All the photos in this article were taken by the author of "Black and White Touching", all of which are copyrighted. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited!

When I was in primary school, I had a dream that I would become a warrior with unparalleled martial arts in the future, punishing evil and promoting good, and saving the beauty by heroes. Influenced by the "Huang Feihong" series of movies in 1991s, after class, the little boy always puts on Jet Li's trademark white crane with bright wings and golden rooster independence, chanting "Foshan has no shadow feet" and fantasizing that he is a martial arts expert in the movie.

I'm a little older, and I know that most of the kung fu in movies is fake. But when I'm older, I know that most things in life are not solved by kung fu, so my "initial dream" has long been forgotten, but my childhood fantasy is still a beautiful memory. The music of "heroism in the face of thousands of waves, blood like the red sun" still excites me.

The shadowless foot in Foshan in the movie is a unique artistic process that doesn't conform to the physical laws, but it is a real kung fu, a diversion and a stunt created by Huang Feihong, a famous martial artist.

Foshan is the hometown of Huang Feihong and a great master, Ye Wen. Many martial artists (such as Bruce Lee and Liang Zan) have a close relationship with Foshan. Foshan is the birthplace of China Southern School Wushu, so it is known as the "hometown of Wushu".

(Martial arts and lion dance sculptures on the streets of Foshan)

Today's article lets us walk into Foshan and feel the charm of martial arts. In addition, there are the famous food in Shunde and the beauty of Lingnan gardens.

Foshan is close to Guangzhou, and it takes less than 31 kilometers by car (Guangzhou-Foshan subway line) to reach Foshan. Although it is not as prosperous and fashionable as Guangzhou, Foshan is one of the famous "Four Gathering Places in the World" in history (that is, four important commercial centers in China in the Qing Dynasty, and the other three are Beijing, Suzhou and Wuhan). Apart from martial arts, it is also the hometown of pottery and Cantonese opera, the birthplace of Guangfu culture, the famous cultural city of Dragon Boat and South Lion, and still one of the most developed areas of private economy in China.

To understand the martial arts and history of Foshan, you must not miss the Foshan Ancestral Temple in Chancheng District.

Foshan ancestral temple was built in the Yuanfeng period of the Northern Song Dynasty (1178-1185), which was destroyed in the Yuan Dynasty and rebuilt in the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty (1372). The temple is dedicated to the northern Zhenwu Xuantian God, who is believed by Taoism. The ancestral temple is the first of all the temples in Foshan, which integrates political power, clan power and theocracy and is closely related to the historical development of Foshan.

In addition, there are ancient buildings of Ming and Qing Dynasties in the ancestral temple, such as Wanfutai, Lingying Archway, Jinxiangchi, Sanmen, Qiandian, Zhengdian and Qingzhen Building, most of which are representative Lingnan buildings. The decorative brick carving, wood carving, stone carving, pottery sculpture, gray sculpture and Song-style bucket arch are the essence of Lingnan architectural art, so the ancestral temple is also known as the "Palace of Oriental Folk Art".

There are sculptures reflecting the folk customs of Foshan in the square outside the ancestral temple:

(wedding leave-marrying a new hug)

(autumn colors-dancing Hualong)

After entering from the west gate, the first thing you see is the Shuanglong Wall below.

this wall is a ceramic wall, and two dragons roam between the blue sky and clear water, showing the trend of two dragons competing for pearls. The glaze color is rich and vivid, with auspicious clouds and waves, and the ocean is magnificent.

The ceramic industry in Foshan flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The Shiwan pottery introduced in the Guangdong Provincial Museum is its representative, and it has the reputation of "Shiwan tile is the best in the world". Up to now, Shiwan in Foshan is still known as "Tao Dou in the South". This double dragon wall is a large-scale ceramic sculpture masterpiece of Shiwan Potter.

On the north side of Shuanglong Wall, there is a lion awakening platform. The dragon is the totem of the Chinese nation, while the lion is a solemn and powerful symbol, which brings good luck. The stone lions displayed on this lion awakening platform are all decorative components of local ancient buildings, and the red sand rock blocks used to build the platform are the architectural relics of Qing Dynasty in Chengfengli. "Wake up the lion" is a kind of lion dance, belonging to the Southern Lion, and the ancestral temple has lion wake-up performances regularly every day.

an antique building in lingnan style in Qing dynasty behind the lion dance platform is quite striking, and the plaque in front of it reads "IP Man Hall". In recent years, film and television works related to IP Man have emerged one after another, especially four films starring Donnie Yen, which have made this image deeply rooted in people's hearts. But what exactly is IP Man in history? The "IP Man and Wing Chun Cultural Exhibition" in IP Man Hall has helped us to draw an outline.

