THE AIMS AND BENEFITS OF THE LEGACY COURSE MAY BE DIFFERENT FROM THOSE OF WONG FEI HOONG
Single Leg Hungry Crane from Tiger-Crane Set
Question 4
Wong Fei Hung is one of the great folk heroes of China, and nowadays is known throughout the world. Unfortunately, comparatively few people today practice the arts that he transmitted and systematized.
Supposing a young person was inspired by the films and stories to learn the Southern Shaolin of Wong Fei Hung;
Can you outline the general aims, path and benefits of the Art?
Can you also talk about the martial and holistic benefits of the particular sets to be taught at the upcoming U.K. Summer Camp?
Sifu Andy Cusick
Answer
It is incorrect to say that few people today practice the arts Wong Fei Hoong transmitted. Indeed, the lineage of Wong Fei Hoong is one of the best established today, with students all over the world.
Wong Fei Hong’s stories have been made into more than a hundred movies, and are very popular amongst the Chinese, especially the Cantonese speaking people. The three books of his successor, Lam Sai Weng, namely Taming-Tiger, Tiger and Crane, and Iron Wire, have become modern classics.
Wong Fei Hoong is one of the best known of Shaolin masters today.
I am not sure whether he systematized his teaching. I thought he taught what he had learned from his father, Wong Kai Yin, who in turn learned from his sifu, Loh Ah Choy. Loh Ah Choy was one of the ten best disciples of the Venerable Chee Seen, the first patriarch of Southern Shaolin Kungfu.
The general aims, path and benefits of the Southern Shaolin of Wong Fei Hoong outlined by me for a modern young man might be different from those outlined by Wong Fei Hoong himself at his time. From available records, I would guess the following would be the general aims, path and benefits of the arts he would teach to his students.
The general aims of Wong Fei Hoong for his students would be good health and be responsible citizens for society. As Wong Fei Hoong himself forbid his students to fight, it was unlikely that he placed much importance on combat efficiency, though there was no doubt that all his immediate students were great fighters. Wong Fei Hoong placed much importance on his students becoming responsible citizens to society. He emphasized two qualities, “chong” and “hou”, or loyalty to the country and being filial to parents.
It is significant to note that Wong Fei Hoong was different from many other Shaolin masters just a generation earlier who were pre-occupied with overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming. This was mainly because during Wong Fei Hoong’s prime time, the Qing had already been overthrown. Wong Fei Hoong was the Chief Instructor for the Civil Guards of the new Chinese government in Canton.
I believe the path Wong Fei Hoong would choose for his students was to learn the three unarmed set, namely Taming-Tiger, Tiger-Crane and Iron Wire, and weapon sets like the Fifth Brother Eight Trigram Staff, which Wong Fei Hoong was well known for. If the students progressed well, they might learn Wong Fei Hoong’s other weapon sets, namely Night-Journey Sabre and Three-Sectional Soft Whip. However, there were no records that these two weapon sets were taught to his actual disciples.
Wong Fei Hoong was an expert in tit-ta, or kungfu medicine. But records show that he did not formally teach kungfu medicine to his disciples.
The main benefits his students get from his teaching would be good health, vitality and longevity, combat efficiency and being good citizens to society.
The general aims, path and benefits of the legacy of Wong Fei Hoong I would outline for a modern young man who learns from me will be different from those of Wong Fei Hoong for his students. There are two main reasons for the difference.
While these arts were the main arts of Wong Fei Hoong, they are selective arts in our school. Secondly, the culture and needs of Wong Fei Hoong’s time and ours are different. For example, Wong Fei Hoong’s students would take a life time to learn these arts, whereas our modern young man would need only 5 days!
Please note that we are talking about the aims, path and benefits of this young man (or young woman) taking the legacy of Wong Fei Hoong course at the UK Summer Camp. We are not talking about his (or her) aims, path and benefits as a student in our school.
The main aims are to provide him with a comprehensive introduction to the three unarmed sets of Taming-Tiger, Tiger-Crane and Iron Wire, and the weapon set of Fifth Brother Eight Trigram Staff, including the special skills of tiger-claw and no-shadow kick, and to enhance his breadth and depth in kungfu training.
If he decides to specialize in these selective sets later on, he may pass the secrets and benefits of the arts to posterity, including internal force training and combat application. The need to preserve these great arts is more urgent considering that today many practitioners of these arts bounce about like Boxers in free sparring, and lift weights in force training.
The path is to have a good understanding and practice of the form, force training, combat application and philosophy of these sets, including the philosophy and application of tiger claw and no-shadow kick.
The benefits are that within just 5 days he will have an in-depth understanding and practical experience of all these famous sets, which made Wong Fei Hoong one of the best known Southern Shaolin masters in history. The young man may know and perform reasonably well in 5 days what some practitioners of these arts may not have attained after many years!
For example, many practitioners may not know the combat applications of some patterns like Fierce Tiger Crouching at Cliff, Reincarnated Well-Fed Crane and Sun Moon Shadow Hand, but our young man will know. Many practitioners may not be able to develop internal force using these sets, but our young man will be able to, using methods like the flow-method and triple-stretch.
The aims, path and benefits from learning these arts in the 5-day course will enhance his aims, path and benefits as a student of our school. For example, the internal force developed from these sets will enhance his health, vitality and longevity as well as peak performance in daily life. The combat applications learnt from these sets will enhance his combat efficiency in sparring and fighting. Because of the benefit of breadth and depth, he will have better results in whatever arts he choose to practice later on.
Four sets will be taught at the Legacy of Wong Fei Hoong course during the UK Summer Camp. They are Taming-Tiger, Tiger-Crane, Iron Wire and Fifth Brother Eight Trigram Staff. Taming-Tiger was the fundamental set in Wong Fei Hoong’s school to teach combat. Many of the combat sequences Wong Fei Hoong and his students used in their successful fighting were taken from this set. Students attending the legacy course will have the martial benefit of knowing how these past masters fought, and of applying the same combat sequences in their sparring. The holistic benefit is to have a theoretical understanding and practical experience of Southern Shaolin, or Hoong Ka, combat application.
As the name indicates, Tiger-Crane incorporates the tiger form and the crane form, as well as Lohan Kungfu which was the prototype of Shaolin Kungfu. The tiger form is known for its hard force and tiger-claw, whereas the crane form is known for its soft force and no-shadow kick. The martial benefit from the Tiger-Crane Set is an introduction to more sophisticated combat application as well as training of hard and soft force. The holistic benefit is enhancing bredth and depth in any kungfu training.
Iron Wire is an advanced set usually reserved only for special students who have spent many years in the school and have won the trust of the master. It is probably the most powerful set to train internal force. However, in my opinion many practitioners have trained wrongly. They have practiced Iron Wire as isometric exercise and have developed big muscles instead. The martial benefit of this set is to train tremendous internal force. The holistic benefit is to have a deeper understanding of internal force training, especially its flow approach and its consolidating approach, which can be applicable to other methods of force training and to enrich daily life.
Cross-Road Separate Gold from the Iron-Wire Set
The questions and answers are reproduced from the thread Legacy of Wong Fei Hung Q-A Series by Sifu in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
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