one more: the REAL fong sai yuk?

[CrushingFist]

Does anyone have anything on the REAL fong sai yuk? when he lived, what style he did, any legends or stories you've heard?

[tanglangman]

I asked the same question a while ago on the main forum. suggest you do a search.

[iron_silk]

I don't know much about him at all...BUT I did hear that he died at a very young age though.

[South Paw]

Fong Say Yook – Fang Shiyu

Born in Zhaoxing in Guangdong. His father Fang De was a silk merchant. Fang De had two other sons by his first wife Li. The eldest was Fang Xiaoyu, the second Fang Meiyu; both studied at Shaolin under the monk Zhi Shan. At the age of 60, after the death of his first wife, Fang De married Miao Cuihua, the daughter of Shaolin disciple Miao Xian, and Fang Shiyu was born into this marriage.
The bride’s father, Miao Xian, led a secluded life after the burning of the Songshan Shaolin Monastery: he became a salt-merchant, and ended his life in virtual destitution. He was also one of the five elders of Shaolin.

The difference in age between Fang Shiyu and his half-brothers was at least 20 years. Miao Cuihua, having studied under her father, was herself an expert martial artist. According to the novel Evergreen, she “followed the wishes of her father, and bathed the one-month-old Fang Shiyu in herbal oil. She then swathed the infant in successive layers of bamboo strips, wooden rods and iron bars, so that his muscles, bones and joints became as hard as metal. By the time that he was three, the child was already training with an iron helmet on his heads and iron boots in his feet…..At the age of six, he began practising the horse stance; at seven he started learning various forms of fist and footwork. By the age of 14, his versatility extended to all kinds of weaponry. Endowed with exceptional strength, his body was all but invulnerable. Fiery and hot-tempered, he was an unrelenting champion of the oppressed”.

Fang Shiyu was just 14 when he killed Lei Laohu, an event that stoked the antagonism between Shaolin and Wudang. This is a very popular story.
While travelling to Hangzhou with his father one day, he was enraged by the audacity of one Lei Laohu, who challenged all comers to boxing duels with the slogans: “Crushing the whole of Guangdong with the fist! Subduing Hangzhou and Suzhou with the kick1”
The young Fang Shiyu rose to Lei Laohu’s challenge and killed him. Lei Laohu however was the son-in-law of Li Bashan of the Wudang school. He had often taken the law into his own hands and oppressed the population at large, emboldened by his position as a bodyguard to Chen Wenyao, who was nearly 80 years old at that time. Chen Wenyao was the tutor at the Wenyuan Imperial College, and of the officials that plotted the burning of he Songshan Shaolin Monastery during the reign of emperor Yong Zhen.
Few grieved over the death of Lei Laohu, but it nonetheless sparked a series of bloody clashes. His wife Li Xiaohuan turned to the San-De monk and Tong Qianjin for help in meeting this retaliation. The original incident rapidly escalated. At about the same time, the Shaolin disciple Hu Huiqian is supposed to have slipped away from the monastery to Xiguan, where he stormed into and decimated the Jinlun Tang (Brocade Hall), a textile mill. His motive was revenge. The Jinlun Tang was the headquarters of the union of Cantonese weavers, most of whom were single man with a reputation for being aggressive.
Some years earlier, they had killed Hu Huiqian’s father, owner of a nearby store, and seriously injured him as well. He had been rescued by Fang Shiyu, who had taken him to Shaolin to learn martial arts. In the course of his retaliatory raid on the Jinlun Tang, Hu Huiqian killed more than ten of the weavers, one of whom happened to be Zhang Jinhong, a second generation student of master Feng Daode of the Wudang school.

Both incidents fuelled the latent hostility between Shaolin and Wudang, and the number of open clashes between members of the two schools was soon beyond anyone’s control. Later Li Erhuan, the sister-in-law of Lei Laohu and the second Mei (Bak Mee) in putting an end to the Southern Shaolin Monastery in Fujian. The Shaolin heroes Fang Shiyu, Hu Huiqian and the Monk Zhi Shan were all said to have died in the blaze.

He died in his early twenties, some say in the burning of the (Southern) Julianshan Shaolin Temple, some say afterwards. He was particularly expert in the use of the Hua Dao, Flower Sword.

He also had a niece called Fang Yongchun. She also must have been 20 years older then him. She sometimes is identified as the lady of Yongchun (Wing Chun) and/or the wife of Hong Xiguan (Hung Hei Kun).

Fang Shiyu, together with Hong Xiguan, Hui Huiquan, the San-de Monk, Tong Qianjin, Xie Afu and Lu Acai (Luck Ah Choy), all students of the Monk Zhi Shan were known as the famous Shaolin heroes from Guangdong.

These stories can also be found in the book "Five Pattern Hung Kuen", by Leung Ting.

South Paw

[eviljungle]

That's gotta be the coolest post I've seen on here. :cool:

[tanglangman]

I agree. That was far more informative than any responses I received.

[joedoe]

Nice one South Paw ;)

cxxx[]:::::::::::>
You're fu(king up my chi

[fiercest tiger]

there is a story in dr leung tings book on hung kuen!

:)

come & visit us!
http://home.iprimus.com.au/ykm
yaukungmun@hotmail.com

[South Paw]

I already wrote that Fierce Tiger.
In that book the names are in Cantonese.

Thanks folks for the support!!!

South Paw

[fiercest tiger]

sorry dude, i didnt even read your story, just added to the question!

haha :cool:

come & visit us!
http://home.iprimus.com.au/ykm
yaukungmun@hotmail.com

[Shaolindynasty]

So Fung Sai Yook knew hung gar? I saw this on the Iron monkey website but it said that it came from hong kong cinema, so was that based on fact?

New classes New online Catalog
www.shaolindynasty.cjb.net (http://www.shaolindynasty.cjb.net)

[South Paw]

Fong Sai Yook was a contemporary / classmate of Hung Hei Kun (Hong Xiguan), the legendary founder of Hung Gar.

So what did he study? Just plain old southern shaolin.

Although 'Evergreen' is a novel, it was written during the Qing Dynasty, probably based on facts, but with some fiction as well. The Shaolin heroes were portrayed as 'violent rebels', otherwise the author would have a serious problem.
For the people that read this novel these rebels were the actual heroes.

Problem is that all these stories about the Shaolin heroes are written in Chinese, and not yet translated.

South Paw