Fraud exposed---Sin The' 10th degree black of Shaolin Do
jdh...@tgtel.com
If one reads the book Shaolin Do: Secrets From the Temple, which was co-
authored by
Sin The’ and James Halladay, then one will see many contradictions. And if
one were to
do a little research and compare their findings with Sin The’s claims, one
can see that
many of these claims are outright lies.
On page 12 of the book, it says that a young Sin The’ was introduced
to
Grandmaster Ie Chang Ming by a customer of Sin’s father. What Sin The’ has
never told
or admitted to is that Master Ie was his grandfather. Why would he need to
be introduced
and accepted as a student? The very letter that Master Ie wrote to Sin The’
promoting
him to 10th black confirms that he was Sin’s grandfather (from his mother’s
side of the
family). Here is that letter:
Master Ie Chang Ming’s Letter to Sin The’
I was born in love with Wu Shu (martial arts or kung fu). In the early time,
I traveled everywhere in
China to learn Martial arts, and had been up to North Korea. It has been 50
years since I moved down to
south. I had been through a lot of tough times. But when I looked it back,
I surely had a lot of
unforgettable memory. Now I am presenting you this level ten black belt with
red honor strip, on behalf
of all the colleagues in this gang. I wish you strictly keep all the rule,
and develop the spirit of martial
arts. This is what I want to say to you today. Do your best!
To My Grandson and Disciple,
Sin Kwan,
Iron Palm Master
Postscript:
The three self-defending treasures, which have been with me through
my living from place to
place, are the Jade Smoking Stick, Drunk Man’s Crutch, and Ancient Money
Shaped Son-Mother Biao (a
dart like weapon). These three things look like necessaries for common
travelers. Nobody will ever pay
attention to them. Actually, you never know how powerful they are when you
are in danger. They are my
precious treasures. But I am already over seventy years old, and I decided
not to use these weapons for a
long time. Now, I give these to you as gifts. I wish you use them well and
keep them properly. About
“Biao”, you are better not to use it, because “Biao” is very easy to hurt
people, and it is hard to control its
direction, and also hard to get it back when you throw it out. So be very
careful to it, especially that
Son-Mother Baio, and never try to throw it out. Please keep in mind!!!
Please!!!
Again by Grandfather in
Spring, 1967
In Master Ie’s own handwriting he says he is grandfather to Sin
The’. Now some
have argued that certain martial arts terms such as “Sifu” translate as
family related terms
as “teacher/father”, but that would not make sense in this case since Master
Ie used the
words “Grandfather” and “grandson” which would basically be saying that
Master Ie was
the teacher of Sin’s instructor. We know this was not the case though. Sin
claims to have
been taught directly under Master Ie. So this argument has no merit. Also
one must look
closely at the exact words Master Ie used. He used both words, GRANDSON and
DISCIPLE in his closing. Not just grandson (which may be translated as “his
student’s
student”), and not just disciple, but BOTH. In the book Sin makes it look as
if he were
“chosen” by Master Ie because of his skills, patience, and humility, when in
fact he was
taught because he was in the family. Also, I must point out that Master
Hiang has
admitted that Master Ie was their grandfather, so here are 2 sources of
information that
confirm that Sin The’ is the grandson of Master Ie. So here two lies: how
Sin The’ met
Master Ie, and his real relationship with him.
On page 14 it says that Master Ie died at the age of 96 in 1976. But
the above
letter from Master Ie shows differently. It is dated 1967, and in it he
makes the statement,
“I am already over seventy years old...”. He did not say he was 80 years
old, or “over 80”
so it is safe to say he was between the ages of 71 and 79 when he wrote that
letter. If he
was 79 years old in 1967, then he would have been 88 or 89 years old in 1976
depending
on his exact birthday. So here is lie number 3, how old Master Ie was when
he died.
Again on page 12 we find another contradiction. It says, “...for
several months he
was allowed only to watch the classes.” “For the next 3 months, Sin was made
to stand in
horse and bo stances...” “Master Ie’s classes moved slowly and much time was
spent in
reviewing material.” “At the age of 11, Sin received his first degree black
belt.” That’s 10
months (7 watching and 3 doing stances). Now read his 5th degree black belt
certificate:
Sin The’s 5th Degree Black Graduation Certificate
Mr. Sin Kwan The’, of the Fu-Chin county, Fukien province, China, age 20, has
been studying at our
school for ten years. He has finished the three levels of courses as follows:
1) 1954-1955, basic course, earned Blackbelt, 1st level.
2) 1956-1958, middle course, earned Blackbelt, 3rd level.
3) 1959-1963, advanced course, earned Blackbelt, 5th level.
He also studied 1) Golden Snake kung fu 2)Cyclone leg kung fu 3)Iron
Finger kung fu.
His kung fu was excellent and got championship awards from the kung fu
contests at our school. He was
honored with the best kung fu.
This certificate was issued by Chung-Yen Shaolin Kung Fu School.
School Master: Ie Chang Ming
January 15th, 1964
Now look at these dates carefully. Sin was born in 1943 (pg. 11).
