Hung Sing Choy Li Fut
鴻勝蔡李佛Foshan branch of Choy Li Fut founded by Jeong Yim (Zhang Yan), a student of Chan Heung. Hung Sing school in Foshan since 1851, in the Hong Kong intangible heritage inventory (3.72.2).
Quick Facts
ChinaCharacter & Origin
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
About Hung Sing Choy Li Fut
Hung Sing Choy Li Fut is the Foshan branch of the Choy Li Fut style, which according to the description of the national item was founded in 1836 by Chan Heung (1806–1875) of Xinhui and named in memory of three teachers, Choy Fook, Li Yau-San and his uncle Chan Yuen-Wu. The Hong Kong inventory of intangible heritage lists Hung Sing Choy Li Fut under code 3.72.2 as a sub-item of Choy Li Fut (3.72) and states that the branch arose with Zhang Yan, in Cantonese Jeong Yim, whose second name was Hongsheng (Hung Sing). According to the inventory, Zhang Yan was a student of Chan Heung in his late years, Chan Heung reportedly sent him to the monk Qing Cao for the Buddhist fist, and after his return Zhang Yan founded the Hung Sing school. The Foshan cultural weekly (2020), citing a book by Deng Guangmin, says that Zhang Yan hung the signboard of the Hongsheng guan school in the first year of the Xianfeng era (1851) in the ancestral shrine of the Tan clan on Nanquan Street in Foshan, whereas HK01 writes that Chan Heung sent Zhang Yan to take over the Foshan branch only in 1875. Scholarly sources do not give the years of Zhang Yan's life, and Kung Fu Tea states outright that no accepted date of his death exists.
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According to the Hong Kong inventory, Hung Sing builds on aggression, the whole body keeps moving forward and the strike uses impact to add force, with speed and reach as the technical watchwords. The branch has more than fifty main forms, most of them derived from four basic ones, and a broad weapons repertoire from the spear and halberd to the bench and fan. In the third generation of the Hung Sing line (after Zhang Hongsheng and Lei Can) the Bak Sing branch split off, and according to the inventory Tam Sam changed the wide low stance into a narrow high one and added a soft element. In 2021 the national intangible heritage list of China extended the Choy Li Fut item by Bak Sing from Guangzhou, while the Foshan Hung Sing has been on the Guangdong provincial list since 2012, according to the weekly. According to Kung Fu Tea, the Hung Sing association was suppressed by the Kuomintang in 1927 for left-wing ties, and in the early fifties no Hung Sing school operated in Foshan, the line surviving in Hong Kong, Singapore and San Francisco (Lau Bun). The Taishang Temple in Foshan, which served as a branch of the school, has been a memorial hall of Hongsheng since its reconstruction in 2001. In 2016 Foshan hosted the first international Choy Li Fut kung-fu tournament, with more than six hundred participants from 15 countries.
History
According to the description of the national item, Choy Li Fut was founded in 1836 by Chan Heung (1806–1875) from the village of Jingmei in Xinhui. A study by Tang, Cai and Qin (Tiyu xuekan, 2011) states that the name honours three teachers, Choy Fook, Li Yau-San and Chan Yuen-Wu. The Foshan cultural weekly (2020) gives two versions of the style's origin that already appeared in the Republican era: one credits the founding to Chan Heung, the other to Zhang Yan, who studied with the monk Qing Cao and co-founded the style with Chan Heung.
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The Hong Kong inventory of intangible heritage lists Hung Sing Choy Li Fut under code 3.72.2 and states that the branch arose with Zhang Yan (Jeong Yim), a student of Chan Heung in his late years, whom Chan Heung reportedly sent to the monk Qing Cao for the Buddhist fist and who founded the Hung Sing school after his return. According to the weekly, citing Deng Guangmin's book Hongsheng guan shilüe (2019), Zhang Yan, also called Hongsheng, hung the Hongsheng guan signboard in the first year of the Xianfeng era (1851) in the ancestral shrine of the Tan clan on Nanquan Street in Foshan, and his first student was Chen Sheng, whereas HK01 writes that Chan Heung sent Zhang Yan to take over the Foshan branch in 1875. We have not been able to confirm Zhang Yan's years of life from scholarly sources, and Kung Fu Tea states outright that no accepted date of his death exists and that Chan Ngau Sing succeeded him at the head of the organization. In 1996, according to the weekly, three traces of the school were found in Foshan: the founder's house at 15 Yapang Street, Chen Sheng's house at no. 39 and the Yinggang branch. According to Kung Fu Tea, the Hung Sing association was suppressed by the Kuomintang in 1927 for left-wing ties, and in the early fifties no Hung Sing school operated in Foshan. The Hong Kong inventory places in the third generation of the line (after Zhang Hongsheng and Lei Can) Tam Sam, who created the Bak Sing offshoot, and states that in the seventies and eighties the Hung Sing and Bak Sing branches in Hong Kong formed a joint Choy Li Fut association to organize tournaments. In 2021 the national intangible heritage list of China extended the Choy Li Fut item (VI-36) by Bak Sing from Guangzhou (the Tam Sam line), while the Foshan Hung Sing has been on the Guangdong provincial list since 2012, according to the weekly, and the announcement of the proposal by the provincial culture department dates from 2011.
