Chan Tai San
Chan Tai San (Chan Tai-San; Chinese: 陳泰山) (July 12, 1920 – September 1, 2004) was a Chinese martial arts grandmaster. Often called one of China's "living treasures", Chan was featured as such on the cover of Inside Kung Fu magazine in 1996. Early training and military service Chan said he began kung fu training at age eight under Yee Hoi-Long (余海龍), a stonemason who worked for the Chan family. Yee taught "hung fist", also called "hung kuyhnn" or "village style", a forerunner to Hung Ga, and "Hung Tao Choy Mei" (which means "Hung Head Choy Tail"), later known as Jow Ga, a system combining strong "Hung" style fist work with active Choy-style footwork. Chan learned from Yee for about six years. Chan was 13 when, after the death of his father, he was sent by his family to the Clear Cloud Temple where he began training in kung fu and Buddhism and was mostly a student of Jyu Jik Chuyhn (朱亦傳). Chan was also taught by the monk Gaai Si Wu Song and trained mostly in the Choy Lay Fut style. At 17, Chan left the monastery to fight against the Imperial Japanese Army, enlisting in a peasant division which