Sin got his first
degree black belt in only 1 year! But on page 12 of the book it says
“classes moved
slowly and much time was spent on reviewing material.” It also says he spent
the first 10
months watching and doing stances only! So he got all the material he needed
for black
belt in only 2 months? What Sin claims in his book greatly contradicts what
his certificate
from Master Ie says. We also see, by the certificate, that Sin started
taking Shaolin Do at
the age of 10 or 11, but he leads people to believe he started around the age
of 6 or 8 so it
would look like it took about 3 years to get his blackbelt. If you ask any
senior instructor
when Sin started Shaolin Do, they will say around 6. So here are lies number
4 and 5:
when he started taking Shaolin Do, and how long it took to get his
blackbelt.
Now on page 13 of the book it says, “...up until the age of 20, Sin
learned over
900 katas...” So Sin learned over 900 kata in only 9 years (age 10-20)!
Also one must
take in account Sin’s claims on page 12 that classes moved slowly and much
time was
spent on reviewing material. On page 14, it says, “Sin restructured the
system...this
involved speeding up the rate at which new material was introduced....Sin
began teaching
the advanced material at an ever increasing rate...realizing it would be
impossible to
exhaust the vast amount of material within the system.” So lets look at this
closely. He
learned at a slower rate then us and got 900 kata in only 9 years (1954-
1963). He speeds
up the rate of teaching material and yet none of us has reached even 400
kata. I have been
in Shaolin Do for 10 years myself and have around 72 long forms. Even Sin’s
most senior
student, Master Bill Leonard 7th degree black belt, does not have 400 kata!
He’s been
with Sin for 30 years and does not even have one half of what Sin The’ got in
only 9
years (and Sin was taught at a slower rate then us!!). This is a major
contradiction that
cannot be overlooked. Some argue that because he trained 8 hours day, every
day, that he
could have done this, but I doubt it. The monks in the Shaolin Temple
trained for 16
hours a day and it took them longer then 10 years to master just one system!
Master
Hiang has said, “I learned all that my brother learned, but he did not learn
all that I did.”
Master Hiang laughs when asked if he and Sin learned 900 katas. It is easy
to understand
why Master Hiang could have more material then Sin for 2 reasons. First, Sin
left for the
USA 3 years before Hiang and missed all the material taught in that time
period by
Master Ie. Second, Master Hiang studied under at least 4 other Shaolin
Masters (students
of Su Kong). Master Hiang said that Sin spent all his time with Master Ie
and never once
studied under any of the other Masters. So here is lie number 6: how much
material he
truly learned.
Now I ask, if it were possible for Sin to have learned the 900 kata,
how could he
possibly keep them to memory? It would be impossible! When asked, he admits
that he
couldn’t. He says he kept detailed notes of each form so he could teach
future
generations. Well that sounds reasonable at first, but then you must think
back. Sin could
not keep all 900 kata to memory, then it must be assumed that Master Ie could
not. This
would make it even harder for Sin to get the 900 kata in only 9 years if
Master Ie had to
keep going back to the notes! And think back even more....if Master Ie could
not keep
the 900 katas in memory and had to keep notes, then we must assume that
Grandmaster
Su Kong had to use notes as well. I doubt that Master Su Kong could have
carried
detailed, handwritten notes to over 900 katas while the Fukien Shaolin temple
was being
burned to the ground and he was fleeing for his life! I think that the 900
kata thing is just
something that Sin The’ made up.
Here is another interesting contradiction. Sin The’ claims that
Master Ie died in
1976 throughout the book. But Master Hiang says he died in 1968. Master
Hiang says he
was even a paw bearer in the funeral, and that he left for the US, after
Master Ie died
(Master Hiang came to the US in 1968). Well, if Master Hiang’s word is not
enough, a
photo was taken of Master Ie’s tombstone by a man named Larry Hill, and guess
what.....the date of death says 1968. Why would Sin lie about it? To make
it look like he
had more time to learn more material. Many have asked that if this is true,
then Master
Hiang was apart of the deception. True, he was. But I ask them, what did
Master Hiang
have to gain from it? Nothing that I can think of. Why did he do it? I can
only think that
he did it because his older brother asked him to. In the Chinese society,
the eldest son
becomes the head of the family. Not to mention that Master Ie had promoted
Sin from
5th black to 10th black, making him the head of the Shaolin system. Those
are 2 reason
why Sin could have ordered Hiang to keep quiet and he would have obeyed. So
here is lie
number 7: the real date of Master Ie’s death.
Now lets look at page 91 of his book. Here Sin talks about a
fantastical system
called Liu Fu Tao or “sixth sense training”. On this page it says that
“...the practices were
considered highly secret and were taught only in the latter stages of a
monk’s career.”
