From the Foshan Museum

At the beginning of Qing Dynasty, the opera activities in Foshan were very popular. With the elements of Cantonese music, folk song melodies, performing and singing in Cantonese, integration of south school of wushu, and musical instruments like gongs, drums and flutes etc, it has become a local opera with popular style, featured with vividness, popularization in language, specialty in tunes and novelty in actions. The Cantonese Opera Teams always took red boat as traffic vehicle for circular performance, thus the performers of Cantonese Opera were also called “Red Boat Folks”.

According to records, in Foshan there once appeared over 30 opera performance centers. In Qing Dynasty, a poem described: “Prosperous is opera performance, with red boats berthing along beach in the evening. Especially in Tiankuang Festival each year, thousands of audiences come to watch Qionghua.” It shows the popularity of Cantonese Opera performance activities.

In 1854, Fenghuangyi Cantonese Opera performer Li Wenmao and Chen Kaihe, the leader of Guangdong Tiandi Assembly, rose up in Guangzhou, changing the members of several thousand red boats into soldiers, wearing opera costumes and red muffle, called “Red Muffle Army”. The insurrectionary soldiers fought with Cantonese Opera vaulting skills. After capturing Foshan Town, they set Qionghua Guild Hall as headquarter. The insurrection of Cantonese Opera performers led by Li Wenmao is an unprecedented event in the world history of opera.

After defeat of the insurrection, the Cantonese Opera was once prohibited. The performers were scattered to the street or the villages to perform for living, under constant pressure from the officials. Liu Huadong, a Nanhai native, educated the Cantonese Opera performers to perform in the name of “Beijing Opera” in order to dodge persecution by the Qing Dynasty.

From the Government of Foshan, China

Li Wenmao was an actor of Guangdong opera at the end of Daoguan and beginning of Xianfeng of Qing Dyansty, who was physically robust, with voice like large bell, skilled at sword etc. He regarded low the fortune and high the personal loyalty, full of knightly spirit and anti-oppression thoughts.

In 1853, after Taiping Army captured Nanjing, Hong Qiuquan accepted the recommendation of the inferior officer Luo Dagang and sent emissary to Guangdong for looking for the leaders of anti-Qing organizations so as to plot armed force for south-north cooperation to overthrow Qing Dynasty. The emissary first found Li Wenmao in the Qionghuaguan at Dajiwe, Foshan, and then contacted the leaders of Guangdong Tiandi Association Chen Kai and Chen Jingang before plotting uprise. In July 1854, they started to upsrise at Damaogang, Foshan, with Chen Kai as the Generalissimo, Li Wenmao as the Vice Generalissimo, Kuang Neng (Monk Neng) as the Military Counsellor, Feng Gun and Feng Man etc as the generals. They soon captured Foshan Town. Chen Kai called himself “Daning”. At that time, the operas were resisting opera taxes and beat the tax officers, so the Red Boat disciples and the city poor people ran after them. So Li Wenmao organized three Troops with the valiant opera disciples, respectively “Wehu Army”, “Menghu Army” and “Feihu Army”. He himself and the other general officers wore the opera clothes. Later as the insurrectionists increased radically, the opea clothes fell short. So they used the red kerchief instead of the helmets, hence they were called Red Kerchief Army. They used their opera Kung Fu of vaults and jumps in attacking the enemy cities. The Qing soldiers were frustrated and escaped. At the beginning of Wemei Uprise, they had only several thousand of soldiers, and soon they grew to tens of thousand soldiers. After several weeks, they had conquered tens of prefectures and couties. Even the Qing Dynasty ruling class had to admit “they were remarkable in fighting”.

From summer of 1854 to spring of 1855, the Uprise Army occupied Foshan for half year. About one million peasants responded to the insurrection and occupied fourteen prefectures and counties around Guangzhou. Li Wenmao and Chen Kai besieged Guangzhou City. They advanced the slogans of “capture dragon”(Shilong), “catch tiger”(Humen), “kill goat”(Guangzhou was also called Five-Goat City), “visit Buddist”(Foshan), “go to west” (to establish base area in Guangxi Province). However, as the British imperisalists helped a tyrant to do evil, shipping foodstuff, munition and troops to Liangguang Viceroy Ye Mingchen, the Uprise Army failed to capture Foshan after fighting for half year. So they gave up Foshan, and turned to attack Guangxi from Zaoqing. Under the help of the uprise army of the minorities in Guangxi, they captured Xuzhou Prefecture (now Guiping County), and established Dacheng State, where the Xunzhou was renamed Xiujing, and Chen Kai was called Pingxun King.

