The History of Wing Chun Kung Fu

Wing Chun Family Tree

The founder of Wing Chun Kung fu system, Miss Yim Wing Chun was a native of Guangdong, China. As a young girl, she was intelligent and athletic, upstanding and manly. She
was betrothed to Leung Bok Chau, a salt merchant of Fukien. Soon after that, her mother died. Her father, Yim Yee was wrongfully accused of a crime and nearly went to jail. So the family moved far away and finally settled down at the foot of Tai Leung Mountain at the Yunnan-Szechuan border. All this happened during the reign of Emperor K'anghsi (1662-1722).

At the time Kung fu was becoming very strong in Siu Lam Monastery (Shaolin Monastery) of Mt. Sung, Honan. This aroused the fear of the Manchu government which sent troops to attack the Monastery. They set fire to the Monastery while soldiers attacked. Siu Lam was burnt down and the monks scattered. Buddhist Abbess Ng Mui, Abbot Chi Shin, Abbott Pak Mei, Master Fung To Tak and Master Mui Hinescaped and fled their seperate ways.

Ng Mui took refuge in White Crane Temple on Mt. Tai Leung (also known as Mt. Chai Har). There she came to know Yim Yee and his daughter Yim Wing Chun. She bought bean curds at their store and they became friends. Wing Chun was a young woman then and her beauty attracted the attention of a local bully, he tried to force Wing Chun to marry him, she and her father were very worried. Ng Mui learned of this and took pity on Wing Chun. She agreed to teach Wing Chun fighting techniques so that she could protect herself and she would then be able to solve the problem with the bully and marry Leung Bok Chau, her betrothed husband. Wing Chun followed Ng Mui into the Mountains and started to learn Kung fu. She trained night and day and mastered the techniques. Then she challenged the local bully to a fight and beat him. Ng Mui set off to travel around the country but before she left she told Wing Chun to strictly honour the Kung fu traditions, to develop her Kung fu. This is how Wing Chun Kung fu was handed down by Abbess Ng Mui.

After the marriage, Wing Chun taught her Kung fu to her Husband Leung Bok Chau and he passed his Kung fu techniques on to Leung Lan Kwai. Leung Lan Kwai passed it on toWong Wah Bo. Wong Wah Bo was a member of an opera troupe on board a Junk, known to the Chinese as the Red Junk. Wong worked on the Red Junk with Leung Yee Tei. It also happened that Abbot Chi Shin who fled from Siu Lam had disguised himself as a cook and was now working on the Red Junk. Chi Shin taught the Six-and-a-half Point Long Pole Techniques to Leung Yee Tei. Wong Wah Bo was close to Leung Yee Tei and they
shared what they knew about Kung fu. Together they correlated and improved their techniques and thus the Six-and-a-half Point Long Pole Techniques were incorporated
into Wing Chun Kung fu.

Leung Yee Tei passed the Kung fu on to Leung Jan, a well known herbal doctor in Foshan. Leung Jan grasped the inner most secrets of Wing Chun and attained the highest level of proficiency. Many Kung fu Masters came to challenge him but all were defeated. Leung Jan became very famous. Later, he passed his Kung fu on to his student Chan Wah Shun and his two sons, Leung Bik and Leung Cheun.

Chan Wah Shun and Leung Bik passed their Kung fu on to Grandmaster Ip Man. Grandmaster Ip Man was the first to teach Wing Chun openly to the public. He taught a few people in Foshan, China and of course his students in Hong Kong, including his two sons Grandmaster Ip Chun and Grandmaster Ip Ching who both now teach in Hong Kong.

Islam in China

        Islam is the newest world religion to come to China. Many Muslims say that Muslim missionaries arrived in China in the year 651. If so, they came soon after the founding of Islam by Mohamed in what is now Saudi Arabia about the year 600 AD. They came soon after his death. This is about 16 years after a Nestorian Christian missionary named Alopun went to Chang An. Islam arrived after Buddhism and Christianity. Muslim traders began to arrive in China during the Tang Empire, and perhaps hundreds of thousands of Muslims were brought to the Mongol Yuan Empire by the Mongols who used them to govern and administrate China, and many of the Mongols themselves became Muslims. The religion spread quickly in Central Asia by Muslim conquest of the nomadic tribes and empires between Arabia and China. In this way, many small ethnic groups that are in western, northern, and southeastern China such as the Uighurs, Kazakhs, and Tajiks became Muslim. In China, people are mainly Muslim by birth since few Chinese convert. It is the third largest world religion in the country after Buddhism andChristianity, with about 20 to 30 million Muslims nowadays. Islam has had a long and interesting history in China, and nowadays ethnic Muslims are growing in interest and knowledge of the religion.

Muslims ethnic groups are mainly along the borders of modern China in Yunnan, Tibet, Xinjiang, Gansu Province and Henan Province. Of the 55 or so minority groups, about ten groups are classified as Muslim though individuals may profess another religion or no religion. Intense anti-religious education and persecution during the Communist era had the effect of decreasing the belief in the religion, so many ethnically Muslim people don’t believe the religion. Uighurs are the biggest ethnic Muslim group with about 10 million people who live mainly in Xinjiang. They became Muslim about 400 or 500 years ago. The second biggest group are the Kazakhs. About 2 million of them live mainly in Xinjiang.

The Hui people are about 12 million Chinese Muslims who live all over China. They can be seen in every Chinese city and almost every town all over the country because they often have Lanzhou Lamian restaurants and often wear white caps or scarves. Lanzhou is the name of a big city in Gansu Province in northern China. Lamian means pulled noodles. They are known for making their own fresh noodles in their restaurants out of wheat flour and not eating pork. It seems that they have spread evenly all over China setting up Muslim restaurants. There is a market for this because Muslims traditionally can’t eat pork and have other diet laws similar to Judaism, so Muslims can’t eat at regular Chinese restaurants. Also, the freshly made noodles actually taste very good. The government lists Hui people as an ethnic group although they are simply Chinese Muslims who are perhaps descended from Mongols or foreign traders and administrators. These restaurants are on almost every street in Chinese cities, and the large number of them makes it seem that Muslims are a large percentage of the population of China, but estimates say that Muslims are about 2 percent of the population. Christians may be about 5 percent of the population.

Because of the intense warfare between Chinese and Muslims in the 19th and 20th centuries and because the government didn’t want people to believe the religion, most Muslims in China are not very religious. People are regarded as Muslim if they are of ethnic Muslim descent or follow Muslim customs. However, now that religion is permitted in China and the ethnic people have more contact with foreign Muslims and mosques are rebuilt, many now have a great interest in the religion and follow the Muslim traditions such as prayer and going to mosques.