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History of one of southern China's greatest fighters
Jeong Ah Yim
(Jeong Hung Sing)
張炎公
佛山鴻勝館
(1824-1893)
Founder of the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon
 Jeong
Ah Yim was his original name, and he was born in the Sun Wui Dong Ling
Village during the Qing Dynasty. His parents were killed and he was
under the care of his uncle Jeong Kwan. Starting at a very young age,
Jeong Yim had a passion for learning the martial arts. His first
teacher was the Shaolin Monk Lee Yau San-master of the Lee Ga system-
and who is said perhaps to have been a disciple of Lee Sik Hoi-one of
the 5 ancestors of the Hung Mun secret Society.
The government was after Jeong Yim for as we say "dodging the
draft." The government was trying to recruit him in the military and
Jeong Yim didn't want to go. And if things weren't bad enough, his
uncle Jeong Kwan had to leave town on business and wouldn't be able to
take his young nephew with him. So, he came up with the idea of paying
his old friend in King Mui a visit. His friend was a gung fu master and
founder of a new fighting system. Hoping that his old friend could
take in the young Jeong Yim, they set out for King Mui's Chan Village.
Upon their arrival in King Mui, the two were met by Chan Heung, the
chief gung fu instructor there. Jeong Kwan explained their situation
but was faced with the unfortunate fact that those without the Chan
Surname were allowed to reside in their village much less learn their
gung fu. But Jeong Kwan pleaded until Chan Heung devised a plan. He
was able to take in the young boy, but only in the capacity of a
groundskeeper. However, the young Jeong Yim wasn't allowed to learn
the gung fu from their village. An agreement was made and in 1836,
Jeong Kwan left his young nephew with Chan Heung.
During his daily chores, the young Jeong Yim watched as the students
practiced their gung fu. Since he already was accomplished by the age
of 12, he was able to pick up Chan Heung's Choy Lee Fut rather
quickly. At the time, Choy Lee Fut was based off of the styles taught
by Monk Choy Fook, and Lee Yau San. Jeong Yim was already familiar
with the Lee Ga system, which ironically they shared the same sifu. So
at night time while everyone was sleeping, Jeong Yim would practice
his stolen gung fu until he was caught in the act by Chan Heung.
It's
obvious that Chan Heung saw the great potential in Jeong Yim because
for the next 5 years this late night training continued. Everything
went smoothly during this time, but the one time Chan Heung went away,
his senior disciples decided to point their attention at the outsider
Jeong Yim. Believing Jeong Yim didn't know gung fu at all, the senior
disciples ultimately got Jeong Yim to fight them. Unfortunately for
them, Jeong Yim whooped them pretty badly. This forced the parents of
the senior students to order Chan Heung to kick out the outsider.
Reluctantly, Chan Heung asked Jeong Yim to leave, but not before instructing him to go to the Pak Pai Mountain
and locate a Shaolin Monk there to complete his training. So, in 1841,
Jeong Yim left for ShenJiang and found the Monk Ching Cho Wo Serng
(Green Grass Monk) at the Pak Pai Mountain. He was accepted as a
student and for the next 8 years (1841-1849) Jeong Yim learned the
deadly art of Fut Gar Kuen.
Monk Ching Cho or Green Grass
Monk was a famous monk from the Shaolin Temple. In fact, at some point
he was even the Abbott of the temple. After the destruction of the
Southern Temple, Monk Ching Cho (who is also believed Tsai Te Chung-one
of the 5 ancestors of the Hung Mun) helped establish the Hung Mun
Secret society. Therefore,the Green Grass Monk not only taught Jeong
Yim gung fu, but he instilled the revolutionary spirit within him.
Once
Jeong Yim's gung fu training was complete, the Green Grass Monk changed
Jeong Yim's name to Jeong Hung Sing, which translates into Hung Mun
Victory. He then instructed Jeong Hung Sing to go to Fut San, contact
the Hung Mun branch there, and offer his school to help train their
revolutionary fighters. For the next two years Jeong Hung Sing
intensely trained his student strictly for combat. In 1851, Jeong Hung
Sing responded to the launching of the Tai Ping rebellion by organizing
all his Hung Sing Kwoons throughout southern China and formally
established his Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon.
Just prior to this,
Jeong Hung Sing returned to King Mui where Chan Heung warmly welcomed
him back. In their meetings, Jeong Hung Sing shared what he learned
from the Green Grass Monk with Chan Heung. But when Jeong Hung Sing
Returned to Fut San, he and Chan Heung began to separately develop the
style of Choy Lee Fut. While Chan Heung's Choy Lee Fut is based off of
the Choy and Lee Ga styles, with Fut attached at the end to represent
their shaolin and buddhist roots, Jeong Hung Sing's Choy Lee Fut was
developed based off his teachings from Lee Yau San, Chan Heung, and
Mong Ching Cho Wo Serng. In essence, Jeong Hung Sing put the "FUT" in
Choy Lee Fut.
