46891064 History of Wing Chun Kung Fu

7/27/2019 46891064 History of Wing Chun Kung Fu

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HISTORY OF WING CHUN KUNG FUAs a matter of tradition, a student is orally informed about the

history of a system of kung fu by his or her Sifu. Because of this

oral tradition, there are differing accounts concerning the history

of Wing Chun Kung Fu. The writer has merely recorded

below his own recollection of what he was told about the history

of Wing Chun by his Sifu, Grandmaster Ip Ching. For further

reading concerning the history of Wing Chung Kuen, please

refer to Leung Ting "Roots and Branches of Wing Tsun" (ISBN

962-7284-23-8) and Robert Chu and Rene Ritchie, "Complete

Wing Chun."

Wing Chun is a system of Chinese martial arts developed some

300 years ago. At that time, the Shaolin Temple was one of the

premiere martial arts institutions in China. There has been a

change of government to the Manchurians (or Ching Dynasty)

from the Ming Dynasty. Due to the oppression of

the Han people in China at the hands of the Ching Dynasty,

there were various rebel groups who wished to overthrow the

Ching government and restore the previously prosperous Ming

Dynasty. Some of these rebels hid in the Shaolin Temple to

study martial arts. Aided by a defector of the temple, Ching

Dynasty troops destroyed the temple and killed most of the

monks and disciples living and training there.

However, Ng Mui, a Buddhist mistress, one of the five elders of

Shaolin survived the disaster.

1. The Shaolin Temple


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2. Chinese stamp showing shaolin monks training

Ng Mui later settled in a buddhist temple in

the Szechuan province in China. Whilst living in the temple, Ng

Mui created a system of kung fu based upon the movements ofthe snake and the crane. It was said that this new system of kung

fu was created to defeat the original shaolin system that was

now being taught to government troops by the defector monk.

Subsequently, Ng Mui met and taught the system to a girl

named Yim Wing Chun. At the time, legend tells us that Yim

Wing Chun and her family were being bullied by a local warlord

who wished to marry Wing Chun. However, her heart already

belonged to her fiancee, Leung Bok Tau. On Ng Mui's advice,Wing Chun stated to the warlord that she was not prepared to

marry any man, unless he could beat her in hand to hand

combat. The warlord thinking that Wing Chun was frail and

could easily defeated, accepted the challenge. A further

condition that was set was that she'd be allowed one year to train

before the contest, which was also accepted by the warlord.

Afterwards, Wing Chun studied kung fu under Ng Mui, and

easily defeated the warlord one year later and was able to marry

her fiancee. Wing Chun subsequently taught her husband LeungBok Tau, the kung fu that she had learned from Ng Mui. Leung

Bok Tau subsequently taught students in the Red Boat Opera

Troup. When asked by students as to the name of this style of

kung fu, Leung Bok Tau named the style after his wife

and teacher - Wing Chun.


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Subsequently, the art of Wing Chun was passed from generation

to generation secretly. Leung Bok Tau taught a number of

students including Wong Wah Bo, Leung Yee Tai. Wong Wah

Bo and Dai Fa Min Kum (who were members of the Red

Boat Opera Troupe) later passed their art on to Dr Leung Jan. DrLeung Jan was a herbalist in Foshan and was known for his

compassion to the people of Foshan, often treating patients for

free. Dr Leung Jan became a legendary folk hero of the Chinese

people. He was known as the "King of Wing Chun" and was

challenged on many occasions by other martial artists at the

time, and was never defeated. Dr Leung Jan passed his art to his

two sons, Leung Bik and Leung Chun, and Chan Wah Shun (or

Money Changer Wah). Money Changer Wah and Leung Bik

subsequently taught Grandmaster Ip Man.

The writer also understands from Grandmaster Sum Nung that

Dai Fa Min Kum later passed the art to Fok Bo Cheun (Wong

Wah Bo also taught Fok Bo Cheun) and Fung Siu Ching. Fok

Bo Cheun and Fung Siu Ching later passed on their art to Yuen

Kay San. Yuen Kay San passed his art on the Grandmaster Sum

Nung (the founder of the Yuen Kay San Wing Chun lineage.

