MARTIAL
ARTS
Wing
Chun
Wing Chun is the name of a system of martial arts developed
in southern China approximately 300 years ago by a woman.
During the reign of Emperor K'anghsi of the Ching Dynasty (1662-1722),
the Shaolin monastery called Siu Lam of Mt. Sung, in the Honan
province, had become very powerful through Kung Fu training.
The Manchurian government was afraid of an uprising and sent
troops to destroy the Siu Lam. However, it was internal treachery
that sealed the fate of the monastery, with traitorous monks
setting it alight. Only a handful of monks managed to escape
the onslaught of the Manchurian army.
Wing
Chun's originator, the Buddhist nun Ng Mui, was a master of
Shaolin Kung Fu and is believed to have been one of the fabled
five ancestors who escaped the temple's destruction. She used
this knowledge to invent a way to take advantage of the weaknesses
inherent in the other Shaolin systems. She started thinking
of the concepts while observing a battle between a cobra and
a crane. This new system was well-guarded and passed on to only
a few, very dedicated students.
Later, the style became known as Wing Chun, after Ng Mui's first
student, a woman named Yim Wing Chun (translated as Beautiful
Springtime).
It is arguably the most famous single style within the Shaolin
system. In 1949, Yip Man, who was considered to be the grandmaster
of modern Wing Chun, brought the style out of China into Hong
Kong and eventually to the rest of the world. It was made known
to the west by Bruce Lee and James Lee in the late 1960s in
what was the single most influential introduction of Chinese
Kung Fu outside China.
There are two concepts that are essential to Wing Chun:
Centerline and Simplicity
It is a style that emphasizes economy of movement and combines
the practical applications of using both defense and offense
simultaneously.
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