Chapter 1 - The Emergence of Liu Shui

The story began at around the 14th & 15th year of Emperor Gwang Shui's reign in late Ching dynasty of China.

One fine afternoon, a crowd of tens of local residents gathered at the front of a red pillars house in the place called Guãn-Yin Gé of the Dõng Yang Xiãn province. These people were doing nothing in particular, simply stretching their necks and gazing at a young handsome and talented man, who was demonstrating the well-known 18 styles of martial arts to the students. The crowd broke into rapturous applause and excitement at the peak of the demonstration.

The Founder of Chow Gar Tong Long

This young man, whose name is Liu Shui, is no ordinary fellow but the 3rd generation disciple of founder of the much respected style of the Chinese Martial Art - Chow Gar Tong Long (Praying Mantis style), who had established a reputation in Hong Kong. Liu Shui was originally from Dõng Jiãng area of China. He was gifted with much talent in martial arts and had inherited the typical characteristics of the people from that area - hard working, endurance and persistence. He had already achieved a lot by the age of 14 and had mastered all sorts of fist styles as well as martial art weaponry within the period of 7 or 8 years which he learned from several well-known shifus.  At the age of 21, there was an incident one evening when he was on his way back from a visit to friend and got to the hill sides of the Hui Yang Province (known to be the habitat of many wild animals), he was attacked by a hungry wolf that suddenly dashed towards him along the grass foot-path and leapt at Liu Shui. Liu Shui reacted swiftly, as he was prepared for it, and by moving to the side avoided the wolf’s initial attack. Liu Shui was unbelievably calm and when the wolf turned round for another attack he struck back with a powerful side-kick right at the wolf’s belly. The wolf could not withstand the blow of Liu’, and simply fell down and rolled along the foot-path. Liu Shui saw that there was an opportunity and moved forward swiftly to add another heavy blow with his foot – the wolf did not stand a chance against Liu Shui.

Impact of the wild wolf incident

There were actually a few villagers near the scene when Liu Shui was being attacked by the wild wolf. These people were absolutely stunned by the fact that Liu Shui killed the wild animal so quickly with just two kicks (well, two powerful kicks to be precise)! This became a topic of idle gossip among the villagers. They were amazed that Liu Shui, although young fellow, was incredibly skilled in martial art and was of a sifu’s level. Because of Liu Shui’ skill, the villagers did not mind that Liu Shui was young and gathered in front of Liu Shui’s place, hoping to learn from Liu Shui. They all regarded it as an honor to be Liu Shui’s student. Because of this, each day when Liu Shui demonstrated his skills to his students they also attracted a large crowd as well. By doing this Liu Shui could not only demonstrate the skills and styles of his martial art but the students could also learn by observation. One day, while the crowd was acclaiming at

another exciting demonstration, a Taoist priest, who did not appear to be from the local area, greeted Liu Shui with a loud voice. 

How dare a junior teach the public

According to this Taoist priest, he reckoned Liu Shui was simply a junior with shallow skill and how dare him teach the people in public! He said it was an insult to the villagers really, and not something a respectful shifu would do! Liu Shui was a little shocked to hear such a comment and stopped and looked at the Taoist priest carefully. As he gazed at him for a little while, he thought that the Taoist priest appeared to be a very ordinary thin Taoist priest. What gave him the right a judge on martial art masters’ business he thought! Other martial art practioners would have simply urged him to leave and not to cause any trouble but Liu Shui was puzzled by the Taoist priest’s act, and acted calmly. Amongst the great strengths that Liu Shui had been cultivated over the years were endurance, patience and respectfulness, so Liu Shui calmly stepped forward with a gentle smile on the face and enquired to the Taoist priest if he was into martial art specific practice as well, otherwise why he would give such comments openly to another practioner.  However, Liu Shui judged that by the look and build of the Taoist priest, he did not appear to be a martial art master at all. So, Liu Shui asked politely: “Mr. Priest, if you’re the master of any martial art stream, why would you dare give such a comment?” The Taoist priest replied: “If you’re discontent, why don’t you try me out?”  Liu Shui was indeed an open-minded martial art learner and wanted to know how skillful the Taoist priest was, so he agreed.

