Early life
Huo was born in Xiaonanhe Village in Jinghai County, Tianjin, as the fourth of Huo Endi's ten children. The family's main source of income was from agriculture, but Huo Endi also made a living by escorting merchant caravans to Manchuria and back. Although he was from a family of traditional wushu practitioners, Huo was born weak and susceptible to illness. He had asthma and, at an early age, he contracted jaundice, which would recur periodically for the rest of his life. It is theorised that he may have had a mild form of congenital jaundice known as Gilbert's syndrome. Due to his frail frame, his father discouraged him from learning wushu.
Huo Endi hired Chen Seng-ho, a tutor from Japan, to teach his son academics and moral values. In return, Chen was taught the Huo family's style of martial arts, mizongyi. Huo still desired to learn wushu, against his father's wishes, so he observed his father teaching his students martial arts in the day and secretly practised at night with Chen.
In 1890, a martial artist from Henan visited the Huo family and fought with Huo's elder brother, who lost. To the surprise of his family, Huo fought with his brother's opponent and defeated the latter. As Huo proved that he was physically able to practise wushu, his father accepted him as a student. As he became older, Huo went on to challenge martial artists from neighbouring areas and his fame grew as he defeated more opponents in bouts.
Huo joined his father at work as a caravan guard. One day, while escorting a group of monks, Huo was confronted by a group of bandits, who threatened to attack the monks. Huo fought with the bandit chief and defeated the latter. News of his feat spread and added on to his growing fame. In 1896, Huo went to Tianjin and made a living there by working as a porter in the Huaiqing pharmacy and by selling firewood.
Description
- Legendary : Huo Yuanjia
- Chinese : 霍元甲
- Born : 18 January 1868, Xiaonanhe Village, Jinghai County, Tianjin, China
- Died : 9 August 1910 (aged 42), Shanghai, China
- Cause Of Death : Possible arsenic poisoning
- Gender : Male
- Style : Wushu, Mizongyi
- Occupation : Martial artist
- Notable relatives : Huo Endi (father)
- Notable students : Liu Zhensheng, Chen Gongzhe
In 1902, Huo responded to a challenge advertised by a Russian wrestler in Xiyuan Park, Tianjin. The wrestler openly called the Chinese "weak men of the East" because no one accepted his challenge to a fight. The Russian forfeited when Huo accepted his challenge and told Huo that he was merely putting on a performance to make a living and apologised for his earlier remark in the newspaper.
Between 1909 and 1910, Huo travelled to Shanghai twice to accept an open challenge posed by an Irish boxer, Hercules O'Brien. The two of them had arguments over the rules governing such boxing matches and eventually agreed that whoever knocked down his opponent would be the victor. O'Brien fought Huo and lost. Huo's victory was a great inspiration to the Chinese people and had them questioning the basis of imperialistic dominance. However, there is a lot of controversy over whether the fight ever took place. A recent article states that O'Brien opted to leave town instead.
Chin Woo Athletic Association
Between 1909 and 1910, Huo founded the Chin Woo Physical Training Centre (later renamed to "Chin Woo Athletic Association") with his close friend Nong Jinsun, who served as the president of the association. Huo was encouraged by his close friends and was sponsored by Sun Yat-sen and Song Jiaoren, who were living in Tokyo. The centre was meant to be a school for learning the arts of self-defence and improvement of health and mind.
Huo suffered from jaundice and tuberculosis and started seeing a Japanese physician for medication and treatment. The physician, who was a member of the Japanese Judo Association in Shanghai, invited Huo to a competition upon hearing of the latter's fame. Huo's student, Liu Zhensheng, competed with a judo practitioner. Although there were disputes over who won the match, both sides generally agreed that the disagreement culminated in a brawl and that members of the judo team were injured, some with broken fingers and hands, including the head instructor.
