The Academy of Martial and Internal Arts

On Friday, April 4^th, 2025, the Qingming Festival is celebrated around the world, wherever Chinese are buried. Pronounced ‘Ching Ming’ (the letter ‘q’ is used for the ‘ch’ sound in Mandarin pinyin romanization, as in Qigong), the festival is conventionally translated as Tomb Sweeping day. However, Qing means ‘clear, pure, clean or peaceful’ and Ming means ‘bright or brilliant’ so it is alternatively known as the Clear Brightness or Pure Brightness festival. Such is the nature of translating Chinese to English: X does not always equal X. Usually X = Y + Z.

Qingming rituals date back more than 2500 years. Entrenched in Confucianism, Chinese families gather at the tombs of their ancestors to clean them, before offering incense, food and other items to the deceased.

This is highly relevant to Chinese martial arts because we are family.  Whether it be Shaolin Kung Fu or Chen Tai Chi, the Chinese martial arts are clan based. The names of many Chinese styles are suffixed with the character ‘jia’ as in Chen Jia Taiji (or ‘ga’ in the southern Cantonese dialect, like Hung Ga or Lau Ga). Jia (ga) literally mean ‘family.’ Our terms of seniority are also familial. Sifu can be translated as ‘teacher father’ and the titles we use to address to our classmates translate to elder brother, younger sister, uncle and so on. Accordingly, traditional Chinese martial arts schools observe the Qingming Festival as part of their cultural heritage.

Sifu Ted, Sifu Linda and I were classmates under Sifu Wing Lam, which makes us Kung Fu siblings. Sifu Lam succumbed to cancer on April 25^th, 2018, at the age of 70. Since his passing, his disciples and students gather at his gravesite for Qingming. It is a wonderful reunion, an afternoon filled with fond remembrances and joy, as we all reconnect and honor our master.

Like many Chinese rituals, there’s a lot of variation in exactly how they are observed. However, the essence is universal. First and foremost, the grave is ‘swept’ clean. This entails washing the headstone, as well as clearing the plot of weeds and disposing of expired flowers and such. If the engravings on the headstone are faded, they might be repainted or restored. Then the offerings are made.

While westerners typically bring flowers to gravesites, Chinese add food and joss. Joss is an intriguing term which refers specifically to a Chinese idol or cult image. It actually descends from pidgin Chinese English: The Latin word ‘deus’ became ‘deos’ in Portuguese, which in turn evolved to ‘dejos’ in Javanese. The word joss was first used back in 1711, when trade between China and Europe grew. China had silk and tea, but Europe had nothing China wanted so compensation was made in silver.

Qingming 2022

Joss is one of my favorite things. Incense is a form of joss, sometimes called ‘joss sticks.’ Another dominant form of joss is nicknamed ‘hell notes;’ these are slips of paper that are burned along with incense. Hell notes can come in many varieties. Sifu Lam used minimalistic hell notes for his daily offerings, banknote-sized slips of paper with three holes punched in them. Some Hell notes look like monopoly money with images of the King of Hell placed in the center. The notion is to give the deceased money to spend in the afterlife. Joss can get quite elaborate. Joss effigies of cell phones, luxury cars, even large mansions are constructed of paper and burned in some offerings, all in hopes that the dead can make good use of them.

The Guan Yu Altar at the Academy of Martial & Internal Arts

Traditional Chinese families often keep ancestral altars in their homes, and the Qingming gravesite offerings are akin to how the personal altar is served. The home altar can vary from modest to ostentatious. Typically, it’s a small wooden cabinet that houses an ancestral tablet, an incense censer, and offerings like mandarin oranges. Determined by the rules of Feng Shui, the family altar is positioned in a prominent place in the home,.

Traditional Chinese martial arts schools also have ancestral altars. These are dedicated to Lord Guan Yu. Guan Yu was a legendary general during the Three Kingdoms period (220-280 CE) and is recognized as the patron of the martial arts. The Guandao, the heavy halberd of Kung Fu, is part of his legacy. At the Academy of Martial & Internal Arts, the ancestral altar is high on the back wall, facing the door, again as Feng Shui decrees.

Sifu Lam built by hand a massive ancestral altar which he kept at Lam Kwoon (kwoon, or ‘guan’ in Mandarin, is a term for certain service

The main Lord Guan Yu altar image from the Temple of Kwan Tai in Mendocino, one of the oldest continuously used Chinese temples in California. Guan Yu is seated. To the left is Zhou Cang, Guan Yu’s weapon bearer, holding his Guandao.

establishments, including Kung Fu schools). It lived in a fenced off area of the school, where it also housed his smaller original altar, the size of a small shelf. He wasn’t an overly religious person, but he served that altar every day, offering incense and those simple hell notes. I was honored when Sifu Lam taught me how to service the school altar, a duty he entrusted me to perform in his stead whenever he was away. The very first article that I published was about the altar and the rituals surrounding it, so you might say that his passing this duty on to me led to my entire career.

Sifu cleaned and refreshed the Lam Kwoon altar with new red ribbons every Lunar New Year as one of the many rituals surrounding that holiday. It was an annual private ritual, and few students noticed the difference, despite it being the central area of focus of the school. Due to that altar, we lost a few close-minded students who felt it conflicted with their religious beliefs. Perhaps it did, but ultimately I always felt it was their loss.

The author defending the original altar at Lam Kwoon in the Sunnyvale, circa late 70s.

A fuzzy screen shot from a video of the 30th Anniversary celebration of Lam Kwoon in 1997.  The author is demonstrating a 3-person staff sparring set with Onassis Parungao and Chet Braun. Sifu Ted and Sifu Linda are seated at the VIP table to the left of the altar. The original altar can be seen inside its expanded space, flanked by two of Sifu Lam’s handmade guandao.

The Qingming ritual amplifies the service for a personal ancestral altar. The offerings are more elaborate. At one of our previous gatherings, Stephen Chew, one of Sifu Lam’s disciples, shared a method of folding gold paper to simulate taels, an ancient form of Chinese currency. In days of old, actual precious metals like gold and silver were cast into boat-like shapes. Stephen’s origami-like folding method had the feeling of a solemn act of devotion as we all prepared them. Many of the surviving senior students are Amerasian, so our Qingming observance for Sifu Lam is based on simple and shared traditions, in contrast to some others which can be bound by strict codes of Feng Shui.

Tomb Sweeping is observed on the 15^th day after the Spring Equinox. As the weather turns warm, food offerings are shared after the ceremony, which makes for a respectful graveside picnic. In addition to offerings, there’s an open space near Sifu Lam’s grave where we will recite some of his teachings. Sifu Lam predominantly taught Northern Shaolin, Hung Gar, and Tai Chi, and we will practice a few forms of each, together, in Sifu’s honor. At this writing, the disciples and senior students have not arranged this year’s tomb sweeping day for Sifu Lam, but I look forward to participating once it is scheduled. (Update: Sifu Lam’s Tomb Sweeping will take place on April 26, at 10 am)

Visiting Sifu Lam’s final resting place need not be limited to Qingming. Students of the Academy of Martial and Internal Arts have the unique privilege to formally call Sifu Lam Sigung. Gung means grandfather. Sifu Lam produced over a hundred instructional videos so his teaching spread all over the planet. Many of those pupils never met him or his students face-to-face, and are considered once removed from the lineage though still relatives, and would address him as Sifu. Students of Sifu Ted, Sifu Linda, or mine, have a direct lineage. We’re in the immediate family. Continue reading →