Ching Cho Wo Serng (Green Grass Monk)

Truth be told!!!

 

The Legend of Hung Sing
Choy Lee Fut's  "Green Grass Monk"

(MONK CHING CHO WO SERNG)

a.k.a. "Fong Dai Hung"
 

Written by Frank J. McCarthy
©  COPYRIGHT 2005 FRANK MCCARTHY 

 Image

One of the most elusive characters within Choy Lee Fut’s history was a Shaolin monk who went by the name of "The Green Grass Monk", or Ching Cho Woe Serng.  Not much was ever known about this monk due to his involvement in the revolution. However, actual literature of the Hung Mun Secret Society list Fong Dai Hung  as one of  the later 5 ancestors of the Triad, and to have been established between 1767-1787.   Ever  since the founding of Jeong Yim’s Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon in 1851,  this branch has maintained the belief that the Green Grass Monk played a major role in the development of Hung Sing Choy Lee Fut since the information was transmitted directly by Jeong Yim himself.

According to the history as it was passed down within the Hung Sing Branch, Jeong Yim was kicked out of the Chan Village for being an outsider and beating up some of their own. His sifu Chan Heung — who was only teaching the Choy and Lee styles at the time — was supposed to have learned from the Green Grass Monk but didn’t have the opportunity and sent Jeong Yim in his place. Under this monk Jeong Yim learned the deadly art of Fut Ga and eventually went back to Chan Heung and shared what he learned and together they completed the Choy Lee Fut Style, and had  taken the system Chan Heung started, and took it to new heights.    That, according to the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon, is said to have been how Choy Lee Fut was created.

 

Monk Ching Cho Wo Serng ....

According to various sources,Fong Dai Hung was one of the last of the Ming Loyalists.  His Hung Society name was Ching Cho (Green Grass) and given that it  was very common during the revolution the Southern Chinese to have numerous aliases,   he was also known as Monk Ng Ging or Xing Yin.  He and a few of his colleagues fled from Henan and re-established a new Shaolin Temple at Gau Lin San under Abbott Gee Sim. He is also the one who is said to be the one to originally design the Lo-han Hall as a student's final test sometime during the reign of Ching Emperor Qian Long 32 years (1736-1796). Within the walls of the Southern Shaolin Temple Fong Dai Hung  was in charge of 128 monks, as well as responsible for devising the Lohan halls for graduating students.        

 At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Ching Emperor Hong Hei felt that the Southern Shaolin Temple was too strong for its own good and would eventually become a problem for him. He then sent Generals Chan Man Yiu and Jeong Gim Chow along with more than 3000 soldiers to evict all of the monks from the temple and burn Shaolin down to the ground. The two generals were well aware of the reputation of Shaolin Monks, and decided to set up camp at the base of Gau Lin San (Jiulian San) to collect information.

General Chan happened to come across the owner of a local hotel who turned out to be a disgruntled ex-shaolin disciple named Ma Ling Yee a.k.a. Ma Chut. He was severely punished for breaking the 100 year lamp at the temple which left him with a bitter taste in his mouth. Ma Chut revealed he knew the secret escape route for the monks and would be able to show General Chan where it was. The escape route was very clever and if Ma Chut never exposed it the monks would have gotten away, so General Chan Man Yiu paid a large sum of money to Ma Chut for the information he provided.

General Chan then packed the secret entrance with explosives and sent word to the monks that they had a total of 3 days to vacate the temple or be killed. At the time Abbot Gee Sim had already passed away and left Fong Dai Hung (a.k.a. Green Grass Monk, and Ng Ging) in charge of 128 fighting monks who were enraged at the ultimatum they were given. The monks were not going to give in and decided to fight back and protect the temple. Therefore, they broke into 5 groups and attacked and killed at least 100 soldiers by the main road.       

 After their attack, the monks retreated back into the temple to re-evaluate their situation. All agreed to stay and booby trap all the entrances. When General Chan ordered his troops to begin burning down the temple Monk Ching Cho (Green Grass Monk) sent his monks into the escape tunnel only to be killed by the trap set up by General Chan. Including Monk Ching Cho,  5 monks survived the destruction of their temple and Monk Ching Cho instructed Wu Dak Dai, Choy Dak Jung, Ma Chiu Hing, and Li Sik Hoi  (Lee Yau San's Teacher) to all meet at the Wu Loong River. It was at that moment Monk Ching Cho stormed down Gau Lin San and   killed Ma Chut the traitor  for giving up the location of the secret tunnels and the death of his fellow monks.

