A Brief History of Chi'ang Shou Fa
The legend of Liang Siew Yun (1728 – 1797) founder of Chi’ang Shou Fa.
Reputed to be one of the greatest masters of the internal systems of Kung Fu. Liang Siew Yun had one hundred and nine personal combats in his long lifetime.
Seventy-two of these combats ended in the deaths of his opponents, None of the seventy-two slain by Liang Siew Yun showed any visible indications of physical injury to their persons. At that time Liang Siew Yun was nicknamed the ‘Mystical man’. In his lifetime he had five students, two of them he killed while training. He told their families of the deceased that their sons would be rewarded in a future reincarnation, (he was renowned for his morbid sense of humour).
He had many peculiar training methods, his personal quirk was ripping the bark off trees with his fingertips, and he would do this for hours on end. One of his morbid fascinations was an exercise known as the death pit. This pit consisted of plumb flowered poles some twelve feet high resting in a pit full of venomous snakes. Three people met their deaths attempting to fight Liang Siew Yun in the pit. Liang Siew Yun was believed to have become an outlaw at one point in his life. At this time he was very cruel to his enemies, devising many varied methods of torture for amusement and the gain of undisclosed information.
He created many special weapons with which he practised and became very proficient with. His own personal favourite being one pair of weapons he called the Tiger knives. These consisted of two short hand held batons; on each end of these was a metal star set flat into each end of the baton.
In his late thirties he became a monk after repenting for his past deeds. For ten years he concentrated on studying the movements of the mongoose, which he considered to be one of the craftiest of fighters in the animal kingdom. From these years of observation and study he developed a rare fighting form known as ‘Drunken Mongoose’, even to this day no man has been able to master this strange style of Kung Fu. His ultimate creation was the integration of the ’Drunken Mongoose’ style with the use of the ‘Tiger Knives’. Most instructors and martial arts exponents at the time considered Liang Siew Yun a madman, since only a madman could use ‘Drunken Mongoose’ and the ‘Tiger Knives’ together. While he was at the monastery he killed a fellow monk in an argument; he repented deeply and was allowed to remain in the monastery. However in his late fifties he killed the Abbott of the monastery and was forced to leave, he became a hunted man.
One student followed Liang Siew Yun to India, hoping to learn from the old master. He was beaten for hours each day. By Liang Siew Yun, Just for amusement. After three years the student left and started teaching his own students.
In time a sect of Indian boxers became jealous of the student of Liang Siew Yun and challenged him to combat. The student was ambushed by many of the Indian boxers, they were armed with knives and swords, he was unarmed; the student was killed. When master Yun heard of this from the son of the murdered student he laughed loudly.
Later on the entire school of Indian boxers responsible for the killing of the student were found beheaded, disembowelled and hanging from trees. Master Yun then took on his former students’ son as his student, his name was Wang Tsu Tse, and he had been completely taught by his father. He stayed on and endured the teachings of Liang Siew Yun, who swore he would kill Wang before he died.
