Who Were the Ten Tigers of Canton (广东十虎)? All 10 Names, and Who Was Real or Legend

广东十虎, read Guangdong Shi Hu in Mandarin, means literally "the ten tigers of Guangdong" and refers to ten Cantonese kung fu teachers of the late Qing dynasty. Chinese Wikipedia sums it up: the ten lived roughly two generations apart, and the name "Ten Tigers" was given to them by later generations. I have not yet found any document saying the ten ever gathered as a group or swore brotherhood. Stories like that come from television drama.

This table uses the list and the order found most often in Chinese sources. Names with links are episodes already published.

The numbers 1–10 are not a ranking of skill

I have not found any source saying the ten were ever actually ranked by skill. The order in the table is simply the order most lists use. The title "head of the Ten Tigers" (十虎之首) is also given to more than one man: some sources apply it to Wong Yan-lam, framed as "it is said", while many other websites apply it to Leung Kwan. It is a term of praise, not a rank.

One more thing worth knowing: the nicknames in the right-hand column of the table are the ones that travel with the list online. They do not mean there is evidence the man actually practised that art. Many nicknames swap from one man to another, and some of the arts belong to a TV drama. I go through them one at a time under "Styles that still exist".

If you have seen a Ten Tigers of Canton list that includes Wong Fei-hung, that does not mean the list is wrong. The list exists in several versions, and two of them matter.

The version in 我是山人's novel: father and son on the same list

The oldest list I can trace is in the preface (自序) to the novel《武坛二虎》, written by the Hong Kong author who used the pen name 我是山人 (Ngo Si Saan Jan). The passage was quoted in a Chinese question-and-answer thread in 2007 and in a 2008 blog post about this novel's preface. This version has Wong Fei-hung in place of Chau Tai, so Wong Kei-ying the father and Wong Fei-hung the son are in the same group. It also writes the seventh name as 谭济鹤.

The limitation is that I have not yet seen the original book, and I do not yet know when it was first printed. What I do know is that the title appears in the list of 我是山人's works on Chinese Wikipedia.

The most widely used version: Chau Tai in, Wong Fei-hung out

The list this article uses includes Chau Tai and does not include Wong Fei-hung. Chinese Wikipedia links this kind of list to the writings of 朱愚斋 (Zhu Yuzhai), a student in Lam Sai-wing's line, and says Zhu regarded Chau Tai (written 邹泰) as one of the Ten Tigers But Wikipedia supports this sentence only with Chinese blogs from 2005–2009, not with Zhu's own writing, so I have not seen that original either.

Across all versions, no more than 11 names

Chinese Wikipedia concludes that, across every version, no more than 11 men have ever been counted among the Ten Tigers: the ten in the table, plus Wong Fei-hung. Most names stay the same in every version. Only one slot actually changes: Chau Tai or Wong Fei-hung.

Lists on some websites that bring in a whole different set of people, or that split Iron Bridge Three and Leung Kwan into two men when they are one and the same, have no source and are best avoided.

A Chinese columnist on 163.com concludes that the term "广东十虎" first appeared in the novels of 我是山人. That matches every source I could find. The name's path therefore starts in print and only later reaches the cinema and television.

The writer 我是山人

Chinese Wikipedia, citing the newspaper《华侨日报》of 28 August 1974, says that 我是山人's real name was 陈劲 (Chen Jin), and that he was born in 1916 and died in Hong Kong on 25 August 1974. He came from Xinhui (新会), taught in a rural school, worked for newspapers in Guangzhou, and moved to Hong Kong in the early 1950s. He wrote nearly a hundred martial arts novels, and many of them were made into Hong Kong films. Some articles on 163.com give a different real name, 陈鲁敬, a native of Foshan. I follow Wikipedia, which cites a contemporary newspaper.

Timeline of the Ten Tigers name

The films of 1978–1980 and the 1999 series: where the copied "biographies" begin

The Mei Lam company's film《广东十虎》opened in Hong Kong on 4 November 1978. English Wikipedia calls this film the Ten Tigers' first appearance, which conflicts with the older evidence of the novels, so I take it to mean their first appearance on screen. Next came the Shaw Brothers film 《广东十虎与后五虎》, directed by Chang Cheh, which was shot from 1978, with reshoots in 1980. That is why sources give its release year as either 1979 or 1980.

