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For Jeong Ah Yim's (Jeong Hung Sing) Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon, the answer is quite clear. Monk Ching Cho Wo Serng or Green Grass Monk is originally and strictly a part of the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon history, and NOT that of the Chan Family of Choy Lee Fut. Before anyone takes on a defensive posture, let me explain a little further.
According to the history of the the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon as it is passed down within our lineage, Jeong Yim was sent (By Chan Heung) to the Green Grass Monk who was to be found on the Pak Pai Mountain right outside of Guangxi in 1841. At the time, Jeong Yim was only 17 years old, however, when he located the Green Grass Monk and was accepted as a disciple, he stayed the temple and trained under him for 8 years. Jeong Yim was taught the Fut Ga (Buddha Palm) system and Chinese medicine. One of the most important things that the Green Grass Monk handed down to Jeong Yim according to the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon was called the Inside and Outside Bagua Kuen which contained a total of 1080 moves in it. This was supposed to be one of his most important fighting forms.
As well, the "HONG SHENG" in Jeong Yim's new name was the idea of the Green Grass Monk. This NEW name had a secret reference to the Hung Mun Secret Society winning their victory in overthrowing the Qing Government during the 1800's. The newly named Jeong Hong Sheng was then instructed by the Green Grass Monk to head to Fut San and contact the leaders of the Hung Mun Fut San branch so he may offer his gung fu to help in the revolution. Jeong Hung Sing was told to dedicate his school to the further development of the cause. After this not much more is heard about the Green Grass Monk.
Well, after spending many years researching whatever I can lay my hands on, I've found a few NON CHOY LEE FUT references to the Green Grass Monk.....and here are some of the things i've come across.
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The following was found on a Shaolin site which had nothing to do with Choy Lee Fut........
source: http://art.macd.cn/index/t-857915.html
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Below is a rough translation via "Babelfish"...........
ΦΑΙΖ, a few forests generation of master of great learning and integrity, he in order to train the outstanding Ύψ¶¥ few forests master, except appoints the big disciple apricot to hide the Zen master (other name green grass buddhist priest) to make the training, governs outside few forests 36, but also constructed has been "Luo Hantang", also called "ΔΎΘΛ the lane". This is a secret room which exercises martial arts, in has the very many woodcarving likeness of a god or buddha, they have installed the active institution, so long as the start institution, the likeness of a god or buddha can automatically tread to the home position, pummels, so first, the few forests little brother must leave the completely physical strength, fought the fist with the likeness of a god or buddha. Walks Luo Hantang to put on ΔΎΘΛ the lane is tests Wugong the strict form, the time not proficient disciple because of cannot deal with is beaten by the likeness of a god or buddha to cut and bruised countless. Shaolin Temple to each skill Man Lishi disciple, the test is extremely strict, can go out the Buddhist monastery, all must think you could hit sift the Chinese hall the likeness of a god or buddha. |
| source: http://home.planet.nl/~padbe017/Nan_Shaolin_4.htm |
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4. Through the Luohan Hall, Against the Wooden Dummies
There is an alternative version of what happened in the aftermath of the fire. This has it that after the destruction of the monastery at Songshan, Cai Dezhong and his colleagues fled from Henan to Fujian province with two monks, Yun Zong and Zhi Kong. These people established a new Shaolin Monastery at Jiulianshan and, assisted by Hu Dedi (one of the 'progenitors' of the Hung League), used it as a base for anti-Qing resistance activities, where they could perpetuate the Shaolin traditions of martial artistry.
Zhi Shan, a pupil of Zhi Kong and the single most fabled figure in the Shaolin legends, was supposed to have been the main force in re-establishing the Shaolin techniques. The famous Shaolin heroes from Guangdong (like Hong Xiguan, Fang Shiyu, Hu Huiqian, the San-De Monk, Tong Qianjin, Xie Afu and Lu Acai) were all held to have been students under Zhi Shan.
The 'Five Elders of Shaolin', honoured as the 'true progenitors' by martial artists, appeared at the time of Zhi Shan. They were Wu Mei, Zhi Shan himself, Bai Mei, Feng Daode and Miao Xian. All five contri-buted greatly to the development of Southern-style martial arts. For our present purposes, we will leave aside the feuds that developed among the Five Elders, and examine instead the way that the Shaolin Monastery in Fujian was run under Zhi Shan.
The latter, in order to foster Shaolin martial artists of the highest calibre, both appointed his senior disciple Xing Yin (also known as the Qingcao Monk, or the Monk of the Green Grass) as the monastery's chief instructor in martial arts, in charge of the 36 chambers, and devised the Luohan Hall (or 'corridor of wooden dummies') as a final test for students. This was a secret chamber where students underwent a particularly intense form of training. It housed 108 wooden figures that could be manipulated mechanically to attack anyone who entered the chamber. On entering the chamber, a student would be forced to use all his faculties to the full to defend himself against these mechanisms, especially since the figures were not only animated but mobile. Many students found the experience a harrowing ordeal, and those of lesser abilities often emerged with quite serious injuries. The Shaolin Monastery put all of its students through extremely rigid trials, but they were not permitted to leave the monastery until they had passed through the Luohan Hall.
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| Source: http://yeeshungga.com/tradition/history/ |
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Since Master Jee Sim had already passed away, the head monk Ng Ging Wo Seung, also known as Ching Cho, was in charge. He had one hundred eight martial monks in the temple who were enraged by Chan Man Yiu's ultimatum. It was decided that the monks would fight back. One night, the monks separated into five groups. They attacked by the main road, but using arrows and even stones. The monks killed more than one hundred soldiers.
