A response to Sifu John Clayton.
Regarding his article (and letter to Inside Kung Fu) "
Modified or altered?"By Sifu Marty Goldberg
As I ponder and research Wing Chun Kung Fu through my 27 years of experience, it became clear to me that most of the confusion comes from the word "modify".
The confusion comes from people claiming to teach the one "true" Wing Chun, when that is in fact impossible since there are so many branches that have descended separately from the Red Boats.
To modify means to innovate, make better or change. Thus, what must have happened! Someone put this "modified" name on the altered Wing Chun.
Guess who that was.
Now, let's examine why Wing Chun was altered.
Or why it was not.
The 5th generation grandmaster Mr. Leung Jan caught his neighbor Mr. Chan Wah Shun spying on him teaching his two sons Leung Cheun and Leung Bik traditional Wing Chun, in the original state, in which it was passed down from the Shaolin Temple.
Let's examine these points:
1) Leung Jan was NOT the inheritor of all Wing Chun. The distinct lineages of Wing Chun Kuen from the red boats are as following:
Red Boat People Mainland Generation
--------------- -------------------
Leung Yee Tai-----
|
----Leung Jan, etc....
|
Wong Wah Bo ------
Fa Jee Ming
Leung Lan Kwai
Gao Lo Chung----------Yin Li Cheung, etc...
Do Ngan Shun
Lai Fook Shun
Sun Fook Chun
Dai Fa Min Kam-------Fung Siu Ching, Fok Bo Cheung,
Cho DAk San, Lok Lan Gong, etc......
Lo Man Gong
Hung Gun Biu---------Cheung Gung----Wong Ting---Wong Ming----Garret Gee,
etc.
Dai Dong Fun
and others.
Each of those red boat people continued to teach, develop and spread the art through their own linneages. The Leung Jan one you see at the top is just one of many. The etc. is meant to show that the linneages goes on far past what I have listed and branches out in many many sub-branches, to many to list here. For a more complete listing, please consult the fine historical publication Complete Wing Chun, available through any Barnes and Noble. This information is not that hard to dig up, it just entails wanting to do the research and taking the time to correctly translate the Chinese texts.
2) The Chan Wah Shun spying on Leung Jan story is an old wife's tale found in many southern systems stories of the time. For example, Yang Luchang spying on the Chen's. The fact of the matter is that Leung Jan had many students before and after his sons or Chan Wah Shun. Ngau Shu, Lai Ying, Lo Kwai, Ho Han-Loi, Fung Wah, were among the many he taught in Fatshan.
This doesn't even take in to account almost the entire Guolou village, his birthplace where he retired to and taught his wing chun methods as well. Leung Bak Cheung, Wong Wah Sum, Yim Sei, and Yik Ying for example all haveverifyable linneages through him.
3) According to records, Leung Chun was born mentaly retarded, and died as a child. It can also be found in the histories of other linneages, such as Pan Nam's.
4) The "Shaolin" connection is a fable, in conjunction with most of the fables told by southern styles in that time period which were derived from the entertainment/pulp novel book Wan Lin Ching/10 000 years Green, a fantasy book that unfortunately many took as fact.
There is in fact, no arhceological evidence that the Southern Shaolin ever existed. Likewise, most southern systems attribute themselves to the "fabled five" as a means of promoting patriotism during a time of common anti-ching uprising in the south, and more specifically during the Taiping rebellion.
Intelligent as Leung Jan was as grandmaster, he knew Chan Wah Shun would dispute grandmastership with his sons, after his death tobecome the leader of the system.
More parroting of rediculous claims. There was no way Leung Jan could be"head" of the entire wing chun family, see above.
Therefore, he wouldn't have been the heir to the system because he wasn't a family member. Leung Jan did not know how long Chan had beenwatching or how much he had learned. Therefore, Leung Jan had Chan fighthis younger son Leung Cheun.! To his amazement, Chan defeated Leung Cheun.
He was dead already. Must have not been much of a fight.
learned quite a bit of the traditional Wing Chun. In order to keep Chan Wah Shun under control, Leung Jan accepted Chan as the first outside student.
Not quite, as stated above, he had plenty of students before Chan Wah Shun, and held classes regularly at his Herbal shop.
Now, being that Chan Wah Shun was a moneychanger (one who changes gold to currency), his ability to interpret what he sees was excellent.
Actually, the fact that he was a money changer speaks more for Leung Jan's practice of taking common tradesman on as students. For example, Lo Kwai was a butcher. He was usually said to have taught then owners of local establishments. Chan probably fit that but was not as prominent with a "stall" as someone who owned a "shop". The merchant class, in those days, considered themselves better then farmers.
