Huang Feihong was a martial artist and famous Chinese medicine teacher in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. His name is known to everyone. In literary and artistic works, Huang Feihong is a legendary national hero who has always been praised and admired by people.
In the 70 years from 1949 to 2019, there were no less than a hundred movies about Huang Feihong, among which Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Guan Dexing, Zhao Wenzhuo, Eddie Peng, etc. all had related works and played Huang Feihong.
Although there are many actors, the image of Huang Feihong has already been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people: he is dressed in a long gown, with resolute eyebrows, and he has many confidantes around him.
In fact, Huang Feihong in history was not like this. In 1976, Huang Feihong's fourth wife Mo Guilan accepted an interview and revealed the real Huang Feihong: He has a weird appearance and we have no relationship as a couple.
The strange appearance means that Huang Feihong's appearance is not as handsome as in the movie, but "a longevity boy", "an arhat with long eyebrows", "a face with melon seeds", and "big and long ears" , he was tall, and the gown he wore was three feet six inches tall.
There is no relationship between husband and wife, probably because Huang Feihong was already in his forties when he married Mo Guilan, and Mo Guilan was only 19 years old at the time, and the two got married without having an in-depth relationship. We are husband and wife, so our relationship is not deep.
Perhaps these are very subversive to our impression of Huang Feihong, but no matter what Huang Feihong’s appearance and emotional experience are, his patriotism and righteousness have never been false in the slightest.
Huang Feihong’s real life was a mixture of brilliance and desolation. But it was this mixed life that allowed him to fade from a heroic and glorious literary image into a real man and hero of flesh and blood.
On July 9, 1856, Huang Feihong was born in Nanhai County, Guangdong Province. Huang Feihong's father, Huang Qiying, was a martial arts master in the late Qing Dynasty. He was one of the "Ten Tigers of Guangdong" and was quite famous in the local area.
Although Huang Qiying is a great master, the Huang family's family background is not good. Martial arts was not popular at that time when food was the most important thing, so even though Huang Qiying was extraordinary in martial arts, he could only make a living by performing on the streets. In addition, Huang Qiying is proficient in traditional Chinese medicine, especially good at treating bruises. Selling some ointments and medicinal wines can also be considered as a source of income.
Huang Feihong grew up in such a family. He was talented, alert and active, and very lovable. Huang Qiying had high hopes for him and hoped that Huang Feihong could change the situation at home when he grew up.
Huang Qiying knew very well how low the status of martial arts was at that time, so he was unwilling to teach Huang Feihong martial arts. Instead, he spent all his family money to send Huang Feihong to school, hoping that he would obtain fame and become an official in the future.
But Huang Feihong’s mind was not on studying. In school, he admired some martial artists in the society, including his father. Therefore, Huang Feihong often skipped class to watch the performances of martial artists.
Once, Huang Feihong heard that his father was going to demonstrate martial arts, so he put down his textbooks and jumped out of the wall to watch. But this time he peeked and was caught by Huang Qiying. In front of everyone, Huang Qiying did not get angry, but took him home with a stern face.
After returning home, Huang Qiying was very angry and scolded Huang Feihong. But Huang Feihong knelt on the ground and stubbornly said that he did not want to study and wanted to "enter the world" like his father.
Huang Qiying was depressed and frustrated. All the money he had saved so hard was spent on Huang Feihong’s studies. Now that he is like this, he naturally feels sad. But seeing the child being so persistent, he was not a pedantic person, so he decided to start teaching Huang Feihong martial arts instead of forcing him to study.
Huang Feihong, who was not outstanding in his studies, learned martial arts surprisingly quickly.
He has been training since he was a child and has a good foundation; he is also very smart and has a memory of his moves. It took Huang Qiying several months to learn a set of boxing techniques when he was a child, but Huang Feihong mastered it in just half a day.
This also made Huang Qiying not know whether to cry or laugh, but no matter what, he felt very relieved. From then on, the father and son picked up their luggage and went to the street together in the early morning. Huang Qiying performed tricks and practiced boxing, while Huang Feihong was doing some tricks.
Wang Feihong made rapid progress while watching and learning. When he was eight years old, Huang Feihong went to perform with Huang Qiying, attracting applause from many audiences. The audience loves Huang Feihong, a tiger-headed doll. Every time Huang Feihong is around, his popularity will definitely skyrocket.
After a while, Huang Feihong took the initiative to propose to his father to add some advanced Bagua stick techniques to his performance. Huang Qiying thought about it, and it made sense. Just relying on one boxing technique could not last long, and he had to come up with something new.
