Looking for the Roots: The Gung Fu of San Zhi Village - Ban Chung Fa Kuen

For Chinese martial arts enthusiasts there are still many treasures to be discovered, one of these is the Gung Fu transmission of San Zhi village in Guangdong province. This particular transmission is of great interest to Wing Chun people because it has its origins in the Cantonese opera and through studying styles such as this we can get a better idea of the type of Gung Fu modern day Wing Chun originated from.
This interview was made in cooperation with Sifu Jim Roselando from the Gulo Boxing Association. If you are interested in reading the interview, please check out the next issue of Wing Chun Illustrated Magazine.

[@vingdragon]

interesting material

[@Lolitocat]

Leung Saam Fuk (1816-1898) was a disciple of Leung Yee Tai in the Red Boats, from the age of 16 he learned Kung Fu, Lion Dance, Qigong, Cantonese Opera and medical skills. Leung Saam Fuk opened a martial arts hall in Guangzhou, Foshan, and returned to his hometown in his later years to train his sons and nephews, and founded "Qunyingtang", so the village still retains this lineage inheritance.

[@CMACSinfo]

Learning about the history of martial arts and studying its development is not an easy task, because a lot of unverified claims are being put forth on the internet. It is important to always remain critical and attempt to find out where certain information comes from, how reliable it is, etc. In any case we should always quote the source of information provided. We first read some articles online making certain claims and then went to visit Hamtau village, the home village of Leung Saam Fuk. For what it is worth, according to village elders welcoming us, until fairly recently nobody in that village had heard anything about Leung Saam Fuk being a student of Leung Yi Tai - or even an alias of Leung Yi Tai, as we can see some people claim online these days. This connection was made by outsiders, and is not a part of the historical village tradition. We published an article in WCI Magazine reporting on our visit there.

[@Lolitocat]

@@CMACSinfo Thanks for the clarification, the data I posted about Leung Yee Tai are statements from one of the villagers who posted several times on Douyin.

[@redboatwengchunserbia6448]

Lots interested Kung fu

[@longseskrima-gungfu]

Where can we order this DVD?

[@MauricioChalonsLazaro]

How many empty hand sets have bang chun in total?.

[@vingdragon]

@@Lolitocat do they teach any wooden dummy set? I see there is one model in the video covered near with flags

[@Lolitocat]

@@vingdragon If you put these Chinese characters in the search engine you will get a video on Douyin with the wooden dummy. 木人桩 班中少林 磡頭群英堂

[@CMACSinfo]

@@Lolitocat There seems to be some confusion: The art featured in the video is not the Hamtau village art - it is the transmission of Gung Fu as retained in nearby San Zhi village. The information you shared is from an article on the former, not the latter. The villagers in Hamtau call their art “Ban Chung Siulam”, whereas the village Gung Fu of San Zhi village is called “Ban Chung Fa Kuen”. Their respective curriculae are not the same. Anyone interested in learning more about this style can check out an article we wrote in the upcoming issue of WCI Magazine.

[@CMACSinfo]

There are many differnet styles calling themselves “Ban Chung” - which basically means they are recognizing their origin with the Cantonese opera. The original empty hand curriculum passed down in San Zhi village there consists of two empty hand sets - “Fat Jeung” and “Fa Kuen”.

[@CMACSinfo]

@@vingdragon The Gung Fu of San Zhi village does not have a fixed, formal wooden dummy set in its curriculum. It is just used to train various moves and techniques on.