In traditional martial arts, especially on the West there is a strange trend of worshiping certain historical figures involved in those arts. What is interesting is complete absence of common sense , critical thinking and analysis in this worship. People who are objects of worship are either notorious killers, psychopaths, fascist,racists, frauds or simply people who became famous by pure accident. When real facts about these people are brought to light, worshipers find all kinds of excuses to justify their heroes and get really angry. Why and how people fall in this state of mind and what kind of personalities and issues these people have was explained in one of the previous articles. Let's see now who famous martial heroes were in reality.
Yip Man- today worshiped as a deity, is depicted as a philanthropist, with perfect moral and ethics. In reality he was the total opposite. Yip Man spent six months with his first teacher and maybe two years with second. There is a story about his third teacher but that story can't be proven in any way and it is full of discrepancies. He was an opium addict till the end of his life and he was a gambler. He left his family on mercy of the communists and escaped to Macao where he gambled away everything that he had (he left nothing to his family that stayed in China). Without money he went to Hong Kong and because he hadn't any real qualification he couldn't work. Being from rich family he didn't work a day in his life so he started teaching kung fu. Interestingly his system lack many key points found in all other styles. He also taught different people different things, depends of his mood, clarity of mind at the particular moment and amount of money they gave him. Yip Man basically had no fighting records, no one really know the level of his skill and he became famous only because his connection to Bruce Lee. Funny thing ,Yip Man expelled Bruce from his school because he was not pure ethnic Chinese. Today followers of Yip Man's style worship him as a deity and after a few more movies he even may become an ultimate kung fu god.
Bruce Lee- an actor who is worshiped like a martial demigod. In reality he was just an action movies actor with no real acting skills, he had bad attitude toward other people, especially martial artists, he wanted to become famous no matter what and that is all about him. Just and athletic, average talent actor like so many others at that time. He became famous after he died and his fame is a matter of much larger global political game at that moment but that is a story for another article. 
Leung Jan- local osteopath from Foshan who became a popular character of pulp fiction novels after his death . People today take things written in those novels as real history although Leung Jan didn't have any fights and we don't even know did he and what martial style he actually practiced. This man has a status of a deity in Wing Chun circles.
Mas Oyama- Fascist willing to die for fascist Japan and later an asset of US government whose job was to be a face in front of campaign to suppress spreading and influence of Chinese culture in general. Besides that he was also a fraud. He was strong but all the stories around him are pure fantasy, hype and exaggeration. For example people think he fought bulls, in reality he fought oxen already prepared (hit in the horns whit heavy hammers by Oyama's students), he fought only one real bull in Mexico and he almost died there and was saved by other people. Number of fights he had are vastly exaggerated, also people think he always fought some top fighters when in reality he fought amateurs with little to no skill and we have no real proof of any of these fights, just oral claims of his followers. About breaking things, anyone can do that with little training. Story about his years on the mountain are pure lie, he was on the mountain only for a few months. And he had all the media support he needed, very few people in martial arts had such media coverage ever. He used his "karate" to spread his fascist ideas just a little bit hidden behind "karate" teachings and his "philosophy" is at elementary school level of writing and thinking. Unfortunately he is still worshiped by large number of people who spread his fascist ideas and often violence.
Choki Motobu- a low life celebrated by some karate people. This character has kicked a man from the back and broke his spine while he was leaving a dojo. That man came to challenge Motobu but he refused just to cripple a man seconds later with a sneak attack. This is a person worshiped today by some people as a top fighter and karate genius
Miyamoto Musashi - notorious killer. He killed a bunch a of people( some from behind) among which unarmed 13 years old boy . He was killing people for pure pleasure of killing , to "perfect" his technique. Later he wrote a book about his experience in killing.
Wong Fei Hung- rich man who liked to gamble and beat his wives. He won only one fight , he beat the man who came to worn him about his gambling debts. Later gang came and killed Wong's son. That is about all that is know about the most celebrated and worshiped kung fu hero. Like Leung Jan , Wong Fei Hung also became a hero of pulp fiction and later movies. More than 100 movies about him were made. Today people know only what they see in the movie, real Wong Fei Hung will remain hidden behind motion pictures/
Morihei Ueshiba- a member of a dangerous cult forbidden by Japanese government who used his new founded martial system (Aikido) to lure and brainwash new members. He cheated his teacher for money that he owed for lessons. Today he was celebrated and worshiped as some kind of a saint.
Li Shuwen- known as God spear Li, Bajiquan master who went around and fought with people for the pure excitement of the fight, or in today's term "street fighter" or more precise a bully. He made a lot of enemies and even killed a few people. He was always on high alert being afraid of assassination. He never went anywhere alone and often he changed traveling route and always entered his house through the window to prevent and surprise and ambush. He was poisoned at the end.
Yang Lu Chan- founder of Yang Tai Chi. He was a body builder , more than 180 cm tall and more than 90 kg of weight. Average Chinese of his era was around 150 -155 cm tall and 50 kilos weight. As we can see Yang Lu Chan was double size of an average person at the time and he was a trained fighter, of course his Tai Chi worked better than other martial styles, just like heavy weight fighter can fight any lighter category with ease.
Kambun Uechi- Okinawan peasant who worked some time in China and learned some basic level Kung Fu. Today karate style founded by his son is full blown cult and Kambun Uechi is worshiped as a deity although there are no records that he ever had a fight and non of the stories that surround his character cannot be proven
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