But what has shaped online information most is ATV's 1999 series《英雄之广东十虎》, which ran to 40 episodes. It gave personalities, nicknames and martial arts to characters who have no recorded history, such as Wong Ching-ho's Nine Dragon Fist, or a character named 谭石窝 (Tan Shiwo). Much of the "biography" that Chinese websites copied from one another in the 2000s is therefore script, not history.

What the history of Guangdong martial arts says

The same columnist on 163.com writes that the book《广东武术史》(History of Guangdong Martial Arts), compiled in the 1980s, counts only a few of them as real people: Iron Bridge Three, Wong Yan-lam and Wong Kei-ying. The others do not appear in the book. This needs careful reading. It is the columnist's conclusion, drawn from not finding the names in the book, not a verdict the book itself states, and I have not yet seen the book. Besides, So Hak-fu has a school that really does still carry on his line, which I come to in the next section.

I grade the evidence on five levels. A means an institutional source confirms the man's existence or year of death. B means later local records, or a lineage that can be checked. C means only the account of a single school, though that school really exists. D means a lead from a single source that he may be a real person under another name. E means not yet found outside novels, drama and websites that copy one another.

Two with clear evidence: Wong Kei-ying and Leung Kwan

Wong Kei-ying has the best evidence in the group. On its page about Wong Fei-hung's family, the Foshan Museum writes that his father, Wong Kei-ying, died of illness in 1886, and its Wong Fei-hung biography records that Wong Fei-hung began learning martial arts from his father at the age of six. So his existence is clear, but most details of his life, such as his teacher Luk Ah-choi or the Shadowless Kick nickname, come from later writing.

Leung Kwan, also known as Iron Bridge Three (铁桥三, Cantonese Tit Kiu Sam): Chinese Wikipedia, citing the 2002《广东省志·人物传》(Guangdong Provincial Gazetteer: Biographies), says that his teacher was 李遂成 (Li Suicheng) and that he died in the 12th–13th year of the Guangxu reign, around 1886/1887. The Foshan Museum records that Lam Fook-sing (林福成), a student of Iron Bridge Three, taught Wong Fei-hung the Iron Wire Fist when he was 13. This is the documented bridge between episode 4 and episode 10.

Two whose schools carry on: Wong Yan-lam and So Hak-fu

Wong Yan-lam stands at the head of the Hop Gar (侠家拳) lineage, which is on a district-level intangible cultural heritage list in Foshan. Most recently, in August 2025, the Shunde District government announced Hop Gar's inclusion on its district-level intangible cultural heritage list. The same report says the art was passed down to Wong Yan-lam, framed as "it is said". The lineage is real, but his years of birth and death, and the story of his challenge platform in front of a temple, still come from a single source.

So Hak-fu is the founding master in the account of the Black Tiger school, Shaolin Hak Fu Mun (少林黑虎门). The school's association in Hong Kong records a line of transmission from So Hak-fu down to Wong Cheung (黄祥), who founded the school in Hong Kong in 1928, and the school still teaches in both Hong Kong and England. But there are no birth or death years for So Hak-fu and no primary documents, so the evidence stays at the level of the school's own account.

A new lead: Chau Tai and the Zou family Bagua staff

The biography of Chau Tai that Chinese websites copy from one another is a single unsourced text. But in 2024 a Foshan newspaper reported that the founder of the Zou family Bagua staff (邹家八卦棍) was Zou Detai (邹德泰), a native of Nanhai, who may be the real Chau Tai under another name. In Cantonese the surnames 周 and 邹 are pronounced the same. This still rests on one source, so I grade it D.

Five not yet found outside fiction and drama

Wong Ching-ho, Lai Yan-chiu, Tam Chai-kwan, Chen Tiezhi and So Chan have not yet been found in any source other than the lists in novels, films, TV drama and websites that copy one another. Chinese Wikipedia writes of Tam Chai-kwan that the name is not found in the records of the martial arts world. As for So Chan, or Beggar So, Chinese sources agree that no official history supports him. The story of So Chan coming top in the imperial military examination comes from a 1992 film, and the story of him teaching Wong Fei-hung the Drunken Fist comes from a 1978 film.

Finding no evidence does not prove these men never existed. Many folk kung fu teachers of that era left no documents behind. But without evidence I will not write their stories up as biography. So in each man's episode I explain where each claim comes from, instead of retelling a biography copied from a TV script.

To understand the Ten Tigers, you first need a picture of Guangzhou and Foshan in the 19th century. John Thomson's photographs from the 1860s–1870s show a crowded trading city of medicine shops, stores and wharves along the Pearl River.

