The history of Wing Chun can be traced back to the Ching dynasty, over 275 years ago. The Manchus, who made up about 10% of the population, ruled the Hans and created many restrictions to keep them dependent on the small ruling class.
Through the years, however, the Manchus gradually began to accept the Han culture and to respect the Sil Lum (Shaolin) Temple as a place of worship and sanctuary. Even so, to repress the Hans, the Manchus banned all weapons and martial arts training. Instead, the Hans began organizing secret rebel groups within the Sil Lum Temple.
Because the classical animal styles of kung fu took 15 to 20 years to master, it was necessary to develop a new style that would enable students to become proficient fighters in a much shorter time span. As the Manchu soldiers were often trained in classical kung fu styles, it was important that this new style be designed to be effective in neutralizing the existing techniques. Five kung fu masters pooled the knowledge of their own respective styles in order to come up with a new, more economical style, utilizing only the most effective methods of combat from each. What these five kung fu masters developed would create an efficient martial artist in only 3 to 5 years.
Before they could teach anyone the new style, a traitor within the temple opened the gates for the Manchu soldiers and the temple was burned to the ground. Only one master, a Sil Lum nun named Ng Mui, escaped. She later passed her knowledge on to a young orphan girl, who she named Yim Wing Chun (Beautiful Springtime) and who shared this knowledge with her husband, Leung Bok Cho. Through the years, the style became known as Wing Chun kung fu.
Important Takeaway for Practitioners...
What is important for practitioners to understand of our past lineage and history is why this art was created.
Wing Chun was created by five masters as a combat martial art for defense against Manchu warriors. These masters pooled the entire common concepts and principles of each other’s formidable systems to come up with one ultimately effective system. This system had to be learned in a short period of time and it had to be a system that could defeat all other existing styles, as the Manchu warriors were trained martial artists. The system could not rely on strength while the Hans were being repressed and had little food to survive.
These are the key elements that each practitioner should extract from the history.
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