Kang Li Kun: Grandmaster Lao Kim
GM Lao Kim started training in a Buddhist Temple in Fujian, China in the 1880s during the Qing Dynasty when he was 6 or 7 years old. Manchu soldiers massacred his family; he was saved because he hid in a latrine. When he emerged from his hiding place, he walked among his dead family. A couple of Buddhist monks who were begging in the village took him to the temple in the mountain. He was adopted by the abbot and since then trained in Buddhism, including a Shaolin style of martial arts that was influenced by the 5-Animal system. The 3 main forms included: Dragon Tiger, Plum Blossom and Red Boy Praying to the Goddess of Mercy.
Kang Li Kun is one of the 10 fist forms I learned from Grandmaster Lao Kim in the late 1960s at Hua Eng. It is a basic set, i.e., he taught it to beginners along with the Sap Ji Kun/#10 form.
Kang Li contains the 5 different fists: Dragon, Tiger, Leopard, Snake and Crane. The form also shows the different footwork/stances: Horse, Bow and Arrow, Scissor, and Cat in their variations, Each segment of techniques is done in a different direction: forward, side, diagonal, backward, reverse. The form is foundational but it contains a wealth of advanced techniques like what GM Johnny F. Chiuten called “Positional Sparring.” GM Chiuten taught me several fist forms but not Kang Li. I do not know what Kang (or was it Kung? ) means but Li means strength.
Note: GM Lao Kim was supposed to do 3 sets of a technique but he skipped one of them. Guess which one.
Performed by Master Gordon Chu, an instructor at and son of the founder of the Gin Soon Tai chi Chuan Federation in downtown Boston, the Dao/Broadsword form is the first out of 3 forms that are taught at the school. The curriculum covers different fist and weapons forms, including the 108 solo fist, staff-spear, Jian/Sword (2 forms), Talu/Great Pulling, San-shou/2-man sparring, Tai chi chuan Chang Chuan/Long Fist, and Push Hands. The school is open every day, except Sunday. It is located at: 33 Harrison Avenue (5th floor) in Boston’s Chinatown. For more information about the school, please go to: www.gstaichi.org
For more details on the video below, see this blog post: Diary 3/2/25: Dragon Tiger Video Ching See San
Tai Chi Chuan San Sou – Two Man Sparring Form
Here is a video of the 2-Men set, one of the traditional Yang Family Tai chi chuan training methds for learning the martial applications. The transmission originally came from legendary Yang Chengfu who passed it on to his eldest son and successor Yang Sao Chung. Gin Soon Chu, my teacher in Boston’s Chinatown, learned it from one of Sao Chung’s students, Lai Hok Soon (no relation).
H, Won Kim and I learned the form from Gin Soon Chu in the 1990s. Gordon Chu, the son of Gin Soon Chu, who teaches at the school in Boston, and I use to show the 2-Men set at demonstrations in Boston back in the 1990s.
Sifu Kim, the second disciple of Gin Soon Chu, has been authorized to teach the complete art in New York City since 1997.
Here is his bio from the website:
Sifu H. Won Gim has been training in the Classical Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan since the spring of 1982, under the guidance of Grandmaster Gin-Soon Chu, who is the second disciple of Great grandmaster Yang, Sau-Chung. After 15 plus years of training, Sifu Gim received the permission from Grandmaster Chu to teach the complete Classical Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan (see Curriculum) in New York City. Currently, Sifu Gim is the only person who has received this permission from Grandmaster Chu for NYC.
On September 5, 2010 SIFU H. Won Gim officially became a disciple of Grandmaster Gin-Soon Chu.
Sifu Gim supervises all the levels of his classes & teaches every student personally. With a firm belief in the value of a dedicated training, his traditional training methods & modern approaches present a unique way of attaining & understanding of the powerful internal principles of the Classical Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan, physically & intellectually.
All are welcome to observe, interact, & experience the remarkable internal power of Classical Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan with Sifu Gim & his students.
