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32-671: The words "Fut Ga Kuen" literally translate to "Buddhist Family Fist". The word "Ga" in Cantonese means family. This name has been synonymous with the martial arts practiced in the Southern Shaolin Monastery in Fujian , and used as an ambiguous term for their skills. One style that was formally founded using the name of "Fut Ga" has its origins at Qingyun temple near Dinghu Mountain in Guangdong Province. Early on in its history,

64-557: A secretive folk religious sect in the vein of the Ming loyalist White Lotus Sect , the Tiandihui's ancestral organization. As the Tiandihui spread through different counties and provinces, it branched off into many groups and became known by many names, including the Sanhehui . The Hongmen grouping is today more or less synonymous with the whole Tiandihui concept, although the title "Hongmen"

96-685: A case for their location, none of the claimants has been able to provide much evidence to support their claims." In some accounts of the burning of the Shaolin Temple, it was the Southern temple that was burnt and destroyed by the Qing authorities, not the Northern temple. In these accounts with the Southern temple destroyed there remained just the Five Elders to continue the traditions of the Southern temple, and as

128-522: A group of followers in Huizhou . In 1761, he returned to Fujian and organized his followers from both provinces to form the Tiandihui. A century earlier, the Qing dynasty made membership in such societies illegal, driving them into the arms of the anti-Qing resistance, for whom they now served as an organizational model. The 18th century saw a proliferation of such societies, some of which were devoted to overthrowing

160-618: A political party that participates in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference . Jiang Zuojun , chairman of the Zhi Gong Party, is currently the only non- Communist Party minister in the Chinese government. The Canadian branch was established in 1863 in Barkerville, British Columbia. In 1971, Chinese Freemasons National Headquarters of Canada ( 加拿大洪門民治黨 ) was incorporated under

192-631: A school under his name when he closed his hands (stopped teaching) in 1974. Sifu Mandarino was Master Wong’s top ranked student and disciple. He opened The Golden Dragon Kung Fu Society under Master Wong's leadership. Sifu Mandarino changed the name to Mandarin Kung Fu after Master Wong died. He continues to instruct and practice a blend of Hung Gar, Choi Gar and Fut Gar as taught by Master Wong. Southern Shaolin Monastery The Southern Shaolin Monastery or Nan-Shaolin ( 南少林 )

224-569: Is also claimed by some criminal groups. Branches of the Hongmen were also formed by Chinese communities overseas , some of which became known as Chinese Freemasons . Its current iteration is purely secular . Under British rule in Hong Kong , all Chinese secret societies were collectively seen as criminal threats and were bundled together and defined as "Triads" , although the Hongmen might be said to have differed in its nature from others. The name of

256-406: Is overwhelmingly ethnically Chinese but there are also Japanese members and a few white American members. The Hongmen are divided into branches, of which there are believed to be approximately 180. The largest of the branches, Wu Sheng Shan, consists of perhaps 180,000 members. Membership is said to be primarily working class, and is also said to include a considerable membership in the armed forces of

288-470: Is the name of a Buddhist monastery whose existence and location are both disputed although associated ruins have been identified. By tradition, it is considered a source of Nanquan . The following account is based on legend or folklore, with little, if any, documentary evidence to support it. During the Tang dynasty in the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang , warrior monks from Henan Shaolin were deployed from

320-656: The Malay States , to eventually settle in Penang as its first Kapitan China before dying in 1826. During the late 19th century, branches of the Hongmen were formed by Chinese communities overseas, notably the United States, Canada, and Australia, where they are nowadays known as "Chinese Freemasons." Following the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty of China in 1911, the Hongmen suddenly found themselves without purpose. From then on,

352-561: The triads . In Taiwan , by contrast, the Hongmen is not only legal, but politically influential; this is not surprising, since Sun Yat-sen , founding father of the Republic of China , was a senior figure within the Hongmen, as was nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek . Moreover, the Kuomintang , or Chinese Nationalist Party, was formed from the Xingzhonghui and Guangfuhui , groups not unlike

