Teat Yun
Buddhist priest, the last keeper of the secret temple lineage of the Chinese style Yau Kung Mun, who gave the style its name and was the first to accept a lay student, Ha Hon Hung.
Quick Facts
ChinaBiography
Teat Yun was a Buddhist priest and the last keeper of the secret temple lineage of the Chinese style he named Yau Kung Mun (柔功門), interpreted as "the style of soft strength". We have not been able to verify the dates of his birth or death.
According to tradition, the monk Ding Yang founded the style under the Tang dynasty in the Sil Lum temple in Hunan Province. According to the story, Ding Yang did not name it, being very modest and reserved, and for centuries the knowledge was passed in secret to only one student per generation inside the temple. When temples were destroyed under the Qing dynasty, the same account says the chief temple student Doe Sung saved the lineage and kept it going.
Teat Yun broke this tradition: he was the first to accept a lay student, Ha Hon Hung from Ko Ming County in Guangdong Province, whom he put through a strict test of character before accepting him. Ha Hon Hung thus became the first layman in the history of the style. In 1924 he founded the first Yau Kung Mun school, and after moving to Hong Kong in 1949 a second, naming his son Ha Kwok Cheung as successor.