Photos below: H. Won Kim and Rene performing the opening movement of San Sou/2-Men Sparring set in Central Park, NYC, at the millennium. The 2-Men Sparring set has also been demonstrated by Vincent F. Chu and Tom Tetrault in another video available online. Photos copyright (2000) by: Laura Billingham Photography.
H. Won Kim in the Fist Under the Elbow posture of Traditional Yang family Tai chi chuan Chang Chuan/Long Fist. The rare form shows both alternating slow and fast movements. It’s not like the slow movements of the Solo Fist 108 form done fast. The movements of Tai chi chuan Chang Chang are entirely different and contain many kicks and jumps that are not in the slow 108 form. The Sansou and the Chang Chuan/Long Fist are two of the essential forms for learning the authentic martial and fajing/discharge of Jing applications of Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan. They are available in affiliate schools of the Gin Soon Chu Tai chi Federation.
Lay monk Lao Kim studied at the Fujian Buddhist Temple during the Qing Dynasty, perhaps in the 1880s. His story is in my book “Of Fire and Water: Alchemy and Transformation” (Tambuli Media: 2023). I learned the form from him at the Hua Eng Athletic Club in Binondo, Manila’s Chinatown, in the 1960s.
Here is the video for “Offering”
Thanks to Manny Maramara for the videos of GM Lao Kim.
Here is a video of my poetry reading at the Marble Summer Arts Festival on June 22. I read 4 poems from my book “Ascension and Return” (Tambuli Media: 2019): Treating Father with Acupuncture,” “Clearing the Life,” “Sulu: 1074” and “Return.” It was held at the Labyrinth on 5th Avenue and 29th Street.
I also led the audience in the Babaylan Prayer, a series of movements drawn from shamanic rituals, to close the event.
Here are photos of my numbers from the same program last year.
Red Boy Praying to Guanyin, the Goddess of Compassion
Sorry, the video quality is poor. It was originally made on Super 8 film and transferred to VHS and finally to DVD. How it came to my possession is a long story that we’ll skip in the meantime. The performer was my classmate Ching See San, who also demonstrates the advanced Dragon Tiger form in this website.
This rare martial art form, one of the three signature forms from the Dragon Tiger Fujian Temple Kungfu system was taught by Buddhist lay monk Grandmaster Lao Kim (AKA Goon Tiong) in the Philippines in the 1960s. Several of us studied it with him: Johnny F. Chiuten, Dr. Jose Santiago “Dr.Joe” Laraya, Ching See San, my brother Florante and me. Dr. Joe and I also studied it with GM Chiuten. It would be a great experience to read the whole epic “Journey to the West” by Wu Cheng’en depicting the adventures of Monkey and Tripitaka and his guardians but I am sure it is daunting to go through the 100 chapters. However, there is a passage in Chapters 42 nd 43 of the epic that explains the “Kuanyin Twist” posture. It seems like Red Boy, a really bad character with superpowers, was in the habit of attacking the Monkey King/Sun Wukong and Boddhisatva Guanyin, among other victims. No amount of punishment could stop him from doing it. So, as a last resort, Guanyin put metal bands on his head, wrists and ankles. Whenever Red Boy misbehaved, Guanyin uttered the magic words and the bands would constrict. He would go through such excruciating pain, he would put his hands together and stand in the Guanyin Twist and
beg for mercy.
For a long time I did not know what the martial art form meant or depicted. Even when I read the novel, the Red Boy episode passed by me as I failed to make a connection to Lao Kim’s form. Perhaps it was because the Chinese name of the form was translated as Fairy Child Praying to Guanyin. It was when I looked at my old notes and saw the Chinese name – Hong Zi – that I realized who the name referred to. It was not Fairy Child but Red Boy, after all. So I went back to do my research and discovered all these references to Red Boy, not Fairy Child. There are many paintings of the Red Boy Praying to Guanyin on the internet, just in case you are curious. I have one from a calendar that was issued abut 3 decades ago.