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384-504: The "Three Harmonies Society" (the "Sanhehui" grouping of the Tiandihui) is in fact the source of the term "Triad" that has become synonymous with Chinese organized crime . Because of that heritage, the Tiandihui (more commonly known there as "Triads') is both controversial and prohibited in Hong Kong. Republican-era scholars generally thought that the Tiandihui was founded by Ming loyalists in

416-473: The Canadian Corporations Act on 31 May 1971, and registered on 22 July 1971. The Barkerville headquarter was donated to British Columbia government. The Hongmen continues to exist within numerous overseas Chinese communities, albeit with rapidly aging memberships; its main purposes today are to act as fraternities among overseas Chinese, and to participate in charitable activities. On 28 July 1992

448-639: The Hongmen attempted to remain somewhat secretive, but in recent years the organization's activities have been more transparent. The organization also has numerous business interests, and is reportedly trying to open a martial arts school in Taiwan. On 1 January 2004, Nan Hua Shan Tang was registered with Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior. In Mainland China , the Hongmen is known as the Zhi Gong Party ( simplified Chinese : 致公党 ; traditional Chinese : 致公黨 ),

480-500: The Hongmen diverged into various groups. When some Hongmen groups based within China could no longer rely on donations from sympathetic locals; being unable to resume normal civilian lives after years of hiding, they turned to illegal activities – thus giving birth to the modern Triads . The Hongmen is believed to consist of about 300,000 members worldwide, members found in mainland China, Taiwan , and Chinese overseas communities. Membership

512-464: The Hongmen. Because of the Hongmen's revolutionary character and mysterious quality, their future was unclear after the Republic of China central government moved to Taiwan. For a long time, the Republic of China on Taiwan did not openly allow the Hongmen to operate. After martial law ended in 1989, Ge Shan Tang formed and started exchange with the outside world. Under the influence of Chiang Kai-shek,

544-624: The Qing forged at the Honghua Ting ("Vast or Red Flower Pavilion"), where they swore to devote themselves to the mission of "Fan Qing Fu Ming" ( Chinese : 反淸復明 ; lit. 'Oppose Qing and restore Ming'). In 1768 anti-Qing Tiandihui rebel Zhao Liangming claimed to be a descendant of the imperial house of the Song dynasty . The merchant Koh Lay Huan , who had been involved in these subversive activities, had to flee China, arriving in Siam and

576-615: The Qing, such as the Tiandihui, which had established itself in the Zhangpu and Pinghe counties of Zhangzhou in 1766. By 1767, Lu Mao had organized within the Tiandihui a campaign of robberies to fund their revolutionary activities. The Tiandihui began to claim that their society was born of an alliance between Ming dynasty loyalists and five survivors of the destruction of Shaolin Monastery —Cai Dezhong ( 蔡德忠 ), Fang Dahong ( 方大洪 ), Ma Chaoxing ( 馬超興 ), Hu Dedi ( 胡德帝 ), and Li Shikai ( 李式開 )—by

608-475: The Republic of China (Taiwan). Hongmen members worldwide continue to observe certain common traditions: they all stress their patriotic origin; they all revere Lord Guan , a deified historic Chinese figure who embodies righteousness, patriotism, and loyalty; and they all share certain rituals and traditions such as the concept of brotherhood and a secret handshake . Today, the Hongmen is an illegal society in Hong Kong because of its traditional association with

640-538: The Shaolin temple to combat piracy. With the pirates suppressed, the monks remained in support of the local garrison and established the Southern Shaolin Monastery. During the Tang dynasty, Shaolin warriors were used in support of the regular army, and at its peak, there were nine subsidiary Shaolin monasteries. With the demise of the Shaolin warrior units, the subsidiary Shaolin monasteries disappeared, so that by

672-650: The abbot of the Shaolin Monastery at Quanzhou said "Shaolin is definitely present in Fujian, it is not up to anyone to say it does or does not, its history can be found, its history can be proven, in this kind of argument these are of no consequence." Heaven and Earth Society The Tiandihui , the Heaven and Earth Society , also called Hongmen (the Vast Family), is a Chinese fraternal organization and historically

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704-531: The attack. Professor Barend J. ter Haar has suggested "that stories on the burning of a real or mythological Shaolin monastery were circulating in southern China towards the end of the eighteenth century, which were then taken up in different ways by martial arts specialists and by the Triads." The book Martial Arts of the World: Regions and individual arts gives these stories of a Southern temple as an example of