Chan taught himself how to use Wing Chun.
If that is the case, then one could build an argument saying one can learn wing chun from a video with no personal instruction and nobody to practice with, which we know to be impossible. Let alone go on to beat two people who supposedly learned the "traditional system" since birth, according to this story. As you state below, Chan was so good because of Chi Sao - i.e. his built up reflexes. How would he have mysteriously built up these reflexes and ability by watching through a hole in the wall and teaching himself? Your statement makes no sense.
Leung saw Chan's Wing Chun was good. Leung cleverly altered Chan's Wing Chun by withholding key elements and principles from Chan. At that point, martial arts combined: balance, footwork, reflexes, punches, kicks, concentration, sensitivity and most of all, having the heart to be a martial artist.
As you have stated, Wing Chun is a reflexive system. Leung Jan was highly skilled and well known as a terrific fighter and had been doing wing chun for quite some time. How is it possible to totally change your reflexes, honed after years of training, in the span that this story is claiming?
Leung Jan and his youngest son Leung Chuan died, leaving Leung Bik as the heir to the traditional Wing Chun system. Leung Bik moved to Hong Kong.
There are no records of Leung Bik leaving for Hong Kong. Only mentions of him leaving for "another province". Likewise there are even some mentions that state Leung Bik was never even interested in Wing Chun. It's also more uncertain that Yip Man even met Leung Bik because of this. He himself didn't even inlcude Leung Bik in his own written history. In fact, some of the first hong kong students of Yip Man's state that the story of Leung Bik meeting Yip Man was made up by Yip Man and Lee Man for marketing purposes (just as he was starting to teach at the Resteraunt Union, where Lee Man brought him - it's often erroneously stated that Leung Shun brought him there).
Chan Wah Shun proclaimed himself Grandmaster of Wing Chun King Fu and went to
Nonsense. No doccuments from any of Chan's students ever had him refer to himself, nor did they refer to him as "grandmaster". They in fact, often refered to him as Wah Gung (Grandfather, not grandmaster).
work for the Yip family estate as chief security guard.
He rented space at the Ancestral temple for teaching, he was not a security guard. Likewise, he shortly after retired and left, soon suffering a stroke and dying an invalid. Yip Man didn't learn from him long, and got the rest of his training from a student of Chan's, Ng Chun So.
Let's expound on the effectiveness of the altered Wing Chun. Like all fighting arts it uses linear attack circular defense or vise-versa, shuffle footwork on one side, blocking kicks with kicks and various weapons of strikes. So what made Chan Wah Shun Wing Chun superior? Chi Sao! This is the core of the system. Chi Sao gives optimum prowess. Sensitivity, contact reflexes, striking at close distance and trapping are some of Wing Chun's key factors. With my experience of meeting masters, students, and practitioners, everyone's emphasis is Chi Sao. Through the years Chi Sao became a fighting art. Its purpose is an exercise to develop contact reflexes. Si-Gung Bruce Lee was hindered by not knowing all of the altered Wing Chun.
Si-gung = teacher's teacher, as in your grandparent. Did you mean to call him Sisuk Bruce, as in your kung fu uncle? Or, are you claiming that Bruce Lee taught your Sifu, William Cheung? Or are you just missusing the term to stand for "Grandmaster"? The only proper term for the interhitor of a system is Jeung Moon Yan (gatekeeper). I realize it is popular nowadays for many people to use Sigung for "Grandmaster", but this does not mean it's correct and would be more akin to slang. Much likeputting Sifu in front of your name as a title. If people want to missuse terms for their own goals, I suppose it's their perogative.
He became frustrated on using Wing Chun at a distance
.Quite possibly because he had only gone through part of the system.
This made him to become eclectic.
Wing Chun, by definition, is an eclectic art.
The late Grandmaster Yip man fought Grandmaster Leung Bik at adistance and lost. Most Wing Chun practitioners that I've seen in my lifetime have never fought from a distance.
Most practitioners I've seen have fought at many different distance, in many different methods. The entire family as a whole is so diverse that it's rediculous to make claims such as these.
With all the techniques and applications in the system I never saw them applied by anyone other than GM. William Cheung, Sifu Anthony Arnett and myself.
Then I might suggest you try looking a little harder as more and more material on linneages outside of Yip Man are becoming more readily available.
I must add that, pre-arranged fighting and grappling do not count, nor do self- defense techniques.
Nor should poorly researched claims on Grandmastership and "traditional" versions of the art.
Thanks for listening to reasons.
People are always willing to listen to someone's opinions. It's when they present them as "facts" that people have problems.
Sincerely,
Martin S. Goldberg IWCKFF wgungfu@csd.uwm.edu