IP Man is a fighter, a master and a martial spirit. Wing Chun is a kind of boxing, but also a spirit and a culture. His life is to carry forward the Chinese martial arts thought. In the process of understanding, developing and carrying forward Wing Chun Quan, he insisted on the valuable spirit of continuous exploration and independent thinking, not only devoted himself to the spread of the art of fighting and defending himself against the enemy and defeating others, but also carried forward the spirit of China Wushu. Wing Chun taught by Ye Wen, through the continuous development and promotion of Ye Men's direct biography and re-transmission disciples, has made it keep pace with the times and go global, forming a more open and inclusive character and forming a unique wing Chun culture in Chinese Wulin.

Ye Wen (1893-1972), formerly known as Ye Jiwen, was a member of the Ye family in Sangyuan, Foshan. He was gifted since childhood. He studied Wing Chun from Chen Huashun, the first disciple of Liang Zan, a master of Wing Chun in Foshan, and later studied martial arts with Liang Bi, the son of Wu Zhongsu and Liang Zan, and his skills became increasingly sophisticated. In 1949, he settled in Hong Kong, set up a museum and taught students, and has been committed to the promotion and popularization of Wing Chun.

(Hong Kong Yip Man's former residence restoration scene)

In the movie, we saw Yip Man is a very elegant person. Yip Man was born in a noble family in Foshan, and received a strict traditional Confucian education in a private school since childhood. Later, he studied in a famous Hong Kong school, St. Stephen's College, and received a modern science education, which can be described as both civil and military. Throughout his life, IP Man took "silence is golden, be flexible, keep his mouth shut and wait and see" as his motto, and always adhered to the noble martial virtue and integrity of "practicing martial arts first" and "emphasizing festival but neglecting profit", and became a model of traditional martial artists in China with his personality charm of "being a modest gentleman and following the rules like a Confucian".

Ye Wen's boxing attaches great importance to teaching students in accordance with their aptitude and basic skills training, and constantly absorbs the principles of mechanics and geometry to explain the method of wing chun. He abandons the abstruse and obscure words in traditional martial arts, making the boxing theory more concise and easy to understand. At the same time, he has carried out a series of reforms on training equipment, which has been well received by students and become a generation of famous teachers in martial arts. His direct and secondary disciples are distributed all over the world, and thousands of wing chun martial arts organizations and cultural institutions have been established, such as the wing chun sports meeting in Hong Kong, the wing chun museum in the United States, wing chun gymnasiums in Britain, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, Malaysia and so on. Under the illumination of the spirit of Ye Wen's martial arts, wing chun boxing has spread widely overseas and moved to the world from the ancient town of Foshan.

among many disciples of IP Man, Bruce Lee is the most famous. When Bruce Lee was five years old, he studied with Ye Wen in Hongkong, and he developed an excellent skill of Wing Chun Boxing. In addition, he also studied the traditional China Kung Fu, such as Jingwu, Mantis, Hongquan, Baihe and Shaolin Boxing, with various martial arts.

(Ye Wen and Bruce Lee practice sticking their hands)

In 1962, Bruce Lee went to the United States to study, and after graduation, he set up the "Zhenfan Kungfu Museum" in Seattle to teach China Kung Fu. During his stay in the United States, he carefully studied the essence of Chinese and foreign martial arts, learned from others, and created his own Jeet Kune Do. In 1971, Bruce Lee returned to Hong Kong to engage in film and television work, and made a number of films that sensationalized the world cinema, making China Kung Fu famous in the world. Foshan Wing Chun, which he learned in his early years, gradually became popular all over the world.

(Stone Bay Pottery Statue of Bruce Lee)

Wing Chun, developed and spread by Ye Wen and Ye Men Qunying, represented by Bruce Lee, is not only a boxing, but also an open, inclusive, enterprising and patriotic spirit, which is the cultural essence of our standing among the nations in the world. I think "Ip Man" series and "Bruce Lee" series are very popular. Besides the wonderful fighting, we are also touched by the martial arts spirit.

