Wing Chun to Jun Fan to Jeet Kune Do

7/29/2019 Wing Chun to Jun Fan to Jeet Kune Do

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Wing Chun to Jun Fan to Jeet Kune DoThe Evolution of a Fighting Art

By

Lamar M. Davis II

Bruce Lee developed a fascination for fighting at a very young age. It is a well

known fact that wing chun gung fu was the art that Bruce Lee studied in Hong

Kong from age thirteen to age eighteen. Some of his training was with grandmaster

Ip Man, but the person primarily responsible for teaching him was the late Wong

Shun Leung. It has also been said that Cheung Chuk Hing (William Cheung) also

worked with him quite a bit. Bruce Lee liked wing chun because it was such a

direct and effective fighting system, and it was the greatest fighters from the wing

chun clan that inspired him the most. It was said that he often engaged in the

famous "roof top fights" of the time period. He loved fighting, and spent most of his

spare time training to be a better fighter. The rest of his spare time was spent

dancing, as he had a fascination for the cha cha, and won the Hong Kong Cha Cha

Championship in 1958.

His parents continuously worried about his education, due to the fact that all he

wanted to do was train in wing chun and dance, so they decided it would be best to

send him to the United States to continue his education. Since he was born in San

Francisco, California, he actually had dual citizenship. They made arrangements

with Ruby Chow, an old friend of the family, for her to allow Bruce to work at her

restaurant in Seattle, Washington. Bruce Left for the United States in April of 1959,

at the age of eighteen.

Upon his arrival in Seattle, Bruce Lee enrolled in Edison Technical Institute to

continue his education. While attending school, he worked at the restaurant and

actually lived in a room above the place. As soon as people started finding out that

he was a martial artist, they began seeking him out for possible instruction. Some of


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his first students during this time were Jesse Glover, Ed Hart, Skip Ellsworth and

James DeMile.

Since he had not learned the complete wing chun system, he decided to call what

he was teaching Jun Fan gung fu, due to his Chinese name being Lee Jun Fan. So,

essentially, by calling it Jun Fan gung fu, he was pretty much calling it Bruce Lee's

gung fu. Jun Fan gung fu consisted primarily of wing chun gung fu, but also

contained a few elements of other martial arts that Bruce had explored at the time.

Many still refer to Jun Fan gung fu as modified wing chun, as the bulk of the

curriculum came directly from wing chun.

Bruce Lee's reputation as a fighter spread rapidly through the martial arts

community in Seattle. He was giving a gung fu demonstration one day and a

Japanese karateka that was in the audience began speaking badly of Bruce, who

was highly irritated by his comments. Word was going around that the Japanese

fighter wanted to challenge Bruce Lee to a fight.

On November 1, 1960, Bruce Lee decided that he had put up with the talk long

enough, and the two departed to a nearby handball court. Jesse Glover had a stop

watch, and was designated as the referee for the fight. When Jesse said go, Bruce

and the Japanese fighter began to size each other up. Bruce attacked with a rapid

series of centerline straight punches, catching the karateka full in the face with the

punches. He then followed up with a hard straight kick to the face that nearly

turned him a full back flip! The fight was over. From the time Jesse Glover had

punched the stopwatch to the time the karateka hit the court, only eleven seconds

had passed!

Due to encouragement from others Bruce Lee decided to open an actual kwoon in

Seattle. He acquired quite a few students, and after a very short time had to move

to a larger location. Taky Kimura became his assistant instructor for the Seattle

kwoon, which was called the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute. The curriculum there was

predominantly wing chun gung fu, including the sil lim tao form, centerline rotation

striking, chi sao, reference point trapping hands and mook jong training.

It was obvious to everyone that Bruce Lee appreciated the practicality of the

wing chun system. Even though he did add a few things from other martial arts,


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wing chun gung fu and it's core principles remained the nucleus of his system. To

Bruce Lee it was all about self defense, and the directness of wing chun made self

defense much more practical.

During Bruce Lee's time in Seattle, a young woman by the name of Linda Emery

started attending his gung fu classes. The two fell in love, and were married.

Shortly after, they moved to Oakland, California, where Bruce had been

corresponding with a well known martial artist named James Yimm Lee. Taky

Kimura became the instructor of the Seattle Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute in Bruce's

absence, and Bruce and James opened a school together in Oakland.

Before leaving Seattle, Bruce had traveled to Oakland on several occasions to

meet and get to know James Lee, and the two became fast friends. They had

already planned to open a school, and James was accepting students in preparation.

Bruce and Linda lived with James during their stay in Oakland, so Bruce and

James had daily opportunities to train together, and work on furthering the Jun

Fan gung fu curriculum.

