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Wing Chun
(Contributor: Marty Goldberg - gungfu@csd4.csd.uwm.edu)
Intro:
One of the most popular forms of Gongfu.
Origin: China
History:
Wing Chun was an obscure and little known art until the mid twentieth
century. While multiple histories of the art do exist (some with
only minor discrepancies), the generally accepted version is thus:
The style traces its roots back over 250 years ago to the Southern
Shaolin Temple. At that time, the temple a was sanctuary to the
Chinese revolution that was trying to overthrow the ruling Manchu.
A classical martial arts system was taught in the temple which
took 15-20 years to produce an efficient fighter.
Realizing they needed to produce efficent fighters at a faster
pace, five of China's grandmasters met to discuss the merits of
each of the various forms of gongfu. They chose the most efficient
techniques, theories and principles from the various styles and
proceeded to develop a training program that produced an efficent
fighter in 5-7 years.
Before the program was put into practice, the Southern temple
was raided and destroyed. A lone nun, Ng Mui, was the only survivor
who knew the full system. She wandered the countryside, finally
taking in a young orphan girl and training her in the system.
She named the girl Yimm Wing Chun (which has been translated to
mean Beautiful Springtime, or Hope for the Future), and the two
women set out refining the system.
The system was passed down through the years, and eventually
became known as Wing Chun, in honor of the founder. The veil of
secrecy around the art was finally broken in the early 1950's
when Grandmaster Yip Man began teaching publicly in Hong Kong,
and his students began gaining noteriety for besting many systems
and experienced opponents in streetfights and "friendly" competitions.
The art enjoyed even more popularity when one of its students,
Bruce Lee, began to enjoy world wide fame.
Description:
Most important is the concept of not using force against force,
which allows a weak fighter to overcome stronger opponents. Generally,
a Wing Chun practitioner will seek to use his opponent's own force
against him. A great deal of training is put in to this area,
and is done with the cultivation of a concept called Contact Reflexes
(see "Training").
Also of importance are the use of several targeting ideas in
Wing Chun. The Mother Line is an imaginary pole running vertically
through the center of your body. From the Mother Line emanates
the Center Line, which is a vertical 3D grid that divides the
body in to a right half and a left half. Most of the vital points
of the body are along the Center Line, and it is this area that
the Wing Chun student learns to protect as well as work off of
in his own offensive techniques. Also emanating from the Mother
Line is the Central Line. The Central Line is seen as the shortest
path between you and your opponent, which is generally where most
of the exchange is going to take place. Because of this linear
concept, most of the techniques seek to occupy one of the two
lines and take on a linear nature.
This leads to the expression of another very important concept
in Wing Chun: "Economy of Motion". The analogy of a mobile tank
with a turret (that of course shoots straight out of the cannon)
is often used to describe the linear concept.
Only two weapons are taught in the system, the Dragon Pole and
the Butterfly swords. These are generally taught only once the
student has a firm foundation in the system.
Training:
The way the art produces efficent and adaptble fighters in a
relatively short time is by sticking to several core principles
and constantly drilling them in to the student, as well as taking
a very generic approach to techniques. Instead of training a response
to a specific technique, the student practices guarding various
zones about the body and dealing genericly with whatever happens
to be in that zone. This allows for a minimum of technique for
a maximum of application, and for the use of automatic or "subconcious"
responses.
Much training time is spent cultivating "Contact Reflexes". The
idea is that at the moment you contact or "touch" your opponent,
your body automaticaly reads the direction, force, and often intent
of the part of the opponent's body you are contacting with and
automatically (subconciously) deals with it accordingly. This
again lends itself to the generic concept of zoning.
Contact Reflexes and the concept of not using force against force
are taught and cultivated through unique two man sensitivity drills
called Chi Sao.
The concepts of guarding and working off of these lines and zones
are learned throught the practice of the three forms Wing Chun
students learn, and which contain the techniques of the system:
Shil Lum Tao, Chum Kil, and Bil Jee.
Another unique aspect of the system is the use of the Mook Jong,
or wooden dummy, a wood log on a frame that has three "arms" and
a "leg" to simulate various possible positions of an opponent's
limbs. A wooden dummy form is taught to the student, that consists
of 108 movements and is meant to introduce the student to various
applications of the system. It also serves to help the student
perfect his own skills.
Weapons training drills off the same generic ideas and concepts
as the open hand system (including the use of Contact Reflexes).
Many of the weapon movements are built off of or mimic the open
hand moves (which is the reverse process of Kali/Escrima/Arnis,
where weapon movements come first and open hand movements mimic
these).
Sub-Styles:
Currently, there exist several known substyles of Wing Chun.
Separate from Yip Man are the various other lineages that descended
from one of Yip Man's teachers, Chan Wah Shun. These stem from
the 11 or so other disciples that Chan Wah Shun had before Yip
Man.
Pan Nam Wing Chun (currently discussed here and in the martial
arts magazines) is currently up for debate, with some saying a
totally separate lineage, and others saying he's from Chan Wah
Shun's lineage.
Red Boat Wing Chun is a form dating back from when the art resided
on the infamous Red Boat Opera Troup boat. Little is known about
the history of this art or its validity.
At the time of Yip Man's death in 1972, his lineage splintered
in to many sub-styles and lineages. Politics played into this
splintering a great deal, and provided much news in the martial
arts community throughout the 70's and 80's. By the time the late
80's/early 90's rolled around, there were several main families
in Yip Man's lineage. To differentiate each lineage's unique style
of the art, various spellings or wordings of the art were copyrighted
and trademarked (phonetically, Wing Chun can be spelled either
as Wing Chun, Wing Tsun, Ving Tsun, or Ving Chun). These main
families and spellings are:
Wing Tsun -- Copyrighted and Trademarked by Grandmaster Leung
Ting. Used to describe the system he learned as Grandmaster Yip
Man's last direct student before his death. Governing body is
the International Wing Tsun Association, and the North American
Section in the U.S. (IWTA-NAS).
Traditional Wing Chun -- Copyrighted and Trademarked by Grandmaster
William Cheung. Used to describe a very different version of Wing
Chun he learned while living with Yip Man in the 1950's. Includes
different history of lineage as well. Governing body is the World
Wing Chun Kung Fu Association.
Ving Tsun - Used by other students of Yip Man, such as Moy Yat.
This spelling was considered the main one used by Grandmaster
Yip Man as well. It is also used by many of the other students,
and was adopted for use in one of the main Wing Chun associations
in Hong Kong -- The Ving Tsun Athletic Organization.
Wing Chun - General spelling used by just about all practitioners
of the art.
A World Wide listing of Wing Chun Kwoons (schools) is maintained
by Marty Goldberg (gungfu@csd4.csd.uwm.edu)
and posted periodically to rec.martial-arts.
A mailing list (open to all students of Wing Chun) is also maintained
by Marty and Rob Gillespe at majordomo@efn.org
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