The system combines the martial arts techniques from various Northern and Southern Chinese kung-fu systems; the powerful arm and hand techniques from the Shaolin animal forms from the South, combined with the extended, circular movements, twisting body, and agile footwork that characterizes Northern China's martial arts. It is considered an external style, combining soft and hard techniques as well as incorporating a wide range of weapons as part of its curriculum. Choy Li Fut is an effective self defense system particularly noted for defense against multiple attackers. It contains a wide variety of techniques, including long and short range punches, kicks, sweeps and take downs, pressure point attacks, joint locks, and grappling.
History
Chan Heung, also known as Din Ying, Daht Ting, Chen Xiangong, and Chen Xiang, was born on August 23, 1806, in King Mui (Ging Mui), a village in the San Woi (Xin Hui) district of China's Guangdong province.Chan Heung's uncle Chan Yuen-Wu, a boxer from the Shaolin temple in Fujian, began teaching him the Fut Gar style of Chinese martial arts when he was seven years old. When Chan Heung was fifteen, Chan Yuen-Wu took him to Li Yau-San, Chan Yuen-Wu's senior classmate from the Shaolin temple.
Under Li Yau-San's instruction, Chan Heung spent the next four years learning the Li Gar style. Impressed with Chan Heung's martial arts abilities, Li Yau-San suggested that he train with a Shaolin monk called Choy Fook to learn Choy Gar, a Northern Shaolin style of wushu, as well as Chinese medicine and other Shaolin techniques.
According to legend, the monk Jee Sin Sim See is said to have been one of the legendary Five Elders (along with Ng Mui, Fung Doe Duk, Miu Hin and Bak Mei) who survived the destruction of the Shaolin Temple sometime during the late Qing Dynasty.
The founders of the five major family styles of Southern Chinese martial arts; Hung Gar, Choy Gar, Mok Gar, Li Gar and Lau Gar, were respectively, Hung Hei-Gun, Choy Gau Yee, Mok Da Si (Mok Ching-Kiu), Li Yau-San, and Lau Sam-Ngan; and all are said to have been students of Jee Sin Sim See. Choy Fook had learned his martial arts from Choy Gau Yee, the founder of Choy Gar.
Choy Fook lived as a recluse on Lau Fu mountain and no longer wished to teach martial arts. Chan Heung set out to Lau Fu mountain to find him. When Choy Fook was at the Shaolin temple, he had been seriously burned and his head had healed with scars. This gave him the nickname "Monk with the Wounded Head". Using that description, Chan Heung eventually located the monk and handed him a letter of recommendation from Li Yau-San. However, Chan Heung was disappointed when Choy Fook turned him down. After much begging Choy Fook agreed to take the young man as a student but only to study Buddhism.
One morning, when Chan Heung was practicing his martial arts, Choy Fook pointed to a heavy rock and told him to kick it into the air. Chan Heung exerted all of his strength as his foot crashed against the rock, sending it twelve feet away. Instead of being complimented, Choy Fook placed his own foot under the heavy rock and effortlessly propelled it through the air. Chan Heung was awestruck by this demonstration. Again he begged Choy Fook to teach him his martial arts. This time the monk agreed, and for nine years Choy Fook taught Chan Heung both the way of Buddhism and the way of martial arts.
When he was twenty-eight, Chan Heung left Choy Fook and returned to King Mui village in 1834, where he revised and refined all that he had learned. In 1835 Choy Fook gave Chan Heung advice in the form of a special poem known as a double couplet:
The dragon and tiger met as the wind and the cloud.
My disciple, you must take good care of your future.
To revive the arts of Shaolin,
Don't let the future generations forget about this teaching.
In 1836 he formally established the Choy Li Fut system, named to honor the Buddhist monk Choy Fook who taught him Choy Gar, Li Yau-San who taught him Li Gar, and his uncle Chan Yuen-Woo who taught him Fut Gar, to honor the Buddha from which the art was named.
