Hung Gar

[SiGung Vincent A. Cabais]

Has anyone noticed the 'Internal' battles occuring in the different branches of "Hung Gar"?  It seems that no one can agree on lineage specifics.  Does anyone know what gives?  Does it even matter?  If a system is valuable... does it matter where it comes from and is it worth fighting over?  All the fighting does is interupt training and progress.

Is this the reason that most Hung Gar schools tend to start disputes with other schools?  I realize that most Hung Gar practitioners are aggressive!  Someone needs to calm them down fast before something gets out of hand.

Any comments?  I really want to understand this.

-Sigung Cabais-

[Harvey Meeker]

I've noticed that there are a huge amount of people on the Internet who are VERY concerned about lineage when it comes to Kung Fu schools.

I first got on an email list back in 1997 that was devoted to Kung Fu specifically.  I mentioned that I studied Shaolin Lohan Kung Fu and was immediately set upon by several responders who basically dismissed my statement as too general.  They demanded that I provide lineage holders for my system to back up my claim and quickly moved to suggest that I probably wasn't taking a real system at all!

By the time I had started responding I had already been dismissed by these people, most of whom indicated they were instructors or high ranking members of their particular style.  When I finally got a reasonable response from some of the members it was to indicate that they had had a few people trolling their email list who weren't what they said they were, hence the knee-jerk reaction.  At the time though the explanation didn't really matter as I had already been quite put out by the whole experience and soon after dropped out of that list.

 

[Sean Asher]

I don't think it matters what your lineage is or where you're coming from, as long as one studies some form of martial arts and teaches it, then I'm content.

  It's fine and great that you come from the shaolin monks etc.... but it's probably been a while since that happened and think how much information they have collected and studied since then.  No matter what if you don't add to what you are collecting then nothing new has been created and no work or progress has been accomplished. 

 

[Tim Nitz]

To me, lineage is both important and unimportant. It is important because it gives a system roots, maybe even credibility. But to emphasize lineage over the quality of the teaching or the quality of the students participating is erroneous. For me, a martial art should not only build the body, but the mind and spirit as well. A school, with no history or way to trace itself to where it originated, that produces well-rounded people with true martial values is much more valuable to the world and community at large, than a school that ignores such things. Take it as you will.

[Harvey Meeker]

I suppose you could look at a few examples of systems without much of a lineage like Jeet Kune Do and see that despite the fact that Bruce made it all up himself based on his experiences the principles still had value even though the system itself had no history.

Of course now when people teach Jeet Kune Do the first thing they will advertise is if they were a student of Bruce Lee or a student of one of his students.

 

[Joshua Haskins]

My brother is in a Hungar system, and he says that they have not had any problems with intersystem fighting.  I don't know whether this is because we are in Canada or not, but I just want to share that it does not seem to be universal.

[Aaron Haskins]

The style I am studying actually a mixture of Shaolin and Hung Gar, called Ng Ying Kune.  I'm not sure on the actual lineage of the branch I am learning, but I know it was invented by Li Sai Wing.  However, it doesn't really matter, as long as I learn Kung Fu. Who cares about lineage?  It shows that the system is tried and tested, but if it is based on a style with lineage or something, and works, why even care?