Liu Shui’s down on his knees

The Taoist priest told Liu Shui to strike first as he would fight a real enemy, i.e. at full power.  Liu Shui was an innocent minded person, so he thought “You asked for it!”, and he then took a breath and struck at the Taoist priest with the similar powerful fist skill. As Liu Shui was about to hit the Taoist priest, something unbelievable happened. As the pair was about to come into contact, the Taoist priest suddenly turned his shoulder a little bit and miraculously Liu Shui missed the target and fell to the floor, several a yards away - just like that!  Liu Shui was able to stand up shortly, but soon realized that the Taoist priest in front of him was no ordinary Taoist priest! He decided that this Taoist priest must be a super talented senior master. So, he stepped forward in front of the Taoist priest and got down on his knees, hoping to learn from the skilled master. However, the Taoist priest said he was an outsider, a traveler with no definite home, and not tempted by wealth and power. And finally, he said: “The last thing I want is to be the companion of those people who knows a little bit and pretend to be master!” He then left, leaving Liu Shui on his knees and contemplating his earlier behaviour!

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------Translation : Brian TsangAll names are in Mandarin Pin Yin form. ------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Chapter 2 : Liu Shui Met Other Heroes The First Time

Liu Shui Opened School For Chow Gar Tong Long

This is another part of the story where Liu Shui opened a school in Hong Kong and met all of the heroes for the first time.

Speaking of those who disregard the tens of thousands of the Southern Preying Mantis style followers, and believe they are the only dominant mainstream of martial art, would be a little naive and of less persuasion. In reality, popularity and recognition of a martial art style or stream does not really matter and is for the most part hype. Instead, people would have to see it to believe it and rather it is through the concrete fact of the experiencing and practising skills, then by word of mouth, and of course participation in martial art activities is what would certainly add value to the publicity of that one’s martial arts style. So, there is no need to put down others to uplift one’s fame or recognition, it simply does not work that way.  And this is considered disgraceful to the martial arts spirit!

Back to where we were. After Liu Shui met the super senior practitioner (the Taoist priest) and learnt from his mistake, he became more mature and acted more humbly with greater self-control and patience towards others. He came to Hong Kong during the Xuan Tong period of the Ching dynasty and settled down in Shau Ji Wan area of the Hong Kong Island, where it was known to be the popular settling ground for new comers.

Local Tyrants

At the time when Liu Shui came to the Shau Ji Wan area there were two local martial arts tyrants who already settled there for some time, both named Lee (Lee-X and Lee Tian-Wang - meaning; King of the Sky or Heaven!) who were not only rich but also had “unofficial” ruling power. Their students were not any better and were known to bully others, and thought of themselves as the overlords of the local area!

Liu Shui was not aware of any of the bullying business when he first came to the place. He only went there with one personal goal. This was to start a martial art school where he could teach and prosper, allowing him to refine his skills and expertise in the specialised stream of martial art known as Southern Preying Mantis (better known as Chow Gar Tong Long style). He also wanted to

offer knowledge and his guidance to all those people who demonstrated an interest in Chow Gar Tong Long, in terms of practical applications, background, and possible further advance studies. These were the only reasons why he was in Hong Kong and why opened a martial art school and concentrated only in teaching his students and never bothered anything else as one should do as a responsible master. This was fair enough, but what Liu Shui did not realise was that Master Lee-X was actually living next door to his school. What an unexpected coincidence! Of course, the noise of a martial art being practised next door did not escape Lee-X’s ears or attention. In fact he was very annoyed and was puzzled as to why he was not aware of someone opening a martial art school right next door without his consent!? “How dare you!” he thought. This thought played on his in mind. “Well well, well, you just wait and see!” he thought to himself. He was determined to do something about this.

The reason why Lee-X was so upset about someone had opening a martial art school next to his place and not informing him about it was because at that time, people coming to the area to find job or earn a living in the area had bribe him (a respect as Lee would see it) and receive permission from him. This was the unofficial rule of the land as Lee regarded that part of Shau Ji Wan as part of his governing area and anyone who wanted to make a living there went by his rule book, otherwise, he promised a really, really tough time to those people who overlooked or ignored this rule! Right! You could imagine what this Lee-X was like at that time!