(Eight Chopping Knives used by the crew of "The Legend of Ip Man")

(Early Bruce Lee movies and IP Man movies)

Going east from IP Man Hall, I saw a magnificent archway surrounded by a stele gallery-Baochong archway.

baochong memorial archway was built in the 16th year of Ming Zhengde (1521). It was originally the memorial archway of Maliang Temple in Datang County, Xianyongpu, Foshan, and moved here in 1972. This is a stone archway with four columns and three doors, decorated with a large number of brick carvings, rich in content, with birds, animals, flowers, story characters and so on, which is quite ingenious. The word "praise pet" is a stone inscription on the front of Fangforehead, which was written by Zhengde Emperor Zhu Houzhao in the Ming Dynasty, in order to remember the achievements of Liang Zhuo of Maliang family in the county. Liang Zhuo was a scholar of Zhengde in Ming Dynasty (1514). He was in charge of the ceremony department, upright and loyal, and died in Jiajing seven years (1528).

There are two iron cannons under the archway, which were unearthed in Shamian, Guangzhou and Humen, Dongguan in 1975 and 1974, respectively. The inscriptions on their bodies show that they were all cast by Foshan casters in the light years of the Qing Dynasty, when the British soldiers besieged Guangzhou, and the provincial officials entrusted Foshan squire to supervise the manufacture of cannons to assist in defense. Foshan was an important smelting and casting base in Lingnan area in Ming and Qing Dynasties. During the Opium War, there were many guns cast in Foshan, and so far, many guns cast in Foshan have been preserved in the fort sites such as Humen in Dongguan.

north along the stele gallery, I saw another memorial arch-Jiexiao Liufang memorial arch. This memorial archway was built in the 25th year of Qing Qianlong (1761) to show Yin Liao's filial piety. In the Qing Dynasty, the emperor gave the memorial archway of chastity to a woman after her husband's death, which is of high historical and artistic value because of its complicated decoration, exquisite architecture and extraordinary spirit.

Through the archway, I came to the lion dance field, where there are regular martial arts and lion dance performances every morning and afternoon. Wushu has fists and weapons, and its fists and fists are fierce, and the swords and guns give birth to the wind, which attracted the audience to applaud. The most wonderful thing is to wake up the lion. I have seen the Southern Lion Show in Enshi and Xiangyang before, but it is not as wonderful as the lion dance here. Not to mention the difficult movements of jumping up and down, tossing and turning, the shivering of the "lion climbing the mountain" alone was vividly interpreted and amazing. (I uploaded videos on platforms such as "Black and White Touching" headlines, and you can search for them if you are interested.)

On the west side of the Lion Dance Hall is the martial arts performance hall, which is the memorial hall of Huang Feihong, another martial arts master in Foshan. Let's enter the museum to learn about the life of this hero who was my childhood heart.

Huang Feihong was a master of Hongquan in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, a great master in Lingnan martial arts, and also a healer who saved the wounded and saved the dying. He was martial-minded, benevolent and tolerant, and even more a righteous man with feelings of home and country.

Huang Feihong studied martial arts from his father, Huang Qiying, at the age of 2112, he sold martial arts and medicines in Foshan and Guangzhou. At the age of 2113, he learned martial arts from Lin Fucheng, the first disciple of Tieqiao No.3, and got his true biography. At the age of 16, he opened a martial arts school in Fushuijiao, Xiguan, Guangzhou, with many disciples, and became a famous martial artist, which has an important influence on the development of southern martial arts.

(like Huang Feihong)

In the movie Kung Fu, the "sissy" tailor's kung fu is called "iron fist". In reality, iron fist belongs to the internal skill of Shaolin Waijiaquan, which is specially used to train bridge players. It is the stunt of Tieqiaosan, the first of the "Ten Tigers in Guangdong", and was later taught by his apprentice Lin Fucheng to Huang Feihong.

besides martial arts, Huang Feihong's lion art is also famous in Guangzhou. There are many scenes that show Huang Feihong dancing lions in movies, and even one is called "The Lion King Strives for hegemony". Historically, Huang Feihong is famous for performing lions coming out of the hole, rolling, picking ganoderma lucidum, going upstairs and spitting balls, among which "flying thallium to pick green flowers" is even more famous, and it is perfect. Huang Feihong also initiated the female lion dance, and his wife Mo Guilan and female disciple Deng Xiuqiong performed superb lion art, which was praised by people at that time.

