LEUNG WING HANG'S legacy

The Chi Wu Men Athletic Association is the representative body for the Hei Ng Mun or Chi Wu Men (氣五門) gōngfu family fist, which possesses a distinctive lineage of southern gōngfu. Chi Wu Men is a traditional style deeply rooted in the five animal styles,. This style originated during the Qing Dynasty in the northern region of Guangdong province in China. According to the historical book "The Legend of the Five Intercessors," the early records of this style suggest that it was created by a Monk named Zeng Man Hou.

THE CHI WU MEN ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION IS THE ONLY CHINESE MARTIAL ARTS INSTITUTION THAT OFFICIALLY REPRESENTS THE HEI NG MUN GONGFU STYLE, AUTHORIZED AND CERTIFIED BY OUR GRANDMASTER. ANY INDIVIDUAL WHO CLAIMS TO BE A REPRESENTATIVE OF OUR LINEAGE, NOT MENTIONED ON OUR MEMBERSHIP PAGE, HAS NO CONNECTIONS WITH OUR INSTITUTION.

梁永享 Leung Wing-hang was a traditional martial artist, Dit Da practitioner, author, and figure in Hong Kong's martial arts and film community during the twentieth century. His martial background was strongly rooted in Hung Kuen, and many characteristics of Hung Kuen remained visible in the system he later developed. However, Leung's martial art was not limited to the material he had inherited from Hung Kuen. His travels through Guangdong brought him into contact with other martial traditions, teachers, and methods that would influence the development of his own boxing.

An important chapter in Leung Wing-hang's development began while he was traveling and working in northern Guangdong, 粵北 Jyut Bak. During this period, he encountered two experienced martial artists, 楊漢傑 Yeung Hon-git and 陳三甲 Chan Saam-gap. Both men had previously studied under 蔡清玩 Choi Cing-wun, a martial artist from the 海陸豐 Hoi Luk Fung region whose boxing tradition included 貓形拳 Maau Ying Kuen and Hei Ng Mun 氣五門).

The tradition maintains that Yeung Hon-git and Chan Saam-gap first met Leung Wing-hang in northern Guangdong and subsequently brought him to study with their former teacher, Choi Cing-wun. This is an important part of the lineage's oral history.

It was through this connection that Leung is traditionally said to have encountered 劉烏鐳 Lau Wu-leoi, also known as 劉家傑 Lau Gaa-git. Lau was himself a documented student of Choi Cing-wun according to surviving Hoi Luk Fung martial-history material. Lau would later become an important martial artist in his own right, combining material learned from numerous teachers into 楊古埔劉家拳 Yeung Gu Bou Lau Gaa Kuen.

Leung wing hang
Cat Chases Mouse. 1931. "Snake, Cat and Crane The Combined Fist", by Leung Wing-hang, Chan Sheung Kee Book Co. Ltda p.58

Leung Wing-hang (梁永享) was a well-known traditional dit da doctor and kung fu teacher in Hong Kong from 1930-1974. Leung Wing-hang began his martial arts studies in Guan Zhou under So Hak-fu, one of the famed Ten Tigers of Canton. After his death, Leung Wing-hang was a disciple of Wong Fei-hung. After training with Wong Fei-hung, Leung Wing-hang moved to Hong Kong and enrolled in one of Lam Sai-wing schools, beginning his training with him. At Lam's school, Leung studied the Southern Hung-Kuen style. Leung Wing-hang wrote a book on a style he created himself called the "Snake Cat Crane Combined Fist". The Snake Cat Crane Combined Fist, also known as the "Three Shapes Fist" or "Sam Yin Kuen", was created in the 1920s.

In his work travel through Guangdong, he met several kung fu masters and exchanged martial arts knowledge and medical techniques with them. Two elderly guards, Yeung Han-git (楊漢傑) and Chan Saam-gaap (陳三甲) both became a great influence on the Leung development of the Sam Yin Kuen (三形拳) style. The Yeung's family martial arts style was Dai-min-jeung (大綿掌), and Chan's martial arts were called Ying-jaau-tong-long-bo-yin-sun (鷹爪螳螂步燕身). Observing and exchanging techniques with them, Leung was motivated to develop his style emphasizing softness.

Through observing, practicing, and exchanging martial knowledge with these men, Leung encountered methods emphasizing qualities different from the harder expression commonly associated with parts of his previous training. These influences contributed to his increasing emphasis on softness, mobility, evasive body movement, sensitivity, and the ability to transform incoming force rather than meeting it directly.

Leung developed a close martial relationship with Lau Wu-leoi. Leung eventually encouraged both Choi Cing-wun and Lau Wu-leoi to relocate to Hong Kong, although their moves occurred years later rather than immediately following their initial encounters. The available regional records independently confirm that both men eventually moved to Hong Kong, but the specific role attributed to Leung in encouraging those moves belongs to the lineage's preserved history.

