Choy Li Fut is a kind of Chinese martial art that was established in 1836 by Buddhist monk Chan Heung. Choy Fook lent his name to this martial art form. Choy Li Fut combines the techniques of different kung fu strategies from both North China as well as South China. From the north, they adopted the strong hand and arm techniques of the typical animal forms of Shaolin; while from the south they borrowed circular movements, agile footwork and twisting body styles. The technique is popular for both hard and soft improvisations and a variety of weapons can be accommodated in the technique as well. Choy Li Fut is a very successful kung fu system that can be practiced against a number of opponents. A wide range of variety such as long range punches, short space punches, sweeps, kicks, take downs, joint locks, pressure point attacks and grappling constitute Choy Li Fut.
Chan Heung – The Founder
The founder Chan Heung was born on August 23, 1806, in a place in San Woi called King Mui in the Guandong district of China’s province. His uncle Chan Yeun Wu was a boxer in the Shaolin temple and it is he who began to teach Chan Heung the Fut Gar form of Wushu at the tender age of seven. When Heung became fifteen, he was taken to the uncle’s senior classmate from the southern Shaolin temple. Under Li Yau San, the uncle’s senior friend, Heung learnt the Li Gar style for four long years. The teacher was very satisfied with Chan Heung’s martial art abilities and recommended him to a Shaolin monk by the name of Choy Fook so he could teach Heung Choy Gar, a northern form of Wushu from him. Here Heung learnt not only this, but also much about Chinese medicines and other techniques popular in Shaolin.
Choy Fook, as legend says is believed to have lived his life on Lau Fu Mountain, when he decided he did not want to preach martial arts any further. This is when Chan Heung set in search of his master. While Choy Fook’s stay at the temple, he is believed to have suffered a serious burn due to which healed scars had left permanent marks on his head. This led him to acquiring the name of “Monk with the Wounded Head”. With the help pf this acquired name, Chan Heung finally managed to find his guru and gave to him the letter, which he had received, from Li Yau San. However Choy Fook refused to teach him and Chan Heung felt very disappointed in his letting him down. Chan Heung had to plead Choy Fook to teach him and eventually the master agreed to take Heung in as a student but only if Heung would agree to study Buddhism.
While studying Buddhism in the Shaolin temple, one morning Chan Heung was practicing kung fu when Choy Fook wanted to test his skills and asked him to kick a heavy boulder in the air. Chan Heung exerted all his power and with his foot managed to push the rock thirteen feet away. Expecting to be complimented, and taken by surprise, Heung saw Choy Fook place his own feet below the heavy rock and without any effort, propel it through the air. Chan Heung could not believe what he had seen and begged Choy Fook to teach him this kind of a martial art. This time, surprisingly Fook agreed and taught Chan Heung for nine years both the way of martial arts and the way of Buddhism.
At the age of twenty-seven, Chan Heung took leave from his master Choy Fook and came back to King Mui village in the year 1834. Here he spent his time refining and revising all that he had been taught by Choy Fook. In the year 1835, the great master, through the medium of a special poem in the form of a double couplet, sent an advice to Chan Heung. The poem was meant to entrust the responsibility and revival of Shaolin to his disciple and preach the future generations. Thus, in the following year of 1836, Heung formally set up the Choy Li Fut system in honor of the great Buddhist monk, Choy Fook, who had endowed him with Choy Gar, Li Yau San, who taught him Li Gar and his own uncle Chan Yuen Woo, who gave to him the knowledge of Fut Gar. He did this in order to honor the Buddha, from whom the name of the art was derived.