Northern Shaolin Master Wong is from the same system as our group but from a different line. We respect him and his accomplishments a great deal.
Sifu Wong Jackman 黃澤民
and Jing Mo) 清武
By Robert Louie
Senior Disciple of Wong Jackman
Long ago, Jing Mo was started in Shanghai, China in March 1909, and the credit is given to the My Jong 秘宗 master and Chinese hero Fawk Yuen Gap霍元甲(Huo Yuan Chia in Mandarin), who unfortunately passed away soon after in October 1909 from an illness. Many schools using the Jing Mo name have proliferated across the entire world, some connected with the main organization in Shanghai, others not.
Note that the name ‘Jing Mo’ is the Cantonese rendering and it might also be spelled 'Ching Mo’. If people were to give the school a mandarin name, then they might call it 'Jing Wu’, or 'Ching Wu’. The spelling in the English language does not seem to be totally consistent, so we mention this just to dispel confusion.
Other renderings of the words 'Tai Yook Woey’ in English might be gymnastic association, sports club, physical culture association, and the like.
The Jing Mo Athletic Association was first brought to San Francisco in the early 1960’s by Sifu Wong Jack Man. The school was also called 'The Chinese Physical Culture Association’. Grandmaster Wong is widely known among martial artists all over the world. From the early 1960’s to 1978, Grandmaster Wong taught martial arts in San Francisco’s Chinatown, his main gung-fu school located for many years at 880 Pacific Avenue. A large black sign with white Chinese calligraphy saying 'Jing Mo Tai Yook Woey’ hung above the entrance. The characters were written from right to left in the old Chinese style. He instructed students in the arts of Hsing-I, Tai Chi, Northern Shaolin, and various other styles of northern martial arts.
When the Ching (Qing) soldier burned the Shaolin Temple in the 1700s, thirteen monks escaped, with five traveling south and eight traveling north. Monk Chi Yuan went to Shantung province.
LINEAGE
Documented by Hsu Szu Ya in New Martial Hero #1, HK, 1972 and by Yim Shan Wu and Hwang Ken Wang in Martial Arts Association Limited, August 1970, Hong Kong Chinese Martial Arts Association Limited
HONAN MONASTERY
Monk Chih Yuan 和尚志遠
Feng Shao Ch'en 馮小臣
Hsu Wei San 徐畏三
Yim Po/ Yim Ta Kan/Yan Degong 嚴徳功
Yim Chi Wen/YanJiwen 嚴機溫
Kuo Yu Chang 顧汝章
Yim Shan Wu 嚴尚武
Wong Jack Man 黃澤民
Wong Chia Man 黃澤民 was born in Tai Shan (Toishan), Kwangtung Province, China in 1941. He started learning Northern Shaolin Chuan 北少林派 少林門in Central Park Canton, China, at the age of 8 years old from Yim Shan Wu 嚴尚武who was Kuo Yu Chang’s 顧汝章top disciple. In 1957, Wong Chia Man continued his lessons with Yim in Hong Kong. His talents were recognized by his Sifu and was one of the few selected to learn Northern Shaolin Lo Han from Ma Ching Fung/ Ma Jianfeng 馬劍風, who learn from Kuo Yu Chang and Sun Yu Fung 孫玉峰,King of Sabers 王軍刀五省. After years of learning both styles simultaneously,(studied with Yim Sigung in the mornings and with Ma Sigung in the afternoon/evenings) he received another letter of introduction (as the first letter of introduction was from Yim to Ma) from Ma to Yip Yee Ting/Yeh Yu Ting of Mi Tsung Lo Han Chuan 少林迷踪派 羅漢拳. After fifteen years of day and night study, Wong Sifu was highly trained and was the first person to complete the program studies in the Northern Shaolin Arts. As Wong Sifu’s friend, Sifu Brendan Lai, once told me that no one has had the opportunity to learn and accumulate as much knowledge as Wong Sifu. That alone is high praise and speaks volume about the respect that Wong Sifu commanded among his peers..
In the early 1960’s Wong Sifu came to the United States of America in hopes of opening America first Jing Mo Association. During the early years in America, he was practicing in the G & U Association where he would demonstrate his skills that he learnt in the old country. As one elderly witness in the association states, “I witness Wong Sifu break a two inch wooden board against the grain with one light slap of his open palm. This demonstration illustrated how incredible his intrinsic energy really is.” After practicing a number of years at G & U Association, Wong Sifu opened the first Jing Mo Association on Jackson and Kearny (The old Shanghai Basement) in San Francisco in 1964. Wong Sifu’s curriculum was a combination blend of the Standard Jing Mo School sets, Northern Shaolin 北少林派 少林門, Northern Shaolin Lo Han 北派少林 羅漢拳, Northern Shaolin Liu Ho 北少林六合 for the external styles and Sun’s Hsing yi 孫祿堂形意, and Wong’s Tai Chi 王太極拳 and Li’s Wu tang Swords 李景林武當劍 for the internal styles. In 1966, he moved his school to 880 Pacific Ave, in San Francisco. In 1969, his school became the largest martial arts school with students numbering in the hundreds in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1976-77, he was forced to close his school in SF Chinatown and reopened shortly afterwards in Fort Mason, San Francisco, After over 40 years of teaching Wong Sifu retired from teaching in 2005. Customary, people like to say one individual was assigned to take over the school but in reality, through the years, he actually appointed three of his top students to take over in his place. Truthfully, his inner thoughts as he told me in private, was that all of his students are his legacy as he thought of his students as his children. On his last day of teaching, he told all to hear that he wished all of his students to continue to practice what he has taught, to never forget what we learned and to teach each other.“ As long as his students continue to teach, Sifu Wong Jackman’s legacy continues to lives within all of us..