"No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots. " - Barbara Ehrenreich, The Worst Years Of Our Lives, 1991What is the difference between the various martial arts? Why is one called Wing Chun Kuen, another called Muay Thai, yet another called Karate-Do? Aren't they just all ways of beating people up?
The answer may be obvious to some, especially those with a MA background. There are many degrees of differences. Some are quite similar: Muay Thai and Savate, for example, are types of kickboxing. The differences here are may be confined to the different ways of kicking, of the way the fighters stand when facing each other, differences in rules, or other minor details. Some MA are wildly different, like Capoeira or Systema. By and large, individual MA are reflections of the needs of the time, the personality of the individual founders(s)them and the cultural background at the time and place of when it was developed. For example, Karate-Do uses farm implements as weaponry because of the policy banning weapons imposed by the Japanese rulers of Okinawa a few hundred years ago.
Even in a single country, like China, there are thousands of different styles of Kung Fu and each may have at least a few variations. Internal, external, animal styles, grappling styles, striking styles, etc., etc., etc. Each may have different movements, defenses or ways of generating and/or applying power. To fight any random person would be, well, random!
Wing Chun is a very young MA in Chinese MA history, being only a few hundred years old, developed during the Qing Dynasty. The Qing were considered foreigners who were cruel and corrupt by the Han Chinese (the natives, as it were). Numerous rebellions were fomented against them during their reign, especially in the restive south of the empire.
Unlike, say, an animal style, which is obviously inspired by the movements of animals, or any other marial art which is externally inspired, Wing Chun seems to depend on a set of principles which cannot be found in any external source. While some movements have an obvious animal inspiration (e.g. a biu jee strike is very similar to a snake strike, which may show some of the shaolin roots of Wing Chun), each and every techniques must conform to a set of principles, i.e. a rooted stance, locked torso and hips, "ging" or "inch" power (a very sudden power expressed momentarily, and only when required), and a centreline focus. All these principles are found in a greater or lesser extent in any style of Wing Chun, whether the various traditional mainland chinese lineages or in the other more mordenized and simplified Hong Kong lineages.
These principles are not natural, i.e. nobody is born with these qualities, and they have to be drilled into a student with consistent practice to make it a natural part of their movement. So why did the founders of Wing Chun design an entire martial art around these principles? It would have been easier to design a martial arts with movements people are already used to. After all, a Karate punch does an immense amount of damage, so does a Tae Kwon Do roundhouse kick, an Aikido lock will incapacitate an opponent, etc. Martial arts have been doing damage to people for thousands of years! Of what use is a new, difficult to train and learn (at least initially) martial art?
Something in the time of the Qing dynasty must have necessitated the creation of Wing Chun by rebels. Wing Chun's principles would have been their response to a threat.
So what would these principles achieve? Discussion in the next post!
P.S. All these are my own hypothesis, based on my limited knowledge of Chinese history, and my personal experience of what Wing Chun is. If you know something to the contrary, or you know something to add to this, please comment!
P.P.S. Welcome to Kahar, my Wing Chun si heng (elder brother), to the world of blogging! Writing as Guan Gung, he has many years of experience in Wing Chun (since '90 or '91), the curiosity of a scientist, the playfulness of an experimenter, the wide-eyed wonder of a child and the single-minded determination and ferocity of a warrior. I look forward to reading his posts.
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You're quite a writer you know! Let's keep doing this but make sure you teach me something too.
ReplyDeleteHey bro, nice write-up!
ReplyDeleteDon't forget, too, that wing chun isn't merely something inspired by the mechanics and geometry of the human body, it's also a distillation of prior arts.
One of the hallmarks of the wing chun system, its narrow stance (the yi ji kim yeung ma) also existed previously in the Ha Say Fu (Lower Four Tigers) system of Hung Gar. Unlike the usual Hung Gar, the narrow stance is the primary stance of this early and almost lost system of Hung Gar.
It survived largely in the highest (most advanced) Hung Gar set, Tit Sin Kuen (Iron Thread), which incorporates many close-quarters narrow stance techniques. However, seeing a person doing Tit Sin Kuen combative forms, you might be inclined to think that he's doing a combination of Wing Chun and Pak Mei because the fundamental elements of all these traditional close-quarter kungfu arts overlap.
Other than that, we can see clearly how some moves are carried over entirely from earlier systems (bong sau, biu jee).. how some were inspired by the earlier animal forms but altered to suit human limbs (lap sao, fook sau, tan sau) etc.
It's clear the Wing Chun is a synthesis and refinement of all the most useful kungfu "tools". Hence, as a later-day art, I guess a wing chun practitioner has the benefit of learning the best of the vast curricula of kungfu!
Hey bro, try to top this prolific writer and his philosophies over here
ReplyDeletehttp://malaysiavingchunkungfu.blogspot.com/
Hi Jae Senn!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments.
We are now going into deep into China to find our roots. However, this has become quite hard as it has been closed off by secret after secret due to the very nature of its use during the Qing Dynasty but we are making headway. It will be just a matter of time before we will reveal our history.
However, just to share a few of the comments we got from our many trips there.
One very old master in Yip Kin's hometown said that he hasn't seen our forms being practiced for a long time. He says that it is an older version of Wing Chun he used to see when he was small. He also gave the same comment about our Lok Tim Poon and a few other forms.
Interesting? In youtube, a descendant of Chan Yu Min lineage (Chan Wah Soon's son who is famous for his Pole Skills) practices a form called Subdue the Tiger (Fook Fu Kuen). There's also the hand animal shapes and the 5 animals form of Vietnamese Wing Chun, taught by Yuen Kay Shan's own brother. I just wonder why nobody say those Wing Chuns came from Hung Gar?
Truth is, why bother too deeply about what was (i.e. History) when we can focus on becoming a better martial artist and an even better person in the future.
I chose Yip Kin Wing Chun as my core because I've never found anything that suits me better physically, mentally and spiritually. I LOVE IT!
Good luck Jae Senn!