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Southern Chinese Kung Fu - Wing Chun

'Wing Chun' means 'Beautiful Springtime' 

History

'Wing Chun' kung fu was developed in southern China about 250-300 years ago. 

During the reign of Emperor 'K'anghsi' of the Qing Dynasty (1662-1722), the Shaolin monastery, in the Fukien province, had become very powerful through Kung Fu training. The Manchurian government was afraid of an uprising and sent troops to destroy the Shaolin temple. However, it was internal treachery that sealed the fate of the monastery (also read the history of 'Hung Gar'), with traitorous monks setting it on fire. Only a handful of monks managed to escape the onslaught of the Manchurian army. 'Ng Mui', a Buddhist Nun and Grand master of Shaolin kung fu and the creator of the 'Wing Chun' kung fu system was one of them. When the Qing army destroyed the Shaolin temple, it is said that the traitor had taught them the Shaolin kung fu system. 'Ng Mui' later developed a system of kung fu designed to overcome the Shaolin systems that the Manchurian army had learned.

Her ideas of close combat were totally different from the Shaolin system of that time. She left out many of the old traditions, which often required years of dedicated practice at each stage, and started to develop a new system based on the principles of winning at all costs, using speed and subtlety to overcome an opponents' natural advantages. Her system had less stress on strength and flexibility. The emphasis lay in sudden contraction and relaxation causing one to explode into action with natural weapons such as finger jabs to the eyes, elbow strikes to the face and the powerful use of the knees and feet to the opponents lower body. 

'Ng Mui' later met a young woman named 'Yim Wing Chun', who was just fifteen years old. Little is known of 'Yim Wing Chun's childhood, other than her mother died when she was in her teens and her father, 'Yim Yee', was falsely accused of a crime. They had moved to the mountain 'Tai Leung' along the border of Yunan and Szechwan provinces. Here they set up a shop. 'Yim Wing Chun' was a beautiful and intelligent young woman but soon attracted the attention of the local bully, who wanted to marry her and tried to rape her. 'Ng Mui' took 'Yim Wing Chun' into the mountains and taught her the techniques of the new kung fu system. Under 'Ng Mui's direction, 'Yim Wing Chun', studied kung fu and mastered the style. 

'Yim Wing Chun', like 'Ng Mui', knew that in a street situation the male aggressor is already emotionally unstable and therefore the female has to respond, using his strength to her advantage. She then returned to the village and defeated the local bully. After this event 'Ng Mui' named the new style, 'Wing Chun' after her pupil. 

'Yim Wing Chun' passed on her skills to her husband and he in turn taught his brother. The system was passed on to many others to become the popular martial art it is today. Wing Chun continued to fight for the overthrow of the Manchurian government until her death, keeping a promise to her mentor 'Ng Mui'.

Kung Fu

'Wing Chun' kung fu is a style that uses a lot of attacks with the hands to the face and upper body, following up eachother rapidly. In this style the leg techniques are usually no higher than the waist of the adversary.

A typical aspect of the 'Wing Chun' system is the use of a wooden dummy ('Mook Jong') during the training. (This is made popular by the 'Wing Chun' system, but not unique to this system.) 

The earliest forms of wooden dummies probably were simple erected wooden stakes being used as fictional opponents. Later, the early founders of' Wing Chun' gradually improved the basic dummy until it had three arms and one leg. Simultaneously, other Northern and Southern styles developed the basic wooden dummy into various structures designed to suit specific purposes. 

As the structure of the 'Wing Chun Mook Jong' was evolving over time, the multiple techniques being used for training were refined. The original wooden dummy techniques taught during the early years of grandmaster 'Yip Man' (Teacher of the famous 'Bruce Lee') consisted of 140 movements divided into 10 discrete sections. Later on, when 'Yip Man' began teaching in Hong Kong, he felt these 140 movements to be quite numerous and complicated. He therefore rearranged them into 108 movements. 

However, through his experience of years, Yip Man found out that these 108 movements did not include some essential parts of the wooden dummy techniques. This is how the training set evolved into the 116 movements known today. 

(Click on the pictures to enlarge...)

Systems 

Throughout the history of 'Wing Chun', many have studied the system and mastered it. Then they have passed along their teachings. Each master brought to 'Wing Chun' some of their own insight, experience, and style. As a result, over the generations, several styles of 'Wing Chun' have evolved : 

Cho Ga Wing Chun Kuen 
Fut Sao Wing Chun Kuen 
Gulao Wing Chun Kuen
Hei Ban Wing Chun Kuen 
Hung Fa Yee Wing Chun Kuen 
Hung Suen Wing Chun Kuen 
Jee Shim Wing Chun Kuen 
Jiu Wan Wing Chun Kuen 
Lee Shing Wing Chun Kuen 
Mai Gei Wong Wing Chun Kuen 
Pan Nam Wing Chun Kuen 
Sum Nung Wing Chun Kuen
Yip Kin Wing Chun Kuen (Malaysia) 
Yiu Choi Wing Chun Kuen 
Yip Man Wing Chun Kuen (Hong Kong) 
Yuen Chai-Wan Wing Chun Kuen (Vietnam)