When more than three hundred years ago Manchuria invaded China, the Chinese found in the Temple of Shaolin an excellent training centre for their rebellion as it was a place of intensive fighting skills. With these ideas of rebellion many people were trained to use Kung Fu by the monks, until their fame caused some Manchurian spies to infiltrate the monastery. As a result of this, the temple was set on fire by the government forces, forcing the monks to flee. However, some of them, keeping their identity a secret, continued to help the people with their teachings and at the same time studied new techniques to overthrow the other corrupt monks and the Manchurian army.
This is how the new styles of Kung Fu were created amongst which Tsay Lii For (in Cantonese, Choi Lei Fat) was founded, according to tradition, in 1836 by Chan Heung, who came from Canton. This style takes its name from the fact that Chan Heung wanted to dedicate it to his two teachers Choi Fook and Lei Yau Shan, both descendants of Shaolin. The word "Fat" means Buddha and as the temple of Shaolin was of buddhist religion, Choi Lei Fat shows that Masters Choi and Lei were descendents of Shaolin. Choi Lei Fat is a style characterized by very quick and repeated attacks, which end only when the opponent has been beaten.
