Ving Tsun Kung Fu History

Ving Tsun Kung Fu - Wing Chun - Wing Tsun - Bruce Lee

VING TSUN HISTORY

About four hundred years ago, in a village near the town of Fatshan, China, there lived a family named Yim. This family had a daughter named Ving Tsun. At the age of seven, Ving Tsun was sent to the Shaolin Temple to learn kung fu. There, Ving Tsun studied the various styles of Shaolin kung fu under the nun Ng Mui.

Ving Tsun studied hard and grew to be a proficient martial artist. She also became a beautiful young woman. Her beauty attracted many suitors, one of which was a local warlord. Ving Tsun was not impressed, and subsequently rejected the warlord's advances. Angered by this affront, the warlord attacked Ving Tsun's father, who was not trained in kung fu. Ving Tsun rushed to her father's defense, and both were seriously injured.

Demoralized by her defeat, Ving Tsun questioned the validity of her training. Realizing that the warlord's superior strength had defeated her, she understood that she would have to re-evaluate her skills. The answer came to her one day when she came across a snake and crane fighting in the fields. Ving Tsun realized that focussed power and maximum speed could defeat the most powerful opponent.

Inspired by what she had seen, Ving Tsun modified, and improved the techniques she had learned. Confident in her new system, Ving Tsun sought out the warlord and beat him decisively. Ving Tsun then organized her new sytem into a series of forms: Sil Lim Tao (Little Idea), Chum Kiu (Searching for the Bridge), Biu Gee (Shooting Fingers), and a series of techniques performed on the Mok Yan Jong (Wooden Dummy).

Ving Tsun eventually married and taught her system to her husband, Chan Wah Shun. The "Ving Tsun System" was subsequently passed down from generation to generation until it was taught to Yip Man, who began training in Fatshan at the age of nine. In 1949, Yip Man brought Ving Tsun Kung Fu to Hong Kong and taught it for thirty years.

Yip Man, the Grand Master of the Ving Tsun System, passed away in Hong Kong in December, 1972, at the age of eighty-one. May his tribe prosper.

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