Days passed by, and Huang Feihong soon turned 12 years old. Although he could earn a lot of reward money from performing arts, which could satisfy his desire to learn martial arts, Huang Feihong always felt that martial arts could not stop at performing arts. He has reached the age where he should establish a belief and goal in life and needs to find a spiritual way out.
One evening, Huang Feihong picked up his luggage and went home. I was watching casually when I suddenly caught a glimpse of a man in the crowd stealing something from a girl. The girl was obviously blind, with her eyes closed tightly and holding a stick in her hand.
Huang Feihong felt hot and jumped out and shouted: How dare you steal things in broad daylight? ! Put it back soon.
The man became angry and grabbed a wooden stick to beat Huang Feihong. Huang Feihong dodged and punched the man in the stomach. The man didn't expect such a ferocious punch from a little kid. He lay on the ground with his body bent like a shrimp, clutching his stomach and sweating profusely. Huang Feihong returned what he had stolen, turned around and left.
When he got home, Huang Feihong told his father about the matter. Huang Qiying was very happy. Although he had taught Huang Feihong to be helpful to the world and to promote martial arts at heart, how could he get "martial virtue" by taking him to the streets to perform all day long?
Now that Huang Feihong sees injustice, he steps forward, which shows that although Huang Feihong has not "traveled in the world", he still cares about being a hero.
Although Huang Qiying believed that Huang Feihong was passionate, she also wanted to guide him, but she was frustrated that she had no chance. It wasn't until a few years later that I had the opportunity to teach him.
When Huang Feihong was 15 years old, one day his father and son were shopping on the street and saw a man running away in panic, followed by several people with big knives. Huang Feihong was about to help, but Huang Qiying held him back: "You stepped forward rashly, without distinguishing between the good and bad people of the two parties. What if you save the bad guy?"
Huang Feihong said: "I saw that this man was in a panic when he ran away, but he did not dare to hurt anyone or anything. The group of people behind him ran rampant and rushed into the crowd, so he is a good person."
Huang Qiying was very pleased after hearing this, and went to help with Huang Feihong and rescued the man. And this man's name is Lin Fucheng, and he is the apprentice of the southern master Tie Qiao San.
After he was saved, he had nothing to repay, so he wrote a letter to his master. After getting permission, he taught Huang Feihong all the martial arts moves he had learned.
Huang Feihong soon became close friends with Lin Fook-shing. The two practiced martial arts together every day and learned from each other. Huang Feihong's martial arts progressed rapidly, and even Huang Qiying gradually became no match. He often tried his best but was still defeated.
When Huang Feihong was 16 years old, he decided to go to Guangzhou to make a living, so he said goodbye to his father, took some money and set off.
When he first arrived in Guangzhou and was unfamiliar with the place, Huang Feihong found a pawn shop to stay temporarily. At night, a group of robbers broke in and wanted to steal money. Huang Feihong defeated more than a dozen robbers with his bare hands and became famous in Guangzhou. The story of "a young hero fighting bullies alone" spread.
The place where Huang Feihong performs is Guangzhou Qifu. This area is mostly copper and blacksmith shops. There are many workers who forge iron and smelt copper. They live in poverty and rely on their strength to eat every day.
Warriors like Huang Feihong were their favorite, so on the first day of Huang Feihong's performance, he was surrounded by workers watching. As time went by, Huang Feihong gradually became familiar with the workers, and often taught them some basic boxing and kicking techniques during their breaks.
A few months later, some workers suggested that Huang Feihong open a martial arts gym, and they would definitely go and support him. Huang Feihong also hesitated, wondering how to weigh the pros and cons of opening a martial arts gym.
In Guangzhou at that time, foreigners were rampant and many people were oppressed and humiliated. Life was very difficult. Learning martial arts is a good way to defend yourself. Therefore, there are many martial arts schools in Guangzhou, and the business is also good.
But opening a martial arts gym is not a simple matter. Huang Feihong is alone, and he must be unable to support such a large martial arts gym. But the workers very much hoped that Huang Feihong would make up his mind, and they even gave Huang Feihong a sum of money to support him.
Huang Feihong was grateful for his kindness and decided to open a martial arts gym and teach martial arts. With the help of the workers, the martial arts school quickly opened up. It was small at first, and Huang Feihong was both the martial arts master and the master. Most of the people who came to learn martial arts were workers they knew. There were also some people who had heard about Huang Feihong's deeds and came to practice martial arts out of curiosity.
There were many other martial arts schools at that time. Although the martial arts masters had extraordinary martial arts skills, they were always arrogant and looked down upon others. One of the martial arts masters, Li Chengbo, had a strong opinion of Huang Feihong, thinking that he was just a young boy, how could he be able to teach people martial arts, and even come to the gym to kick him.
