The origin of Wing Chun is explained by a legend that involves a fight between a snake and a crane. According to the legend, a female Kung Fu master, Ng Mui, who was associated with with the Shaolin Temple*(1), chanced upon a fight between a snake and a crane, where normally the snake would be considered the underdog, yet the snake, biding its time and taking measure of the crane and the crane’s method of striking – and taking care not to be struck by the crane, of course, since, were the crane to connect (literal sense!) with the snake, it would be curtain time for the snake! – itself struck at the propitious moment, killing the crane.
Category: Chinese Kung Fu
Chinese Kung Fu 中国功夫 – Wing Chun Wooden Dummy
"Before I trained on the Wooden Dummy, it was just a strange-looking, upright wooden (in every sense of the word) contraption with three funny-looking, "stick-man" half-arms and a single clumsy-looking leg whose sole purpose seemed to be to trip me up. After I had trained for some time on the Wooden Dummy, I began to appreciate that it was more than just a strange-looking, upright wooden contraption with funny, "stick-man" half-arms and a clumsy-looking leg that was always in my way; it was a strangely dynamic sparring partner, the more so given that it was built as a more or less static "dummy".
Chinese Kung Fu 中国功夫 – Wing Chun Summary
As we have seen in the above, Wing Chun distinguishes itself from other types of martial arts in that it relies on superior techniques instead of superior strength, or, as we put it in the introduction, it prizes know-how over brute strength, which is why even a mere wisp of a female trained in Wing Chun can take down a hulk of a male. We have seen how Wing Chun, more than other martial arts, places greater significance on defense rather than offense, for, without a first-rate defense, the slight Wing Chun fighter – at least in a life and death situation, which is the background on which many of the early period Wing Chun fighters trained, especially those who were in opposition to the Qing government – will not live to improve his (or her) offensive techniques and to fight another day, therefore, for the Wing Chun Kung Fu fighter, a good defense reins supreme.
Chinese Kung Fu 中国功夫 – The Mechanics of Wing Chun Weapons Forms
Weapons Forms (Bingqi Taolu [兵器套路]) are only introduced once the aspiring WCKF fighter is proficient in the other forms, for the obvious reasons. The aspirant is expected to be able to use a weapon as if it were a natural extension of the hand. That is, at all times, the aspiring WCKF fighter must know where the contours of the knife are situated, down to the millimeter, in much the same way that a first-class driver of an automobile knows, down to at least the centimeter, the countours of his automobile (many Europeans make poor drivers in this regard because they first learn to drive as an adult and thus never learn to "feel" the automobile as an extension of the body, whereas American drivers begin at the tender age of 16… the same concept applies to learning almost any sport, from skating to skiing to learning how to ride a bicycle or a motorcycle, and where the "instrument" in question becomes an extension of the body, for good or for worse – for good if one learns at an early age; for worse if one learns it later in life).
Chinese Kung Fu 中国功夫 – Wing Chun 咏春拳
All Chinese martial arts originate from the principle of self-defense; they are not conceived as an offensive tactic, at least not in the initial stages, though after an attacker’s onslaught (kicks, punches, etc.) is parried, the martial arts fighter then goes on the offensive, "neutralizing", if possible, the attacker.
Chinese Kung Fu 中国功夫 – Chinese Qigong
On a very elemental level, qigong is a form of meditation. The most disciplined masters of qigong stress its meditational aspect more than the exercise and breathing components that are usually associated with it. As a form of meditation, qigong is focused on harnessing the primordial force of qi (chi), which, it is claimed, every normally-functioning human being is capable of communicating with. "Qigong" is composed of two characters: "qi" (sometimes written as "chi" as an aid to pronunciation, but think instead of "chee" as in "cheese") and "gong" (sometimes written as "kung" as an aid to pronunciation, but "gung" so it rhymes with "jung" – as in Carl Jung the psychiatrist and contemporary of Sigmund Freud – i.e., with more of a "g" sound than a "k" sound, is probably easier for Westerners to get their sound pipes around). "Qi" means air, or breath, but it is more like the breath that God "breathed" into Adam than the air one draws in and exhales, i.e., a life-giving force, or "energy". "Gong" means effort applied in a disciplined manner, or "work", so "qigong" means "energy work".
Chinese Kung Fu 中国功夫 – Chinese Taiji Quan 太极拳
Skilled Taiji Quan exponents exploit the strength of the earth (yin) and the energy (ji) of the heavens (yang)to focus their physical and spiritual energies so that mind and body work together to improve balance, stability, flexibility, and skill.
Chinese Kung Fu 中国功夫 – Shaolin Kung Fu
There can be little doubt, after examining firsthand the structure of Kung Fu, that mastery of it is indeed mastery of a fine art form. It requires a tremendous amount of background, in the way of both tacit and demonstrated skills.
Chinese Kung Fu 中国功夫 – History of Chinese Kung Fu
Kung Fu (an Anglicization of gongfu [功夫]), means "hard-won achievement" while Wushu [武术], in today’s jargon, means "martial arts". However, the "wu" [武] of wushu is itself composed of two component characters – the one stacked over the other in the style of a mathematical fraction – which is often the custom in Chinese wherever the one syllable (usually the leading syllable) of a two-syllable word is itself a product of two older syllables: zhi [止], meaning "stop" (as in "to brake" or "to arrest"); and je [戈], meaning "cudgel" (or "sword" or "spear" – or, more generally, "weapon"). In other words, the "wu" of wushu means to fend off the armed attack of an aggressor. Shu [術] means "technique" – or, in the collective, as here: "art".
Chinese Kung Fu 中国功夫 – The Mechanics of the Physical Side of Kung Fu
Kung Fu knows many "schools" (men [門]), "families" (jia [家]), or "sects" (pai [派]), some of which are further subdivided into styles which, for example, mimic the movements of certain specific animals, follow a certain philosophical tradition, or follow a myth or legend. Some styles lean more toward Shaolin Kung Fu while others lean more toward Wudang Kung Fu. Those that lean more toward the latter aspect of Kung Fu tap into the same kind of meditative principles as governs qigong, meaning that the practitioner of Wudang Kung Fu is very acutely aware of being in contact with his qi.
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