Hung Gar’s earliest beginnings have been traced to the 17th century in southern China. More specifically, legend has it that a Shaolin monk by the name of Ji Sin Sim See was at the heart of Hung Gar’s emergence. See was alive during a time of fighting in the Qing Dynasty. He practiced the arts during an era when the Shaolin Temple had become a refuge for those that opposed the ruling class (the Manchus), allowing him to practice in semi-secrecy. When the northern temple was burned down many fled to the Southern Shaolin temple in the Fukien Province of Southern China along with him. There it is believed See trained several people, including non-Buddhist monks, also called Shaolin Layman Disciples, in the art of Shaolin Hung Gar.
Tam Family Kung Fu History (譚家武術)
Founder master Tam Yi Kwan (譚義均) was born in ShaTang of GuangDong. He was a hardworking scholar and attempted the imperial examinations many times but without success. Eventually he got frustrated and decided to change his focus to pursue the martial arts. He went to the the Fujian Shaolin Temple and began learning under the tutelage of Gam Faat Sim Si (感法禅師). Over the six years of training, he had learned three strikes five shape fist ( 三展五形拳)，iron wire fist (鐵線拳)， and the iron staff routine 鐵包金棍. Alongside him during his training was another student named Lai Bak Fu (黎伯符) from Nan Hai. The two got along very well and left the temple together once their training was completed.
By the time that Master Tam returned to his home town, there were robberies happening everywhere. So to improve the security of the village he opened a martial arts school to teach the villagers. Among all his students, his son Tam Yeung (譚讓), and nephews Tam An (譚安) and Tam Gin Hing (譚建興) were the most outstanding. Each of them later started their own martial arts institutes.
At that time, there was a popular branch of martial arts called 8 Trigram Spear Method (八卦槍法). Although Tam An had excelled in the iron staff techniques (鐵包金棍法), he admired the strength of Luo Mau Hing’s (羅茂興) 8 Trigram spear (八卦槍法), so he travelled to train under Master Luo. After he completed the training, he returned home to start making straw mats for a living. One day, he decided to take the straw mats in NanHai for sale. By the time he reached a town called GuangYao, it was already night time.
Fortunately he happened to run into his martial arts brother Zou Yu Sing (鄒宇昇). Zou Yu Sing invited Tam An to stay at his home overnight at LuJiang. Although Tam An did not want to trouble Zou Yu Sing, he knew that he had already missed the last boat to cross the river, and so accepted the invitation.
During the dinner at Zou Yu Sing’s home, Tam An watched Zou’s students’ practice and noticed that he had altered the 8 Trigram spear method八卦槍 into a using a staff. He was curious and asked Zuo about it. Zuo explained and mentioned this new technique had defeated many martial artists and their discussion had slowly turned into sparring. Tam An used his grandfather’s iron staff techniques to defend against Zuo’s 8 Trigram Staff. Given that Tam An also knew the 8 Trigram Spear method which was the origin of Zuo’s 8 Trigram Staff technique, he was able to predict his movements and defended from all the attacks. Zuo gradually became impatient and used his strongest combination of techniques. With Tam An’s knowledge of the 8 Trigram Spear techniques he was able to dodge Zuo’s strikes. Zuo stopped his attacks and threw away his staff. After the sparring, they both respected each other’s techniques exchanged Tam An’s Three strike routine (三展拳) with Zuo’s 8 Trigram Staff techniques (八卦棍法).
Following Tam An, his son Tam Man (譚敏) was the most outstanding successor to carry on the technique of the Three Strike Routine (三展拳). However, when Tam Man was young, he was unruly and aggressive. So his grandfather, Tam Yi Kwan (譚義均), worried about him using the martial art to cause trouble. So he warned all of his students to not teach Tam Man any martial art and not to practice in front of him.
But Tam Man still peeked into their practice, and secretly practiced by himself at a temple. There he used the large banyan tree and a set of bronze drums as his opponents for practicing his bridge arms (橋手). As time went by, he had become a skillful martial artist without his grandfather and father even knowing.
One day, there was a festival held at a nearby town which attracted all kinds of vendors and performers. Tam Man began to point out and criticize the weakness of a martial art routine when a person was performing. This person was Tit Kiu Saam (鐵橋三), a well-known martial arts master renowned for his arm strength. And as every audience was clapping and praising him on his performance, it was Tam Man’s criticism that caught Tit Kiu Saam’s attention.
After Tam Man left, Tit Kiu Saam asked around for his background and found out he was the grandson of Master Tam Yi Kwan. Although he had not met Master Tam, he had heard about the famous three strike routine. Given the difference in seniority, he did not want to argue with the young man but would pay a visit to Master Tam to have him disciplined for being inappropriate. As he arrived at Master Tam’s place he ran into Tam Man. Tam Man recognized Tit Kiu Saam and asked for the reason of visit.
Tit Kiu Saam decided to take matters in his own hands and talked to Tam Man for his behavior of criticizing him in public. Tam Man remained calm and said he was just telling the truth and would prove to Iron Arm that he was right. Tam Man knew Tit Kiu Saam was famous for his bridge arm (橋手) technique, so suggested that they contest their strengths through bridge arm sparring (君子橋) and Tit Kiu Saam agreed to this contest.