But Huang Feihong defeated Li Chengbo in dozens of rounds. Since then, no one in the Guangzhou martial arts world dared to make irresponsible remarks about Huang Feihong, but instead treated the young man as a true master.
Huang Feihong teaches martial arts and warns his apprentices every day that martial arts practitioners should cultivate their moral character and not be aggressive; they must have martial virtues to help the world and never use martial arts to do evil; they must also serve the country and benefit the world. Just want a little peace. These three points are very similar to the Confucian Xiu Qi Zhiping.
Huang Feihong opened a martial arts school in Guangzhou for four years and taught many accomplished apprentices, among which Lin Shirong was the most accomplished one. After Lin Shirong left Huang Feihong's martial arts gym, he opened three more martial arts gyms and taught more than 10,000 disciples.
Four years later, Huang Feihong entrusted the martial arts school to his apprentice and went to Hong Kong to make a living. After living in Hong Kong for two years, I received a letter from Huang Qiying, hoping that he could return home as soon as possible and get married.
After Huang Feihong returned home, he married a wife through his father's introduction. However, his wife died of illness two months later. Huang Feihong became a widower at a young age, and she felt depressed after losing her wife in middle age.
Fortunately, soon after, the Guangzhou Navy hoped to hire Huang Feihong as the head martial arts coach. Huang Qiying had long wanted her son to pursue an official career, and Huang Feihong had never been able to serve the country. Now that he had the opportunity, he quickly packed up and set off.
The Guangzhou Navy was established in 1664 and was one of the earliest modern naval fleets in the Qing Dynasty. After Huang Feihong arrived, he immediately formulated regulations and prepared to train soldiers in order to strengthen the army and the country.
Huang Feihong worked hard to train the navy and taught him all his life-long knowledge. Every day I train soldiers during the day, and I have to reflect and plan when I go back at night, which is very tiring.
I thought that the strength of the navy would be improved in this way, but Huang Feihong served as a coach for several years and found that the soldiers had not made any progress. Huang Feihong was puzzled, so he investigated the cause, but the deeper he went, the more disappointed he became.
The navy is extremely corrupt. Soldiers train every day just to deal with errands and have no fighting spirit. Officers are greedy for pay, arrogant and irresponsible. Huang Feihong was powerless and could only maintain it hard.
In 1886, Huang Qiying died of illness. Huang Feihong was extremely sad. In addition, Wu Quanmei, the registered governor who originally admired him, also died unexpectedly. He had no fighting spirit in his heart, so he resigned and returned home.
Huang Feihong has two inheritances from his father. One is martial arts, and the other is medical skills. Huang Qiying is very good at treating bruises and injuries, and Huang Feihong also learned 90% of it.
After several years of ineffectiveness as a naval coach, Huang Feihong became a little desperate for martial arts, so he placed his hope in medical skills and hoped to open a medical clinic to help people all over the world.
On Ren'an Street in Guangzhou, Huang Feihong's medical clinic is about to open, but it needs a resounding name. One day, Huang Feihong remembered that he once had a disciple named Wu Quancui. He was a scholar. He later became a Jinshi and had excellent calligraphy. He once gave him a couplet.
This couplet reads "The sword soars into the sky, and the flowers of Zhizhi are everywhere in the forest", so it was named "Baozhilin".
Later one day, Huang Feihong’s friend Chongmin came to visit, hoping to see Wu Quancui’s couplet, so Huang Feihong took it out. Unexpectedly, when Wu Quancui saw "Zhihua flowers all over the forest", his expression suddenly changed. He picked up the ink on the table and poured it on this half of the couplet.
Huang Feihong was unable to stop him, and watched helplessly as the black words on the big white paper turned into a ball of ink. Chongmin explained: The sentence "zhihua" spreads all over the forest is really inappropriate. "Zhihua" means talents, and "shanglin" means the royal family. This poem means that the talented people in the world must serve the emperor. Now that the Qing court is mediocre, if If this couplet is hung up, it will probably be despised by others.
Chongmin put down his pen and paper, and rewrote a couplet with the words "The sword is unsheathed, and the grass grows into a forest" as a gift to Huang Feihong. From then on, "Baozhilin" was officially established.
Huang Feihong opened a medical clinic, hoping that the hanging pot could help the world, cure diseases and save people. No matter your status, general or civilian, no matter how much money you have or how little money you have, you can help if you can, and treat if you can.