How it differs
The closest related branch is Bak Sing, created according to the Hong Kong inventory by Tam Sam in the third generation of the Hung Sing line: he changed the wide low stance into a narrow high one, added a soft element to the hands and created the lin wang cha chui strike. Bak Sing has a narrower stance than Hung Sing and strikes and steps tend to cover greater distance, in real fighting Bak Sing is faster forward and backward, whereas in performance Hung Sing with its wide stance and long bridge looks more impressive. We have no comparison with the Xinhui line from federation or scholarly sources.
Technique
The Hong Kong inventory states that Hung Sing Choy Li Fut has more than fifty main forms, most of them derived from four basic ones, Lamma, Chek kuen, Sap ji kau da and Ping kuen. The technical watchwords of the branch are speed and reach: steps with both feet sliding, reach gained through the side stance, the cha chui strike and stepping up forward and backward. The strike uses impact to add force, so the fighting is highly aggressive and the whole body keeps moving forward. Among weapons the inventory names the knife, spear, sword, staff, fan, bench, double knife, iron hoe, rake, whip and halberd. The description of the national item Choy Li Fut as a whole gives 193 forms, 64 of them with weapons, and the vocalization of five sounds accompanying movement.
Training
The Foshan cultural weekly gives a historical school rule called the three prohibitions of teaching: not to teach officials, local tyrants, or scoundrels and vagabonds. According to the Hong Kong inventory, in 1980 New Asia College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong accepted Lee Koon Hung as instructor, a student of masters Leung Sai, Chau Bing and Pun Sing and later Sou Kam Fuk, and HK01 describes that the university club New Asia Kuo Shu Society practices, besides empty-hand forms, weapons, jumps on the wooden dummy and the lion dance. This is an example of practice, not a bearer of heritage. We found no ranking system specific to the branch.
Today
HK01 states that Foshan registers 52 martial arts styles including Choy Li Fut and that Hongsheng guan is a grouping of Foshan origin that is known worldwide. The Taishang Temple in Foshan, originally from 1665, which served as a branch of the school at the end of the Qing dynasty and in the early republic, has been a memorial hall of Hongsheng open to the public since its reconstruction in 2001. In 2016 Foshan hosted the first international Choy Li Fut kung-fu tournament, with more than six hundred participants from 15 countries. In Hong Kong the branch is listed in the intangible heritage inventory under code 3.72.2. Choy Li Fut is not a separate competitive wushu discipline and does not appear in the 2019 IWUF rules for traditional wushu. The national extension of the Choy Li Fut item from 2021 concerns the Bak Sing branch from Guangzhou, not the Foshan Hung Sing.
Did you know
According to Kung Fu Tea, Lau Bun of the Hung Sing line opened the Wah Keung club in San Francisco in the thirties of the twentieth century, regarded as the first permanent Chinese martial arts school on the American mainland, though sources differ on the year. The Foshan cultural weekly states that in Shanghai in 1937 a saber technique against the Japanese, derived from the Choy Li Fut form Lanmenzhai dadao, was selected from the form of Chen Yilin, director of the Hongsheng physical culture association, a claim of the article with no other source. D. S. Farrer's study in the journal Martial Arts Studies (2018) rests on on-site research at the Hong Shen Choy Li Fut school in Singapore.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded the Hung Sing branch?
According to the Hong Kong intangible heritage inventory, it was founded by Zhang Yan (Jeong Yim), a student of Chan Heung, who established the Hung Sing school in Foshan.
When was the Hung Sing school opened in Foshan?
The Foshan cultural weekly states that Zhang Yan hung the school signboard in 1851 in the ancestral shrine of the Tan clan, whereas HK01 writes of taking over the Foshan branch in 1875.
How does Hung Sing differ from Bak Sing?
According to the Hong Kong inventory, Bak Sing has a narrower, higher stance and a longer reach, whereas Hung Sing has a wide stance and a long bridge.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.