Grandmaster Ip Man started learning Wing Chun at the age of

12. At that time, Chan Wah Shun was teaching Wing Chun in

the Ip family hall. At that time, Ip's family was very rich

and owned a large house. The young Ip Man was very interested

in learning Kung Fu and approached Chan for lessons. Chan

told Ip Man that people who were rich and came from

comfortable surroundings did not make good students of Wing

Chun. However, because Chan was teaching Wing Chun on

Ip family premises, Chan could not simply turn down Ip's

request. So, Chan said that he was prepared to teach Ip Man onthe condition that Ip Man paid him 600 silver pieces. In those

days, 600 silver pieces was enough money to buy several

houses. Chan knew that Ip would not be able to raise such

money and this would discourage him. Ip Man took 6 months to

raise the money and presented the money to Chan. Chan was

shocked and suspected Ip Man of stealing and brought him to


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see his father. Ip Man's father explained that he had given the

boy the money so that he could study Kung Fu from Chan Wah

Shun. From then on, Ip Man became an official student of Chan

Wah Shun. Altogether, Chan Wah Shun taught 16 people Wing

Chun in his life time. The eldest Kung Fu brother was NgCheung So and the lowest kung fu brother was Ip Man. Ip Man

learned from Chan Wah Shun for three years before Chan

passed away. After that, Ip Man's eldest Kung Fu brother, Ng

Cheung So completed Ip Man's training (as he promised Chan

Wah Shun).

At the age of 17, Ip Man went to Hong Kong to attend High

School at St Francis College. By chance, Ip Man met Leung

Bik, Dr Leung Jan's son and started learning Wing Chun fromhim. At that time, Hong Kong was a British colony and the

British employed Indian police officers in Hong Kong. One

day, on his way to school, Ip Man and one of his school

friends witnessed an Indian Police Officer beating a Chinese

lady. The boys confronted the officer and told him that if the

lady had broken the law then the officer was entitled to arrest

her but he had no right to beat her. In fact, she had broken no

law. The officer, thinking that Ip Man was only a kid, attacked

him. Ip Man responded to the officer's attack with whatappeared to his friend to be a very simple move but the officer

went down with blood all over his face. Ip Man and his

friend quickly ran to school to escape.

Ip Man's friend told an older man who lived in the same

building as him what had happened that day. The older

gentleman who was also from Foshan asked the young man to

show him what Ip Man did. When he saw what the young man

showed him, the old man asked to see Ip Man. The next day, IpMan and his friend went to see the older gentleman. The older

gentleman asked Ip Man what type of Kung Fu he studied. Ip

Man said that it was the best Kung Fu in the world and that if he

told him the older gentlemen would not understand. Ip Man

later told the older gentlemen that he studied Wing Chun. The

older gentlemen replied that he had heard of it and there was a


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person named Chan Wah Shun teaching in Foshan. The older

gentleman asked Ip Man to perform the Sil Lim Tao form. The

older gentlemen kept shaking his head and said "not so

good." The older gentlemen then asked Ip Man to perform the

Chum Kiu Form and during the demonstration the oldergentlemen again kept shaking his head and saying "not very

good". The older gentlemen then asked Ip Man to demonstrate

the Biu Gee form. At this point, Ip Man was losing his patience

and said the I did not feel like performing the form. Then the

old man asked if Ip Man would Chi Sau with him. Thinking that

he could finally teach this old man a lesson, Ip Man accepted.

Ip Man through a punch but the older man simply threw him to

the side. He tried again and the same happened. Ip Man stormed

out of the room. The next day, the older gentlemen asked to seeIp Man again but Ip Man didn't want anything to do with him

and told his friend no. When the friend reported this to the older

gentlemen, the older gentleman told the friend to let Ip Man

know that he was Leung Bik (the youngest son of Leung Jan).

When the friend informed Ip Man, Ip immediately went to see

Leung Bik. From then on, Ip Man lived with Leung Bik for 5

years until Leung Bik died and learned the entire Wing Chun

system from him. Leung Bik also passed to Ip Man three note

books passed to him by his father Dr Leung Jan (these books areon display in the Ip Man museum in Foshan and set out Chinese

medicinal herbal formulas from Leung Jan and presssure

points).

He returned to Foshan after completing his schooling and

training. Because Ip Man was rich, he was not required to work.

He spent most of his time practising his Wing Chun achieving a

very high level of skill in the art.

Grandmaster Ip Man started teaching members of the public

in Hong Kong in the 1950s. Grandmaster Ip Man had many

famous students including his two sons

Grandmasters Ip Chun and Ip Ching. Other famous students

included Grandmasters Tsui Shun Tin, Wong Shui Leung, Lok

Yiu, Moy Yat, Bruce Lee, William Cheung, Dr Leung Ting and


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many others. Since that time, Wing Chun has been taught all

over the world, and is recognised as being an effective form

of martial art for men, women and children.

3. Grandmaster Yip Man training on the Wooden Dummy.

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46891064 History of Wing Chun Kung Fu