Techniques
Chan Heung revised and refined all that he had learned from his teachers and with his disciples, established standardized hand and leg techniques.Choy Li Fut's hand techniques contain 10 elements: Kum slapping or pressing palm deflection, Na shooting arm bridge, Gwa back fist, So sweeping, Chop yin/yang knuckle strike, Pow upward power shot, Jong small upward power shot, Chaw claw, Bin swinging power shot, Pei chopping, and Lui Yin yin/yang fist. Choy Li Fut's leg techniques contain 6 elements: Chan bracing, Ding nailing, Liu Tat kicking, So sweeping, Jet blocking, Au hooking, and Dan springing. There are 8 techniques of how the hand and leg techniques are applied. They are Yin negative, Yang positive, Kong hard, Yau soft, Hui false, Shi real, Tou stealing, and Lau sneaking.
The stances of Choy Li Fut are similar in height to other martial arts styles such as Hung Gar, but not as high as those of wing chun. This allows the practitioner to move quickly during combat without sacrificing stability and power generation. What is unique to the Choy Li Fut style is sometimes termed "whipping", where the practitioner's upper torso twists to generate more power in executing hand and arm techniques. In other martial art styles, the upper body is less dynamic, placing more emphasis in stability and generation of static power. Other differences include how your stance should be while facing your opponent. In the Hung Gar and wing chun styles, practitioners hold their torso perpendicular to an opponent, to allow the full use of both arms. In contrast, Choy Li Fut holds the torso at an angle to the opponent to reduce the target area exposed to him, and allows the practitioner more reach. Front stances in Choy Li Fut have the front bent leg angled in to protect the groin, while other martial arts systems, have the front bent leg facing forward.
During revolutionary battles between anti-Qing and government forces (1850–1877), whoever belonged to the Choy Li Fut system would identify themselves by crying out "yak" when striking with the palm, "wak" when thrusting with a tiger claw hand, "ha" when striking with the fist, "hok" when using a crane beak strike, and "dik" when kicking. These sounds are unique to the Choy Li Fut system.
Chan Heung recorded his discoveries and knowledge onto paper for his future students to follow and eventually recorded over 250 forms and techniques.
Forms
The Choy Li Fut system has over 250 various single person, multiple person, weapon, and training apparatus forms, e.g. the Ching jong, the Sui Sau Jong, and the Ma Jong. Because Chan Heung was a student of three highly skilled Shaolin masters, each teacher had many traditional forms. Chan Heung also developed many training and fighting forms from his own experience and years of training. There are even specialized forms for various students who had different physical shapes and abilities. These forms have been recorded into scripts which have been handed down to his closed-door students.Initially, Ng Lun Ma (Five Wheel Stance Form ) and Ng Lun Chui (Five Wheel Striking Form ) were created as the basic training forms that beginners must master to learn the basic foundation of stances, movement, and hand techniques. Present day schools and branches may use different teaching and training forms as well as their own curriculum and methodologies to teach Choy Li Fut. Because of the massive number of forms in the Choy Li Fut system as a whole, it is not required to learn every form to complete training in Choy Li Fut. As the Choy Li Fut system spread, different schools and branches added other martial arts masters to their curriculum, adding new forms or modifying some form techniques. This dissemination and evolution of Choy Li Fut resulted in the variations of forms and practices we see between schools and branches.
Weapons
Having both Northern and Southern Chinese influences gives Choy Li Fut a wide variety of weapons in its arsenal. Originally, there were 40 weapons in the system of Choy Li Fut. After many years of teaching, some past masters added different forms and other weapons into the system. Now there are 53 traditional weapons.One weapon that is exclusive to Choy Li Fut is the Nine Dragon Trident created by the founder, Chan Heung. This weapon was designed to shred any part of the opponent with which it might come into contact. The many hooks and blades can seize an opponent's weapon and, with one twist, rip it from his hands. The Nine-Dragon Trident (Gau Lung Dai Chah) is known as the "King" of all weapons.
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