Wing Chun History - Taiwanese conncetion

Wing Chun history is shrouded in mystery .There are many versions of wing chun history , many original and superior styles, many holders of the only complete wing chun system. Every now and then some new original Wing Chun style appears supported with newly discovered secret history. Every style , even every school from the same lineage has
different version of history which puts them somehow in a position of only and
last keeper of the best and true original, version of the art . Over the years
stories changed , new stories appeared , new ‘old” , secret styles surfaced ,
people from other styles fought for the “truth” by searching the evidence to
prove everybody else wrong, endless discussions are still ongoing all over the
internet …

Among all that mess, false claims and constructed “histories” some people actually did some real research , as much as they were able to. Today we can take some things regarding the origin of Wing Chun with a great certainty, although , real history research , conducted by
real scientists was never done. We can trace Wing Chun to the Red Boat opera
trope . We do not know whether Red Boat people practiced Wing Chun per se or some
other art which later became known as Wing Chun. We know what people brought
from the Red Boats , but we cannot be sure who actually taught those people. We
can trace Wing Chun history and development with some certainty from the beginning
of the 20th century , not before.

What is still unknown and a subject of many speculations is the ancient origin of Wing Chun. What art, and by whom was brought among Red Boats and who created it. There are many different stories,some similar, some totally different  but they all share one common feature , they all lack any real evidence and cannot be considered more than a legends .

I have met some interesting people in Taiwan, some of them are practitioners of “Taiwanese” version of wing chun , the others are White Crane practitioners. They have some interesting stories regarding the ancient origin of Wing Chun .

 Some White Crane people claim that Wing Chun is nothing more than a modified sub
style of White Crane that was brought among Red Boats from Fujian province by Yim Wing Chun and her husband around 1720’s .Story about Ng Mui taught Yim Wing Chun , how the girl met her husband and fight against the local official who wanted to marry her ,was no different from Wing Chun origin story , onlt difference is Yim Wing Chun was taught White Crane , not Wing Chun . That Crane style was modified later by opera people for the purpose of fighting on the confined quarters on the boats .

 Michel Yeoh as Yim Wing Chun


Other group of White Crane practitioners claims that Wing Chun is a sub style of White Crane brought to the Red Boats by Taiwanese master around 1780’s.They couldn't give any details , like what style of White Crane that master brought to the red boats ,they told me the name of the master but i forgot it ( i have real trouble remembering Chinese names )and to be hones  I was embarrassed to go back and ask again for the name.Taiwanese master was a member of anti Ching movement , but why he joined the red opera troupe and what secret organisation he belonged remains a mystery ( or they didn"t want to tell me , which is also highly possible ),

 People form “Taiwanese” Wing Chun claim that their style was brought to Taiwan in 1661 by direct student of Ng Mui .They consider their style as a "male" version of the art and red boat opera style as "female" style. They also consider Ng Mui as founder of Wing Chun.

What is interesting , all of them have some old documents to support their stories. White Crane people keep good record of historical development and spreading of their style , if nothing else , many of the events and data points can be connected to the real historical events and people involved in those events are real people whose existence can be verified
. On the other hand , without a real research and expertise done by the real archaeologists and historians these stores , like all other wing chun origin stories cannot be taken seriously .
What I can say with a great certainty as being practitioner of Wing Chun and White Crane (zonghequan) is , both arts have same origin , same source . I will DNA analogy ( like some people did before ). Just like in a case of primates where people and for example chimpanzees have 98% of DNA which is exactly the same and the rest 2 % defines the differences between two species , same thing can be said for Wing Chun and White Crane , they have identical basic principles , only difference is in expression of thous principles.

Southern Shaolin - Taiwan connection

Southern Shaolin temple was established during the Tang dynasty when warrior monks from Henan Shaolin were deployed to the South to combat piracy. When pirates were defeated the monks remained in support of the local garrison and established the Southern Shaolin Monastery. In time , Southern Shaolin became bigger, more popular and more important than the monastery from Henan province . Southern Shaolin was not only religious center but also a place of art, science, medicine, literacy and martial arts development. For more than a millennium Southern Shaolin flourished developing martial arts all over southern China. After fall of the Ming dynasty Southern Shaolin became a center of the rebellion and under the guidance of 5 elders at one point there was almost million people ready to overcome the Manchu government. One of the 5 elders betrayed his brothers and Manchus , using English artillery destroyed the monastery somewhere between 1647 and 1720. and killed most of the monks. The rest of the elders escaped and scattered all over China in order to avoid capture. These elders founded the most famous southern fighting styles like Wing Chun , Hung Gar, Choi Gar , Mok Gar, White Tiger, Bai Mei ect. Almost all Southern kung fu style trace their origin to Southern Shaolin Temple and 5 elders. There are two common patterns in origin sotries of southern styles, either elders taught their superior martial styles to carefully selected disciples after the destruction of the monastery or style founder learned his superior martial art from the elders before the destruction of the monastery. There are very few southern styles which do not follow this origin story pattern .

