Q&A - Yip Man and Yuen Kay-San
Rene Ritchie, February 11th, 2008
KPM asks:
I understand that Sum Nun and Yip Man weren’t on the best of terms.
I believe Sum Nung and Yip Man were mostly on good terms. Sum Nung visited HK before China closed the borders, did a brief seminar on locks and throws, and had dinner with Yip Man sifu. It’s my understanding that this is when a lot of stuff got patched up in terms of Mainland relations as well.
Wasn’t the conclusion that it had likely been [Yuen Kay-San] who had developed Luk Sao and shared it with Yip Man? And that Yip Man later developed the Dan Chi Sao on his own?
Since I wasn’t there, I can’t conclude who did what or how the credit pie gets sliced up for Luk Sao. Other branches (including Cho and Koolo) do the inside/outside hands for Chi Sao, Yip Man does Luk Sao, and Sum Nung does both. So, Luk Sao seems to have evolved (it’s not that different from what came before, a logical extension in one direction sacrificing specificity and isolation of economy and combination) at some point after the Red Junks (where Cho split), after Leung Jan (where Koolo split), and before Yip Man’s and Yuen Kay-San/Sum Nung’s students. That’s as far as circumstantial evidence takes us, I think (and I don’t want Terence to open up a can a whup@$$ on me if I start making speculation unlabeled as such
How do you think Kenneth Chung’s WCK compares to YKS/SN WCK?
Ken Chung’s (indeed, students of Leung Sheung in general, and I’d say Jack Ling in particular) tend to do most of the body postures more similar to YKS/SN than I’ve seen from other Yip Man branches. However, the bridge shapes (i.e. Tan Sao, Bong Sao) and the power generation (at least Chung sifu, I don’t remember Ling sifu’s method as well) is still different to an extent that there doesn’t seem to be a direct connection.
I understood [a story from Wong Shun-Leung] to say that the Siu Nim Tao Yip Man learned from “Leung Bik” had Tan to Chum to Tan, while the SNT he learned from Chan Wah-Shun had it as Tan to Gan to Tan. The story was that Leung Bik, being a small man never needed to use a Gan much because he was so short while CWS, being a large man, needed the Gan to defend the lower gate against shorter opponents.
The problem with this story — and I discussed it a long time back with David Peterson, — is YKS/SN uses Tun/Jum/Tun (no Gaun), as does most of Foshan WCK if memory serves. If Chan Wah-Shun hadn’t taught it that way, I think the other version would have been the wide-spread one. It looks like if Yip Man had learned a version from CWS, it would have been the Tan/Chum/Tan as well…
Me as a student of GM Wang Kiu, learned also the “tun, chum, tun” as for “tun, guan, tun” Ive heard a different story. According to sifu its a later version. But it doesnt make sense since you are practising “double guan sao” already in the beginning. And the tun we use as the second tun in ‘tun, guan, tun” is not a typical tun so if you dont practise that one something will be lost I would think so.