About Ip Man Wing Chun
It is a great honour to be able to call Grandmaster Kwok my Sifu and my friend.
I owe Grandmaster Kwok a debt that I hope one day I can repay. The man is a legend and an inspiration and we discuss Wing Chun daily.
I would like to say a sincere thank you to Grandmaster Kwok for his patience and my development in Ip Man lineage Wing Chun.” - Sifu Adie Gray.
History Of Wing Chun
Fighting arts have been independently developed all over the world, but mention of Martial Arts automatically brings to mind the Chinese styles of Kung Fu. Although the Martial Arts in China have been recorded for thousands of years, the traditional beginnings of Kung Fu started with the Shaolin Temple; founded around the period 500 AD by a monk called Bodhidharma who introduced Zen Buddhism to China from India. It was at this time the Martial Arts became more of a secret knowledge, taught only to family or a very few select disciples, so preserving the arts through the generations.
Bodhidharma found that his disciples were not physically prepared for the extensive form of meditation that was an integral part of his teachings. An example of this is that Bodhidharma himself sat in front of a wall and meditated for nine years. As a person he was said to be very strict and possessed a fierce gaze.
Bodhidharma devised a set of excises primarily to prepare his disciples for their lessons, and later these developed self defence principles. So over the centuries the Shaolin monks through continual practice and progression developed a formidable fighting style of open hand and weapon techniques.
After the fall of the Ming Dynasty there came a period of oppression at the beginning of the 18th Century under the Manchu Emperors and so at this time the monks became more politically involved and more into the attention of the Government, who rightly feared their Martial ability.
All attempts to destroy the Temple were repelled by the defence's of the monks, and Emperor's forces met with little success until they were able to engage the help of a renegade monk, Ma Ning Yee, who not only laid open the plans of the Temple, with its secret passages but helped by starting a revolt inside the Temple and setting fires within.
So the destruction of the Shaolin Temple was brought about and most of the monks and disciples slain; amongst those who escaped were four monks and a nun, elders of the Shaolin Temple and known later as The Venerable Five. They were Pak Mei, Fung To Tak, Mui Hin, Chin Shin and Ng Mui the nun who was the eldest and most proficient in boxing skills.
Ng Mui instead of leading the revolt against the Manchu Government, preferred to wander the country keeping out of the turmoil that existed after the destruction of the Shaolin Temple. Finally Ng Mui settled at the White Crane Temple on Tai Leung Mountain. It was during this period that Ng Mui reflected upon the Shaolin style, now being taught to the Government troops, with its long swinging movements, exotic stances, complex forms and imaginative names, developed for the performance in front of audiences rather than actual practical application.
One day while walking the countryside Ng Mui witnessed a fight between a snake and a crane, the direct striking of the snake and simultaneous block and strike of the crane using wing and beak, always facing the opponent square on. Ng Mui instead of mimicking the animal movements, as with other styles, used more the concepts involved in the contest, directness, simplicity, conservation of energy, avoidance, never strength against strength, with more emphasis on technique than strength.
Ng Mui on visits to a local village for provisions, became acquainted with Yim Yee who sold bean curd from a stall in the market but also happened to have been a disciple at the Shaolin Temple. On one such visit Ng Mui sensed that Yim Yee was troubled and upon inquiry found that a local warlord had made know his intentions to marry his daughter, forcibly, if necessary. Yim Yee’s daughter a beautiful girl by the name of Yim Wing Chun had already been promised to one from their home town of Kwangtung Province, from which they had to flee as Yim Yee had become involved in a court case, and being a Shaolin disciple, even though he had only upheld the law he would have been arrested. Ng Mui decided to solve the problem indirectly by taking Yim Wing Chun with her to the White Crane Temple and there she became her first and only disciple and over a period of three years, with Yim Wing Chun studying diligently Ng Mui taught Yim Wing Chun the newly developed fighting style.
After her time at the White Crane Temple, Yim Wing Chun returned to the village and was immediately pestered again by the warlord, this time more seriously, but now Yim Wing Chun was prepared and challenged him to open hand combat, which of course he accepted as all he could see was a frail young woman who would soon be his wife, or so he thought. Yim Wing Chun totally devastated the warlord and being troubled no more was then free to marry her intended husband, Leung Bok Chau who himself was a skilled pugilist and together they would practice this new fighting system, and it was in reverence to his wife that he named the style Wing Chun, or Beautiful Springtime.
