Nino bernardo

Some thoughts on the history and legends of Wing chun

Nino Bernardo introduces guest columnist Eddie Yuen

Nino Bernardo says:

I am pleased to introduce Eddie Yuen in this column. He is a long-term martial artist, with a deep knowledge of Chinese culture. He calls himself my student, but every time I look at him the word “sifu” is on the tip of my tongue. As well as his deep experience of martial arts, he is a wise person and the historian of our group. If anyone ever asks me about Yip Man or the Shaolin Temple, I tell them that I don´t know because I wasn´t there and introduce them to Eddie.

Eddie Yuen says:

I first met Nino in 1992 when I was looking for a wing chun teacher to help further my studies. I realized that I had found the right sifu at the first meeting. He is not only a remarkable person but a hugely talented teacher with an enormous amount of knowledge of martial arts. His teaching method is dynamic, creative, philosophical, and yet extremely practical. He always analyses a student's strength, weakness, personality and learning ability to tailor a training program for the individual.

It is very rare to find a genuine sifu today. The term was originally a general title used to describe senior government officials in imperial times. Nowadays people who are good at arts or handicrafts are also called sifu. In order to become a sifu at martial arts one must have excellent techniques and possess an in-depth knowledge of the style, including its history and meaning. One must also know basic Chinese chiropractic practice, first aid and herbal treatments. Last but not least, the most important quality involves martial ethics. If a sifu just teaches brutal fighting techniques and encourages aggressiveness without teaching morality, his students may cause problems for society.

Over the years, I have conducted a great deal of research into the history of Chinese martial arts, or wushu, also known informally as kung fu. I believe that the history of wushu has been mystified through the ages because of a lack of records in the orthodox history books, embellishment in chivalric fiction and martial arts romances and because some schools attributed their foundation to characters in fictional literature.

Almost every wing chun practitioner knows a few legends. In Hong Kong, most practitioners subscribe to the following story: In the Qing dynasty, the imperial court burnt down the Shaolin Temple in Futian County (Fujian Province) and hunted down its monks and secular disciples. One of the secular disciples, Yan Si (Yim Sei), escaped with his daughter Yong Chun (Wing Chun) and they eked out a poor existence as tofu sellers. A local tyrant tried to force Wing Chun to marry him, but she asked to be given a reprieve of three months.

During this time, Grandmistress Wu Mei (Ng Mui) happened to be passing by, so she taught Wing Chun her fighting skills. Three months later, Wing Chun beat that tyrant and named a new school of martial arts after herself. One cannot help but think that if someone could become so good at martial arts after a mere three months the bully must have been an invalid!

In 1987, my late grandmaster Wong Shun Leung gave a lecture in the Basement in London. He pointed out then that the above story had been made up by a journalist who was a disciple of grandmaster Yip Man. The purpose of the story was to raise the notability of wing chun, which was not very well known in Hong Kong at the time. In fact, Ng Mui is a fictional character from a novel.

Between 1998 and 2001, I went to Foshan in southern China three times to search of the true roots of wing chun, which is a style of wushu which was developed in this region. I discovered that the original style of wing chun was called hang tan wing chun. It has been succeeded by chan wah sung, which was the style taught by grandmaster Yip Man in Hong Kong after the Chinese revolution. This style is the most established in the world. Nino´s teacher, Wong Shun Leung, was one of Yip Man´s most senior and talented students in this style.

Opera wing chun is a style practised by Chinese opera actors in South East Asia as well as in China. Meanwhile, hok saan gu lo wing chun does not have any standard forms, only individual techniques. Another style, commonly known as snake style wing chun, has replaced the traditional wooden dummy with a wall-mounded box fitted with flexible plastic sticks. Another style uses a knowledge of Chinese chiropractics to study the attack of nerve points.

In my travels, I also discovered information about a wushu style called yong chun quan, which originated from the Yong Chun Hall of the Shaolin Temple. This style bears striking similarities to wing chun, not least in the name and the formal syllabus. Are they related? If so, wing chun could have always been a style within the repertoire of Shaolin Temple's fighting skills and any other legends would have little credibility.

The name Shaolin is derived from the Shao Suc (Shao Shi) mountains. The first Shaolin monastery was built inside the woodland at the bottom of the north Wu Ru mountain in the region. The name refers to its location.

There are a total of 11 Shaolin monasteries in China, most of which practice martial arts. The most well-known Shaolin monastery is in Shong Shian in He Nan province, which is known as Bei (North) Shaolin. At one time, the monastery consisted of more than 5,000 buildings covering a large area, housing more than 1,000 monks. There is another famous Shaolin monastery, known as Nan (South) Shaolin, built on the Jiou Lian mountain in the Pu Tian region of the Fu Jian province.

For many people it is puzzling why religious people would practice lethal fighting techniques. The reason is because the monks organised the monasteries into separate departments for finance, facilities, maintenance, catering and so on. They also had a security division. Specifically the monks who worked in security specialised in martial arts in order to protect the monastery from robbery and invasion. At various times, they also fought for the emperor and travelled long distances across hostile terrain to collect rent from tenant farmers.

We can safely say that wushu was not invented in the Shaolin temple. I believe that wushu was developed very early on in Chinese pre-history for hunting and war. In my opinion, the Shaolin monks deserve credit for distilling the experience of earlier fighters into complete and systematic routines, classifying them into categories and clearing away impurities.

Wing chun is based on an in-depth study of the movements and coordination of the human body in fighting. This means that it is not very entertaining in demonstration, unlike some of the performance styles which borrow gestures from animals. In fact, I would prefer to watch the monkey style in a demonstration rather than wing chun.

This article is a heavily abridged compilation of several articles. The original articles can be found on the Oxford Wing Chun website on http://users.softpress.com/oxfordwingchun/

Nino Bernardo and Eddie Yuen will be available to discuss these ideas in further depth at Nino´s regular seminars in London. Further details are available on www.ninobernardo.com

Nino Bernardo will introduce Guy Cofie in his next column