(Mrs. Huang Feihong-Mo Guilan)

Huang Feihong also set up yiguang in Guangzhou to help the crisis and save the emergency. Later, he was invited by Liu Yongfu (a famous soldier in the late Qing Dynasty who appeared in the article "Guangzhou" and wrote the "Tiger" Cliff Stone Carving in Nengren Temple in Baiyun Mountain) to be the head coach of the Guangdong Youth League, and made great contributions in the war of resisting Japan and protecting Taiwan. In 1925, Huang Feihong died in Guangzhou.

The picture below shows the restoration scene of "Bao Zhilin". I believe that friends who have seen the "Huang Feihong" series movies are familiar with this drugstore.

The following picture shows the oil painting "Training the Black Flag Army in Huang Feihong": In 1888, Huang Feihong was appointed as the general teacher of the Black Flag Army in Liu Yongfu. In 1894, Huang Feihong led the Fuzi Army in Tainan with Liu Yongfu, and commanded the Black Flag Army and the Taiwan Province Rebel Army to wage a life-and-death struggle against the Japanese invaders in Taiwan. After several months of anti-Japanese war, tens of thousands of Japanese troops were wiped out, which made immortal contributions in the war of resistance against Japan and protecting Taiwan.

Most of us know about Huang Feihong from film and television. In fact, because Huang Feihong's life is full of legends, before the popularity of film and television, novels and Cantonese operas about him were widely spread in the form of radio. An artistic image-Foshan Huang Feihong-has long been deeply rooted in people's hearts.

As early as 1933, Huang Feihong's disciple Zhu Yuzhai (Lin Shirong's apprentice) wrote the first novel "A Biography of Huang Feihong", which introduced Huang Feihong. After that, in the 1941s, the novel with Huang Feihong as the theme reached its peak, and the success of the novel prompted Huang Feihong's image to appear on stage, film, radio and television, and became a well-known figure in the Wulin.

(Prop in the movie "Huang Feihong's Lion in the Western Regions")

The exhibition in Huang Feihong Memorial Hall is called "Heaven and Earth Flying Together". Indeed, Huang Feihong has become a cultural symbol of China fighters with a noble and upright chivalrous spirit and patriotic feelings of defending the country, forming a martial arts culture with great influence. It can be said that "Flying through the snow, flying through the mud, leaving a legacy".

On the south side of Huang Feihong Memorial Hall is a series of ancient buildings in Ming and Qing Dynasties, with Qingzhen Building as the northernmost building.

Qingzhen Building was built in the first year of Jiaqing, Qing Dynasty (1796). It is a temple dedicated to the holy parents of the Northern Emperor (Emperor Mingzhen and Queen Shansheng), also known as the "Parents' Hall". It is the latest building in the ancient architectural complex of the ancestral temple. Qingzhen Building is 16.63 meters high, which was the tallest building in Foshan ancient town in Qing Dynasty. Standing on Qingzhen Building, you can have a panoramic view of Foshan town. It is even higher than the Zixiao Palace, the main hall dedicated to the Northern Emperor, which embodies the meaning of "parents are the most important".

In the temple, the couplets of stone pillars are "parents who are virtuous in moral education and make great contributions to creation". There is also a parents' hall in Jinding of Wudang Mountain, and the couplets in the hall are the same, which was honored by Mr. Tsung i Jao, a 111-year-old master of Chinese studies in Ji Yue in 2116.

further south, we came to Lingying Temple, the main building of the ancestral temple in Foshan, where the northern god, the Northern Emperor, was enshrined in China's ancient mythology. In the Pearl River Delta region, there are many temples dedicated to the Northern Emperor, and the scale of Foshan ancestral temple ranks first. Perhaps you will be curious about how the gods in the north are enshrined in temples in the south. Don't worry, the following will reveal it for you.

For local people, Lingying Temple is a sacred place for offering sacrifices to gods, but for most tourists, it is an "art museum" decorated with Lingnan architecture. Many furnishings and decorations in the temple are unique and full of Lingnan characteristics.

The following picture shows the gold-plated double-sided hollowed-out wooden carving seat screen of "Lion Rolling Hydrangea" in front of the temple, which is luxurious, rich, magnificent and smooth, showing a strong artistic style of traditional wood carving in Foshan.

for example, the following bronze tripod with a lion button and a curved ear was cast in the 25th year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1899), with vivid animal shapes, solemn overall, correct atmosphere, smooth and regular casting, colorful casting ornaments and exquisite layout. It is one of the important sacrificial yi vessels in Lingying Temple, which fully embodies the casting technology level in Guangfo area of Qing Dynasty.

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