Through his close friendship with James Lee, Bruce Lee met the late, great

Edmund Parker, master of kenpo karate. Ed was fascinated by Bruce Lee and the

skill level he displayed in the art of gung fu. He was so impressed that he invited

Bruce to participate in his 1964 Long Beach Internationals, a world renowned

martial arts event. Daniel Inosanto, a very prominent student of Ed Parker and

highly skilled martial artist, was assigned the duties of taking Bruce Lee around

during his visit to Long Beach. The two formed a fast friendship, which lasted for

the rest of Bruce Lee's life.

The Long Beach Internationals was Bruce Lee's debut to the martial arts world,

and his awesome demonstration at this event captured the attention of many

prominent martial arts personalities, as well as some prominent people in the

television and motion picture industry. Although the art demonstrated was

considered Jun Fan gung fu, the wing chun influence was there for all to see! Still

not fully content with what he had, yet inspired by the response to his

demonstration, Bruce continued to develop his martial arts ideas and abilities.


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Bruce Lee's brother, Peter, had been a fencing champion in Hong Kong. Bruce

had always liked the fencer's ability to quickly close the gap on the opponent using

very direct, economical and explosive footwork. He also noticed some similarities to

wing chun gung fu. Wing chun has the four corners. Fencing has what they refer to

as the four quadrants. These principles are very similar in both idea and definition.

Bruce's interest in fencing caused him to start experimenting with combining his

wing chun hand tools with the fencing footwork. It was also at this time that he

realized the importance of placing the power side forward, making your strongest

hand closer to the opponent. This greatly increased his non-telegraphic striking

capabilities.

Combining the directness of the wing chun punch or finger jab with the power

side forward and the fencing lunge made it almost impossible to stop his entry. He

worked on this until he had perfected the movement, with the emphasis on

intercepting the opponent's initial movement, or even their initial intention to strike.

Another striking art that Bruce Lee took an interest in was boxing. He liked the

quickness of the boxer, as well as the evasive movements, light, quick footwork and

the applications of angular power punching. He liked the way that the boxer

applied their whole body in the mechanics of their punches, using the legs, waist and

hips, thus giving the punches amazing power. The thing that he didn't like was the

fact that boxing was a sport, and therefore prohibited the use of other striking tools

as well as foul tactics. The common practice was to put the power hand to the rear.

Bruce Lee used to watch old boxing films through a mirror to see what the

techniques would look like if applied with the power side forward.

From boxing, Bruce Lee took the hook, the uppercut, the shovel hook and the

overhand hook. This gave him more versatility in his hand striking tools. He also

liked boxing evasive tactics such as the slip, the duck, the snapback and the bob and

weave. Some of the footwork from boxing could also be applied in certain

situations.

During this time, Bruce Lee composed a letter saying that he was creating a new

martial art, composed primarily of techniques from wing chun gung fu, boxing and

fencing. He stated in the letter that this art was going to be IT, meaning the


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ultimate art. He would name this art Jeet Kune Do, the way of the intercepting fist.

This was around late 1965.

Due to the start of his acting career and increasing television appearances, Bruce

Lee decided it would be best for him to move to Los Angeles, so that he could be

closer to the studios. He had maintained contact with Daniel Inosanto, and Inosanto

had become his student, even though he was still teaching kenpo for Ed Parker.

Together with Dan Inosanto, in 1967 Bruce Lee opened the Los Angeles branch of

the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute. Dan Inosanto was considered Bruce Lee's assistant

instructor at this location, and taught all of the classes in Bruce's absence. The

school was located at 628 College Street in Los Angeles' Chinatown district. This

was the location of the last Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute, and probably the most

famous of Bruce Lee's schools. It was this school where Bruce Lee taught such well

know Jeet Kune Do practitioners as Bob Bremer, the late Jerry Poteet, Steve

Golden, Daniel Lee, the late Herb Jackson and the late Ted Wong.

By this time, Bruce Lee's art had fully made the transition to Jeet Kune Do, but

wing chun gung fu still remained the nucleus of the system. As a very well educated

and longtime instructor of Jeet Kune Do, it is my opinion that Jeet Kune Do is

composed of 50-60% wing chun, 15-20% boxing, 15-20% fencing, and 5-10% taken

from other disciplines. Of course, the most important part of the equation is the

brilliant mind of Bruce Lee!

There are those who still try to discredit the wing chun, even going so far as to

say that there is no wing chun, or very little wing chun left in Jeet Kune Do. On the

contrary, nothing could be further from the truth! Wing Chun gung fu is, and will

always remain, the very foundation of Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do. Those who say

different are very misinformed. Those who leave out the wing chun are definitely

missing the most important part of the equation, and the primary element that

makes jeet kune do the direct, effective and devastating martial art that it is.

Without wing chun gung fu, Jeet Kune Do would have never existed! That, my

friends, is the bottom line!

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Wing Chun to Jun Fan to Jeet Kune Do