History of Wing Chun

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Wing Chun has been passed from teacher to student verbally rather than in writing, making it difficult to confirm (or clarify) differing accounts of the martial art's creation. Attempts have been made to apply methods of higher criticism to oral histories of Wing Chun and other Chinese martial arts, [1] and to discern the origins of Wing Chun by determining the purpose of its techniques. Wing Chun began to appear in independent documentation during the lifetime of 19th-century Wing Chun master Leung Jan, facilitating verification of its subsequent history and divergence into branches.

Contents

Other origins for Wing Chun have been suggested, typically involving connections to the Triads, revolutionary groups (often anti-Qing), or the Hakka people of southern China.

Ng Mui Legend

Picture of Shaolin monks practising what appears to be Wing Chun ShaolinmonksQuinDynastie.jpg
Picture of Shaolin monks practising what appears to be Wing Chun

Legend has it after escaping the destruction of the Fujian Shaolin Monastery by Qing forces around 1730, the Abbess Ng Mui fled to the Daliang Mountains on the border between Yunnan and Sichuan. Ng Mui often bought tofu at a shop owned by Yim Yee (嚴二). Yim Yee had a daughter named Yim Wing Chun (嚴詠春), whom a local warlord was trying to force into marriage. Ng Mui taught Yim Wing Chun a version of her southern-Shaolin kung fu, which allowed her to drive off the warlord. After completing her training under Ng Mui around 1790, Yim Wing Chun married Leung Bok-Chao (梁博儔) and taught the fighting techniques which Ng Mui had passed on to her. After Yim Wing Chun died around 1840, Leung Bok-Chao passed the new style on to Leung Lan-kwai. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Leung Lan-kwai taught six members of the Red Boat Opera Group around 1850, and present-day Wing Chun descends from the six opera-group members: Yik Kam, Hung Gan Biu, Leung Yee-Tai, Wong Wah-bo, Dai Fa Min Kam, and Law Man Kung.[ citation needed ]

Yiu Kai

The legend of Yiu Kai dates the creation of Wing Chun to the early 19th century and identifies Yim Wing-chun's father as Yim Sei (嚴四), a disciple at the Fujian Shaolin Temple who avoids persecution by fleeing with his daughter to Guangxi. Yim Wing-chun learned the Fujian Shaolin arts from her father and, from their raw material, created a new style after seeing a fight between a snake and a crane. She married Leung Bok-Chao (梁博儔), a Shaolin disciple like Yim Wing-chun's father, and taught him her fighting style. The couple began teaching Wing Chun's fighting style to others after moving to Guangdong Province in 1815, settling in the city of Zhaoqing.

Other theories pertaining to Ng Mui / Wing Chun legend

According to legend, Wing-chun's lover Leung Bok-Chao was a student of Choy gar and helped shape Wing Chun. [6] [ failed verification ]

Wing Chun may have been created by the Five Elders of the Shaolin temple - which Ng Mui was part of - whose systems included white eyebrow, white crane, Shaolin, Hung Ga and Choy Li Fut .

Yong Chun White Crane

Fujian White Crane is descends in part from Shaolin Boxing / Ming-era Nanquan and imitates characteristics of the white Crane. Like the Ng Mui / Wing Chun legend, the Fujian White Crane too was, according to oral tradition, developed by a female martial artist, Fang Qiniang (方七娘; Amoy Min Nan: Hng Chhit-niâ). [7]

Qīniáng and her father lived in Yongchun County, Fujian province, where many cranes live. Both, words Yong Chun (Chinese: 永春; pinyin: Yǒngchūn; Min Nan: Éng-chhun; lit. 'eternal spring') and Wing Chun (Chinese: 詠春; Pinyin: Yǒng Chūn; Canto Yale: Wihng Cheūn; Literal meaning "beautiful springtime") bear resemblance to one another, both being romanized in Pinyin as Yong Chun.

Per legend, Qīniáng's father knew the Southern Chinese martial arts and taught them to his daughter. One day, Qīniáng was doing her chores, a crane landed nearby. Qīniáng tried to scare the bird off using a stick and the skills she had learned from her father, but whatever she did, the crane would counter and/or deflect the attacks. [8] [ additional citation(s) needed ]

Much like Wing Chun, White Crane Kung Fu is too touted as having fighting elements that make it ideal for women's self-defense training because the movements do not require great strength. [8]

The technical similarities between Wing Chun and Fujian White Crane suggest that they are related. According to Ip Man's student, Leung Ting: "[The] Wing Tsun System is derived from the Fukien System of kung fu. Their common features are that during fights, pugilists of these systems prefer short steps and close fighting, with their arms placed close to the center, their elbows in and behind the arm and kept close to the flanks to offer it protection. Another characteristic of these two systems of kung fu is, unlike those of Kwangtung Province and Northern China, their boxing forms are rather simple". [9] Both styles also both styles emphasize evasion and attack an opponent's vulnerabilities instead of using physical strength.

Li Wenmao (李文茂), an opera performer and leader of the 18541856 Red Turban Rebellion in Foshan, is said to have been a Wing Chun White Crane practitioner.

