Ho's
early age
Ho is a Cantonese, born in 1911, in a village of Guang
Dong province, China. At the age of 18, he learnt Hung
Kar Southern Shaolin from his uncle.
At Tianjin
Ho came to Tianjin as salesman at the age of 26. He
got married there. Mrs Ho's family was very rich. In
the morning, Mrs Ho pull the baby to the park to watch
Ho and Gao practice. One snowy day, Ho crashed when
riding a motorcycle on the way to office. He broke his
left arm. A doctor Chan cured him. Ho decided and started
to learn bone setting.
Gao
is a heavy smoker. He lived in a stone house beyond
the entrance of the park. This house belongs to the
guardsman of the park. Under his pillow, placed his
bundles of manuscript. These manuscript created many
different interesting stories.
Ho
was introduced by that guardsman, Mr. Wong, to learnt
from Gao. At the
first day of teaching,
Gao said to Ho:
1.
'I learnt from an old Taoist, he has long beard to his
chest, longer than me.'
2. 'I have to swear when I learnt, I must teach out
all complete sets.'
3. 'One palm developed to eight, eight multiples to
be 64, then one developed to six, total 384 palms. '
In
Gao 's early age, he was a hawker, once, his leg was
broken by a mule cart.
After years of practice, Ho had finished most of the
forms and techniques. Gao told him there were 12 animals
form in Ba Gua. They are different from Hsin Yi. There
were also 8 small animals in post heaven and 8 big animals
in pre heaven. Ho started to learn, and he felt that
tiger form is difficult for him because his size is
small. He was interested in monkey form.
At
a fight with a Taiji teacher in the park, Gao used 'Stretch
palm' (Tam ? ), struck his stomach that the teacher
was hurt and rushed in a taxi to run away. He died three
days afterwards. A group of fellows of that teacher
came to Gao's son for revenge. Wu Meng Xia called upon
classmates to drive away those gangs.
Gao
retreated immediately to the village to avoid police.
He lived in a back yard of Mr. Hon's herb clinic in
Wu Ching village. He never returned to the city.
The
most impressive story is when Ho decided to return to
southern China to avoid communist revolution, he came
to say good bye. In his last dinner, Gao still taught
him by using chopstick that how the 64 palms could be
performed in long cudgel. Ho would normally stay in
the clinic overnight to continue studying.
His
last theories taught to Ho included three points:
1. Herbs compartmented drawers Theory: is
to memorize the standard forms of 10 and 64 palms. Then
one can mix them in leisure, the example referred to
the Herbs in the compartmented drawers ???. The herbalist
named the medicine and combined them into a prescription.
Ho maintained this concept throughout his life.
I think this can also be applied to when we have have
the buffet dinner. There are so many different dished
on the trays (palms), you select and put on your dish.
That's your favourite and that is a series form.
2. Teach students individually with different techniques
like a doctor using different medicine and treatment
according to different response and situation of patients.
3. Decide class fee like renting a mule cart.
Gao
had appointed succession branches for his direct indoor
student. 'Jit Chung' for Wu Meng Xia, 'Yit Chung' for
Zhang Jun Feng and 'Tao Chung' for Ho Ho Choy.
Ho left Tianjin in 1949 and Gao passed away in 1951.
C.S.
Tang
