Gung Jee Fook Fu Kuen

Quick Facts

About the kata

According to Yee's Hung Ga Edinburgh, Gung Ji Fook Fu Kuen is the first form a Hung Ga student learns. Chinese Wikipedia calls it the style's mother form, on which one learns to stand in stance, work the bridge hands and build an inner foundation. English Wikipedia calls it a long sequence training the style's basic techniques and endurance. According to Practical Hung Kyun, students of traditional schools devoted the first years of training to it. The form's steps trace the pattern of the character 工. Practical Hung Kyun stresses low, stable stances, above all sei ping ma, forward and backward shifts, waist work and strong bridge hands. According to Yee's Hung Ga Edinburgh, the form teaches where and how to place the feet when moving between stances, and links breath with movement. Lam Cho, per Practical Hung Kyun, wrote that a well-practised form works the same as standing in stance and striking the wooden dummy post. In Wong Fei-hung's lineage it is one of Hung Ga's four pillars alongside the tiger-and-crane form, the five animals and the iron wire; per English Wikipedia, the tiger-and-crane form builds on it. Lam Sai-wing's book on the form lists techniques such as the Black Tiger Claw.

Meaning of the name

The name has two parts: gung ji means "the gung character" and fuk fu kuen "tiger-taming fist". Practical Hung Kyun notes gung also means "hard work", expressing the form's difficulty. It reads the three strokes of 工 as heaven, man and earth, and the hidden meaning as "the Society of Heaven and Earth tames the tiger" — the Manchu Qing dynasty. We found this interpretation nowhere else.

Creator and history

According to English Wikipedia, the form derives from the monk Jee Sin, who is said to have taught it, or at least its early form, to Hung Hei-gun and Luk Ah-choi; this is tradition, not a documented fact. Chinese Wikipedia states that it arose from adapting the form of the Eighteen Arhats Taming the Tiger, and Practical Hung Kyun mentions the older names Siulam Fuk Fu Kyun and Lohon Fuk Fu Kyun. The publisher of Lam Sai-wing's book traces the lineage as Luk Ah-choi, Wong Tai, Wong Kei-ying, Wong Fei-hung, Lam Sai-wing. Lam Sai-wing published the form in print with the help of his student Chu Yu-zai, together with the tiger-and-crane form and the iron wire. The dating differs: Chinese Wikipedia writes of a time after 1930, Practical Hung Kyun cites a 1936 manual, and the Shaolin Kung Fu Online Library derives its edition from a 1957 Hong Kong one.

Differences between styles

Practical Hung Kyun sees today's form as a union of two sequences, Gung Ji Kyun and Fuk Fu Kyun; many families in China teach them apart, or only the second part. Its own curriculum splits it into 18 sections. Chinese Wikipedia, on Hung Kuen from Shunde, lists a separate sequence, 单弓伏虎拳, next to this form.