Redboat Opera Company

Red Boat troupes had been an important platform for Wing Chun to build on in Guangdong, and some of the most famous Red Boat Performers such as Leung Lan Kui, leung Yee Tei, and Wong Wah Bo were all grand masters of Guangdong Wing Chun. [10]

Nearly all extant lineages of Wing Chun, except the Pao Fa Lien (刨花蓮) and Hek Ki Boen branches, claim to descend from the members of the mid-19th-century Red Boat Opera Company (紅船戲班). All Wing Chun descends from six Opera Boat members who were taught by Leung Bok-Chao from 1845 to 1855: Yik Kam, Hung Gan Biu, Leung Yee-Tai, Wong Wa-bo, Dai Fa Min Kam and Law Man Kung. Leung Yee-Tai used a pole to steer the Red Opera Boat away from rocks and shoals, and was chosen by Shaolin master Jee Shim to learn the six-and-a-half point pole. Through Jee Shim, the six-and-a-half point pole was added to the Wing Chun system. Leung Yee-Tai and Wong Wa-bo taught Leung Jan, whose students included his son, Leung Bik (梁壁); "Wooden Man" Wah (木人華) and Chan Wah-shun (陳華順, nicknamed "Moneychanger Wah" 找錢華), from whom the Ip Man, Yiu Kai and Pan Nam lineages descend.

"Dai Fa Min" Kam (大花面錦), who played the role of the martial painted face, is the ancestor of the Way Yan lineage. The Yuen Kay Shan and Pan Nam branches descend from Wong Wah-bo and "Dai Fa Min" Kam. Hung Gun Biu (紅巾彪) passed the art to his son-in-law, Yin Lee-Chung, and the Wang (王) family.

In the Red Boat Opera Company the virtuous female was played by Yik Kam (翼金), better known as Ching-Deng Kam because of the role he played. Cho Shun (曹順), who played the Little Martial (小武) role, was a student of Yik Kam. By passing the art on to his son, Cho Dak-Sang (曹德生), Cho Shun established the Wing Chun lineage of the Cho family from the village of Panyu. [11] [10]

Espionage and assassination

Opera performance Vancouver Cantonese Opera Extravaganza 22May2005 - 11 crop.jpeg
Opera performance

According to one theory, opponents of the Qing dynasty used the Red Boat Opera Company as a cover to disguise themselves as a troupe of traveling entertainers. Their identities as Chinese opera performers provided cover for martial-arts training, but the flashy moves of opera-style martial arts were not suited to espionage and assassination. Although assassinations would be carried out with poison or knives, their targets were usually protected by bodyguards. Wing Chun was reportedly designed to deal with an opponent who seized rather than struck, silencing the opponent immediately. This would explain technical aspects of Wing Chun, such as its emphasis on close-range combat, trapping and its strikes to the throat and diaphragm. [12]

Tiandihui connection

Leung Jan was associated with Tiandihui via one of his teachers, Leung Yee-tai. Leung Jan had re-arranged the routine of Wing Chun based on the concept of harmony between heaven and earth - which the Tiandhui society was named after. There are only three basic routines in Wing Chun - "Shen Qiao", "Biao Zhi" and "Small Thoughts"; their respective action features correspond to heaven, earth and people. The mastery of the three basic routines becomes Tiandiren and the "Wooden Stake Method"; also known as the "108-style Wooden Stake Method". [13]

Further reading

Notes

  Chinese Pinyin Cantonese Yale  
Yim Wing Chun 嚴詠春yán yǒngchūnyim4 wing2 cheun1
Yongchun永春yǒngchūnwing5 cheun1literally "Everlasting Spring," the name of a town and its surrounding county in the prefecture of Quanzhou, Fujian Province known for its White Crane boxing
Wing Chun Bak Hok Kuen永春白鶴拳yǒngchūn báihèquánwing5 cheun1 baak6 hok6 kyun4the style of White Crane boxing associated with the town of Yongchun, Fujian
Fong Chut-Neung方七娘fāng qīniángfong1 chat1 neung4 Minnan: hng1 chhit1 nia5
Fong Wing Chun方詠春fāng yǒngchūnfong1 wing2 cheun1
Leung Jan 梁贊liáng zànleung4 jaan3
Wong Wah-bo 黃華寶huáng huábǎowong4 wa4 bou2
Leung Yee-Tai 梁二娣liáng èrtìleung4 yi6 tai5
Leung Chun梁春liáng chūnleung4 cheun1
Leung Bik 梁壁liáng bìleung4 bik1
Chan Wah-Shun 陳華順chén huáshùnchan4 wa4 seun6nicknamed "Moneychanger Wah" (找錢華)
"Dai Fa Min" Kam大花面錦dàhuāmiàn jǐndaai6 fa1 min6 gam2"Painted Face" Kam
"Hung Gun" Biu紅巾彪hóngjīn biāohung4 gan1 biu1"Red Bandanna" Biu or "Red Turban" Biu; the red turban, or red bandanna, was initially a symbol of opposition to the rule of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty that was revived by opponents of the Manchu Qing Dynasty
"Dai Dong Fung"大東風dàdōngfēngdaai6 dung1 fung1"Great East Wind"
Pao Fa Lien刨花蓮pàohuā liánpaau4 fa1 lin4"Wood-Planer Lien"
Yik Kam翼金yì jīn better known as "Ching-Deng" Kam (??金; pinyin: "qingdan" jīn) because he played the role of the virtuous "female"
Cho Shun曹順cáo shùn 
Cho Dak-Sang曹德生cáo déshēngchou4 dak1 saang1

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References

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