What is Wing Chun Kung Fu
Wing Chun is a traditional martial art created in the 17th-18th Century by the southern Shaolin temple of China. According to Grandmaster Jiu Wan, Wing Chun used to be called the "Guardian Fist of Shaolin (少林鎮山拳)". It was only available to the leaders/elders of Shaolin Temple. Wing Chun was passed on to the Red Opera Boat (紅船) in China in the 18th Century. The Red Opera Boat was a secret headquarter for a Chinese secret society called the “Triad” . The secret society’s mission was to overthrow the Manchurian emperor and restore the Chinese Ming dynasty. The triad used Wing Chun to protect themselves from the Manchurian. The Martial Art system was later passed onto Leung Jan (梁贊), who was the famous Wing Chun fighter in China in the 18th Century. Leung Jan taught the famous Chan Wa Shun (陳華順), who passed on the Wing Chun Martial Art System to Yip Man (葉問). Grandmaster Yip Man brought Wing Chun to Hong Kong and made the martial art system famous in the whole wide world. What is the characteristic of Wing Chun Kung Fu Wing Chun is a self defence street fighting system. It has already taken into account that your opponent will be bigger, stronger and faster than you in street self defence situations (It is unlikely that someone smaller and weaker will attack you in the first place). The characteristic of Wing Chun is therefore a system that does not rely on practitioner’s natural born physical attributes (i.e. size, power, speed, reaction, etc). It is unlikely that practitioners can improve their natural born physical attributes significantly to overcome bigger and stronger opponent, as we all have limitation in our bodies. Wing Chun uses techniques that employ the following mechanism: To overcome power and speed - Wing Chun uses techniques that prohibit our opponents from generating speed and power. More advance techniques in Wing Chun also borrow and utilise opponents' power and aggression, and uses their power and aggression against them. To overcome our slower reaction than our opponents' – The Wing Chun martial art system has already taken into account that using our reaction to chase our opponents’ hands is not feasible. Our opponents will always move first and we will always be a step behind our opponents when we move after our opponents’ initiation of movement. Instead of using reaction to chase hands, Wing Chun uses different arms and body postures to cover different positions before our opponents starting to move. This is called “using shapes to cover spaces” (將形補位). Wing Chun Kung Fu also has many other mechanisms and methods – this is what Wing Chun Kung Fu relies on and it is called the Way of Wing Chun or Tao of Wing Chun (法度). |
The Red Opera Boat
Shaolin Temple
An old picture of Grandmaster Jiu Wan's School
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