Bak Mei
白眉
Legendary figureA semi-legendary Taoist ascetic of the 17th century whom tradition ranks among the five survivors of the destruction of Shaolin and links to the Bak Mei style.
Quick Facts
ChinaBiography
Bak Mei (白眉, White Eyebrow) is, according to tradition, a Taoist ascetic with white eyebrows whose name is borne by the southern Chinese style of Bak Mei Kung Fu. The English Wikipedia describes him as a semi-legendary figure of the 17th century. Historians consider him a legendary construct rather than a documented person, since no contemporary records of him have survived.
According to tradition, Bak Mei was one of the five survivors of the destruction of the Shaolin Monastery at the turn of the Ming and Qing dynasties, together with Ng Mui, Jee Sin, Fung Tao Dak and Miu Hin. The legend of the five elders has no archaeological or contemporary support; it arose in secret societies and folk novels of the 18th and 19th centuries. Sources also disagree on the role Bak Mei plays in it: in one version he is a traitor to Shaolin, in another a protector of his followers or a monk acting under pressure from the authorities. Tradition attributes to him a single disciple, the monk Gwong Wai.
Sources name as the style's genuinely documented founder only Cheung Lai-chuen (1882–1964) of Huizhou, who systematized the style at the turn of the Qing era and the republic. The style focuses on close-range attacks, explosive power and the phoenix-eye strike.