Huang Feihong does not seek to make money by practicing medicine, nor does he want to hide his personal interests. He once personally published some soaking methods for treating bruises and herbal tea formulas for clearing away heat and internal heat in summer, which were undoubtedly very useful to the poor people.
In his spare time, Huang Feihong also loved lion dancing. He dug out some lion dancing skills that were about to be lost and compiled them into a volume, which effectively protected this traditional national art. Huang Feihong also personally choreographed some lion dance routines. After integrating them into his own martial arts, the lion dance became more difficult and more enjoyable to watch.
One day, Huang Feihong was performing a lion dance on the street. Suddenly, a young woman walked onto the stage and slapped Huang Feihong. Huang Feihong was very surprised, but not angry, and hurriedly asked the reason.
The woman scolded: "Master Huang, Huang Feihong, his performance is so terrible!" The shoes flew into my face. If what you performed today was a knife, would I still be alive?
Huang Feihong lowered his head and saw that one of his shoes had disappeared at some point. It turned out that it flew out during the performance and hit the woman. So Huang Feihong said: What the girl taught me is that it was indeed my fault today, and I should receive this slap!
After returning, Huang Feihong remembered that the woman was not afraid of her at all, and there was a certain charm in her anger, which made him very fond of her. So he took the initiative to ask someone to find the woman and came to propose marriage.
This woman was Mo Guilan. She was only 19 years old at the time, and Huang Feihong was already in his 50s. But Mo Guilan also admired Huang Feihong very much, and the two became husband and wife.
Although there was a glimpse, the couple had no emotional basis, so after becoming a couple, they also felt like a master and a disciple. Huang Feihong often taught Mo Guilan some basic martial arts routines, such as small martial arts such as the Cross Plum Blossom Sword.
Huang Feihong has a son named Huang Hansen. He was fat and fat when he was a child and was very popular with Huang Feihong. Huang Feihong passed all his true martial arts to Huang Hansen, hoping that he would inherit his mantle in the future.
But in 1919, when Huang Hansen was working as a security guard, one of his colleagues, Gui Yanliang, learned that he was Huang Feihong's son and proposed a discussion. Unexpectedly, he was subdued by Huang Hansen in a few seconds, so he held a grudge.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival, Gui Yanliang deliberately got Huang Hansen drunk and then shot and killed Huang Hansen. Afterwards, in order to evade responsibility, Gui Yanliang said that Huang Hansen wanted to shoot him, and he had no choice but to kill Huang Hansen to save himself.
Huang Feihong later learned that his son was beaten to death by Ghost Eye Liang because of his martial arts skills, and he was heartbroken. Losing a son in old age is a great tragedy in life, so Huang Feihong vowed not to teach his children martial arts anymore, and he would concentrate on medical skills instead of martial arts.
As the days passed by, Huang Feihong gradually grew older. Mo Guilan took care of Huang Feihong very wholeheartedly and did not dislike him at all because of his age. Originally, the two of them thought they could live like this until they grow old naturally, but an accident happened.
In August 1924, in order to suppress the riots of business groups in Guangzhou, the Nationalist Government launched a large number of soldiers to destroy the business community. Huang Feihong's Bao Zhilin was also implicated, and a huge medical clinic was burned to ashes.
The medical clinic that Huang Feihong had worked so hard for nearly 40 years disappeared, and his heart was also burned down. After losing Bao Zhilin, Huang Feihong was bedridden.
Martial arts and medical skills were passed down to him by his father Huang Qiying, and they are also his two strongest pillars. Martial arts has long since collapsed, and now medical skills have also come to nothing. Huang Feihong was depressed and died of illness on April 17 of the following year.
When Huang Feihong passed away, Baozhilin was destroyed and the family was left in ruins. The family had no money to bury him. In the end, one of Huang Feihong's female disciples, Deng Xiuqiong, funded and helped Huang Feihong's children to bury Huang Feihong.
Looking back on Huang Feihong’s life, there were days when he was high-spirited and enterprising, and there were also times when he was deeply saddened, heartbroken and desperate. Maybe his appearance is not as handsome as in the movie, but his integrity and heart are hundreds of times better than in the movie.
Huang Feihong, a great master of his generation, is well-deserved and full of patriotic enthusiasm, but he suffers from the hardships of the world and has many helplessness. Perhaps it is on this road full of thorns, frost and snow that Huang Feihong's striving figure becomes even taller and majestic.
1. "The Biography of Huang Feihong" Deng Fuquan Ningxia People's Publishing House
2. The Martial Arts Chapter of Hundreds of Guangdong and Hundreds·Huang Feihong Sina
3. "The Sword" Once Upon a Time in Zhilin》Legend of Modern and Ancient Times