Death
Huo died in 1910 at the age of 42. In 1989, the remains of Huo and his wife were excavated and relocated elsewhere. Black spots were discovered in Huo's pelvic bones. The Tianjin Municipality Police Laboratory confirmed that they contained arsenic. However, it is difficult to ascertain whether Huo's death was caused by malicious poisoning or by the prescription of medicine. This was because arsenic trioxide has been used therapeutically for approximately 2,400 years as part of traditional Chinese medicine.
The historian Chen Gongzhe, who was also one of Huo's students, believed that the cause of his master's death was hemoptysis disease. Chen wrote that Huo was introduced to a Japanese physician by the judo instructor as his health declined. The physician prescribed some medicine for his condition, but Huo's health continued to deteriorate. Huo was admitted to the Shanghai Red Cross Hospital, where he died two weeks later.
Although Chen did not mention that the medicine prescribed by the Japanese physician contained arsenic or any other poison, some leaders of the Chin Woo Athletic Association speculated that Huo was poisoned around the time of his death. Huo was survived by three sons, two daughters, seven grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.
Legacy and expansion of Chin Woo
Huo died months after co-founding the Chin Woo Athletic Association. Before his death, he invited Zhao Lianhe of the Shaolin Mizong Style to teach in Chin Woo and Zhao agreed. Subsequently, a number of other martial arts masters agreed to teach at the school.
They included Eagle Claw master Chen Zizheng, Seven Star Praying Mantis master Luo Guangyu, Xingyiquan master Geng Xiaguang, and Wu Jianquan, the founder of Wu-style taijiquan. In June 1910, the Eastern Times announced the establishment of the Chin Woo association in Huo's name. It was the first civil martial arts organisation in China that was not associated with a particular school or style.
During the period of the Japanese sphere of influence, the Twenty-One Demands sent to the Qing government resulted in two treaties with Japan on 25 May 1915. This prevented the ruling class from exercising full control over the commoners. With their new freedom, Huo's students purchased a new building to serve as the organisation's headquarters and named it "Chin Woo Athletic Association". The association accepted new styles of martial arts other than those taught by Huo, among other things. In 1918, Chin Woo opened a branch at Nathan Road in Hong Kong.
In July 1919, Chin Woo sent five representatives to Southeast Asia to expand their activities overseas. The five were Chen Gongzhe, Li Huisheng, Luo Xiaoao, Chen Shizhao and Ye Shutian. They made their first stop in Saigon, Vietnam, where they opened the first Chin Woo school outside of China. They opened schools in Malaysia and Singapore later as well. By 1923, these five masters had opened schools all over Southeast Asia and visited nine different countries.
In 1966, Shanghai's Chin Woo school was forced to discontinue its activities by the Chinese Communist Party due to the Cultural Revolution, whose goals were to destroy old ideas, cultures and customs for the purpose of modernising China. Those restrictions were lifted in 1976, after which Shanghai's Chin Woo school resumed its activities.
Chin Woo is currently one of the largest wushu organisations in the world with branches in various countries, including Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Poland, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and Switzerland.
In popular culture
Huo's life has been adapted into films and television series. In these adaptations, Huo is typically depicted as a heroic martial artist who fights to uphold the dignity of the Chinese people in the face of foreign aggression. His death is portrayed dramatically: he is secretly poisoned to death by foreigners, usually the Japanese, who see him as a threat to their interests in their exploitation of China.
A notable feature in some of these adaptations is the appearance of Chen Zhen, a fictional student of Huo, who brings his teacher's murderers to justice and continues to uphold Huo's legacy. Actors who have portrayed Huo on screen include:
- Wong Yuen-sun, in The Legendary Fok (1981);
- Bryan Leung, in Legend of a Fighter (1982);
- Eddy Ko, in Fist of Fury (1995);
- Vincent Zhao, in Huo Yuanjia (2001);
- Jet Li, in Fearless (2006);
- Ekin Cheng, in Huo Yuanjia (2008)