South mantis history.

short version

Oral tradition states that Juk Lam Naam Tong Long Gung Fu was codified circa early to mid 1800’s in the Bamboo Forest Temples 竹林寺  located  upon the Five Plateau Mountain /  Wu Tai Shan and on Long Fu Shan / Mt. Dragon Tiger 龍虎山 gongsai province. Two more temples were built in Hong Kong and Macau in the early 1900’s. None of which maintain the martial order to this day.

Today the martial order is maintained in small mostly private WuGuans discreetly found in towns and villages around the world.

This combat art now knows as southern mantis is the product of a broader Shaolin, Daoist and Hakka Gung fu genesis and subsequently has played various roles in Chinese military history. The art as we know today is not all that ancient however the history is rich with few hundred years of traceable history.

  • Monk Saam Daat 1 gen
  • Lee Sim Si (Zen master lee) 2nd gen
  • Cheung Yel Chung 3rd gen
  • Lam Wing Fei 4th gen
  • Gin Foon Mark 5th gen
  • Louie Jack Man 5th gen
    • Roger Hagood 6th gen
    • Rick L Gamboa 7th gen
  • Riley J Boyer 8th gen (6th gen adopted)

A longer telling:

Juk Lam Ji Naam Tong Long Pai  is credited to the Martial Monk Saam Daat 三達祖師 who was Tibetan born sometime nearing the end of the 18th century.

As a young child Saam Daat was living in an orphanage associated with the shaolin and Juk Lam Temples, and this is when he first got involved in martial arts; ovwrthe years the young monk dis as many did and organized a system from the many influences he encountered. This was a time when the temples were havens for all manner of people, not just Chan Buddhist monks, the influences must have been expansive. Much to the opposite of Shaolin lore the temple was a melting pot and not necessarily a birthplace for kung fu.

The story goes; Saam Daat was confronted by the Abbot Tai Yueh after he had gotten into a fight. In an effort to explain himself Saam Daat demonstrated the things he had been developing. Due to the potential that was seen he was given a deeper mentorship and subsequently, the Abbot elevated the status of Saam Daats training within the temple. This meant further refinement with the elders of the daoist halls of old shaolin.

The young monk Saam Daat was  now training among the elites of his time, including the Abbot Tai Yueh as well as the hermit Hai Shem. It is here that the art takes root.

Saam Daat was eventually named to be the succeeding Abbot of the Juk Lam Temple at Long Fu Shan this is around 1860. Saam Daat spent decades refining and teaching while living as the hermit monk.

Over time, the Monk was well known for his abilities but he was aging and had yet to take an official successor to see to the future of his work. Saam Daat began to examine all the resident monks. He then traveled to various other temples and he explored the countryside all in hopes of finding his disciple.  It would be that he would find two students to head his teachings, Wong Do Leng And Lee Kwong Ching.  It is from these early teachers that the temple art opened into the three gates of Saam Daats Gung fu, eventually taking on family names that remain today.

We turn our focus to Master Lee Kwong Ching.

Lee Kwon Ching, was born mid 1800’s. Perhaps around the time Saam Daats was deep in the temple readying to be the Abbot. Little is known of Lee’s early years however it is is known that he was a skilled boxer and that he was to learn directly from Saam Daat within the courtyards of the Dragon Tiger Mountain Temple and five plateau mountain.

He is eventually ordained, Lee Seim Si 李禪師 ; the name means Zen Master Lee.

Lee spent many years learning and nurturing the intricacies of Saam Daat’s gung fu while training the ways of the monastic order. He took care of Saam Daat as he aged and he was eventually named the successor and official second generation Abbot of Saam Daats Temple Boxing in the halls of kwong Sai Juk Lam Ji. In 1911 he oversaw the building of the Macau Juk Lam Temple where he would later return and subsequently named the patron saint.

Zen Master Lee would often take to walking the countryside and quietly taught martial arts outside the Temple Walls and to one family in particular a Hakka family named chung.