Condemnation - No Respect To The Overlords

One fine day, a well built fellow dashed into Liu Shui’s place and yelled: “Hey you! You’d been a bad boy, you know? As the old Chinese saying says; when you enter a temple, you should pray to Buddha. Who gave you the courage to come to someone’s area to open a martial art school without the consent of the local overlord?” He meant his boss of course, but didn’t say who he was. “How dare you be so disrespectful and ignorant?” he continued.  He then said: “It’s too late now, you cheeky lad! My master is coming here shortly to teach you lesson, so you’ll learn! Oh...you’re going nowhere but wait here, I’m afraid!” He then sighed loudly and pretended to take pity on Liu Shui for what’s going to happen to him. Just as he finished speaking, another strongly built guy walked into Liu Shui’s school. This man was no ordinary fellow but and had the noticeable characteristics of a martial art practitioner. He was about 7ft tall, strongly built with glittering eyes and dark eyelashes with a typical national hero look. When he spoke, a loud voice echoed around the room - you knew he was not an easy-going man!

As you may have guessed, this man was Lee-X and he condemned Liu Shui loudly: “Just who do you think you are? You come to my grounds but did not show any respect to the host here! I tell you I’m not having that! Today, I’m here and I want to see just what skills you have got to claim yourself a master and to be teaching students here!”

As usual, Liu Shui was very calm when the reckless fellow dashed into the school and yelled about. He was just stood there and listened. He kept his mind

calm and clear and focused on every single word that went into his ears. None of the threats provoked him at all, and he showed no fear! He then stepped forward and greeted Lee-X politely.

Want To Teach Me A Lesson? By All Means!

Liu Shui said to Lee-X that he welcomed, by all means, whatever lesson he thought appropriate. Lee-X did not expect such a proud and direct response from Liu Shui and that really got on his nerve, so he yelled out again: “How dare you buster! It doesn’t help pretending to be calm, come on, and let me show you how to be respectful to the local master here!!” Liu Shui knew by the first look that this Lee-X was nothing but a local rascal and could not be reasoned with. To be able to live peacefully in the area and avoid even a slim chance of being plotted against in the later days, Liu Shui knew that he had no choice but to show him his determination and stance by means of to be friendly martial art challenge. It was clear that Liu Shui was a calm and alert person and he knew something was up when the reckless guy came into his school, and therefore had mentally prepared for it.

As Lee-X finished his yell Liu Shui already set his combat and defence pose signalling in his mind to Lee-X: “Be my guest!” Lee-X just could not stand the humiliation anymore and struck at Liu Shui with his powerful arm posed as a broadsword and aimed at an angle to Liu Shui, just like a hungry tiger hunting its prey. Wow, what a powerful strike! You really could hear the wind sound as Lee-X’s strike thrust through the air! It came really in the flash of light, but Lee-X did not realise who he was really dealing with. Liu Shui was focusing closely on the strike and as it about to reach him he twisted his body and retaliated with a powerful (Qi-Gong), spring-loaded like strike that sprung Lee-X off his strike path and left his belly wide opened. Liu Shui, of course took that opportunity and sent him a blow with his long waited and energy-filled fist strike right at Lee-X’s by the waist side. The truth was, the spring action magically (actually, no magic at all, that’s the secret of Chinese Qi-Gong effect) rerouted the accumulated power of Lee-X’s strike and sent it back to himself, that’s why he felt like being kicked to the sideways. So, this made Lee-X fell off a few feet away and landed on a bench inside the school hall. Actually, Lee-X was not only just fell, he was in effect being blown away by Liu Shui’s fist! As Lee-X was not simply well-built, he was actually a heavy bloke, so with this powerful blow (and throw), the inch thick wooden bench could not stand his weight and simply snapped.  It took Lee-X a little while before he could back on his feet. Then he finally realised Liu Shui was no ordinary young fellow!