The historical importance of the Cat component becomes particularly interesting when Leung's material is compared with surviving accounts concerning Choi Cing-wun's 貓形拳 Maau Ying Kuen. The Hoi Luk Fung material describes Choi's Cat boxing through characteristics such as triangular stance and stepping, side-gate positioning, evasive body movement, borrowing force, bridge contact, rapid transitions between receiving and striking, clawing and seizing actions, and extensive use of wrist power. These characteristics are strikingly similar to principles observable in Leung Wing-hang's surviving written material.

Leung had extensive experience in several martial traditions, and his system was clearly the result of a long process of study, exchange, adaptation, and personal development. Nevertheless, when the technical similarities are considered together with the lineage tradition connecting Yeung Hon-git, Chan Saam-gap, Choi Cing-wun, Lau Wu-leoi, and Leung Wing-hang, they provide an important historical context for understanding how the Cat component of Leung's boxing may have developed.

Leung Wing-hang's influence was not restricted to Snake, Cat and Crane boxing. He was also remembered for his knowledge of traditional Dit Da traumatology, martial arts instruction, writing, and involvement in Hong Kong's martial arts film industry.

Leung is also associated with 蝴蝶掌 Wu Dip Jeung, Butterfly Palm. Some Hung Kuen historical research has proposed that Leung played an important role in developing or organizing the Wu Dip Jeung Tou Lou, Butterfly Palm Form, which subsequently became part of the curriculum of a number of Hung Kuen schools. This attribution should be presented as a historical theory rather than an established fact unless supported by additional primary documentation.

The Cat boxing associated with Choi Cing-wun is described as avoiding direct collisions of strength, entering through angles and side gates, using triangular positioning, borrowing the opponent's force, maintaining close bridge contact, employing flexible wrist and claw actions, and transforming defense immediately into attack. Many of these same tactical qualities are recognizable in Leung Wing-hang's approach to Sam Ying Kuen.

The surviving accounts of Lau Wu-leoi's martial tradition add another layer to this comparison. Lau's later Yeung Gu Bou Lau Gaa Kuen likewise placed considerable importance on triangular structures and stepping, including methods such as 三角仔 Saam Gok Zai, Small Triangle, and 四門三角 Sei Mun Saam Gok, Four-Gate Triangle. Because Lau Wu-leoi is independently identified in the Hoi Luk Fung material as a student of Choi Cing-wun, these similarities provide a valuable comparative line of investigation.

The name Hei Ng Mun was formally adopted after Leung Wing-hang and Lau Wu-leoi reunited in Hong Kong and worked together to organize and structure the system. However, the martial tradition itself is understood to predate this formal naming. According to several texts and accounts attributed to Choi Cing Wun, he stated that his Sifu, Choi Tit, and Goeng had previously received this martial knowledge from Liu Zhi Waa. Therefore, Hei Ng Mun represents the later formal organization and naming of an older body of martial knowledge, rather than the creation of an entirely new system in Hong Kong.

For that reason, the history of Cat Fist within Hei Ng Mun is best understood not as an isolated animal imitation system but as a branch of the larger martial culture of Choi Cing Wun and Hoi Luk Fung, shaped by Choi Cing Wun’s background in Southern Shaolin Choi Family Boxing and Emei Boxing, developed around the tactical qualities associated with the cat, transmitted through family and village institutions, and eventually carried from Haifeng into Hong Kong. From there, according to the preserved lineage tradition, its path intersected with Leung Wing-hang and Lau Wu Leoi, providing one of the historical foundations from which the later Cat Fist transmission associated with Hei Ng Mun was preserved.

“First comes courage, second strength, and third Kung Fu"

"一膽二力三功夫” -- Leung Wing Hang

According to Hong Kong Movie Database (香港影庫 ) Leung Wing-hang was also an actor, movie director, and a scene fighting director as well, he worked in the following movie titles:

- The Story of Wong Fei-Hung 黃飛鴻傳(上集) (1949)

- Wong Fei-Hung Burn the Tyrants's Lair 黃飛鴻傳(下集大結局) (1949)

- Story of Wong Fei-Hung, Part 3: The Battle by Lau Fa Bridge黃飛鴻傳第三集:血戰流花橋 (1950)

- The Story of Wong Fei-Hung, Part 4: The Death of Liang Huan 黃飛鴻傳第四集:梁寬歸天 (1950)

- How Ten Heroes of Guangdong Slew the Dragon 廣東十虎屠龍記 (1950)

- The Story of Wong Fei-Hung (Part 5) 黃飛鴻傳(大結局) (1951)

- The Three Sieges of Zhu Village 三打祝家莊(上集) (1951)

- The Three Sieges of Zhu Village (Part 2) 三打祝家莊(下集) (1951)

- The Five Heroes' Deadly Spears 五虎斷魂 (1951)

- The Brave Archer 百戰神弓 (1951)

- Huang Feihong's Battle in Furong Valley 黃飛鴻血染芙蓉谷 (1952)

- The Battle of the Peaks Part 1血戰摩天嶺 (1953)