In no time at all after the launching of the Fut
San Hung Sing Kwoon, the effectiveness of Jeong Hung Sing's fighting
style quickly spread throughout southern China like wildfire. He was
pretty busy with the fact that he was the founder of a new Choy Lee Fut
system, training freedom fighters, defeating all challengers, and
running from the law. Because the Hung in his name was the same as
that of the Hung Mun, the government was after him, and closed down his
school on more than one occasion. Each time, Jeong Hung Sing and his
disciples re-opened Hung Sing Kwoons elsewhere.
Jeong Hung Sing
had many, many students. But three of his oldest disciples were Lui
Chun, Lee Yan, and Yuen Hai. Other students included Tham Lup, Jeong
Sam Bing, Wong Sei, Chun Mien, Lee So, Wong Fook, and Chan Ngau
Sing. Senior disciple Lui Chun went on to produce Tam Sam-who became
the founder of the Choy Lee Fut Buk Sing lineage. Through Lee Yan's
line the Singapore Hung Sing Kwoon was established, and Yuen Hai
produced Lau Bun who became the founder of the first gung fu school on
the american continent, as well as the first Hung Sing Kwoon
established there.
Then in 1864, the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon was
closed down once again. This time, Jeong Hung Sing fled to Hong Kong
where he stayed until 1967. In that year, he returned to Fut San when
he believed things had coolded down and re-opened his Hung Sing Kwoon.
At this point, Jeong Hung Sing had to change the "Hung" in his name to
something tha sounded similar but had a different mearning. The new
Hung used mean Wild Goose, yet in Chinese Culture the Goose represents
longevity and could perhaps be another secret meaning of Long Live the
Hung Mun.
 Evidence
of Jeong Hung Sing's involvement with the Hung Mun is found in a number
of places. The first is found in the pair of couplets ALL Hung Sing
kwoon's use. The left side reads, "A strong fist releases out like a
tiger raising its head" while the right side reads, "A graceful staff
flies above like a dragon whipping its tail." Now, when you string the
first two words of each couplet together, it means "Hero" as in
revolutionary hero. Another link is found in the set up of Jeong Yim's
alter. A true Hung Mun based school will have the alter, a table in
front of it, and two chairs. One is for the master, and the other is
for his top disciple.
The next confirmation to the
connection to the Hung Mun is the following which was discovered on the
front of walls of Jeong Hung Sing's school.
“大鹏展翼反天手，魁星踢斗清名留，拱拜五湖复四海，日月拱照万世流”
the first line reads:
The big bird spreads its wings like an overturned hand
The Second is:
the scholar who excels so much that his name or fame will remain forever
the third reads:
Salutations to the brothers in the 5 lakes and four seas or four corners
the fourth reads:
the sun will shine brilliantly for generations
(CERTAIN WORDS IN THESE LINES WHEN STRUNG TOGETHER WILL FORM THE HUNG MUN SECRET SOCIETY SLOGAN "FAN CHING FU MING" WHICH
TRANSLATES INTO "OVERTHROW THE CHING, RESTORE THE MING")
Jeong
Hung Sing continued to develop his Hung Sing Choy Lee Fut and training
freedom fighters for the rest of his life. His successor-Chan Ngau
Sing-didn't come into the picture until 1883 when Jeong Hung Sing was
about 60 years old. According to material passed down from the Fut
San Hung Sing Kwoon, Yuen Hai was responsible for recruiting Chan Ngau
Sing, whom, at first was extremely skeptical of Jeong Hung Sing. He
felt that he was actually better than this old gung fu master.
However, the old Jeong Hung Sing matched up with Chan Ngau Sing and
advised him to pay attention, because he's going to fall first the to
the east, then to the west, and finally down the center.
At
the end of three quick rounds, Jeong Hung Sing honored his word, and
Chan Ngau Sing landed exactly where Jeong Hung Sing, this old dying
relic, predicted he would. Chan Ngau Sing learned the hard way that
this old master really was one of southern China's greatest fighters
and requested to be taken as a disciple.
In 1893, Jeong Hung
Sing came down with an illness, and Chan Ngau Sing tried to take him to
see his own personal doctor. However, Jeong Hung Sing, founder of the
Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon passed away due to this illness. As it's
passed down within the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon, Jeong Hung Sing left
behind his wife (Chan Kay) and his two sons who died pretty young
themselves. Chan Ngau Sing from that point on became the next
inheritor of the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon.
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