Nanhai, Panyu, Foshan: why sources give overlapping hometowns

Under the Qing, the city of Guangzhou was divided between two counties. The western side, including the Xiguan (西关) district, belonged to Nanhai County (南海), and the eastern side to Panyu County (番禺). The market town of Foshan (佛山) also lay within Nanhai County. That is why different sources can call the same teacher "a Nanhai man", "a Guangzhou man" or "a Foshan man" without contradicting each other. Today Nanhai is a district of Foshan.

Hired teachers, bonesetters and challenging other schools

The general account on Chinese websites says that the late Qing was a lawless time: villages and trade guilds hired kung fu teachers to train their men, and turning up at another school to challenge it (踢馆) was common. Accounts like this have no case-by-case documentation, but there are better-evidenced examples. The Foshan Museum records that Wong Fei-hung opened his first school in Xiguan at 16, and that most of his students were metalworkers and street hawkers. Kung fu teachers also often worked as bonesetters and sold bruise medicine on the side. Wong Kei-ying ran a herb shop, and Wong Fei-hung opened Po Chi Lam (宝芝林), the medicine shop and bonesetting clinic people know from the films.

Place names from the wrong era: Zhanjiang, Taishan, Shantou

One way to separate real history from invention is to look at place names. Some websites say Chau Tai came from Zhanjiang, Chen Tiezhi from Taishan and Lai Yan-chiu from Shantou. But in their day these names either did not exist yet or did not yet belong to cities. Taishan (台山) took that name only in 1914; before that it was Xinning (新宁). Zhanjiang (湛江) got its name only in 1945; before that it was a French leased territory called Guangzhouwan (广州湾). And Shantou (汕头) was at that time still a port in Chenghai County (澄海), before it became a city in 1930. Modern place names like these are a sign that the information was written much later.

Hung Kuen and many other Cantonese styles trace their origins back to the "Southern Shaolin" through Hung Hei-gun (洪熙官). This is a founding legend of the lineage, not documented history, and the Southern Shaolin Temple itself is still debated by historians. I go into this in detail in How Many Southern Chinese Kung Fu Styles Are There? and Southern Fist, Northern Kick: Shaolin Split Into Two Lineages.

Legendary teachers with no documents

The Ten Tigers stories include several other teachers for whom there are no contemporary documents. Luk Ah-choi (陆阿采) is Wong Kei-ying's teacher according to legend. Li Huzi (李胡子, "Bearded Li") is Wong Yan-lam's teacher according to his lineage's account, and the name Li also turns up as Leung Kwan's teacher in another version. The monk Jueyin (觉因) of Nengren Temple is Leung Kwan's teacher in online accounts, and the monk Zhaode (兆德) of Songshan Shaolin is So Hak-fu's teacher according to his school's own account. I can write these names, but every time I must label them as legend.

These two are not the same group. The Ten Tigers of Shaolin (少林十虎) are characters in the Southern Shaolin legend cycle, such as Hung Hei-gun (洪熙官), Fong Sai-yuk (方世玉) and Hu Huiqian (胡惠乾), who were also the heroes of 我是山人's Shaolin novels. Their stories are set in the early to middle Qing and tied to anti-Qing legends. The Ten Tigers of Canton were Cantonese kung fu teachers of the late Qing, some of whom have evidence of having really existed.

Part of the confusion is that the 1978 film used the Chinese title《广东十虎》but the English title Ten Tigers of Shaolin, while Thai Wikipedia says the Ten Tigers of Canton are sometimes called the Ten Tigers of Shaolin. Even some Chinese articles mix the two up.

Many of the arts attached to the Ten Tigers are real styles, but that does not mean they are attached to the right man. This table separates them.

The evidence for the key rows: the Wong Fei-hung line of Hung Kuen is on Guangdong Province's list of intangible cultural heritage. True Heyang Quan is the style of Cai Yuming (蔡玉明, 1853–1910) of Quanzhou, Fujian, and the real Eagle Claw grandmaster was Chen Zizheng (陈子正), a native of Hebei. As for the claim that Tam Chai-kwan studied under Leung Jan (梁赞), the Wing Chun teacher of Foshan, his name does not appear among Leung Jan's known students. If you want to know more about Wing Chun, read Did Wing Chun Originate from Shaolin or the Red Boat?

The best-documented link is the Hung Kuen line, which the Foshan Museum records in two stages. First, Wong Kei-ying taught his son, and Lam Fook-sing, a student of Iron Bridge Three, taught Wong Fei-hung the Iron Wire Fist. Second, Wong Fei-hung's student Lam Sai-wing published several Hung Kuen manuals, and most of the Hung Kuen that has spread around the world today belongs to the line of Wong Fei-hung and Lam Sai-wing.