736-461: The best techniques of each style and discarded what he thought was useless or ineffective. A combination of mostly Choi Gar from Leung Siu-jong and Hung Gar from Yao Loon-kwong, this became Sil Lum Fut Gar 少林佛家 or " Shaolin Buddhist Family". A branch of Fut Gar developed by Leung Tin-chiu is currently being partially taught in schools worldwide and was headed by Chen Rong-en (陈荣恩) 1922-2015,

768-546: The direct guidance of Grandmaster Chen. A newer school also closely monitored by Grandmaster Chen exists in China since 2004. In November 2007 an International Fut Gar Federation was formed to unite instructors of Fut Ga Kung Fu worldwide. Master Wong Ting-fong opened the Golden Dragon Kung Fu Society in Buffalo NY over 50 years ago. He was a student of Leong Tin-chiu . He asked Sifu Norman Mandarino to open

800-616: The early Qing dynasty to resist the Manchu invasion of China. In 1964, scholar Cai Shaoqing published the article On the Origins of the Tiandihui ( 關於天地會的起源問題 ) based on his research of Qing archives (now known as the First Historical Archives ) in Beijing. He concluded that the Tiandihui was founded in 1761 and its roots lay in mutual aid rather than national politics. His interpretation

832-519: The elders fled and dispersed throughout Southern China they established the lineages that gave rise to the Hung , Lau , Choi , Lee , Mok and Wing Chun styles and those styles that derive from them such as Cai Li Fo . It is said that after the government destroyed the first temple Chee Seen , one of the Five Elders went on to build a second southern Shaolin Temple at Jiulian Shan (Nine Lotus Mountain) which

864-422: The end of the Qing dynasty only the temple at Henan remained. The Southern Shaolin Temple gained a reputation for being a revolutionary center and the abbot refused to become a part of the emperor's army or take orders from him. In an effort to crush the growing rebellion, the Qing army attacked and burned the Southern Shaolin Monastery during middle of the 19th century. Only the most skilled Shaolin monks escaped

896-425: The monks at this temple were fortunate enough to learn martial arts from fighters that had mastered the 5 most popular systems of Southern Kung Fu. These styles were Lau Gar, Li Gar , Mok Gar , Choy Gar , and Hung Gar . The names of the styles reflect the surname of the particular style's founder. A monk named Leung Tin-jiu 梁天柱 realized the value of incorporating different schools or styles together and took only

928-629: The only direct disciple of Leung Tin-jiu who was involved in spreading the style. The Leung Tin-jiu style of Fut Gar is best known in China for the Flying Dragon Staff Form which is known as the King of Staff Forms within the Kung Fu community. The National Fut Gar Kung Fu Training Centre taught by Sifu Richard Chow in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada is the longest running school that taught Fut Gar with

960-584: The unverifiable claims often made for the establishment of Chinese martial art styles. It says "One example involves a Shaolin monastery in Fujian Province. During the nineteenth century, Heaven and Earth Society documents referred to a southern Shaolin monastery in Fujian Province from whence so-called southern Shaolin martial arts styles such as Hong Quan reportedly originated. Although this assertion has been repeated many times, and claimants from three locations ( Quanzhou , Putian , and Fuqing ) have each made

992-469: Was also later destroyed by the Qing government with the help of Pak Mei and Fung Dou Dak, two of Five Elders who defected from the Shaolin. The Southern Shaolin Monastery is considered by some to be a construct of fiction and folklore. Shi Yongxin , the abbot of the Shaolin Monastery has said "In all the records of the Shaolin Monastery, I have never seen the words 'Southern Shaolin'." In response,

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1024-587: Was further developed by his student Qin Baoqi and confirmed by independent research by the Taiwanese scholar Zhuang Jifa. The founders of the Tiandihui—Ti Xi, Li Amin, Zhu Dingyuan, and Tao Yuan—were all from Zhangpu , Zhangzhou , Fujian , on the border with Guangdong . They left Zhangpu for Sichuan , where they joined a local cult and left disenchanted. Of the four, Ti Xi soon left for Guangdong, where he organized

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