Turned A Smiling Face

As soon as Lee-X realised that Liu Shui was a talented martial art master with extraordinary skills, he suddenly turned his hatred look to a smiling face, then stepped towards Liu Shui and gave him the traditional Shifu (master) style of greeting. Then he tried to loosen up the atmosphere and said: “We, the martial art practitioners, would be friends after this fight and encounter from now on. I wish that, you wouldn't mind exchanging some skills or practices in the later

days. That would no doubt broaden my knowledge a lot! I'll be calling more often after today, and we would really be old friend!”

Liu Shui’s retaliated strike was no ordinary one but a well practised Chinese Qi-Gong, and the strike was at the Qi-men (the valve for Qi circulation) area in the waist of a human body.  Liu Shui showed his concern and asked Lee-X if he had got hurt in the internal Qi-men of his body. If so, Liu Shui said he could help to cure it. Lee-X was such a big fellow and at the time he was being struck down he was apparently not feeling any hurt in his body at all. So, when he heard Liu Shui's offer to help him cure his suspected internal trauma, he instantly burst into laughter and shouted out in reply: “I'm just a little slow in the response compared to you my friend. I'm also a well practised master, you know. How could I be hurt that easily by falling off the bench!? You're joking with me!” The bunch of trouble makers then left.

About half a month later, Lee-X’s death was on the local news. Apparently when his family gathered close by before he die and asked if there were something Lee-X wanted them to do. Lee-X drew his last breath and said: “Listen up real good. Remember...none of my descendants is allowed to practice martial arts whatsoever!”, and then he died.

Annoyed By the News – Tian-Wang: “Promised To Send You To Hell Within A Week”

Lee-X was such a mean, arrogant and unreasonable person who never realised his act in bullying people with his unofficial power and influence was never ever accepted by the member of the locals. It's a shame that he did not seem to regret a bit when he died!

The news of the fight travelled quicker that anyone thought, and it came to Lee Tian-Wang's ears and this really drove him up the wall!! Tian-Wang was another similar kind of person whose conceit was intolerable. He just exclaimed so furiously: “How dare you, Liu Shui boy, I promise to send you to hell within a week!” This was welcomed by his students and they all wanted to see Liu Shui suffer, that's for sure. 

The next day, Tian-Wang was pretending to be an ordinary local resident passed by Liu Shui's school and peeped inside for a clue as to what was so special about Liu Shui's skill. As he quietly watched for a while and all he saw what Liu Shui was teaching which included some common stuff, such as, arm and leg combat poses, leap and kick and all that. He thought that was no special skill at all! This put a smile on his face he and thought: “Alright! I can handle that!” (What a fool, didn't he realise he was only watching the students practising!). He meant to step inside and sort out Liu Shui right there, but a sudden hesitation arose on his mind and he thought for a little while and decided to wait for a little while. That was because something flashed out in his mind that people like Lee-X, who was also a well-practised martial art master, got done by this young fellow, so there must be something in it with Liu Shui's skill! But what exactly was that he just did not know.  Ah, he was not such a fool after all!

One Thin Mist Day: Liu Shui Was On His Way To The School

The reason why this Tian-Wang did not act when he thought “Liu Shui’s skill was no more than a kid’s play” was because he came up with an idea in mind for a plot to attack Liu Shui while he was alone. That’s why he left.

One day, the weather was not too good and everywhere was covered with a layer of thin mist. Liu Shui was alone and on his way to his martial art school. Tian-Wang was already lurking somewhere in the shadow along the road. Liu Shui did not expect to be plotted for attack, and so he carried on his usual way to his school. As he was approaching Tian-Wang’s hiding spot Tian-Wang wasted no time at all and struck with almost full power at Liu Shui, with an apparently very skilful kick that focused most of the energy on the tiptoe, aiming right at Liu Shui’s ribs area. As we knew already, Liu Shui was no ordinary martial art practitioner, and when we said he did not expect to be targeted by whatever reasons, but that’s not to say he would not be careful while travelling alone or would overlook things. In fact, Liu Shui was very an alert person, who had a good awareness of the surroundings. On approaching that spot, his defence instinct had already triggered an alarm in his mind, and he kind of felt something was up, and was therefore prepared for it.

