Great-Grandmaster Chan Yiu-Chi
Chan Yiu Chi (1892-1965), was the grandson of Chan Heung, the founder of our
system. He was not only good at Choy Li Fut Kung Fu but was also a very
humble person. Besides assisting his father Chan Koon Pak teach Choy Li Fut
Kung Fu in Canton, he also taught at local high schools, trade unions,
sports clubs and worker's associations in order to better his community.
Aside from his outstanding kung fu skills he was also a gifted Chinese poet
and a scholar educated in Chinese classical literature. He patiently
recorded all the Choy Li Fut Kung Fu forms from his family into scripts
which have been passed down from Master to student since that time.
This third generation Great-Grandmaster, Chan Yiu Chi, was a fair and just
person who held no secrets of his family's kung fu from his students. He
answered all their questions patiently and in great detail; explaining the
applications of all of the techniques clearly to insure that his students
understood his teachings well and practiced correctly. He was also a famous
herbal medicine doctor. Any of his students who showed respect to him and
had good potential for the healing arts were taught the traditional Chinese
Dit Da herbal medicine also. All of his life, he never refused any
consultation for his patient's regardless of their income and only charged
whatever the patients could afford to pay.
One of the stories that was passed down from Grandmaster Hu Yuen Chou about
Chan Yiu Chi was concerning a fight he had with Gum Zai who also taught Kung
Fu in Canton. Gum Zai was quite large and very strong. He didn't respect
Chan Yiu Chi because Chan's physique was skinny and he was gentle like a
scholar. Gum Zai was also jealous of Chan's success in martial art and
herbal medicine. He didn't believe Chan's fighting ability was comparable to
his own because of the size differences. He thought Chan was only a
performer and had no real power; therefore he went to challenge Yiu Chi to a
contest. He arrived at Chan's studio and asked for a fight. Chan Yiu Chi
refused to fight with him which gave Gum Zai that much more confidence. At
that moment, a big crowd of spectators circled to watch outside of the
studio. Chan Yiu Chi kept saying "no, no, no" to him. That made Gum Zai look
very good and he began to insult Chan Yiu Chi. All the spectators were
yelling for Chan Yiu Chi to fight with him. A policeman told Chan Yiu Chi
that if he injured Gum Zai, he would be a witness that Gum Zai was the one
who started all the trouble. However, Chan Yiu Chi was still refusing the
challenge. Finally, Chan Yiu Chi's wife came out and said, "You must take
this challenge, if you die from this fight, I promise to be a widow for you
and I won't remarry." Since Mrs. Chan announced that, it didn't leave much
room for Chan Yiu Chi to back out. Chan Yiu Chi was smoking tobacco in a
bamboo pipe filtered with water. He said to Gum Zai, "you want to fight,
come on!" Gum Zai lunged with a powerful punch to Yiu Chi's face. Chan Yiu
Chi's left hand was holding the bamboo pipe, so he used his right hand to
perform a Yeung-Kiu to block the oncoming punch and followed with a Tsang-Jeong
(palm thrust) with the same hand to Gum Zai's chest. Gum Zai stumbled back
about 8 to 10 feet and his back crashed into a big ceramic flowerpot and
broke the planter. Gum Zai began to vomit blood so Chan Yiu Chi asked some
students to help Gum Zai up and gave him some Dit Da herbal pills to help
his internal injury. Chan also offered to treat Gum Zai's injury. Gum Zai
was losing face and didn't take any of the pills and never came back for his
treatments. One week later, the news broke that Gum Zai had died. Although
it was an accident it made Chan Yiu Chi feel bad for a long time.
In the Choy Li Fut School in Canton under Chan Yiu Chi's tutelage, there
were four outstanding students called the "Four Heavenly Kings". They were
Hu Yuen Chou, Gan Lou Hung, Ngoi Gong Yeong and Ha Bic Chi. Hu Yuen Chou is
the teacher of Grandmaster Doc-Fai Wong who continues to pass down the Choy
Li Fut of Chan Yiu Chi to his students all over the world.