STRATEGIES, TACTICS AND TECHNIQUES IN SCARING AWAY 35 ATTACKERS
Grandmaster Wong in his young days and his sifu, Grandmaster Ho Fatt Nam
Question
You once recounted that Sigung (Ho Fatt Nam) fought off a huge group of armed attackers who tried to burn his house down.
Extract from https://www.shaolin.org/general-2/legacy-ho-fatt-nam/ho-fatt-nam08.html:
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The combat that most impressed me was when more than 35 attackers came to burn his house and kill his family. It was like a kungfu movie except that it happened in real life. Not only he fought them off using a spear, but also he had to defend his family and prevent them from burning his house.
My sifu was so compassionate that he did not want to hurt them, but seeing that they refused to go away, he had to wound the leader to scarce them away. He thrusted his spear onto the side of the leader and blood gushed out. All the attackers then ran away. Had he missed by a few inches and pierced the leader’s liver or kidney, the leader would be killed.
In your opinion, would using the staff in such a situation be just as effective?
Would we be learning some of these strategies, tactics and techniques in the multiple attackers training syllabus during the course?
-- FJ
Answer
The above real story was one that led me to learn from my sifu, Sifu Ho Fatt Nam.
The other real story was about my Siheng, Yong. Yong was a top Taekwondo master, specially picked by Korean masters who would take over from them when they left. Yong injured his leg and he sought my sifu for treatment.
During treatment he was so inspired by the Shaolin Kungfu that my sifu taught that Yong wanted to learn some Shaolin Kungfu to supplement his Taekwondo. But eventually he gave up Taekwondo to learn Shaolin Kungfu.
At that time I was looking for opponents for free sparring. I had difficulty against Taekwondo kicks. I was much intrigued by Yong’s comment. He told my friend, Chang, a secret which Chang later reported to me. Yong said he could beat any Taekwondo exponents in Malaysia, and as a subsequent thought, even the Korean masters.
In his fight against more than 35 attackers who came purposely to burn his house and kill his family, my sifu used the strategies, tactics and techniques that we shall learn in the “Becoming a Shaolin Wahnam Kungfu Practitioner” course in Penang from 26th November to 2nd December 2018.
Knowing my sifu well, he would prefer the strategy of “a tiger in a herd of sheep”. But he had to protect his family. If he moved about among the attackers, some attackers would have kill his family. So he probably used the strategy of “with his back facing a wall” so that he could protect his family.
He used the tactic of “killing a cockerel to scare away monkeys”. He must have thought that the attackers were not capable, or else they would not have attacked in mass. Had the attackers been capable, a practitioner would have used the tactic of “breaking through the weakest”.
But my sifu could not use the tactic of “breaking through the weakest”; he had to protect his family. My sifu was very highly skillful. It would be very difficult to find attackers as capable as him.
The technique my sifu used was “Yellow Dragon Emerges from Cave”. It was unlikely that my sifu used “Green Dragon Shoots Pearl” as the lance he used was quite heavy. In “Yellow Dragon Emerges from Cave” a practitioner, holding the shaft of the lance with his two hands, thrust out the lance without moving the hands. It was suitable for a long, heavy weapon. In “Green Dragon Shoots Pearl” the main hand sliced forward to the supportive hand so that the lance had a longer reach. It was suitable for a long, light weapon.
It was likely that my sifu’s main hand was his right hand, and his supportive hand was his left hand. In other words, he held his lance with his left hand in front. In Kungfu terminology, the main hand is called the “emperor’s hand”, and the supportive hand the “minister’s hand”. My sifu was a master of Flowing Water Staff, and “Yellow Dragon Emerges from Cave” was a frequently used pattern. In this case, my sifu was holding a lance instead of a staff.
It was a lance thrust, and blood gashed out from the leader. The others ran away, carrying their leader with them.
In such a situation, using a staff would not be suitable. If my sifu used “Yellow Dragon Emerges from Cave” to dot or pierce at a vital point, which might actually be more deadly than a lance thrust, blood would not gash out, and the followers would not run away.
The lance thrust must be very accurate. If it missed the target by inches, it might have pierced the kidney or the liver, and the victim might die. In this case, it would be unwise to kill the leader. The followers, finding their leader dead, might stay on and fight.
When using the tactic of “killing a cockerel to scare away monkeys”, a practitioner must make it very bloody, but he must not kill the leader or else his followers would fight for life.
The questions and answers are reproduced from the thread 10 Questions on "Becoming a Shaolin Wahnam Kungfu Practitioner" in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
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