Pien San (Side Body) Wing Chun originates from the village where Dr.Leung Jan retired after leaving Foshan. Gulao was his home (a small village in Heshan province).Traditionally in Chinese culture the leading Kung Fu master of thevillage would teach the village youngsters in order that they would beable to protect their village from bandits and raiders who were prevalent at this time and would prey on the weaker villages. Like allstyles of Kung Fu this teaching had two purposes, one was to provide apractical fighting system that would allow the youngsters to defendthemselves and their loved ones. The second was to promote health inmind and body to allow the youngsters to live long lives. In additionwith the ability to deal out deadly techniques, there must be someresponsibility so the Master much teach the youngsters to be mature,responsible people.

Leung Jan therefore taught a method of Wing Chun that was different fromthe stylized approach he had previously taught in Foshan. It was quickand easy to pick up being made up of separate techniques (San Sao). Thatthe beginner could repeat in order to strengthen his body and use veryquickly in a fighting situation. Yet there was a lot more to Leung Jan’steaching than mere body movements. At a more advanced stage the studentwould realize that these San Sao actually encompassed all theunder-lying principles that make up Wing Chun. Once this was realizedthe student would be able to apply them with ease to any situation -including fighting with sticks, pole and knife.

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The Wing Chun style that is very popular now is the branch taught by Sifu Yip Man. It was passed down from [Yuen Kay San] and is known as the Slant-Body Wing Chun. But most people are ignorant of the Wing Chun Style of of [Lao Dat Sang], who was very well known in Foshan County of China’s Kwangtung Province by the nickname [Pao Fa Lien]

The author is very fortunate to have followed [Pao Fa Lien]’s disciple, Sifu Chu Chung, and therefor has a good understanding of this branch of the Wing Chun Style.

Before presenting the content of the Wing Chun Style passed down from Sifu [Pao Fa Lien], the author should like to make a vivid delineation of the branch.

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During the last New Year’s festival an America knocked on a door in Guangzhou in order to give a gift to the owner of the dwelling. The gift was a picture of the U.S. President and his wife. The man who brought the gift came across the Pacific Ocean to do so. He was a body guard for the American President, and had come all this way to visit the famous Wing Chun teacher, Sum Nung. The man was named Henderson, and had followed a student of Sum Nung’s named Kwok Wan-Ping to learn Wing Chun Kuen. Sum Nung is famous in China, but how did he come to be so? This must be told from the beginning.

As a child, Sum Nung journeyed with his relatives from South America to Guangdong, China. Japan soon invaded, however, and cut China’s communication with the rest of the world. Over night, Sum Nung’s family went from a life of prosperity to one of poverty. At a young age, Sum Nung was introduced to the Tin Hoi restaurant in Foshan where he soon began working.

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First of all, let me begin by saying that I am the legitimate descendant of Wing Chun jongsi Yuen Kay-San (Yuen the Fifth). I have received and retained many of my grandfather, Yuen Kay-San’s, notes and have often heard the accounts of Sum Nung and have thus come to know much about Wing Chun’s history. However, I can not say with absolute certainty that the accounts of my grandfather, Yuen Kay-San, and Sum Nung are the only correct version and the ones which should be held as the standard. Instead, I believe we should look at the authoritative historical records of Wing Chun kept by the Foshan Committee.

[Some have suggested that] there are more than five sects of the Wing Chun School, of which little is known. [and that] the reason for knowing so little is due to the discord and distrust among the various sects, the implication being that the Wing Chun school of martial arts is somehow in the midst of internal dissension. Factually speaking, according to recorded accounts at the Foshan Committee, the reason for there being five sects of Wing Chun is due to the natural evolutionary changes of the martial artists throughout the course of history, the subsequent development of different styles, techniques and practices, and geographical separation.

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Most of the information surrounding the life of the grandmaster Yip Man revolves around anecdotes. But by dealing wither his approach to teaching we also can gain excellent insight into wing chun’s greatest modern-day teacher. Through this introspection we will be able to answer many of the question students have about Yip Man.

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Much is written about the life of Master Yip Man and his students in Hong Kong, his teachings and followers have received wide publicity. Generally little has been published about his teaching in Foshan and his disciples from these early days.

Over the last four years I have had the great pleasure of studying with one of Yip Man’s original students, Master Lun Jie.
With over 20 years experience learning learning and teaching Wing Chun I have had the opportunity to research this style and its many branches in England, Hong Kong and China. I have found Master Lun’s method illuminating. This is his story:

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In recent years, the names of the Cho (Cao) ancesters have become more and more exposed to the public. However, this exposure has been fragmentary, including only bits and pieces of the Cho family Wing Chun Kuen. This article is intended to provide the reader with a brief, although more in-depth view of Cho family Wing Chun proper, to help clarify the Cho family Wing Chun Kuen history and system.

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