Were Hong Qigong and Ouyang Feng stronger than Huang Yaoshi and Yideng...........

[PJ]

... when considering all of them Pre-16 years, that is?

Hong and Ouyang continued to improve at partial 9 Yin rate, stated to be the main reason for their significant improvement. Huang and Yideng did not have this luxury, so would they have improved at a slower rate perhaps?

But then again, Zhou Botong was improving at partial 9 Yin rate all along, and though he got a head start at the beginning, he did not seem to improve any faster than the other Greats after a few years.

[goodrick]

I definitely got the feeling watching the 83 version of LOCH that H7G was a better martial artist that HYS and YD

[kyss of the sword]

HYS did not get the first part of 9yin manual, he did have the second part and spent most of those 16yrs trying to complete the first have on his own, through he could not practice the second half, he used it as a guide line to improve his own martial arts. he mainly focused on inner power since that was what was missing in the 9yin he had. after 16yrs, it was a big improvement. his daughter might have given him 9yin full formula after LOCH but not said she did.
yideng was slightly superior to the other three, even before gaining XTXG from WCY. so he would have been better then the other three by a bit, then he got the sanskrit true inner power portion of 9yin. so his improvement would have been significant. lots of monks work hard on their martial arts so i doubt he slacked off there.
HQG heard some of 9yin theory from GJ and he practiced the sanskrit portion to recover. it made an impact on his skills and he improved till equal with OYF during ROCH. OYF was superior during end of LOCH to HGQ and HYS but he never fought with yideng or ZBT.

[goodrick]

HYS did not get the first part of 9yin manual, he did have the second part and spent most of those 16yrs trying to complete the first have on his own, through he could not practice the second half, he used it as a guide line to improve his own martial arts.

Didn't HYS's wife write the entire 9 yin book for him before she died? Did she only write the second half and not the first half?

[Ken Cheng]

I definitely got the feeling watching the 83 version of LOCH that H7G was a better martial artist that HYS and YD

Au Yeung Fung was better, but the difference wasn't nearly as great as LOCH '82 suggests. He was barely better than Wong Yerk See or Hung 7 Gung, and could edge out either of them only after a prolonged struggle. Neither Wong Yerk See nor Hung 7 Gung could quite get the hang of Au Yeung Fung's weird techniques at Mt. Hua, but given some time, they could figure it out (Hung 7 Gung was already starting to figure it out when Au Yeung Fung landed a chop on his shoulder that made it impossible for Hung 7 Gung to continue the fight immediately).

Certainly, Au Yeung Fung would not have been able to handle the combination of Wong Yerk See and Hung 7 Gung for very long, but the two Greats were too proud and honorable to gang up on their mutual enemy.

[tape]

I find it amusing in LOCH '94 it took all 3 Greats to tackle him, and they still wound up losing slightly. Too bad they forgot they have to make ROCH '94 where Hong Qi ends up tying and dying with him.

[kyss of the sword]

Didn't HYS's wife write the entire 9 yin book for him before she died? Did she only write the second half and not the first half?

his wife read the second half of 9yin manual that ZBT had on him at that time. ZBT had hid the first part and did not show it to HYS's wife. HYS realized the second half he had couldn't be practiced without the inner power portion in the first half, so he put it aside first while trying to complete the inner power portion himself. then his two disciples stole the manual. his wife tried to write out a copy but she forgot quite a bit and the second copy was flawed. being pregent at that time, she exhausted herself and died shortly after giving birth