When Tam Yi Kwan returned home and heard about Tit Kiu Saam’s arrival, he came out to greet the visitor but it was already too late. He asked Tam Man why Tit Kiu Saam had left. Tam Man described the incidence but Tam Yi Kwan was puzzled as he assumed that Tam Man did not know any martial arts, and eventually Tam Man had to explain how he secretly learned and practiced. Tam Yi Kwan acknowledged his perseverance and passed down Three Strike Routine technique to him.
After Tit Kiu Saam’s defeat, he stayed at a temple in Guang Zhou and conversed with a monk there and spoke of getting back Tam Man. However, the monk explained to Tit Kiu Saam that Tam Man is in his prime age and the difference in strengths will only increase. And advised Tit Kiu Saam to wisely retire from the martial art scene. Tit Kiu Saam, agreed and decided to spend the rest of his time at the temple.
Tam Man inherited the secretes of Three Strike Routine technique from his grandfather and also the 8 Trigram Staff technique. His abilities proved that he would be capable of becoming the successor of the branch. Tam Man had succeeded in learning the secrets of these two techniques.
Though he was still young, Tam Man’s reputation grew and continued to improve. He had heard that Hung Hei Gun from the Hung Ga branch was visiting in Guang Dong and so Tam Man went to visit him and wanted to learn from him.
Hong Hei Gun 洪熙官
Hong Hei Gun was born in the Fa district of Guang Dong province and had trained under Ji Sin Sim See ( 至善禪師) from a young age. During his travels in Guang Dong, he passed by a local shop run by an elder, who had a daughter named Sam Niang (三娘). Sam Niang had learned martial arts at a young age and become quite proficient.
One day, she hiked up a mountain, and saw a crane fighting a tiger. No matter how strong and ferocious the tiger was, the crane too agile and elusive against the tiger. She began to study the movements of both the tiger and the crane, later on developing better long and short ranged attacking methods.
Sam Niang had only been practicing short ranged techniques and with the combination of long ranged attacks her techniques would become more complete. However she had not met anyone with proficient and effective long fist techniques.
One day, she noticed Hung Hei Gun practicing long fist outside of his inn. His techniques were strong and ferocious just like a tiger. She wanted to test her techniques and so interrupted his practiced and convinced Hung Hei Gun that although he had great strength and technique, having evasive and agile techniques would be more complete and defend more effectively. Hung Hei Gun was displeased at being criticized by a lady, and suggested a sparring match. Sam Niang accepted the sparring match and the two exchanged attacks. Hung Hei Gun used many of his long fist attacks but were not effective against Sam Niang’s agility and evasion techniques.
At the same time, Sam Niang was unable to effectively use her short fist techniques either. Sam Niang admired Hung Hei Gun’s ability and eventually forfeited the match, at the same time saving his reputation. After the sparring match, they exchanged details of their background and Hung Hei Gun discovered Sam Niang’s father was a former student from Shaolin and requested to visit her father.
As legend has it Hung Hei Gun and Sam Niang were arranged to be married. The union of Hung Hei Gun and Sam Niang led to the couple to work together and developed the tiger and crane set (虎鶴雙形拳), balancing both techniques in offense and defense.
Years later they retired and settled in ZhongShan XiaoLan (中山小欖), raised a son and had two disciples, Ng Ngok Lau (伍萼楼) and Chen Dong Fat (陳東發). Both disciples are from local wealthy families. Hung Hei Gun was good friend of the host of JingTai Temple (景泰寺), so he often visited and stayed in the temple for a period of time.
When Tam Man heard that Hung Hei Gun was visiting at JingTai Temple, he went to visit and learn from Hung Hei Gun’s. Hung Hei Gun had Tam Man demonstrated what he previously learned, and pointed out he had decent technique but his horse stance was not strong enough. So Hung Hei Gun made him fetch water from the well everyday with oval buckets while wearing iron clogs for three years. This training improved his stance work and so Hung Hei Gun taught him the Tiger Crane routine.
Tam Man became one of Hung Hei Gun’s most representative apprentices, and opened his own school in Guang Zhou teaching Hung Ga Kung Fu and carried the name of the successor to the Tam Family Three Strikes Fist and 8 Trigram Staff.
During the same period of time, there was a martial artist called Wang Ping (王平). Although he was a shoe merchant, he trained diligently in martial arts and had various training equipment at the back room of his shop. He later became known for his Iron Leg Training Techniques.
Wang Ping often traveled to Guang Zhou for business and had heard of Tam Man’s reputation to exceed Tit Kiu Saam. He wanted to try his skill with Tam Man and paid him a visit. He was amazed by Tam Man’s young age and his accomplishments to his reputation. When he met with Tam Man, he explained that he wanted to further improve his skill as a martial artist and asked Tam Man to train with him.
Tam Man also had heard of Wang Ping’s skill and respected his reputation. Both were respectful of each other and so trained in closed door contests and kept the outcome of their match a secret.
No matter how the disciples asked about the details of the contest, Tam Man had never said a word hence the outcome remained secret forever.