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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.