1. Wong Kei-ying (episode 4) taught his son, Wong Fei-hung
2. Leung Kwan (episode 10) taught Lam Fook-sing
3. Lam Fook-sing taught Wong Fei-hung the Iron Wire Fist
4. Wong Fei-hung taught Lam Sai-wing, who published the Hung Kuen manuals that carried the style around the world

Every other link has far weaker evidence. The Black Tiger school says Wong Cheung also studied Hung Kuen with one of Wong Fei-hung's students, which is the school's own account. The name of Wong Yan-lam's teacher, Li Huzi, overlaps with the name of Leung Kwan's teacher in another version, and that cannot be settled yet. The story of So Chan teaching Wong Fei-hung the Drunken Fist comes from film, and the relationships among all ten in the 1999 series are entirely invented.

Wong Fei-hung (黄飞鸿) is the reason many people in Thailand know the phrase "Ten Tigers of Canton". He was Wong Kei-ying's son, and he is on the version of the list in 我是山人's novel, but not on the list most widely used. The Foshan Museum records that Wong Fei-hung died in Guangzhou on 17 April 1925. As for his year of birth, most sources say 1847, but the Foshan Museum's own biography page says 1856.

The picture most often shown as a photograph of Wong Fei-hung has not been proven to be him, and there is no photograph at all of his father, Wong Kei-ying. I tell the whole story of father and son, including Po Chi Lam, the Shadowless Kick nickname and the birth years the sources disagree on, in Episode 4: Wong Kei-ying.

People in Thailand know these names from Thai-dubbed Hong Kong films far more than from books. This table collects the titles involved. The Thai release titles are taken from Thai Wikipedia; I have not yet checked them against actual video covers or posters.

These films are fun, and they keep the names of Cantonese kung fu teachers alive for new generations, but they should not be used as a source of history. I will tell the story of Beggar So, on screen and off, in Episode 9: So Chan.

• "The Ten Tigers swore brotherhood and fought side by side." There is no evidence. The ten lived roughly two generations apart. This comes from TV drama.
• "Number 1 was the best fighter." The order is simply the order of the list.
• Mixing up the Ten Tigers of Canton and the Ten Tigers of Shaolin. They are different groups from different eras.
• "Lists that include Wong Fei-hung are wrong." They are not wrong; they are another version of the list.
• Retelling the 1999 ATV series as history, for example Wong Ching-ho's Nine Dragon Fist.
• Retelling film plots as history, for example Beggar So coming top in the imperial military examination, or the Shadowless Kick shown as a run of flying kicks.
• Nicknames swapped between people, for example Hop Gar and Heyang Quan, or the Shadowless Kick being attached to both father and son.
• Place names from the wrong era, for example "a Zhanjiang native of the Qing dynasty".
• Wrong dates, for example Wong Fei-hung's birth on "9 July 1847", which comes from entering a lunar-calendar date (the 9th day of the 7th month) as a Gregorian date.
• "The history of Guangdong martial arts declared that six of them never existed." That is a columnist's conclusion, not a sentence in the book.
• Presenting photos of actors or modern paintings as real images. Apart from the photograph claimed to show Wong Fei-hung, which is still disputed, none exist.

While researching, I came across several questions I still cannot answer. If you have old books, or the Thai video covers of these films, please let me know and I will add what you find to the article.

1. When was 我是山人's novel《武坛二虎》first printed, and how exactly does its preface set out the list?
2. Do Zhu Yuzhai's writings really contain a Ten Tigers list that includes Chau Tai, and in which book?
3. What does《广东武术史》say about the Ten Tigers?
4. Did any Wong Fei-hung film of the Kwan Tak-hing (关德兴) era use the term "Ten Tigers"?
5. Under what titles were the 1979/1980 Shaw Brothers film and the 1999 ATV series shown in Thailand?

The story of the Ten Tigers of Canton is part of the history of southern Chinese martial arts, some of which are still practised today. At IMAC Dojo we do not teach Hung Kuen, but we do have a Wing Chun Sambo course, rooted in Wing Chun, another southern Chinese style that also came out of Foshan. If you want to know how southern Chinese styles use low stances and short-range arm work, read Why Cantonese Boxing Stands Low and Rarely Kicks High, or see the details of the course on the Wing Chun Sambo page.