[Firehawk4]

Question 2
I have a form of the same name from my late Sigung who would have learnt it in Toisan, between 1915 and 1940 perhaps. Ours appears to be a form passed from Leung Tien Chu of Toisan. He developed a Fut Gar system also known as Hung Tao Choy Mei (I think).


Answer 2
I do not know about Leung Tien Chu of Toisan, but he might be one of the masters from the lineage of Hoong Hei Khoon, or one of his classmates like Foong Sai Yoke and Wu Wai Thien. I believe that “Mang Fu Ha San” and “Ye Fu Chuit Lam” (“Fierce Tiger Descends Mountain” and “Night Tiger Emerges from Forest”) could be two of the few sets practiced by masters from the Hoong Hei Khoon lineage.

In his later years Hoong Hei Khoon taught Shaiolin Kungfu at “Siu Lam Hoong Kwoon” (Hoong School of Shaolin Kungfu) in Guangdong Province of south China. It was from Siu Lam Hoong Kwoon that the term Hoong Khuen (Hoong Kungfu) or Hoong Ka Khuen (Hoong Family Kungfu is derived.

Hoong Hei Khoon.s three most outstanding disciples were Hoong Mang Ting, Chow Yien Kit and Wu Ah Piew. Hoong Mang Ting was Hoong Hei Khoon’s son. Wu Ah Phiew was Wu Wai Thien’s son whom Hoong Hei Khoon adopted as his own son after Wu Wai Thien was killed by Ko Chun Choong, the military governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and Pak Mei’s outstanding disciple. Hoong Mang Ting, using the Crane Style he learned from his mother Foong Chet Leong, and Wu Ah Phiew using mainly the Tiger Style he learned from Hoong Hei Khoon, joined effort to kill Pak Mei to avenge the burning of the southern Shaolin Monastery at Nine-Lotus Mountain.

The style of kungfu taught by Hoong Hei Khoon, which is now popularly known as Hoong Khuen or Hung Gar, became very famous in south China. In the early twentieth century kungfu masters from Toisan (a district capital in south China) and other parts of Guangdong spread Hoong Khuen to South-East Asia and North America. It would throw much light to the history of Hoong Khuen if your lineage traced back to one of these masters.

It is less likely that “Mang Fu Ha San” was passed doen by Fong Sai Yoke or Wu Wai Thien. Both died young (Fong Sai Yoke was killed by Pak Mei) and might not have any disciples. Both their specialty was “Mui Fa Khuen” (Plum Flower Set), more popularly known as “Fa Khuen” (Flower Set).

Fatt Ka (Fat Gar) Kungfu is similar to Hoong Ka Kungfu, except that the palm rather than the tiger claws are more frequently used. It is another style of Southern Shaolin Kungfu, probably transmitted by the Venerable Sam Tuck, one of Chee Seen’s disciples