Hung Hei 1745–1825, born Huadu

Huadu District

Huadu District is a district in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. It is located in the far northern suburbs of Guangzhou.Xinhua Town is the seat of local government, and of the district CCP committee....

, Guangdong

Guangdong

Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, was a major influential figure of Southern Shaolin Kung Fu.

Overview

Hung Hei was originally named Jue 朱 and was a tea merchant. He escaped to the Southern Fujian

Fujian

' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...

 Shaolin Temple after he had an argument with a few upper class Manchurians during the Qing Dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

 when the Manchus were in control. Abott Ji Sin accepted him into the temple and soon found out how talented and hardworking he was in Southern Shaolin Kung Fu

Shaolin kung fu

Shaolin Kung Fu refers to a collection of Chinese martial arts that claim affiliation with the Shaolin Monastery.Of the multitude styles of kung fu and wushu, only some are actually related to Shaolin...

. Ji Sin was impressed by these qualities and soon began to teach Hung the Tiger style that he specialized in. After six years he became number one of the top ten of the laymen followers (they were people who went to the temple to learn only kung fu and not religion). However, afterwards the Qing government destroyed the temple because the temple gave refuge to many rebels who wanted to restore the Ming Dynasty

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

. Hung Hei had 2 mentionable students:

1. Luk Ah Choi 陸亞采, founder of Hung Ga 洪家

Luk followed Hung Hei and also Hung's teacher Ji Sin 至善 learning Southern Shaolin Kung Fu. Becoming a revolutionary Luk named his style Hung Ga 洪家, not after Hung Hei but after Hung Mun 洪門, the triad.

2. Lei Jou Fun 李祖寬, founder of Hung Fut

Hung Fut

Hung Fut is a southern style of Chinese martial art, first developed in the early 1800's by Lei Jou Fun 李祖寬 and widely practiced today.- System :Hung Fut is considered to be a hybrid system...

 洪佛

Lei was a wealthy man who sought out skilled martial artists whom he could learn from. When he met Hung Hei he invited him to stay at his house where the servants called him Hung Hei "Goon 官" meaning "official", a name which seems to have stayed with him.

Cultural reference

• The 1994 ATV
  Asia Television Limited
  Asia Television Limited is one of the two free-to-air television broadcasters in Hong Kong, the other being rival Television Broadcasts Limited . It launched in 1957 under the name Rediffusion Television as the first television station in Hong Kong...
  
   series The Kung Fu Master is based on the story of Hung Hei.