Dandridge Martial Arts School

The history of wing chun kung fu

This is adapted from the book: Close range combat- wing chun. by randy williams Volume 1

As all classical Chinese Gung Fu styles, the Wing Chun system can trace its roots back to the Siu Lum (Shaolin) temple, located at Sung Mountain in the Ho Nan province of China. During the period known as the Ching (Qing) Dynasty, also known as the Manchu rule, the temple became a place of refuge for rebel forces—Ming patriots sworn to overthrow the Ching regime who had themselves overthrown the benevolent Ming government previously in power.

The Siu Lum monastery offered a safe haven for the patriots, who identified each other by use of a secret hand gesture that has since become closely identified with Chinese Gung Fu—an open left hand clasped over the closed right fist. This was meant to signify one’s affiliation to the rebel cause by representing to the observer the image of sun and moon—the two elements that make up the Chinese character for Ming. This secret hand sign system was very similar to urban American “gang signs,” used today to represent or identify certain gang members, but was devised over 300 years ago!

As time passed, Manchu rulers learned of the Siu Lum monastery’s sympathy for and aid to the Ming patriots through the treachery of a monk named Ma Ling Yee, who knew of the temple’s weak point and aided the Chings by setting fire to the temple. Many of the monks perished in that fire, which took place in approximately 1674 AD, but among the survivors were the “Five Elders”; Jee Seen, Fung Doh Tak, Pak Mei, Miu Heen and the Buddhist nun Ng Mui. One of the more widely accepted versions of the many accounts of Wing Chun’s origins says that Ng Mui fled to a place called Bock Hock Gwoon—“White Crane” temple, which was located on Tai Leung Mountain. On one of her frequent visits to the village below, she met a beautiful young girl named Yim Wing Chun who, with her father Yim Yee, sold bean curd in that village. Bean curd, being a vegetarian staple, was a common sustenance for monks and nuns at that time, so Ng Mui became a regular customer of Yim Wing Chun and her father.

It was through their close relationship that Ng Mui learned of a certain malevolent landowner who had been attracted by the beauty of the young Yim Wing Chun, and who was demanding her hand in marriage despite the fact that she was already promised to marry another, and that both she and her father refused to allow any breach of the betrothal. As the landowner, whose name was Wong, had already threatened bodily harm to both Yim Wing Chun and her father, Ng Mui decided to take Yim Wing Chun as a student and revealed to her the secret complex fighting system she had mastered at the monastery—her own combination of  techniques from the various styles of Gung Fu taught at the Siu Lum temple. The techniques that Ng Mui had selected were those that relied more on speed and agility, rather than muscular strength. For these, she is reputed to have drawn heavily from the Snake and Crane forms of Shaolin Gung Fu.

After learning enough of Ng Mui’s scientific fighting system to ensure victory, Yim Wing Chun returned to her village and, using her newfound skills challenged and soundly defeated Wong. She then went on to marry her intended fiancée, Leung Bock Sau, and continued to practice and improve on the fighting system passed on to her by Ng Mui. The resulting style was then named “Wing Chun Kuen” by her husband, as tribute to those improvements and refinements made by Yim Wing Chun. Leung Bock Sau eventually taught the system to a man called Leung Lon Gwai, who in turn passed the art down to Wong Wa Boh, who was a performer in the Chinese opera that was based on board a ship called the Hung Shuen, or the “Red Boat” Coincidentally, also among the members of this traveling troupe was another of the “Five Elders” Master Jee Seen, who was in hiding and serving as the ship’s cook. Jee Seen, during this period, instructed another member of the troupe, Leung Yee Tai, in the use of the Long Pole.

After having mastered the pole technique,  Leung Yee Tai went on to learn the art of Wing Chun Kuen from his friend Wong Wa Boh. Later, the pole technique that Leung Yee Tai had learned from Jee Seen was incorporated into the Wing Chun system, adding the “Look Deem Boon” Gwun to the art.

From Leung Yee Tai, the art was then passed on to a physician of the village of Fatshan in the Kwangtung province whose name was Leung Jan. Leung Jan gained much notoriety throughout the province as a skillful fighter who defeated all challengers. One of Leung Jan’s top pupils was a man named Chan Wa Soon, whose nickname was Wun Cheen Wa, which translates as “Money Changer Wa.” He gained this nickname because he operated a money-changing stall just next to Leung Jan’s Pharmacy in Fatshan.

Chan Wa Soon went on to teach the Wing Chun system in Fatshan in the years that followed and even became a chief instructor of martial arts to the military. While in his seventies, he rented the ancestral temple of the Yip clansmen for the purpose of teaching the art of Wing Chun. Among his many students, a young man of thirteen by the name of Yip Man began training. Although Yip Man was from a family of means, he nevertheless used money from his own savings to pay the rather high tuition fees charged by the renowned Master Chan. Yip Man continued to train under Chan until Chan’s death, when Yip Man was sixteen years of age.

At that time, Yip Man left Fatshan and relocated to Hong Kong to study in a European school, St. Stephens, where it is said that he often fought and defeated his European schoolmates in fights. Through a friend, Yip Man was introduced to an older man who was reputed to be a highly skillful Gung Fu fighter and wanted to challenge him to a fight. The man, introduced to the young Yip only as “Mr. Leung,” knew of Yip Man’s reputation as a fighter as well as the fact that Master Chan Wa Soon had instructed Yip in Wing Chun. Yip Man, being anxious for the fight, never thought twice about the fact that this man seemed to know quite a bit about his background. But after being beaten soundly by the man, Yip learned the man’s true identity. He was none other than Leung Bick, the son of Leung Jan and fellow Gung Fu brother to Chan Wa Soon, Yip Man’s own instructor! Yip Man began training under Leung Bick and eventually learned the entire system as passed down by Leung Jan to his son. By the time he was twenty-four years old, Yip Man had attained a very high skill level in Wing Chun. He then returned to his native village of Fatshan, where he remained until after the second World War, when he went back to Hong Kong and lived in relative squalor by comparison to the wealthy standard to which he had been accustomed as a young man.

In the year 1949, Yip Man began teaching the art of Wing Chun to the public. As the last known surviving heir to the system outside of China, Yip Man became the Grandmaster of Wing Chun. Among Yip’s many pupils was the young Bruce Lee who went on to achieve world fame and notoriety. Other well-known students of Yip Man include Ho Kam Ming, Tsui Seung Tin, the late Wong Shun Leung, Lee Sing, Leung Ting, the late Moy Yat, Wong Gee Wing and many others. He also trained his two sons, Yip Chun and Yip Ching in the art of Wing Chun. They are both still very active in the teaching of their father’s art at the time of this writing. In 1972, Grandmaster Yip Man was diagnosed as having cancer of the throat. Although he bravely fought the debilitating effects of cancer, he finally succumbed to the deadly disease on December 2 of that same year.

Nowadays, due to the efforts of Yip Man and his many students, the art of Wing Chun has flourished throughout the world and its followers continue to increase in number.