What is Wing Tsun
Wing Chun was originally passed down from teacher to
student orally
rather than through written documentation, making it difficult to
confirm or clarify the differing accounts of its creation. Some have
sought to apply the methods of higher criticism to the oral histories
of Wing Chun and other Chinese martial arts.
Others have attempted to discern the origins of Wing Chun by
determining the specific purpose of its techniques. Mentions of the art
start to appear in independent third-party documentation during the era
of the Wing Chun master Leung Jan, making its subsequent history and
divergence into various branches more amenable to documentary
verification.
The common legend as told by Ip
Maninvolves
the young woman Yim Wing Chun (Wing Chun literally means beautiful
springtime or praising spring) at the time after the destruction of the
Southern Shaolin
and its associated temples by the Qing government. After Wing Chun
rebuffs the local warlord's marriage offer, he says he'll rescind his
proposal if she can beat him in a martial art match. She asks a
Buddhist nun- Ng Mui, who was one of the Shaolin Sect survivors, to
teach her boxing; this still nameless style enables Yim Wing Chun to
defeat the warlord. She thereafter marries Leung Bac-Chou and teaches
him the style, which he names after her.
It should be noted that the system was developed during
the Shaolin
and Ming resistance movement against the Qing Dynasty, and thus many
legends about the creator of Wing Chun were spread to confuse the
enemy, including the story of Yim Wing Chun. This perhaps explains why
no one has been able to accurately determine the creator or creators of
Wing Chun.
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