Chueng Yul Chun was born in the south of China near the Juk Lam Temple that  Master Lee oversaw. The Cheung  family who where traveling acrobatics, provided for the Abbot while he traveled the countryside, and in gratitude he taught them some exercises to practice. Master Lee took on Chang Yu Chung as a student sometime around 1917. Where after Chueng Yul Chung accompanied Master Lee between the  Juk Lam Temple and his home. As time would have it the old master was to tutore the young cheung.

Despite being a citizen lay-monk and not a full resident monk, Cheung took his training serious. Some years later with the completion of his physical studies and harboring a gift for herbal medicine, Master Cheung was given the blessing of Lee Seim Si to teach the system as his personal successor and laymonk. This was a prestigious gesture by Lee Seim si, to offer Saam Daats Gung Fu in its whole. This was early 1920’s

Master Chung settled alongside his family and opened a medicine shop and fighting art school. Master Lee continued building monasteries and teaching Zen Buddhism.

While Master Cheung was teaching, turbulent times where indeed at a boil once again.  Secret societies were very much a part of the political scene. Revolutions, Civil Wars and foreign invasions, pestilence, and crime all over the country, each faction had their own agenda and modern era was creeping in.

During the early 1920’s Master Cheung took on two young disciples; Lam Wing Fay 林榮輝 and Wong Yuk Gong 黃毓光. These two would carry the art forward through the next generation despite another world conflict. 

The various masters of all styles were enduring extreme persecution  and many temples were burned between the time of Taiping rebellion up to and during the Boxer Rebellion and in the years of its aftermath little changed for the good. The remaining temples were becoming hotbeds for militants and monks alike.

Lam Wing Fei, later known as Lam Sang 林生,  trained for several years with Master Cheung as he was from the local village community, Lam was a young boy of 10-13 years old when he began training. He was small and without a great muscle build but  as he grew he became fast as lightning. Lam Sang gained a high understanding for the arts strength and aggression  through his Sifu, Master Cheung. His instructor was a rough teacher who had little interest in pretend( it was Master Chung who had the first sign for “broken martial art repair”).

Lam Sang also practiced with Madam Cheung, Master Cheung’s mother. She was skilled before hand but had learned the cotton body methods from The Abbot Lee Seim Si.

This routine continued until the mid 1920’s when being the youngest of the disciples, Lam Wing Fei left his Sifu to escort the the aging Master Lee Seim Si.

It is said that Lam Wing Fei traveled with Master Lee for nearly ten years as he further examined daoist martial arts.

In the 1930’s Lam Sang returned to Hong Kong, by now  in his early twenties; he opened  his first  Juk Lam Tong Long Pai Martial Art school. This was relatively short lived.

By the  late 1930’s the indochina wars were once again heavily damaging to mainland China and it was only getting more insane. Mankind’s technology was racing through evolution at a dangerously ignorant pace. World War II was building steam and Asia had a front seat.

Lee Seim See, a older man now, returned to the Juk Lam Temple branch he had seeded in  Macao, Lam Wing Fai was told that it was time to leave China and go to the west.

Within a short time Lam was once again seeking refuge as England came under attack by the Germans. Lam Sang again boarded a ship bound to America. The ship Lam Sang was on was bombed at sea but fortunately he was rescued by the United States Navy.  Lam Wing Fai finally made his way to Chinatown, New York City, United States of America, 1942.

Lam Sang Was a learned man and the Benevolent societies and various tong organizations formed around the city began to call upon him for guidance, he gained a reputation with the nick nam little monkey. Around 1947 Lam Wing Fei got word that his first sifu, Cheung Yul chung was missing and presumed dead as a result of the war.

When speaking of Lam Sang, there are many stories of his uncanny and mysterious abilities such as light skill as well as the explosive shock power. It was also common knowledge that Lam Sang was not known as an easy teacher to gain acceptance from – in-fact he refused to teach non-Chinese with little exception, perhaps one.

