|
Wong Fei Hung
(Traditional Chinese: 黃飛鴻;
Simplified Chinese: 黄飞鸿;
Pinyin: Huáng Fēihóng; Cantonese Yale: Wòhng Fēihùhng) (July
9, 1847–March 25, 1924) was a healer, martial artist and
revolutionary who became a Chinese folk hero often described as the
"Chinese Robin Hood".
As a healer and medical
doctor, he practiced and taught acupuncture and other forms of
traditional Chinese medicine at his 'Po Chi Lam' (寶芝林)
clinic in Foshan, where he was known for his compassion and policy of
treating any patient.
A museum dedicated to Wong
has been built in Foshan.
Amongst Wong's most famous
disciples were Lam Sai Wing, Leung Foon and Ling Wan Gai. He was also
associated with Chi Su Hua, aka the Beggar So.
His Life : Legend
has it that Wong Fei Hung was born in Foshan on the ninth day in the
seventh month of Daoguan twenty-seventh year (1847). When Wong was
five, he began his study of martial arts under his father Wong
Kei-Ying. As his family was poor, he always followed his father to
Foshan and Guangzhou to do martial arts shows and sell medicines.
Wong began showing great
potential. When he turned thirteen years old, he was giving a martial
arts show at Douzhixiang, Foshan. There Wong Fei Hung met Lam Fuk-Sing
(林福成),
the first apprentice of Tit Kiu Saam, who taught him the "tour de
force" of Iron Wire Fist and Sling, which helped him become a
master of Hung Gar.
When he was sixteen, Wong
set up a martial arts school at Shuijiao, Diqipu, Xiguan, Guangdong,
and then opened a medicine shop named 'Po Chi Lam' at Renan Street. By
his early 20s, he was fast making his mark as a highly-respected
physician and a martial arts alumnus.
Some say this is the only
excisting picture of Wong Fei Hung, others say it ´s a picture of his
tenth son, who resembled him most...
Later
years : As a
famous martial arts master, he had many apprentices. He was
successfully engaged by Jiming Provincial Commander-in-Chief Wu
Quanmei and Liu Yongfu as the military medical officer, martial art
general drillmaster, and Guangdong local military general drillmaster.
He later followed Liu Youngfu to fight against the Japanese army in
Taiwan. His life was full of frustration, and in his later years he
experienced the loss of his son and the burning of Po Chi Lam. On
lunar year, the twenty-fifth day of the third month in 1924, Wong Fei
Hung died of illness in Guangdong Chengxi Fangbian Hospital. His wife
and two of his prominent students (林世榮，鄧世瓊)
moved to Hong Kong, where they continued teaching Wong's martial art.
Wong became a legendary hero whose real-life story was mixed freely
with fictional exploits on the printed page and onscreen.
 As
a martial artist : Wong
was a master of the Chinese martial art Hung Gar. He systematized the
predominant style of Hung Gar and choreographed its version of the
famous Tiger Crane Paired Form Fist, which incorporates his "Ten
Special Fist" techniques. Wong was famous for his skill with the
technique known as the "No Shadow Kick".
Wong Fei Hung also became
adept at using weapons such as the wooden long staff and the southern
tiger fork. Soon after, stories began circulating about his mastery of
these weapons. One story recounts how he defeated a 30-man gang on the
docks of Canton using the staff.
Wong is sometimes included
in the Ten Tigers of Canton (ten of the top martial arts masters in
Guangdong towards the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912), a group
to which his father Wong Kei Ying belonged).
A statue
of Wong Fei Hung, in the museum that´s dedicated to him, located in
Foshan, China.
|