Leung Bok Chau passed the techniques of Wing Chun onto Leung Jan Kwai a herbalist who took a disciple called Wong Wah Bo who acted in an opera troupe and while working on the Red Junk encountered the poler Leung Yee Tei who had been taught the six and a half pole techniques by Chi Shin who was one of the Venerable Five most skilled in stick and pole work. Leung Yee Tei became the successor of the Wing Chun system and so the pole techniques were added.
Leung Yee Tei's disciple who carried Wing Chun on was Leung Jan a physician of Fatshan in Kwangtung Province of Southern China. Leung Jan had two sons, Leung Bik the eldest and Leung Tsun, both of which were taught Wing Chun daily, but Leung Jan's successor was Chan Wah Shun, though not well educated, by his determination he mastered this sophisticated system, and being of the market place where life was tough he had the opportunity to refine his fighting skills and so it was to him that the responsibility of Wing Chun was rested.
During the thirty-six years of teaching Wing Chun, Chan Wah Shun only took sixteen disciples. The last of these was a young man of quick mind and inquisitive intelligence, his name Yip Man, destined to become the Great Grandmaster of Wing Chun. Yip Man can be considered to be the result of two great teachers, the first Chan Wah Shun the 'Fighter' and Leung Bik the 'Scholar' whom he met in Hong Kong while attending St. Stephen's College.
Now history becomes the present with the legacy the Grandmaster Yip Man left behind him before his death on the 2nd December 1972 in the form of an eight millimetre film. So preserved in this fashion are all three forms and the 116 wooden dummy techniques, and left in trust with his two sons, Yip Chun the eldest and Yip Ching, preserving the purest form of Wing Chun through the Yip Man Martial Arts Association and promoting the once secret style to a popular art known throughout the world.
The father of modern Wing Chun is acknowledged to be the late Grandmaster Ip Man, who lived from 1893 until 1972. Ip Man was born and lived in Foshan China where he started his Wing Chun training at the age of 6, under his Sifu Chan Wah Shun who was taught by the legendary Leung Jan. Ip Man studied Wing Chun for 6 years until Chan Wah Shun passed away in 1905. But before Chan Wah Shan died he asked Ng Chung Sao to help Ip Man complete the Wing Chun System.
In 1909 whilst studying at St. Stephen Collage in Hong Kong, Ip Man, through classmates, came to know Leung Bik, the second son of the legendary Leung Jan. Ip Man studied with Leung Bik for about 4 years.
Many years passed, by which time Grandmaster Ip Man had returned to Foshan where he married Cheung Wing Sing and had four children, sons Ip Chun, Ip Ching and daughters Ar Sum and Ar Wun.
In 1949 Grandmaster Ip Man left China for Hong Kong and it was around May 1950 that Grandmaster Ip Man first started to teach Wing Chun. The first class opened with only 8 people, but it was not long before more schools where opened and the name of Wing Chun spread to the outside.
It was between 1955-1957 that one of Grandmaster Ip Man's more famous students Lee Siu Lung (Bruce Lee), started to learn Wing Chun.
In 1962, Grandmaster Ip Man's two son's, Ip Chun and Ip Ching, came to Hong Kong from Foshan. It was not long after their return they started to resume their Wing Chun training under the guidance of their father. Grandmaster Ip Man moved to live in Tong Choi Street around 1964, where he mainly teached private tuition. Sadly Grandmaster Ip Man passed away at his home in 1972, he was 79 years old.
Sifu Ip Ching is the youngest son of the late Grandmaster Ip Man and was born in Foshan, China in 1936.
Many martial art masters lived in Foshan whilst Sifu Ip Ching was growing up, but he didn't start his Wing Chun training until about the age of 11 or 12. Under the close guidance of his father.
When Sifu Ip Man left China for Hong Kong in 1949 he took his eldest daughter with him, sadly leaving behind his sons and other daughters with their mother in China. Although practice of any traditional Chinese Kung Fu was banned during the Cultural Revolution, Sifu Ip Ching was determined to keep up his training during this fathers absence. So he would stay up late at night to practice his forms right up until the day he left China for Hong Kong in 1962. (After graduating from high school and attending collage in Canton China).