“My Liu Fu Tao training began at the age of fifteen after I had received my
third degree
black belt.” Now how odd. It is considered so secret and advanced that it
is taught to the
shaolin monks only at the very end of their training. So why was it taught
to a 15 year old
boy who was at the low rank of 3rd black? That makes no sense at all! And
why has he
never taught this out, even to his most advanced and senior student, Bill
Leonard, who’s
been in it for 30 years and reached the rank of 7th black? I don’t think it
exists! He made
it up. It’s too incredible to be real, but even if it was, and he did learn
it as he says, then
the only reason he would have gotten something so advanced at such an early
age would
be because he was in the family....he was Master Ie’s grandson! Either way,
he lied. So
this brings the total of lies to 8.
Now on page 9 we see the painting of Master Ie with Master Hiang.
Sin claims a
man named “Lukeman” painted it. But the signature of the painter says “Liu
Su Pong”.
Master Liu Su Pong was one of the Masters that taught Master Hiang, but not
Sin.
Master Liu Su Pong was master of the Tai Peng (giant bird) and chain whip.
So we now
know that Master Hiang has not lied about these other Shaolin Masters that
taught him,
because this proves that at least one of them did exist. It also brings Sin
The’s total of
lies up to 9: who painted the picture.
Now lets look at page 13 of the book. There are photos of Sin The’
in front of a
stone tablet that was erected to “commemorate his visit to the Shaolin Temple
on June 22,
1992.” This gives the allusion that he is being recognized by the monks
there as being the
“grandmaster of shaolin” and such. What Sin has not told everyone is that it
cost around
1500 dollars to have that put up. In fact, ANYONE can have a stone tablet
put up if they
are willing to “donate” 1500 dollars to the temple. There are close to 20 of
those tablets
up now by many martial arts clubs, including tae kwan do. Does not seem like
such a
great honor when you have to pay 1500 dollars to make someone “honor” you.
I have received many letters from Sin followers stating that their
teachers had seen
incidents with their own eyes such as Master Hiang almost attacking someone
at the
airport when he first came to the US because the man brushed up against him.
And
another incident in which Sin and Hiang were sparring and Hiang was on the
floor with
Sin standing over him yelling for him to get up and continue the fight. To
this I say, so
what? Even if it’s true (which I do not know and cannot deny), how does that
take away
from what Sin has done? From Sin’s 5th black certificate one can see that at
one time Sin
was a very good martial artist. He may have been better then Haing, but
that’s not the
point here. The point is this: Sin The’ has lied, lied, and lied. And if
we have caught him
in these lies, then who knows what else he has lied about that we haven’t
even caught!
Why has Sin never taught out a complete system? White crane?
Monkey? Bird?
He has not taught out even half of any one system (with exception to the Hua
system wich
is only 4 forms and 2 2-man sets)? Why? He claims to have all 18 of almost
every system
in his book (snake, dragon, monkey, drunken immortals, mantis, black tiger,
white crane).
If he has all this, why hasn’t he completed even ONE system in the 30 years
he’s been
teaching? And if you look at what he use to teach, and what he teaches now,
you will see
a big difference. What was taught years back (and still today by Master
Hiang) could not
be found in books or videos, and was even rare to hear about. Now Sin
teaches things
found in any bookstore or marital arts video catalog! Seven star praying
mantis?
Butterfly swords? Drunken Immortals? These things are so common now adays
and can
be found anywhere! Why start teaching the 7 star praying mantis when he
hasn’t
completed the Tong Long material we have now? In fact MANY of the forms he
teaches
now have been found in books MOVE FOR MOVE. Odd in itself, but several forms
in
one book series? All move for move? That’s more then just coincidence.
Forms so far
that have been found in books (not just resemble, but are MOVE FOR MOVE from
beginning to end): Tiger-crane, some of the drunken immortals, drunken spear,
double tai
chi swords, 9-section supreme whip, monkey-mantis duet (green dragon videos),
5-animal
form, 3-sectional staff, Hsing Ie 12 animals-5 roads-linkage form, Yang tai
chi, and Roads
to Hua 1-3. These are just some that have been found so far. Now try to
find some of the
earlier stuff in a book, like our black tiger, iron man, or tai peng. You
never will! This
leaves me with major doubts as to what Sin is teaching now and calling
authentic Shaolin
material.
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Quark
In article <6k4r2i$ofn$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>, jdh...@tgtel.com says...
>
>If one reads the book Shaolin Do: Secrets From the Temple, which was co-
>authored by
>Sin The’ and James Halladay, then one will see many contradictions. And if
>one were to
>do a little research and compare their findings with Sin The’s claims, one
>can see that
>many of these claims are outright lies.
Look, bud, it don't take Sherlock Homles to figure this out.
Take a look at that drunken stance (and I do mean drunken) on one foot
on the rock on the cover of his book "Shaolin Do".
With a name like that, and a face like that, do *you* really want to
study with this guy?
Q. "I didn't think so"
Chas
Quark wrote:
> Look, bud, it don't take Sherlock Homles to figure this out.
> Take a look at that drunken stance (and I do mean drunken) on one foot
> on the rock on the cover of his book "Shaolin Do".
> With a name like that, and a face like that, do *you* really want to
> study with this guy?
> Q. "I didn't think so"
Yeah, talk about tie cheap.
Chas
