Which Shaolin hero really existed?

[DrNgor]

There a number of Shaolin martial artists that show up in movies and books. I know that the existence of many of them has been questioned. To those of you in the know, which of the names below have been confirmed to have really existed?

Hong Xiguan (Hung Hei-Kwun)
Abbot Gee Sum
Abbess Ng Mui
Yim Wing Chun
Fang Shiyu (Fong Sai-Yuk)
Hu Huichen (Wu Wai-Kin)
San Te
Luk Ah-Choy

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

12 hours ago, DrNgor said:

There a number of Shaolin martial artists that show up in movies and books. I know that the existence of many of them has been questioned. To those of you in the know, which of the names below have been confirmed to have really existed?

Hong Xiguan (Hung Hei-Kwun)
Abbot Gee Sum
Abbess Ng Mui
Yim Wing Chun
Fang Shiyu (Fong Sai-Yuk)
Hu Huichen (Wu Wai-Kin)
San Te
Luk Ah-Choy

All of these names are traced back to several fictional novels, one being the Emperor's Voyages and the other Evergreen. They were written in the Ching Dynasty and the Shaolin characters are presented as villains from what I can tell. Here's the issue. Unlike the monastery in Honan there is no actual proof that the southern Shaolin Monastery existed, only folktales. Many triad gangsters belonged to the Hung Society and wanted to claim that they were from legit roots, like Mafioso claimed to be descended from something like knights or in this case, martial arts monks who fought for justice. The reason they may have been presented as villains may be because the Manchu's were in power and even a fictional story that praised rebels would not be published, if the author knew what was good for them.

Anyway, scholarly articles were written about the triads and there myths even back in the late 1800's to 1920's by Western authors. Despite what some would have had us believe about Kung Fu being this mysterious secret style that was slowly revealed in the 1960's or if you were lucky, 1950's, the West had been well aware of Chinese Martial arts for 150 years. I mean it was demonstrated in the 1936 Olympics and even back in the pre Boxer Rebellion days a writer mentioned how a local youth in China has impressive "savate" moves. 

Luk Ah Choi was probably the most legit of the list, but if he claimed to have survived the burning of the Shaolin Monastery he would have been over 100 years old when he taught Wong Kei Ying!

http://www.yokoiscool.com/shaolinintro.html