Chan Yiu-chi

Chan Yiu-chi (陳耀墀, c. 1880–1947) was the third-generation head of the King Mui (Chan Family) line of Choy Li Fut — grandson of the founder Chan Heung, son of the keeper Chan On-pak, nephew of Chan Koon-pak. Every previous heir had kept the village as his base. Yiu-chi was the first to settle long-term in a great city, and the move mattered: under him the mainline’s center of gravity shifted from Jingmei village to Guangzhou, and the system’s urban future began there.

A name, and a common error

The genealogy writes the name with the character 墀 — “the terrace before the hall,” a fitting character for a keeper’s heir. Some records render it 池 (chi, “pond”), a same-sound slip. The archive follows the genealogy form and notes the variant (一作陳耀池).

The keeper’s son

The clan genealogy and the lineage association’s official record agree on his place in the family: son of Chan On-pak, the second-generation keeper who never left the ancestral school; nephew and student of Chan Koon-pak, the second-generation spread. Some English-language accounts call him Koon-pak’s son instead; the primary records do not, and this page follows the primary records. What both traditions agree on is the formation: he grew up inside the full 193-set family curriculum, under the man who kept it and beside the man who carried it outward.

Thirty years in Guangzhou

The teaching route ran roughly thirty years, from the early 1920s to the mid-1940s:

1. Early 1920s — Henan (Haizhu). A small first school across the river, among artisans and porters.
2. Mid-1920s — Xiguan. The move to the city’s densest commercial district, with a growing student body.
3. 1930s — the old city. The peak: schools at several locations, a stable senior circle, and a name in the city’s martial world.
4. 1937–1945 — the war. Schools shifted between Guangzhou, Jiangmen, and Xinhui as the delta became a war zone.
5. c. 1945–1947 — the last years. His health declined; senior disciples ran the schools.

The Four Kings of Heaven (四方館)

The Guangzhou work produced a core of four students whose skill set them apart — the circle the tradition calls the Four Kings of Heaven (四大天王), after the four guardian kings of temple gates. The school itself was nicknamed 四方館, “the hall of four directions”: four men, each complete in his own specialty, holding the teaching from four sides. The gazetteer and lineage records give the roster:

1. Hu Yuen-chou (胡雲綽), of Foshan — the first among them; later founder of Lingnan Wudang sword and first president of the Chan Heung Memorial Association in Hong Kong. His record has its own page.
2. Ha Bik-chi (夏碧池), of Guangzhou — palm methods.
3. Kwok Tin-yeung (郭天揚), of Guangzhou — weapons, staff work above all.
4. Kan Ying-kit (簡英傑), of Guangzhou — seizing methods (擒拿) and paired drilling.

Accounts name the circle variously — 四方館四王, 廣州四天王, 陳耀墀四大弟子 — but the roster is stable across sources.

The Guangzhou scene

Yiu-chi’s circle worked inside the institutional martial world of Republican Guangzhou. He and his students belonged to the Guangzhou Guoshu Association (胡雲綽 served on its board); they trained and exchanged with the Jingwu athletic federation network; they sent students to the city’s guoshu competitions through the 1930s and performed in the benefit demonstrations that the newspapers covered. In 1932, when the Nineteenth Route Army fought in Shanghai, Hu Yuen-chou was among the masters who served as its martial instructors — the Guangzhou circle’s contribution to the war effort, recorded in the army’s own materials. Notices, results, and reports appeared in the Guangzhou Republican Daily martial pages, the Seventy-two Trades Commercial News, and Yuehua News, all preserved on microfilm.

The Guangzhou frame (廣州架)

His technical contribution is summarized by the name later tradition gave it: the Guangzhou frame. The village system, built for courtyard training, was adjusted for students who worked for a living:

• Stances slightly higher and actions more compact than the original large frame.
• Long form repetitions trimmed to fit urban schedules.
• Paired drills and controlled sparring given more weight, so practical skill could be tested inside class time.
• A graded curriculum from first forms to senior material, the system teaching itself at city scale.

Most Choy Li Fut now practiced in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and overseas descends from this city-adapted frame — the urbanization of the mainline happened here.

What he transmitted

He carried the full second-generation inheritance — the 193-set corpus organized in his father’s time — and the senior sets moved through his line as the standard: bare-hand sets including 平拳, 長拳, 扣打, and the ten animal forms; weapons led by the Five Blossoms spear, the walking staff, the spring-autumn guan dao, and the butterfly double sabers; the paired sets of fist, staff, and saber; the wooden dummy and three-star post work; and the internal breathing sets (丹田功, 易筋經). The founding school’s manuscript corpus preserves his recension.

Two branches in one city

Guangzhou was where the King Mui mainline met the Hung Sing branch of Jeong Yim, based in Foshan. Same source, different character: the mainline school traded on orthodox transmission and the breadth of the family curriculum — 正統、斯文、全面, proper, literate, complete — while the Hung Sing school kept its combat and working-man reputation. The two circles competed for students in the same streets and exchanged technique across them, and both traditions recorded the other’s presence. The rivalry shaped Guangzhou’s Choy Li Fut, and the exchange strengthened both.

The line to this archive

From the Four Kings the transmission divided again: Ha, Kwok, and Kan held the Guangzhou teaching; Hu Yuen-chou carried it to Hong Kong and, through his senior student Doc-Fai Wong, to the Plum Blossom federation — the chain documented in the archive’s history, reaching the Golden Eagle schools in Alabama in 1997. In the family itself, the succession continued to Chan Sun-chiu, keeper of the style until his death in 2013.

Traces

At Jingmei, the ancestral compound keeps the family residences together — founder, keeper, and this third-generation head — with the Guangzhou transmission shown in the school’s displays. In Guangzhou the school buildings are gone; the district names — Henan, Xiguan — remain as geography.

Cautions

• Dates are approximate. Sources give c. 1879 or c. 1880 for the birth and 1945 or 1947 for the death; the archive states c. 1880–c. 1947 pending confirmation from the clan genealogy register.
• The name is often miswritten 陳耀池; the genealogy form is 陳耀墀.
• The circle’s name varies (四方館四王 / 廣州四天王 / 陳耀墀四大弟子) — one circle, four men, stable roster.
• Street addresses are not fixed. The districts are documented; the precise doors are not, and the archive does not invent them.
• Cheng Si-nam’s teacher is unverified — one reading makes him a disciple of Chan On-pak, another a contemporary of Yiu-chi. See the editorial method for the two-readings rule.