As instructed, Wu Dak Dai, Ma Chiu Hing, Li Sik Hoi Cai DeZhong  and Fong Dai Hung (Ching Cho)all met at the river to discuss what to do next. These five went on to organize the Hung Mun Secret Society and originated the slogan Fan Ching Fu Ming (Overthrow the Ching and Restore the Ming) as well as to be recognized as the  5 ancestors within the Hung Mun. While each one agreed to secretly promote the revolution they spread out across the land and made a vow to each other to keep a low profile. It is at this point the it is believed Fong Dai Hung  (Green Grass Monk) traveled to and possibly spent his last days on the Pak Pai Mountain which is located in the Kwangxi Province. 

Enter "Jeong Yim"


        Around 1841, 17 year old Jeong Yim was on a quest to find an elusive monk who went by the name of Green Grass. He lived somewhere on Mt Pak Pai  at the Shajian Temple and Jeong Yim was hoping to complete his gung fu training under such a great master. Once he found the Green Grass Monk he proceeded to learn the deadly art of Fut Gar. One of the major contributions Monk Ching Cho made was teaching Jeong Yim a hand form called "In and Out Bagua" which contained a total of 1080 moves in it. Being too long to teach to the younger generations this hand form was later dissected into 3 separate forms called Chueng Kuen, Ping Kuen, and Kou Da Kuen by 1st generation successor Chan Ngau Sing.

By the time Jeong Yim learned all that the Green Grass Monk had to teach, his sifu still had one more gift to give him. Jeong Yim completely supported the revolution, and with this the Green Grass Monk revealed that he was none other than Fong Dai Hung, Chief founder of the Hung Society ( according to the London Brithish Museum was  established during Qian Long 32 years based on original and official  Hung Society documents maintained in their possession)  He then explained to Jeong Yim he wanted him to change his name from Jeong Yim to Jeong Hung Sing. The words Hung (same as in Hung Society) Sing (Victory) were a reference to the Hung Society winning the victory in overthrowing the corrupt Ching government. But due to too much negative attention this was later changed to the currently used Hung Sing which means "Glorious Victory".

洪 勝    /    鴻勝
Hung Victory-Glorious Victory

The left set of characters were the original Hung Sing characters given to Jeung Hung Sing but the Green Grass Monk.  It translates into "Hung Victory."  A secret reference to the Hung Mun Society winning the victory in overthrowing the Ching Government. 

The Right set  of characters represent the newer Hung Sing name used by Jeung Hung Sing to cover up his connection to the Hung Mun.

Also, some say the current Hung in Hung Sing means "Wild Goose"; if this were a cover-up of the triad's original usage of "Hung" then it makes sense why Jeong Yim chose that character.  In Chinese the goose represents longevity, and this too can also be a secret meaning referring to "long life to the Hung." After that, the newly named Jeong Hung Sing gave his word to support the revolution and set up shop in Fut San becoming the founder of the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon teaching his gung fu to many of his revolutionary brothers, and quickly became one of Southern China’s greatest fighters.

Jeong Hung Sing Honors His Word

It is not known when Fong Dai Hung passed away, but because of his doings, Jeong Hung Sing honored the Green Grass Monk's request to continue to fight for the people's rights, and work hard at overthrowing the corrupt Ching Empire. The Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon was steady at work with their involvement in man

Also, some say the current Hung in Hung Sing means "Wild Goosbecause of his doings, Jeong Hung Sing honored the Green Grass Monk's request to continue to fight for the people's rights, and work hard at overthrowing the corrupt Ching Empire. The Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon was steady at work with their involvement in many of Southern China’s cultural revolutions such as the Red Turban Revolt, The Opium Wars, the Tai Ping Rebellion and the Japanese invasion.
Evidence of Jeong Hung Sing's loyalty to the cause of the people can be found in the pair of couplets that hang on the walls of all Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon descendants. The first one reads "The graceful Staff flies above like a dragon moving its tail", and the other reads "A strong fist releases out like a tiger raising its head." When you put the first word of each couplet together they form the word "Ying Hung" or "Hero", in other words, Hero of the people.

Jeong Hung Sing passed away in 1893 and his successor Chan Ngau Sing continued to maintain the tradition Jeong Hung Sing set forth. Many of the Hung Sing students were involved with the Hung Mun and some have worked as bodyguards to Dr. Sun Yat Sen, another well known member of the Hung Mun (Heaven Earth and Man society).