Fut San Hung Sing Choy Lee Fut’s
Green Grass Monk
A major source of controversy
The Green Grass Monk for a long time has been at the center of many heated discussions. Ever since the founding of the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon in 1851, the Green Grass Monk has always been part of the Fut san Hung Sing lineage since he was Jeong Hung Sing’s last sifu, the one who completed his training.
Now, there are many members of the Chan Family of Choy Lee Fut who’ve completely dismissed the existance of the Green Grass Monk, calling him a fictional character that the Hung Sing Kwoon has made up to elevate themselves within the Choy Lee Fut family tree going back to Chan Heung. And, personally, I’ve contacted a certain master within the Chan Family branch of Choy Lee Fut in regards to learning more about the Green Grass Monk. The response i received was summarized as follows: “There are no records anywhere in the Chan Family scripts that mention the Green Grass Monk. He just didn’t exist.”
However, the Fut San Hung Sing lineage has always maintained that Chan Heung sent Jeong Yim to the Green Grass Monk. This information hadn’t been passed down to us by some fictional story by Nim Fut San Yan. The history of our lineage has always been passed down by word of mouth by those who were too iliterate to write their own names. Sometimes, they didn’t even know when they were born.
According to Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon caretaker Huang Shenjiang, right after the Japanese invasion, Ancestor Tablets were found amongst the rubble in front of destroyed Hung Sing Kwoons which had the Green Grass Monk’s name on it. Also, China’s Premier Zhou Enlai instructed Hung Sing disciple Chen Yilin to include the Green Grass Monk’s name when writing the history of the Hung Sing Kwoon 100 years beginning to end.
Now, further research has uncovered bits and pieces of this incredibly elusive monk.
Still, the Green Grass Monk has been mentioned within such styles as Shaolin, and Hung Ga. Both have placed the Green Grass Monk at the Southern Shaolin Temple, as the Abbott of Shaolin right after Gee Sim Sim See passed away. To learn more about this information click here. Various websites such as this one Click Here
refers to the Green Grass Monk as the man in charge of the Wooden Men Chambers as well as being the Abbott of Shaolin.
The Shaolin Temple also has the Green Grass Monk’s alias as Xing Yin. Certain elder masters of the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon believe the Green Grass Monk to be Cai Dezhong, who was a monk at the Shaolin Temple and later became known as the founder of the Hung Mun secret society. Yet, its extremely possible that they are one and the same, and evidence shows that Cai Dezhong existed in the late 1700’s.
Being that Cai Dezhong was one of the 5 Hung Mun Ancestors, and the Fact that the Green Grass Monk changed Jeong Yim’s name to Jeong Hung Sing which means Hung Victory, a secret reference to the Hung Mun winning in their attempt at overthrowing the Ching Empire is a step closer to discovering the truth.
Now, in 1841 when Jeong Yim located the Green Grass Monk, it was in ShenJiang, at the Pak Pai Mountain. The Green Grass Monk then proceeded to teach Jeong Yim one very important hand form. It was called Inside/Outside Bagua Kuen. But, that form was later broken up into three forms by Chan Ngau Sing to make learning a little easier for the newer generation of students who wanted to learn very fast.
As well, Jeong Yim never passed down the idea that the Green Grass Monk had any notable scars of identifying marks. But this is where our issues begin.
A few years back, I got onto the Kungfumagazine.com forum and started a discussion about the Green Grass Monk. Many Choy Lee Fut students begin arguing and things were getting out of control. But one benefit from all the mess that took place was my discussion caused many Choy Lee Fut disciples to ask their sifu’s about the Green Grass Monk.
Then, much to the surprise of ALL the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon disciples, a certain gung fu master made a statement that a mistake was made in the translation, and actually the Green Grass Monk is really Choy Fook, Chan Heung’s 3rd teacher. This announcement set the Choy Lee Fut family on their ears. It was completely shocking to hear that after almost 200 years, and browsing through the family manuals that NO ONE ever read that the Green Grass Monk was Choy Fook?!?!
Well, what happened? At first Chan Family members completely denied the Green Grass Monk for decades, but only when his name raised up so much attention, did the Chan Family shockingly make that claim of Choy Fook being Ching Cho. No way. Now, everywhere i read on the net (in chinese mainly) that Choy Fook is the Green Grass Monk.
Choy Fook lived on Mt. Lau Fu, and had a scar on his head after it got burned while escaping from the temple’s destructioin. In fact, Choy Fook’s nickname was Lan Tau Fook or Burned Head Fook.
Now, knowing that very specific information about Choy Fook, there’s one big problem with him being the Green Grass Monk. One, is the Green Grass Monk was on Mt. Pak Pai in ShenJiang, not Mt. Lau Fu. While, the other issue was that the Green Grass Monk was never said to have such telltale scars like that of Choy Fook. Another contradiction is the Green Grass Monk is known to have been a Fut Ga master, while nowhere could that have been said about Choy Fook.
Okay, in the history of our branch, Jeong Yim went back to King Mui and shared what he learned from the Green Grass Monk with Chan Heung. This made Jeong Yim a “founder” of Choy Lee Fut, or perhaps even co-founder. It was at that point that the two separately developed their respective systems. Chan Heung kept his stuff for his family, while Jeong Yim took the Lee Ga from Lee Yau San, the early stages of Chan Heung’s Choy Lee Fut, and Fut ga and founded his own version called Hung Sing Choy Lee Fut.
(Still under construction)