Cheung Ah-yim (; 1824–1893) also known as Jeung Yim, Cheung Yim, Cheung Hung-sing, Jeong Hung-sing, Jeong Hong-sing, Zhang Yan, Zhang Hongsheng, was a key figure in the development and expansion of Choy Lee Fut - a Southern Chinese martial arts system, and was the most famous of Chan Heung's disciples to emerge from the Choy Lee Fut System.
Cheung Yim was an orphan, came from a broken family, a student of martial art masters such as Lee Yau-san (Chan Heung's teacher), Chan Heung, and the Monk Ching Cho Wo Sheung (Green Grass Monk 青草和尚), co-founder to the Choy Lee Fut system, founder of the Great Victory School (Hung Sing Kwoon - 鴻勝舘) and the Hung Sing Choy Lee Fut system 鴻勝蔡李佛拳, a notable revolutionary, accomplished fighter, a Hung Mun Red Pole (426 Enforcer), and father of the largest and longest running school of southern Chinese Martial Arts.
Cheung Yim - Cheung Hung-sing 張炎 (張鴻勝)
Cheung Yim aka Cheung Hung-sing was one of the most famous figures to emerge from the Choy Lee Fut Kung Fu legacy. He was born in 1824 and died in 1893. He was a native of Sanshui Dong Ling Village where they all possessed the Cheung 張 surname. His birth year was calculated from his age of death and the year he died by counting backward from his death date. Prior to 1998, the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon was dormant, and information coming from the source was not available until recent years. Once the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon re-opened in 2001, Choy Lee Fut disciples were privy to new information about Cheung Yim and his life, more than what was previously known.
As a young boy, Cheung Yim was learning the Lee Gar system under Lee Yau San. But, at the time, he was under the care of his uncle because allegedly his parents were killed by the Qing Empire. One day, his uncle had to leave China for business and would now be returning to China and couldn't bring his nephew with him. He hoped his friend by the name of Chan Heung would be able to look after his 12 year old nephew, so they went to King Mui to ask him. At first Chan Heung had to deny any care for the boy, but after much pleading, Chan Heung took Cheung Yim on as a handyman/caretaker.
Cheung Yim loved Kung Fu and couldn't help but memorize what Chan Heung was teaching to his students as he was doing his daily chores. At night, he would practice his stolen Choy Lee Fut while everyone slept. He was caught one night when Chan Heung was taking a walk around the village. He confronted Cheung Yim who admitted to what he did. But, Chan Heung saw the potential in this young boy who never properly learned the Choy Lee Fut system, so he decided to privately teach him as long as their secret can be kept a secret.
One day in 1841, Chan Heung was away on business and his students started bullying Cheung Yim, who, tried his best not to fight back. But he lost his cool and gave Chan Heung's students a good thrashing. They reported what happened to their parents, who, then complained to Chan Heung, demanding he ask Cheung Yim to leave the King Mui Village. But, Chan Heung didn't want to just end Cheung Yim's training just like that. So, he instructed the now 17 year old Cheung Yim to go to the Pak Pai Mountains near Guangxie and find an elusive monk by the name of Ching Cho and tell him why he was sent to look for this monk.
In 1841 Cheung Yim arrived at the Pak Pai Mountain and found the Monk with the name of Ching Cho. Ching Cho was a wanted fugitive for being a co-founder of the Hung Mun (洪門), and knew his life was in danger so he needed to be as discreet as he could, and be aware of strangers. So, when the young Cheung Yim showed up asking questions, Ching Cho needed to know if what he stated was true or whether or not this was a government assassin sent to kill him. He then asked Cheung Yim to demonstrate his martial arts for him. Once Cheung Yim started his form, Ching Cho immediately recognized Cheung Yim's gung fu as authentic Shaolin martial arts.
Monk Ching Cho then admitted to being the monk Cheung Yim was looking for and for the next 8 years he started training him in the art of Fut Gar Kuen. In those 8 years Cheung Yim mastered all Monk Ching Cho to teach which included Chinese Medicine in addition to mentoring Cheung Yim in the art of Revolution. Also since he was a co-founder of the Hung Mun and known as the father of the Sam Hop Hui, he had the power to make Cheung Yim a 426 Red Pole Enforcer known as Hung Kwun (). This is a rank and position usually reserved for masters of the Martial Arts with a role more like an Army General.
In 1849, Monk Ching Cho Wo Sheung completed Cheung Yim's gung fu training. Since he had plans for Cheung Yim, he instructed him to go to Fut San to contact the Triad Society leaders there and offer to help train the revolutionary fighters who were preparing for the Tai Ping Rebellion in 1851.
One final thing Monk Ching Cho had to give Cheung Yim was a new name. He changed his first name of Yim 炎 and replaced it with "Hung Victory" pronounced as Hung-sing 洪勝. This was a name that had its roots deeply embedded in the Hung Mun secret Society and was even used by various tongs, and even a triad gang in Hong Kong, and found on the flags of the Hung Mun's various tongs. The meaning behind "Hung Victory" is it is a shortened version of the greater meaning of "The 'Hung - 洪' will be 'Victorious' - 勝 in its mission to over throw the Qing Empire to restore the Ming Dynasty back to power". This was the last we hear of Monk Ching Cho Wo Sheung who most likely died shortly after this.