It was known that Lam Wing Fei even turned down many requests for private instruction from Bruce Lee, who in 1963 came to New York to find him. It would be Lam Sangs student, Gin Foon Mark, who spent some time teaching Bruce Lee, although Bruce did not at the time realize he was just a student of the master until after the lessons concluded.

Despite being demanding, Lam Sang taught the complete art to a few small groups or generations through out his teaching career and inspired many more through them. The seeds are sown in the USA.

Gin Foon Mark (Gin Fun Maak) was born in 1927 in Toisan.  When he was a young boy he was entered into temple for classical studies. As a youth he  learned Mok Gar Kuen and Bak Hok Kyun and various other Shaolin skills. He trained classically is calligraphy and brush painting as well as cooking.

It was in his time in Temple that he first saw Bamboo Forest Praying Mantis being demonstrated… just enough to taste the skill of Naam Tong Long (as it was now being called). Gin Foon Left the monastery and entered his role in the second Sino-Japanese war, he was around 14 years old and acted as a guard.  Gin Foon Mark eventually returned home where he and his uncle practiced the White Crane.  Around 1947  the Mark family decided that it would be best to leave China and come to the West.

When Gin Foon Mark arrived in New York he was considered a young but well established martial artist. He soon had work teaching in the various society halls. after a few years,  Sifu Mark found himself facing Master Lam Sang. Sifu Mark had experienced Juk Lam Tong Long while still in china and was eager to dedicate himself to the study here in America. As it come to be, mark dedicated himself to more than a decade of training full time with Master Lam.

Gin Foon accompanied Master Lam wherever he went absorbing the  numerous details of Bamboo Forest Praying Mantis. Gin Foon Mark continued this until Lam Sang retired to Taiwan in 1969. This is when Gin Foon Mark became the official head master of Juk Lam Temple Gung Fu in America.

Gin Foon Mark had a different view of America then his teacher. He decided to take on any student that wanted to train regardless of ethnicity and from this pool he would find the most  gifted. Master Mark officially opened the doors to the public here in America. Master Mark hand picked from the individuals within these public classes  and by the 1980’s he was putting out strong roots.

Some of Mark’s class mates would also follow this path and also teach, namely Louie Jack Man. Together these men planted the seeds of Saam Daats Gung Fu in the United States to the next generation, which would so happen to include myself.

AS FOR ME: When I was stepping up to 15 years of age I began training in a collective environment of 5th, 6th and 7th generation southern shaolin instructors, this was in 1994/95. Alongside the base of jook lum, there was Chu Family Tong Long from Sammy Wong sifu/Manuel Rodriguez; Pak mei, village lohan & drunken fist Via uncle Jack Moy and basic Sheui jiao stemming from Dr Wu.

My primary study of Juk Lam Tong Long began with Sifu Rick who is the student instructor with those previously mentioned practitioners as well as with Roger Hagood. RDH was a student of LJM and GFM as such I knew them all personally as well; RDH was also training with Wong Bak Lam, Mr. Sun and others I’m sure; all inner door disciples of Lam Wing Feis inner group (Lam Sang had passed only a few years before i began). In short this exposure was my inspiration to train.

The roots run pretty deep and the system more and more interesting with each teacher I’ve encountered. Sifu Rick Gamboa was my door in for all of this and much more and I can not neglect this fact. This was all in the greater Chicago Area.

At the time I didn’t really know the full significance of what I was beginning but i was interested in the boxing and through demonstration I was made aware that these guys had the goods.

In the very early days of practice we did not have a large emphasis on form training, Simple sets like the Chuka three battle and Juk Lam 3 arrow sets where practiced as well as various lohan type chigung; but mostly we focused our time on application drills: drills for foot work and combinations; we did a lot of line drills and we played chi Sau and teui sau- both fixed step and moving style. This led naturally to sparring / saan da.

