Ron Mohr, Master Instructor
Master Mohr began his studies in the martial arts in 1968 upon leaving the military and having spent a year in combat in Vietnam. Immediately after being discharged from the military he attended Kent State University in Kent, Ohio where he began studying the Isshin Ryu style of Karate while at the same time studying Goju Ryu karate. He earned a black belt in both styles and competed in many tournaments and club matches. He was selected to be co-captain of the Kent State University Karate Club and eventually became the instructor. For a short period of time he also studied Tae Kwon Do, Judo and Jiu Jitsu styles of martial arts. After five years in karate he began the study of Chinese Martial Arts under the late, great Master Feemon Ong. Master Mohr was the last black sash promoted by Master Ong and who also sanctioned Master Mohr’s school naming it Hong Sing Kwan Ying Dao. Master Ong named schools based on how he viewed the instructor. Hong Sing means “Bravery in Victory” which suits Master Mohr based on his prior martial arts fighting competition, military combat experience and law enforcement occupation.
The HSKYD Scroll
The Hong Sing Kwan Ying Dao Title Scrolls became a tradition of the System when they were presented for the first time at the 1989 Chinese New Year Annual Banquet. As with the Emblem, the Title Scrolls were custom hand painted.
Each Scroll displays two Chinese characters, representing the designated name of the new school or the new title of an individual. The characters were painted with an artistic flair and should be recognized as a piece of artwork. The purpose of the Title Scroll is to represent a formal “diploma” as presented by Shi-Gung to the recipient.
The first three characters on the left side represent the artist’s name. The next four characters represent the year based on the Chinese Yin calendar. The artist has affixed her chop-seal (tu-zhang: the red stamp). Additionally, Shi-Gung, has affixed his official chop-seal.
The painting of written Chinese language is called “mao-bi”; then the paper containing the painting is glued to the silk scroll, which is called the “biao”.
“Tu-Zhang” – The Red Ink Stamp Seals
The red-inked seals (also generally known as “chop”) used throughout oriental art works and documents is readily recognized as the identification seal of the artist or author. These seals are observed in unlimited variations of shape and design. In Chinese language, the general term for these seals is called “tu-zhang”, or also just “zhang” (pronounced “jong”).
As with similar seals of older western cultures, such as old England and France, these seals are recognized as the unique identifying stamp of the owner, for the purpose of “officializing” the authenticity of the owner, sort of an old style “copyright” protection.
The stamp may contain any lettering, in any language, or any picture design that the owner wishes to use. The most important idea is that the stamp should be unique to the owner. Therefore, it becomes important that each stamp be customized and unique. Additionally, when there is a hierarchy of more than one stamp involved, then the stamp must reflect the hierarchy of the people involved. The properly designed seal will have several characteristics that will make it unique. The first is the design of the image itself. The second uniqueness is the shape of the border: stones are naturally varying in shape — square, round, oval, or irregular. The shape of the borderline, therefore, is one of the unique characteristics of the stamp. A third uniqueness, for the most individualized, the surrounding borderline can be randomly chipped with the chisel to give a broken appearance. This randomly damaged border then becomes like a fingerprint in the stamp, in that the randomly chipped marks are extremely difficult to duplicate.
As with any use of written Chinese characters, such as the names of the various schools and titles of our organization, a general rule of cultural standards applies. In using both the written characters and the red stamp, those of the individuals may not appear as larger or more dominant than that of the leader or main organization. Therefore, all stamps of branch schools and titles, although possibly varying in shape, will be given equal weight in general size and characters. Only those of the Shi-Gung, the System name, and the Shou Tu may be larger.