From Victory to the Hung 洪勝 to Glorious Victory 鸿勝

Hung Sing

From Victory to the Hung 洪勝 to Glorious Victory 鸿勝

By Frankie McCarthy

It’s a well known fact that the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon (佛山鴻勝蔡李佛)as founded by Jeung Hung Sing was one of the most famous  martial art schools to emerge from southern China during the last 60+ years of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Today (160 years later), the Hung Sing  鴻勝 name continues to hold a high level of prestige amongst the older generations of southern Chinese martial teachers and students. Even the government of Fut San recognized Jeung Hung Sing’s major contributions not only to gung fu, but, for protecting their country against foreign invaders as well. Now, you can find a Hung Sing “鴻勝”school on virtually every continent of the world. But, not many people remember or even know the true root to the Hung Sing name itself. 

In every Chinese martial art community around the world its safe to say the Hung Sing “鴻勝” Chinese characters as we know it today are highly recognizable. However, reaching back to 1851 this Hung Sing “鴻勝” wasn’t the original name being used in those days.  It came later and  was used as the replacement characters and installed somewhere between 1867 when Jeung Hung Sing returned to re-open his school in Fut San, or, in 1875 when Chan Heung passed away. Either way, not too many students of today’s generation are aware of the origin of this name and naturally assumed it was the one given to Jeung Yim by the monk Ching Cho (Green Grass Monk). 

The answer to the question of “where did Jeung Yim’s Hung Sing name come from?”, was discovered in one of the books published in 1866 by a certain European Free Mason, who, was interested in the Chinese secret society.  In this case, the author personally documented what he found on the flags of the society by hand.  The truth about its origins came in the form of a slogan consisting of only 4 Chinese words found on one of those flags. The only trick is, it takes someone with inside knowledge of the society to know what to look for and how to decipher it. Hiding things in plain sight to conceal its true meaning from prying eyes was a common practice amongst the Chinese secret societies.

From the moment the Qing government destroyed the Shaolin Temple (Circa 1760),  killing the monks within it, overthrowing the Qing has been one of the Hung Mun’s primary goals since its existence.  This is where the secretive slogan of four words come into play. The  meaning behind it was “the Hung Mun will be victorious in overthrowing the Qing government.”  You can arguably claim that the slogan was more in line with a prediction of victory more than anything else.  Still, because of the government mandate that anyone presumed to be a member of the Hung Mun were to be decapitated on the spot, they were forced to hide this prediction within an obscured slogan.

The original Hung Sing (洪勝) name given to Jeung Yim by the Green Grass Monk meant Hung Victory and can also be translated as Victory to the Hung, as in Hung Mun.   It was  derived from the Hung Mun slogan and used as synonym for it.  In addition to this, the Hung Sing (洪勝)  name  shares the exact same  greater meaning of “the Hung Mun will be victorious in overthrowing the Qing government” with the four worded slogan.  Furthermore, this name wasn’t something created by Jeung Yim as it was already in use elsewhere, nor, was it exclusively used by him.  For instance, a  洪勝堂 (Hung Sing Tong) already existed in the mountains of Guangxi where 60 out of 100 secret society tongs contained the word Sing ”勝”or Victory in their names.

 In 1867 Jeung Hung Sing returned to Fut San to re-open his school that was closed down by the Qing government.  Somewhere between 1867-1875 Jeung Yim needed to change the name of his school in order to avoid futher trouble with the law.  According to certain Chan Family Choy Lee Fut members he asked Chan Heung for help in choosing a new name, but, since there are no records of this its difficult to verify.  Regardless, he changed his schools name to 鴻勝 (Hung Sing) while keeping the “Hung”pronunciation by replacing the original “洪” (Hung) character with. 

 Jeung Yim’s decision to use this character was well thought out for a few of reasons.  First, the new “鴻” (Hung – lit. Trans. - Great Wild Goose) character didn’t have a visual connection to the outlawed secret society to a spectator.  However, there is more to the new character than meets the eye.  Secondly, on the left side of both characters “洪 & 鴻” the three water drops (氵) are found. This was a hidden symbol used by the secret society.  Thirdly, another secret symbol used by the tong founded by the Green Grass Monk was for the word Sau meaning “Longevity.”  The new “鴻” (Hung – lit. Trans. - Great Wild Goose) character also has a connection to the word “Longevity” since this is what the Wild Goose represents within the Chinese Culture.

Masters like Lui Chun, Yuen Hai, and Lee Yan were Jeung Yim’s students when the school was using the original 洪勝 (Hung Sing-Hung Victory ) name, while in 1884 Chan Ngau Sing began training with Jeung Yim when the school was already using the new 鴻勝 (Hung Sing – Great Wild Goose) characters.  From that point to the present, the old name had long been forgotten and the new one gained fame throughout the world.    Today, you can find a 鴻勝 school on virtually every continent on the planet.  And, since 2001 the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon  (佛山鴻勝蔡李佛), the birthplace of Hung Sing Choy Lee Fut, has re-emerged into the martial world the legacy of Jeung Yim is once again regaining its popularity.  I know if Jeung Yim was watching over us he’d be extremely proud to see his fighting method flourishing like it is, Long Live Hung Sing Choy Lee Fut.