The newly named Cheung Hung-sing arrived in the City of Fut San, and immediately made contact with the Triad leaders and was ready to start training the fighters. But before he could do that respectfully, he needed to make contact with the leading martial art authority in Fut San which at the time was Wing Chun's Leung Jan and get permission to open a school in the area. According to the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon's history, when Cheung Hung-sing arrived at Leung Jan's home, he was met by Leung Jan's disciple who was offering him some tea. As Cheung Hung-sing went to accept the tea, Leung Jan's student suddenly attacked Cheung Hung Sing with a Biu Gee, or thrusting fingers to the eyes. Cheung Hung-sing evaded the strike and hit the student with a palm strike to the torso and sent him flying. When Leung Jan learned what happened, he was highly upset and challenged Cheung Hung-sing to a closed doors Staff Duel. No one knew about the outcome, but in the end, Cheung was definitely allowed to open his school in Fut San.
The lack of historical documentation by Cheung Hung-sing
Cheung Yim's Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon was well known to the Chinese Government for being a revolutionary martial arts school. This school was known to be part of the Hung Mun, to which the Qing Empire was vehemently opposed, and any member captured suffered mandated instant beheadings. Therefore members of the Hung Sing Kwoon avoided written documentation, and as a result, their history had to be passed down orally until the 1950s. At this time, Premier Zhou En Lai's (a Hung Sing Disciple) instructioned Chen Yilin, a Student of Chan Ngau-sing, to officially document their history in what is called "100 years, from Beginning To End, History of the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon."
According to various sources, Cheung Yim parents were killed when he was very young (most likely due to revolutionary fighting) and was placed under the care of his uncle, Jeong Kwan. When Cheung Yim was 7 or 8 years old he was a student of Li Yau-san. When Cheung Yim was 12 years old (1836), his uncle became unable to care of him, so he asked Li Yau-san's top senior student Chan Heung who had just returned from studying with Choy Fook 蔡褔, to take him in. Chan Heung is internationally recognized as the first founder of the Choy Lee Fut martial arts system, with Cheung Hung Sing as being the co-founder.
Choy Fook 蔡褔 (Cai Fu)
According to legend, the monk Gee Sin Sim See 至善禪師 is said to have been one of the legendary Five Elders; Ng Mui五梅大師, Fung Doe Duk 馮道德, Miu Hin 苗顯 and Bak Mei 白眉道人; who survived the destruction of the Shaolin Temple during the late Qing dynasty.
The founders of the five major family styles of Southern Chinese martial arts; Hung Ga, Choy Gar, Mok Gar, Li Gar and Lau Gar, were respectively, Hung Hei-Gun 洪熙官, Choy Gau Yee 蔡九儀, Mok Da Si (Mok Ching-Kiu) 莫清矯, Li Yau-San 李友山 student of Li Sik Hoi, and Lau Sam-Ngan 劉三眼; and all are said to have been students of Gee Sin Sim See 至善禪師.Title:Kung Fu: History, Philosophy, and Technique, Author:David Chow, Pub:Unique Publications (December 1980) Title: The Shaolin Grandmaster's Text - History, Philosophy, and Gung Fu of Shaolin Ch'an, Publisher: Order Of Shaolin Ch'an; 6 edition (January 15, 2005), Language: English, , Choy Fook 蔡褔 had learned his martial arts from Choy Gau Yee 蔡九儀, the founder of Choy Gar.
Chan Heung was impressed with Cheung Yim's Li Gar skills and wanted to teach him Choy Lee Fut, but found himself too busy perfecting and standardizing his newly created Choy Li Fut system to train fighters for the anti-Qing revolutionaries (that information has never been told in regards to history, ever). After a few years of doing maintenance work for Chan Heung, when Jeong Yim was 17, Chan Heung sent him out to locate and study under Choy Fook's successor (Choy Fook has nothing to do with monk Green Grass), Ching Cho 青草 to learn the art of Fut Gar and the philosophical ways of Buddhism.
The quote "Chan Heung was impressed with Cheung Yim's Li Gar skills and wanted to teach him Choy Lee Fut, but found himself too busy perfecting and standardizing his newly created Choy Li Fut system to train fighters for the anti-Qing revolutionaries (that information has never been told in regards to history, ever)" is pure misinformation. This was never part of Cheung Yim's history at all. The truth is Cheung Yim basically stole the Choy Lee Fut system by memorizing the techniques that Chan Heung taught in each lesson and practiced them in the middle of the night while everyone was sleeping. One night Chan Heung caught him practicing his stolen Choy Lee Fut. But, since Cheung Yim showed great skill while lacking proper instruction, he decided to teach Cheung Yim secretly since it was against the rules of the Chan Village in King Mui.
Cheung Yim's Choy Lee Fut training stopped when he got into a fight with some of Chan Heung's senior students that were bullying him. He fought and defeated Chan Heung's students who then complained to their parents who in return complained to Chan Heung and forced him to make Cheung Yim leave the King Mui village.
Monk Ching Cho 青草和尚 (Qingcao)
According to legend and Hung Mun Triad history, Monk Ching Cho or Ching Cho Wo Sheung 青草和尚 (Qingcao) was one of the Ng Jing Wo Seung, (Five Book Monks) who took over the Jiulianshan Shaolin Temple, located in Putian County, Quanzhou, Fujian Province, after Gee Sin Sim See 至善禪師 left and went into hiding. At that time, Qing forces attacked the southern Shaolin temple and burned it down at the orders of the Qing Emperor.208 pages, Comprehensive Asian Fighting Arts (Bushido--The Way of the Warrior), Author: Donn F. Draeger & Robert W. Smith, Publisher: Kodansha International (15 January 1981), Language: English, , , pg.46 The temple made sure that head monk Gee Sim safely escaped, and left Ching Cho in charge to continue the battle against the Qing troops. Plans were made to escape if the temple fell.