qing organizations.
Tiger Crane Paired Form 虎鶴雙形
The traditions of the Tiger-Crane Combination style associated with Ang Lian-Huat attribute the art to Hung Hei-Gun's combination of the Tiger style he learned from Jee Sin with the Crane style he learned from his wife, whose name is given in
Hokkien as Tee Eng-Choon.Like other martial arts that trace their origins to
Fujian (e.g.
Fujian White Crane,
Five Ancestors), this style uses
San Chian as its foundation.
The Tiger Crane routine in the Southern Shaolin system of Wong Kiew-Kit is attributed not to Hung Hei-Gun or Luk Ah-Choi but to their classmate Harng Yein.
The dissemination of Hung Kuen in Southern China, and its
Guangdong and
Fujian Provinces in particular, is due to the concentration of anti-Qing activity there.The
Hung Mun began life in the
1760s as the
Heaven and Earth Society, whose founders came from the
prefecture of
Zhangzhou in Fujian Province, on its border with Guangdong, where one of its founders organized a precursor to the Heaven and Earth Society in
Huizhou.Guangdong and Fujian remained a stronghold of sympathizers and recruits for the Hung Mun even as it spread elsewhere in the decades that followed.Though the members of the Hung Clan almost certainly practiced a variety of martial arts styles, the composition of its membership meant that it was the characteristics of Fujianese and Cantonese martial arts that came to be associated with the names "Hung Kuen" and "Hung Gar."Regardless of their differences, the Hung Kuen lineages of Wong Fei-Hung, Lam Tsai Wing, Yuen Yik-Kai, Leung Wah-Chew, and Zhang Ke-Zhi (張克治) nonetheless all trace their origins to this area and this time period, are all
Five Animal styles, and all claim Shaolin origins.Northern Hung Kuen (洪拳), by contrast, is not a Five Animal style, dates to the
13th century, and claims to come unequivocally from the
Shaolin Temple in
Henan.(The oral histories of Southern styles that claim to come from Shaolin can be unclear with regard to whether they are referring to the original temple in Henan or to a supposed southern temple.)Cantonese and Fujianese are also predominant among
Overseas Chinese, accounting for the widespread dissemination of Hung Kuen outside of China.
With the exception of Frank Yee (余志偉; Yee Chi-Wai) of the Tang Fong branch in New York City,Cheung Shu-Pui of Tang Fong line in Philadelphia, Francisco Rivera of the Tang-Fong line in New Mexico, as well as a few other Tang-Fong branch Sifus, the foremost teachers of Hung Gar in the United States belong to the Lam Sai Wing branch. Many lineages spreading from Lau Jaam, Lam Cho (the nephew and chosen successor of Lam Sai Wing), Wong Lei, Chan Hon Chung, Chiu Kau and Tang Hin Choi.Chiu Kau (趙教)and his wife Shiu Ying, born Wong Sou Nang (黃邵英), learned Hung Gar from Wong Sai Wing, a top student of Wong Fei Hung, and later from Lam Sai Wing. They in turn taught their sons Chiu Wai (趙威) of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and
Chiu Chi Ling (趙志淩) of Alameda, California.Kwong-Wing Lam of Sunnyvale, California, studied with Chiu Kau, Chiu Wai and also learned the Ha Say Fu style from Leung Wah-Chew.Bucksam Kong (江北山) of Hawaii/Los Angeles, Kwong-Wing Lam of Sunnyvale and Y.C. Wong (黃耀楨) of San Francisco all learned from Lam Cho (林祖) as well.Calvin Chin of Newton Highlands, Massachusetts learned from a student of Lam Cho, Kwong Tit-Fu. In another lineage, John Leong (梁崇) of Seattle learned from Wong Lei (王利). John Leong was also one of the teachers of Tony Brown.
| | Chinese | Pinyin | Yale Cantonese | | | Sei Ping Ma | 四平馬 | Sì Píng Mǎ | Sei3 Ping4 Ma5 | literally "Four Level Horse" |
|---|
| Bridge Hand | 橋手 | Qiáo Sh'u | Kiu4 Sau2 | |
|---|
| Tiger Claw | 虎爪 | H" Zhua | Fu2 Jaau2 | |
|---|
*
The five major family styles of southern Chinese martial arts*
Jee Sin Sim See*
Wong Kei-Ying*
Wong Fei-Hung* Rene Ritchie, Robert Chu and Hendrik Santo.
*
Yee's Hung Ga International Kung Fu Association*
The Canadian Hung Kuen Kung Fu School*
Online Martial Arts Magazine*
Hung Ga United*
Hung Gar and Feng Gar*
European Hung Gar Association*
European Hung Gar Masters Lineage Chart*
Hungkuen.net Info*
Tiger Crane Kung Fu*
European Hung Gar Association*
Lam Ga Hung Kyun*
Montreal Chinese Lion Dance Club*
Hung Gar Kuen Kung Fu - EHGA Italia - AHKI*
Wugong Association - BsAs Argentina*
Hung Kuen