Chapter 3 - Victory over Tian Wang and a Lesson for the Local Gang to Remember

As predicted, Tian Wang lifted his leg. Liu Shui quickly moved to the side to dodge the kick while lifting his arm, focusing his Qi (internal strength) on his palm and slammed down towards Tian Wang, just below his pelvis. Tian Wang was hit solidly into the ground.  He couldn’t help but cry out loud as tears flooded down his cheeks.  Liu Shui bent over to pick him up, noticing that his thighbone was clearly broken.  Liu Shui let Tian Wang hold onto him and was going back with him to his place to treat the injury.  Half way there, they met several of Tian Wang’s students who on receiving the news of their master ran towards them and took him back.

Liu Shui insisted on sending over some his own medicine for Tian Wang’s injury despite the fact that Tian Wang had tried to harm him underhandedly by using a hidden weapon.  However, Tian Wang believed that he had mastered the skill of treating wushu injuries and believed he could treat himself, and as he couldn’t take the any more insult, he scolded the courier boy away and sent the medicine back to Liu Shui. The wound and the humiliation of being beaten up so badly by Liu Shui didn’t help Tian Wang’s recovery and he passed away just shortly – following the path of Liu Shui’s last opponent.

Liu Shui could have made a big deal out of the two victories over the darkside gangs of martial arts but as modest as he had ever been, he didn’t.  He tried to keep quiet and out of the limelight, but couldn’t.  There were witnesses to the incident who were amazed by Liu Shui’s well-practiced attacks, swift moves and flexible approach.  They spread the word for him, making him the hero in their stories and made his name well known. 

Vast majority of people from San Hang came to become Liu Shui’s students and so did most people from Shi Hang.  In just a year’s time, Liu Shui had had taken and accepted several hundreds of local students.  Among which were Yang Shou, Zhu Cah Wu, Ye Qi etc, who followed Liu Shui for the following 8 years until they became masters themselves!

Many people joined that year, if still alive, all of them would all be over 65.  After Yang, Zhu and Ye became masters themselves, they also accepted thousands of students and followers over the period of ten years.

Back to where we were.  Shortly after Liu Shui arrived in Hong Kong, a message reached him saying something bad happened to his family.  Liu Shui loved his family very much so went back to his hometown Hui Yang, very soon after receiving the message.  On arriving, he was then told, actually, it was not about his family but rather about the town that all of his relatives lived.  The town next to his town belonged to a richer and more powerful Huang family, who had a long record of bullying other smaller towns around their territory.  This time, it was all about the grazing field for the herds.  The grazing field was scarce in this area. If Huang family kept driving their herds to Liu family’s grazing ground, Liu family’s herds would starve to death.  At the time, any threat to their herds was a threat to the survival of the family.

Liu Shui thought those gangs were blind to law and order, so knew arguing with them would not solve the problem.  The next day, he picked up a stick, jumped onto a cow and took his herd over to Huang’s territory.  Huang family was shocked, seeing some strong young man from the Liu family crossing the board to graze herds over their territory first time in history.  How dare him they thought.  The Huangs took their farming tools, bamboo sticks, knives and whatever weapons they can put their hands to teach Liu a lesson.  However, although they outnumbered Liu Shui, they couldn’t hurt him at all.  Liu Shui used his little stick, poking, stabbing and spearing.  Just within a few moments, the weapons were all over the place – the Huangs simply couldn’t hold onto their weapon when Liu Shui’s stick hit it.  Around ten people were lying on the ground, some of them were bleeding whilst others simply ran away.

Chapter 4/a

Some were crawling away like pigs and some simply couldn’t get up, lying around, moaning.  However, a short while later, the Huang’s came back again, of course with more help. Around three to four hundred people came with their own weapons in hand, running towards Liu Shui. Apparently, the large crowd gave the Huang’s more confidence.  It seemed like that whoever was in the way would be dead for sure. Liu Shui was not at all stunned by the crowd or the deafening noise it made. He was well prepared for this.

“You bullies! I will discipline you guys today!”

Wherever the staff hit, few had a chance to even defend against it. Those who were lucky enough to avoid the staff tip were too scared or shocked to even lift their weapons to fight back.  Moments later, the crowd had disappeared to nowhere.  Only the injured were lying all over the place.