After this skirmish, the monks pulled back into the temple to rethink their options. It was decided that they would stay in the temple and booby trap all the entrances. General Chan Man Yiu ordered his men to set fire to the temple. While the general's men were doing this, Chin Cho ordered the monks to go to the tunnel to escape. They didn't realize that Chan had filled the far end of the tunnel with gunpowder devices. Many monks were trapped and killed in the tunnel. Chin Cho ordered the remaining men back to the temple. by then, it was almost morning and the temple had burned to the ground. Upon counting, Ching Cho decided that the survivors would later meet at the Wu Lung river. Ching Cho descended the mountain in a rage, seeking out the only person who could have given away the secret of the tunnel escape route. He later found Ma Chut andkilled him on the spot. At the river, there were only five men. They were Wu Dak Dai, Choy Dak Jung, Lei Sik Hoi, Fong Dai Hung, and Ma Chiu Hing.
These men were later honored and became to be known as the Ng Jo or Five Ancestors. They agreed to split up so that they would never be caught together. They would then form pro-Ming associations. There is still a system called the Ng Jo Kuen which reminds us of these men. These men spread the Siu Lam martial arts all over China among the common people.
Or how about this.....
Source: http://www.shaolin.org.cn/html/html/yi/biji/lec_article.asp?PageID=1&ChapterID=129&BookID=20
This chief instructor is surnamed Zhang Mingyan, is the Sunwui 石嘴 person, his skill in wushu passes on from Sunwui person Chen enjoys (also names Chen Naixiang); Chen Zezi Guangxi eight row of mountains green grasses buddhist priest there studies comes; The green grass is the Fujian Shaolin Temple apricot hides the buddhist priest to be in direct line the disciple. ... |
Now this is where the problems lay......
The Green Grass Monk has ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS been a part of the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon's history. Personally, I have contacted many Chan Family based Choy Lee Fut schools, and most of the Choy Lee Fut world knows the Chan Family has ALWAYS DENIED the existance of the Green Grass Monk. One well known figure in the Choy Lee Fut world even took it so far as to list all his reasons in a book for believing the Green Grass Monk was a fictional character. Some have even said the Hung Sing People concocted the Green Grass Monk story to somehow elevate ourselves.
As previously stated, certain members of the Chan Family had commented to me via email during the early 1990's that there was NO record of the Green Grass Monk to be found in the Chan Family archives. And the family archives have been translated over and over, yet not one mention of the Green Grass Monk. Myself, I am self taught in reading chinese (which of course I'm very limited) but Do without the shadow of a doubt recognize the characters for the Green Grass Monk, and have been researching his name through whatever means available. Even "I" could find the chinese characters for Monk Ching Cho in a book.
But, around the turn of the century, I, along with a number of Choy Lee Fut students from various schools around the world participated in a very heated battle over the existance of Monk Ching Cho. Of course, the chan family members that participated in this discussion shot down the idea of Monk Ching Cho being a REAL character in Chinese history. Basically saying that because his name wasn't written in Chan Heung's family "Kuen Po's" it was a terrible attempt to try and steal the limelight away from the Chan Family for personal gain.
Eventually over time the dust began to settle once the argument was over. One of the most outrageous claims was made by the certain Chan Family members, stating that someone has somehow overlooked, or found some missing page of their written history where it mentions that Monk Choy Fook was indeed called the Green Grass Monk. Oops, sorry, it was OUR mistake.........
This wild claim sent the Hung Sing and Buk Sing people in a tail spin of disbelief. We all couldn't believe our ears when this came out. We knew what was going on, and one very well known master made it completely known how he feels about this false claim of discovery.
For over 150 years Monk Ching Cho had been ignored by the Chan Family who often ridiculed the Hung Sing lineage for mentioning this ficticious person, but recently that ficticious character comes to life and turns out to be Monk Choy Fook to benefit them. How more wrong could that be?
This information is not only being spread today in English, but in Chinese as well.
Source: http://baike.baidu.com/view/358070.htm
"In order to reach a higher boundary, it gets collect requisition Li Shi to agree that, goes to Luofu Mountain white crane view to do obeisance the Cai luck (namely green grass buddhist priest, 花名 rotten buddhist priest) is a teacher. Cai Fushao in the forest the family time attainments are very high. He sees Chen to enjoy the scholarship extremely to have the sincerity, the good conduct, the foundation is really firm"
Or....
"Cai Li Fuquan founder Chen enjoys (1806-1875), dictionary England, the number reaches the pavilion, is in Sunwui 崖门 Zhenjing plum village Gongbei the person, he is young when once successively did obeisance "the alone stick Zen master" Chen Yuanhu, 至善 master disciple Li Youshan and few forests green grass buddhist priest Cai Fuwei"
There are many more sites like the ones above, all spreading the lie that Monk Choy Fook is the Monk Ching Cho. Choy Fook Lived on Mt. Lau Fu and died there according to Chan Family account, and in the Chan Family records the fact that Choy Fook had a scarred head from it being on fire was mentionable. Although, Monk Ching Cho was on Mt. Pak Pai, and never has anyone from the Hung Sing lineage ever heard that Monk Ching Cho had any type of mentionable scars. They lived on two different mountains.
The Green Grass Monk is the last teacher of Jeong Hung Sing
There's no way the two are the same.
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