Basically we threw bones and did calisthenics. It was almost always in a garage, driveway or park regardless of the elements.

Throughout my entire experience with traditional martial arts I’ve sat at the epicenter of greatness when it comes to old gung fu and in my later teens I was beginning to open my eyes to what the bigger picture was. However things were to go another direction temporarily.

By 1999 had long since dropped out of school and was half homeless, sleeping on couches and parks. I was working general labor jobs and driving trucks but increasingly frustrated I knew It was the rowdy night life or bust….so I left off with a few bucks in my pocket to see the country.

In spring of 2002 I returned to Illinois, Rick had a pretty decent place he rented for a school space and he was still training with RDH and LJM among others, I decided I wanted to do more.

I moved into my sifus home and got to work. I had a goal and i was hungry. With training came tuition and rent, food etc. I had jobs driving trucks, moving furniture and swinging pick axes, i planted trees, dug trenches and i drove. I worked in warehouse and factories, I tended the registers overnight in the convenience stores and I held state jobs as a personal assistant for the disabled adults.

I worked for my sifu at his martial art supply business and I taught new students in the school. several of these happened simultaneously. I did What ever it took to pay for as much training as I could.

I was regularly training three days a week in public class, taking one or two privates each week, i attended every seminar and workshop offered; I taught the lower classes and I lived in sifus rental house with other students. I studied dit da and cooking, I worked gardens and read alot.

In Short I lived gung fu and trained gung fu full time, I was with diamond vision. This went on until autumn of 2007 when I moved out of the house and by the 2008 I resigned my position all together. This concluded my time with the Bamboo Forest Temple Benevolent Association: my membership was circa 1994/5 to 2007/8

Shortly before I left the school I had taken to networking with a few groups of Master Marks and Master Louie’s students that I found via the internet (a new thing to me ) we began exchanging information. The cross training began.

This lead me to the realization that Master Mark was in-fact still teaching, despite being in his 80’s. I had learned his kung fu and many of his students and peers but had yet to meet him. I quickly found my way to Master Marks WuGuan to pay my respects to the Grand Master. He was skeptical as I was not a familiar face to him but after taking a long look and a few questions, he welcomed me in to his circle and in doing so I found another group of people to train with.

I was introduced to Master Chuck Chin, Jack Spizale and others of his aging generation, I began working with their students as well.

Over the following years, we all began regular meetings, we organized training camps and seasonal workshops. We gathered from birthdays and holidays. Several times we organized large gatherings with SPM students from all over the country and even invited correspondence students from other countries all to exchange southern mantis and honor the traditions of the Monk Saam Daats Gung Fu.

I was “adopted” by 5th generation Master Gin Foon Mark as he observed my “hand” and “heart” over the time I knew him. He encouraged me to openly teach; something I had only did very informally but now I was officially named as SiFu of Kwong Sai Juk Lam Ji Naam Tong Long Pai Gung Fu, this was in the year of the Water Dragon (2012).  Master Gin Foon Mark gave me his confidence and encouragement to open up publicly and teach, for that I am forever grateful.

I was there when he was laid to the earth. We burned Joss and honored his legacy.

With the passing of both Master Louie and Master Mark and almost all of their generation, there are only a very small handful of legitimate heirs to these methods from the old generation and even fewer who remain active students let alone teachers. I am humbled to be among the few who have been seeing this thing forward, hand to hand heart ot heart…. although it is no basic task I intend to do what I can and see this thing passed to a new generation.

To this day I continue working with other members of the Juk Lam Paai, both publicly and privately to cultivate and preserve the integrity of monk Saam Daats Southern Praying Mantis.

My knowledge comes from all sources that prove genuine and sincere, including but not limited to members of the community here in the USA.  

Your correspondence is welcome. Your Drama is not.

“We must remember that every generation will bloom a new flower but only if the roots are properly maintained.”

sources:

Broken Martial Art Repair Specialist

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