Liu saw that all of them were scared and would like to end the fight right at the point.  However, on a second thought, he thought those bullies wouldn’t stop there.  They might be scared today or for a few days because of his presence, but after a while, they would come back. This is like how people forget about their pain when the wound has healed.

Having made up his mind, Liu proceeded into the Huang’s village. The gang members hiding in the village and on seeing Liu following them into the village thought he was there to kill them, so ran madly for their lives. Liu was not there for the kill.  He was looking for the seniors of the village, who had little idea of the bullying towards their neighbours. Liu met the seniors of the Huang village, explained what had happened to Liu family’s village and asked for a friendly relation between the two villages. The seniors were shocked at the news and scolded the Gang members. Besides making sincere apologies to the Liu Village, they agreed to develop and maintain a good relation between the two villages as they had in the good old days.  They dined and wined.

After this, the Liu’s family certainly thought even more highly of Liu Shui.  They collected money and planned to celebrate Liu’s birthday extravagantly.  However, Liu, as usual, declined to have such a big celebration, saying that whenever the family was in trouble the rich should contribute toward the finance, the strong should handle the labour work; and he just simply did what he should as a family member.

However, Liu did not see this as a long term fix.  As the Liu village did not have a team of guards to guard it, it was vulnerable to any attack. Having seen how powerful and effective the staff was against the gangs, he decided to teach the village folks how to use the staff. The village was full of joy on hearing the news!

Liu Shui mastered the Zhou Family Staff, which has four famous sets: Wu Xing (Five Elements), Viper (Poisonous Snake), Ox and Devil Horse catching Cicada. Each of which has its own training manual and distinctive ways to handle the staff. The Zhou Family staff is single-ended staff method, different

from normal staffs used in martial arts. Further, a normal staff weighs only around 4 pounds, but the staff required for practice in the Zhou Family Staff should weigh a bit less than 9 pounds. The staff is also over 2 metres long.  It requires Qi control rather than simple muscular strength.  Therefore, unless you have mastered all 4 sets of the Zhou Family staff, it is not an easy thing to use this staff in a fight in your favour.  Among all of the sets, the Devil Horse is the most famous.

The way Liu used his staff became famous throughout the area after he had single-handedly tamed the Huang village gang with only a staff.  All the folks in the Liu village worshiped him and started to call the “Devil Horse catching Cicada Staff set” they had learned from Liu, the “Liu Shui Staff set”.  However, due to the students’ gift, Liu only taught them three sets of the Zhou Family Staff. Liu understood that martial arts was a double bladed sword – it could be a powerful weapon in the wrong hands. Liu had this rule of three ‘No’s’:  He did not teach those who are not gifted; did not teach those who didn’t have the right moral standard, nor would he teach anyone who did not respect their teacher or seniors. Due to the restrictions he placed on his students, the most famous Zhou Devil Horse staff set was probably not taught to anyone. There are still over 100,000 Zhou Family students in Hong Kong but none were taught the Devil Horse Staff.

As far as I (author) know, there are only two in Hong Kong who WERE taught.  One is the well known in Hong Kan (aka Hung Hum), the famous Master Ye Rui (aka Yip Shui) and the other Zhu Guan Hua (aka Chu Gwong Hua). Master Ye still keeps a staff used by Liu Shui. It is over 2 metres long and weighs a little under 9 pounds. I was lucky enough to be shown the Devil Horse Staff.  Unfortunately, as a layman to martial arts, I couldn’t make detailed notes of the way it was used in practice. From what I could see, at the beginning, Master Ye held the staff right at end, two hands at 70cm apart and lifted the staff so that it formed a 90 degree angle with his arm. Considering how heavy the staff is and the way he held it, this is not something that normal people can perform. During the whole set, the staff was used like a dragon swimming in the sea, smooth, quick and powerful. My eyes had a hard time trying to follow the staff movements. You can feel the strength it requires. At the end of the set, Master Ye hit the wall with five short but quick stabs. Immediately, five holes became visible with certain depth on the wall. 

It is as real as it was said.