Forms and Training
Concepts and Principles
Conclusion
9. Other Wing Chun Kuen Styles
Fujian Wing Chun Kuen
Hung Suen Hay Ban Wing Chun Kuen
Malaysian Wing Chun Kuen
Pien San Wing Chun Kuen
Vietnamese Wing Chun Kuen
Yiu Kai Wing Chun Kuen
Other Branches
Conclusion
Stage 1, Predecessors of Wing Chun
Stage 2, Founders of Wing Chun
Stage 3, Red Junk Ancestors of Wing Chun
Stage 4, Disseminators of Wing Chun
Stage 5, Developers of Wing Chun
Final Thoughts
The Wing Chun Kuen Family Tree
Glossary
About the Authors
FOREWORD
I began the study of Wing Chun kung-fu at the age of sixteen. I was already a black belt in taekwondo at the time, and involved in the study of escrima and arnis, but felt an inexplicable attraction to the art by the legacy left behind by the late Bruce Lee. The first book I ever read on the martial arts was Dan Inosanto’s Jeet Kune Do: The Art and Philosophy of Bruce Lee. After reading this book and about the training methods and fighting art of Lee, I knew that if I wanted to become as good as Lee I would have to study the arts he did. As I read on, I discovered that Wing Chun was the nucleus of his new style.
Fifteen years later, I am still interested and intrigued by this compact martial art system. I never actually perfected or completed the system as a result of poor scheduling (spreading myself too thin among different arts), and moving from place to place. However, I was exposed to the Yip Man system as taught by William Cheung and Moy Yat, and the Jun Fan (Bruce Lee) Wing Chun system as taught by Dan Inosanto and his students.
Over the years I have read several articles about Wing Chun systems not associated with the art’s legendary master, Yip Man. To my surprise, I discovered that there are actually several lineages of this economical art form, with variations among the forms and in their respective training methods. After reading these articles my interest again peaked. Sadly, however, there was no substantial information on the topic available to the uninitiated.
While working as the martial arts editor for Tuttle Publishing in Tokyo in 1996, I received a package from their United States office in Boston. It was a manuscript on the art of Wing Chun by Robert Chu, Rene Ritchie, and Y. Wu, with a big rejection notice on it. Since Tuttle already had three books on the subject, and there are dozens of Wing Chun books on the market, the company didn’t think there was a need for the book. I, too, didn’t think this would be much different than a brief history of Yip Man and an overview of the three base forms. To my surprise after scanning the table of contents, however, I discovered that there was much more to this book—and art—than I had initially assumed or ever expected. I immediately contacted the authors and contracted their book.
The authors have successfully traced the lineages and history of eight Wing Chun styles and present them here as the masters of the respective arts have passed them down through oral traditions. This is particularly insightful as it not only presents many points of view on a variety of topics—such as the real meaning of the term Wing Chun—but stays true to the teachings and traditions of each system by the authors not adding in their own thoughts. All of this information is then presented side-by-side for the interested reader to cross check and make his own decision as to what he chooses to believe and how he then interprets the art form. Given their in-depth research into the many Wing Chun systems, the authors then draw together the various oral histories with fact and construct, in the Conclusion, what they believe to be the actual history and development of the art and its many collateral systems. A detailed Glossary is also presented, with the corresponding Chinese characters for further reference and interpretation.
Wing Chun instructors (left to right) Robert Chu, Mark Wiley, Hawkins Cheung, Gary Lam.
Complete Wing Chun is perhaps the best book written on the various schools comprising a single martial art form. The authors have done an excellent job in their tireless research and presentation of material into this comprehensive treatise on one of the most controversial and misunderstood arts of this century. This book is destined to become the classic reference on the subject, and has set a standard by which other researchers and practitioners wishing to uncover their art should follow. I highly recommend this book to all Wing Chun stylists and martial arts researchers alike without hesitation. If ever you were to buy just one book on the art, this should be it.
—Mark V. Wiley
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank Mark V. Wiley for recognizing and believing in the potential of this work. Eddie Chong, sifu of Pan Nam Wing Chun, for sharing his knowledge, and John Murphy and Garrett Gee, sifu of Hung Suen Wing Chun, for contributing their chapter. Also, many thanks to Jane Hallander for her photographs of Pao Fa Lien Wing Chun, Reiner Klimke and Andreas Hoffman sifu for their notes on Jee Shim Wing Chun (Chi Sim Ving Tsun), Ilya Olshanetsky and Andrej Moskwitin for their notes on Vietnamese Wing Chun (Vinh Xuan), and Y. C. Yeung for his kind help on several of the branches of Wing Chun. The work would have been considerably lessened without their generous contributions. Thanks as well to the Internet Wing Chun Mailing List, created and maintained by Marty Goldberg and Robert Gillespie, an outstanding forum for exchange among Wing Chun practitioners (information on the WCML can be obtained by sending e-mail to [email protected] with the message body reading: info wingchun).
Robert Chu would like to thank Hawkins Cheung, Kwan Jong-Yuen, William Cheung, Koo Sang, Augustine Fong, Eddie Chong, Eric Kwai, Jeung Ma-Chut, Gary Lam, Johnny Wong, Allan Fong, Henry Moy and the Moy Yat Wing Chun family for sharing their Wing Chun. Special thanks to his students and good friends who have taught him as much as he taught them, James Ng, Stephen Eng, Anant Tinaphong, all his New York students, and all his Los Angeles students, especially, Stephen Wenger, Patrick Lee, Dimitris Horiatis, Robert Ting, David Young, and Peter Kwong who have supported him over the years. Also special thanks to Robert S. Weinberg Sensei for starting him on the path to martial arts and his brothers, Charles, Johnson and Douglas Chu, who kept him inspired. Also special thanks to his two partners and sworn brothers, Rene Ritchie for sharing with him his Yuen Kay-San Wing Chun kuen, and to Ng Yew-Mun, who shared his Nanyang Wing Chun kuen on his brief visit. It was their urging that led him to the completion of this project despite his dislike for rewrites. He couldn’t ask for two better partners. Most of all, special thanks to his beautiful wife, Pauline, for putting up with mistress Wing Chun for all these years.
Y. Wu would like to thank and express his appreciation for the years of friendship and knowledge from Victor Leow of the Intelligent Combative Arts Network Australasia, his sworn senior kung-fu brother, mentor, and above all teacher (and author of Virtual, Intelligent, Kinaesthetically Oriented Geometric Articulations (VIKOGA): Authenticated Mindwill Wing Chun Gungfu). Thanks also go to big brother Robert Chu for generously sharing his knowledge of Wing Chun kuen; brother Rene Ritchie for his Yuen Kay San Wing Chun kuen and vast knowledge of the history of Wing Chun kuen; sifu Hawkins Cheung for his entertaining and highly knowledgeable views on the application of Yip Man Wing Chun kuen and the Wing Chun baat jaam do, and Gary Lam for his insights into the late Wong Shun Leungs methods. Special thanks to Yap Boh Lim, S. Y. Liu, Leong Lin Heng, Beh Lau Seng and Hui See Lim, all great teachers from various martial arts traditions who have contributed to his knowledge. In addition, thanks to his student Long Tian Ching for his