When arriving in Hong Kong Sifu Ip Ching was reunited with his father and was very happy to resume his Wing Chun training. (In the past it was tradition that when a family had a skill or trade, it would be past down from generation to generation, from father to son).
Sifu Ip Ching lived with his father and his father's students would come to his house to have private lessons. Watching his father teach gave Sifu Ip Ching enormous insight and understanding of Wing Chun and his fathers teaching methods.
Form 1964 Sifu Ip Ching started to help his father teach a lot of his later students.
Between 1973-74, Sifu Ip Ching tought at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital after Sifu Fung Hon left for Canada.
Fourteen days before Grandmaster Ip Man died he asked student's Wong Hon Lam and his two
sons, Sifu's Ip Ching and Ip Chun to film him demonstrate Sil Lim Tau, Chum Kiu and the Wooden Dummy techniques. Knowing he had not long to live he was worried that some people might claim they were tough secret techniques or modify the forms. At the time Grandmaster Ip Man wanted to film the whole system, but seeing he was in great pain they suggested he finished it at a later date, but sadly he died. The film was then entrusted to his two sons.
After his fathers death the house was passed on to Sifu Ip Ching who still lives their to day. At this time Sifu Ip Ching was only teaching Wing Chun part time due to his successful manufacturing company he ran.
In 1994 Grandmaster Ip Ching decided it was time to retire and started to teach Wing Chun full time at the Ving Tsun Athletic Association and privately at his home.
Since his retirement Grandmaster Ip Ching has been invited all around the world to teach his Wing Chun and to talk about his late fathers teachings. Some times practitioners of Wing Chun from across the globe come to his classes at the Association in Hong Kong to train with him and his students.
Samuel Kwok was born in Hong Kong in 1948, the son of a Church Minister. His interest in the martial arts started at an early age, his first experience was in White Crane Kung Fu, under the guidance of his uncle Luk Chi Fu. Samuel Kwok's Wing Chun training first started in 1967 under Chan Wai Ling in Hong Kong.
In 1972 Samuel Kwok came to the UK to study psychiatric nursing and pursue a new life. Living in London then, he went to the Church of Reverend Kao, how told him about one of the congregation, a Wing Chun teacher called Lee Sing, who started teaching Samuel Kwok in 1973. In 1978 returning to Hong Kong in hope to find the true source of Wing Chun, Samuel Kwok was introduced to Ip Chun by Lee Sing (who at the time was joining the Ip Man Martial Arts Association). It was during a second meeting with Ip Chun that he offered to teach Samuel Kwok the Wooden Dummy techniques, realizing that he was being given a great honour he excepted. (At this time Ip Chun was only teaching part time).
For the next few years Samuel Kwok had private tuition from Ip Chun and after gaining Master level in Wing Chun, he opened his first school in Hong Kong and it was not long before his students began making a name for themselves at tournaments and demonstrations in the colony. When returning to the UK, in 1981 he was appointed chairman and senior overseas representative of the Ip Chun Martial Art Association by Grandmaster Ip Chun. Having settled in the UK, Master Kwok started to teach Wing Chun privately but later he opened his first school after great demand from several martial arts enthusiasts. In his bid to promote Traditional Wing Chun and his Si-Fu, Master Kwok held the first of many seminars to come in the UK for Grandmaster Ip Chun, (the first was back in 1981).
In 1991 Master Kwok invited both Grandmasters Ip Chun and Ip Ching to the UK, to held their first joint seminar across the country, (this was the first visit to the UK by Grandmaster Ip Ching).
In 1994 Master Kwok returned to Hong Kong to study with Grandmaster Ip Ching. Also In 1994 Master Kwok introduced Steve Lee Swift from New York, to Grandmaster Ip Chun and helped to organize some very successful seminars in America, taugh r Samuel Kwok received a BA honour from Manchester University for his life time achievement and promotion of Martial Arts. Today Master Kwok is constantly promoting Wing Chun across the world by conducting and organizing seminars, competitions, demonstrations, books, videos and helping the B.C.C.M.A. promote Chinese Martial Arts. He also helps to arrange tours and training in Hong Kong with Grandmaster Ip Ching for his students, showing that like himself he wants his students to benefit from this great master first hand.
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