---
title: Chan Heung (陳享, 1806–1875) — founder of Choy Li Fut
---

**Chan Heung** (**陳享 / Chén Xiǎng**, 1806–1875) founded [**Choy Li Fut**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/choy-li-fut) in **1836** — and in doing so left one of the **clearest documented foundings in all of Southern Chinese martial arts**, a field where almost every other origin trails off into legend. He is the rare Southern master who can be named, dated, and placed.

## Life

Chan Heung was born in **1806 in King Mui village (京梅村), Xinhui, Guangdong**. His martial education came in three stages, and the art he founded is named for all three:

1. As a boy he learned from his **uncle, Chan Yuen-wu (陳遠護)**, a skilled local boxer;
2. then from **Li Yau-san (李友山)** — the **李 ("Li")** of the name;
3. and finally, for years on **Mount Luofu (羅浮山)**, from the monk **Choy Fook (蔡福)** — the **蔡 ("Choy")** of the name.

In **1836** he synthesized what he had learned into a single system and named it **Choy Li Fut (蔡李佛)** — honoring Choy Fook, Li Yau-san, and the **Buddhist (佛, "Fut")** root of the arts. He founded the first **Hung Sing (鴻勝)** schools, and the system spread rapidly through the Pearl River Delta, carried in part along anti-Qing and labour networks. He died in **1875**.

<Callout type="warning">
  **What's documented, and what isn't.** Chan Heung's life, teachers, and the 1836 founding are **on the documentary record**. The claim that his teacher Choy Fook was a monk of the [Southern Shaolin Temple](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/southern-shaolin) — and thus that Choy Li Fut descends from the Five Elders — is part of the **founding myth**, and should be read as such. The man is history; the temple is legend.
</Callout>

## Why he matters

In a tradition where founders are usually legendary monks and dates are usually "sometime in the Kangxi reign," Chan Heung is a fixed point: a **real, dated, named founder** whose art became one of the most widely practised Chinese martial arts in the world. For a wiki built on separating record from romance, he is a valuable anchor — proof that Southern martial history *can* be written on solid ground when the sources allow.

## See also

<PageRef space="notes" slug="choy-li-fut" text="Choy Li Fut (蔡李佛) — the art he founded" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="southern-shaolin" text="Southern Shaolin &amp; the Five Elders — the founding myth his art also claims" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="southern-styles" text="Southern Kung Fu Styles — the field guide" />

## Sources

**[1]** *Chan Heung*, English Wikipedia ([en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chan\_Heung](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chan_Heung)) — birth and death dates, the three teachers, the 1836 founding and naming.

**[2]** *Choy Li Fut*, English Wikipedia ([en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choy\_Li\_Fut](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choy_Li_Fut)) — corroborating the founding narrative and the schools.