Wing Tsun History
Part 1: WingTsun, "Beautyful Spring" – the story of a fascinating martial art
Part 2: Ng Mui creates a new fighting system
Part 3: From Yim Wing Tsun to Wong Wah Bo
Part 4: Leung Jan, the "King of Wing Tsun"
Part 5: Chan Wah Shun, Yip Man's first teacher
Part 6: Moving East to West
Part 7: British Addition
Chan Wah Shun, Yip Man's first teacher
Though Wah the Money Changer was not educated, he made rapid progress in learning Wing Tsun Kung-fu from his master Leung Jan, simply by his perseverence and determination. He was a man of the market and thus was in close contact with people of the lower class, who were fond of fighting. This gave him more opportunities to improve his skills in the art of fighting. Before long his fame spread and reached the ears of the officials of the Manchu Government.
It was the time when the Manchus had been ruling the Chinese for over two hundred years and were being gradually assimilated into the Chinese culture. The barrier between the Manchu race and the Han race was breaking down, as shown in diminishing national feeling against the Manchus and more and more people of the Han race were taking up official positions in the Ching Government. On the other hand, the Ching Government of the Manchu reace, after ruling the Chinese for over two centuries and having enjoyed much of the Chinese way of life, was becoming corrupt race. As a result, invasion from foreign countries increased year after year. Concessions of land, war indemnities in silver to foreign powers, all led to the weakening of the country. One way to restore the strength of the country was to re-inforce its military. That was, to streghten the "Soldiers of the Eight Banners", as the Manchu forces were called. It was for this reason that Wah the Money Changer was invited to take up the post of Chief Instructor to the Soldiers of the Eight Banners, a post much admired and respected.
However, Wah the Money Changer, being the successor of Leung Jan, did not regard it as an honour to be the Chief Instructor of the Manchu soldiers. He, like his master, regarded teaching kung-fu as an amateur pastime, not as his profession.
He did not have a fixed site for his gymnasium. He rented one for this purpose. During his thirty-six years of teaching kung-fu, he had althogether adopted sixteen students, among whom one was his own son, Chan Yu Min. His son Chan Yu Min was a wayward child, and, being spoiled by his parents, indulged in fighting with local juvenile deliquents, much to the displeasure of his father. For this reason, his father hesitated to teach him the most advanced skills of the Wing Tsun System, but instead, his father taught them to his daughter-in-law. As a result, Chan Yu Min's wife was much better skilled than he and he had later to learn from his wife what he did not learn from his father. However, he was particularly skilled in one technique, that was, the Six-and-a-half Point Long Pole Techniques. His competence in this was confirmed by this gaining the title of "King of the Pole of Seven Provinces" which was conferred on him after his performances in "Martial Arts Tournaments of Seven Provinces", in which he was also bestowed with a memorial pole, thick as his arm, engraved with his title "King of the Pole of Seven Provinces". He put this pole at the gate of his own gymnasium at its inauguration some years later to attract students.
Among the students of Wah the Money Changer, the most remarkable was Ng Chung So, his second disciple, who had learnt from him all his skills, and who later became his helpful assistant until his death.
In his later years, when he was over seventy years old, Wah rented the ancestral temple of the Yip's clansmen from a wealthy merchant as a site for teaching Wing Tsun Kung-fu. It was here that he adopted his sixteenth, and the last disciple, who was at that time, thirteen years of age, and destined to be the heir-successor of the Wing Tsun System, and to spread the techniques of Wing Tsun from a small town to all parts of the world. However, he himself was not aware of this, and during the final stages of his life, reminded his second disciple Ng Chung So to take good care of that little boy, his youngest kung-fu brother.
Expanding the Craft
At the age of 15 Yip man moved to Hong Kong with help from Leung Fut Ting, a relative. At age sixteen, Yip Man attended school at St. Stephen's College in Hong Kong. It was a secondary school for wealthy families and foreigners who lived in Hong Kong. According to Yip Man's two sons, while at St. Stephen's Yip Man intervened after seeing a foreign police officer beating a woman. The story goes that the Police officer tried to strike Yip Man who used his martial arts to strike the officer down, at which point Yip Man and his classmate ran to school. The classmate is said to have told an older man who lived in his apartment block. Yip Man was invited to see this man and the man asked Yip Man what martial art he studied. The man then asked Yip Man to show him his first 2 forms (Sil Lim Tao and Chun Kiu). The man then told Yip man that his forms were "not too great.". Yip Man was then invited to Chi Sau (a form of training that involves controlled attack and defence), Yip Man saw this as an opportunity to prove his Kung Fu was good, but he was beaten after just a few strikes. It turned out that the old man was his master's elder fellow-disciple (and so, by Chinese tradition Yip Man's martial uncle), Leung Bik, son of his master's master Leung Jan. After that encounter, Yip Man continued his training lessons from Leung Bik. By the age of 24, Yip Man had returned to Foshan, his Wing Chun skills tremendously improved.
In Foshan, Yip Man became a policeman. He did not formally run a Wing Chun school, but taught several of his subordinates, his friends and relatives. Amongst those informal students, Lok Yiu, Chow Kwong-yue, Kwok Fu, Lun Kai, Chan Chi-sun and Lui Ying were amongst the most well-known. Chow Kwong-yue was said to be the best student among his peers, but eventually he went into commerce and dropped out of martial arts all together. Kwok Fu and Lun Kai went on to teach students of their own. Wing Chun in the Foshan and Guangdong area was mainly passed down from these two individuals. Chan Chi-sun died young, and Lui Ying went to Hong Kong. Neither of them took any students.
Yip Man went to Kwok Fu's village house during the Japanese Occupation. He only returned to Foshan after the war, to once again take up the job of a police officer. At the end of 1949, after the Communist party won the Chinese civil war, being an officer of the Kuomintang, he decided to escape to Hong Kong without his family when the Communists had come to Foshan.
In Hong Kong, he opened a martial arts school. Initially, business was poor because his students typically stayed for only a couple of months. He moved his school twice, to Hoi Tan Street in Sham Shui Po, and then to Lee Tat Street in Yau Ma Tei. By then, some of his students were skilled enough that they were able to start their own schools. Among the first were Leung Sheung, Lok Yiu, Chu Shong-tin, and Wong Shun Leung.
Some of Yip Man's students and descendants compared their skills with other martial artists in combat. Their victories over other martial artists helped to bolster Yip Man's reputation as a teacher.
In 1967, Yip Man and some of his students established the Hong Kong Ving Tsun Athletic Association. In 1972, Yip Man suffered throat cancer and subsequently died on the 2nd of December that same year.
Within the three decades of his career in Hong Kong, he established a training system for Wing Chun that eventually spread across the world.
Next: Moving East to West