This story is one of the most popular kung fu folk stories, it is wildly known and it is completely false. Southern Shaolin never existed, this story was created in the second half of the 19^th century by Heaven and Earth society with a specific goal. Heaven and Earth society was one of the largest and oldest anti Manchu secret organization. Secret resistance cells were scattered all over Fujian and Guangdong provinces. Often, these groups operated almost independently not knowing any other secret group and more often not having any trust in other secret groups. In order to prepare all these groups for the upcoming rebellion, leaders of the society needed to give them sense of unity , brotherhood and common goal and the story of the Southern Shaolin was created .This story gave all these secrets groups same origin and same ancestors who suffered same fate making all the members of the organization brothers .

The story its self was, according to some local sources, created in Tainan . There is an old Taoist temple which served as hiding place and secret headquarters for the leaders of the Heaven & Earth society. Tainan was economical and trading center of Taiwan with a lot a traffic of people and goods, on the other hand Taiwan and Tainan were never under strict control of the government. 

                                                                                                    heaven and earth society secret meeting place



That fact allowed members of the secret societies to develop their activities without fear of being capture. Temple is located at Minsheng road , not far from Chihkan tower and complex of several oldest temples in Taiwan.

This location was the heart of the 19^th century Taiwan capital , Tainan. Many refugees found safe haven in Tainan during Manchu reign . Low level of government control , small army and police forces and support of the local residents gave opportunity to many people prosecuted on the mainland China to escape and continue their anti dynastic activities. Most of the Taiwan’s territory at the time was without any government control, frontier country ,a “wild west” of China and many political and not only political refugees escaped to Taiwan. Many secret groups activities on the mainland were coordinated and financed from Taiwan. Being an important trade center at the time , again with low government control and often bribery , Tainan offered a lot of opportunities for wide range of illegal but lucrativeactivities . That money was used to support various activities on the mainland . 

 details from the temple

By the end of 19^th century Heaven and Earth society launched the “Southern Shaolin” story which became extremely popular and in later years , during the republican period was considered as historical fact. Even today many people believe in the existence of the “Southern Shaolin” although there are no evidence to support its existence and it is clearly stated thatstory was created in Tawan .

Only in Taiwan - The Sung Chiang Battle Array

   

  The best definition of the Sung Chiang Battle Array is group martial arts performance. They involve individual set performance , pair duel performance with traditional weapons and large group battle drills .These performances are mixture of martial arts , religious rituals and theatrical play. The Sung Chiang Battle Array performance was and still is very popular on southern Taiwan. There is no similar performance anywhere else in Asia not even in the north of Taiwan.

 The origin of the event is still unclear but unlike many other traditional Taiwanese folk arts, the Sung Chiang battle array has never been recorded as existing in mainland China, it is purely Taiwanese .Event is named after Sung Chiang , a leader of the 108 righteous bandits from the novel 'Water Margin". Water Margin is a story set in the Song dynasty, tells of how a group of 108 patriotic outlaws gathers at Mount Liang  to form a sizable army and fight for social justice  before they are eventually granted amnesty by the government and sent on campaigns to resist foreign invaders and suppress rebel forces.

The true origin of this unique tradition can be traced to the early days of Koxinga's rule.Zheng Chenggong, Prince of Yanping (27 August 1624 – 23 June 1662), better known internationally by his Dutch-Romanised Hokkien honorific Koxinga  was a Chinese Ming loyalist who resisted the Qing conquest of China in the 17th century, fighting them on China's southeastern coast.In 1661, Koxinga defeated the Dutch outposts on Formosa and established a dynasty, the House of Koxinga, which ruled the island as the Kingdom of Tungning from 1661 to 1683.

 In order to defend the island from the Manchus and Dutch, Koxinga armed and trained common people , mostly peasants . Despite of the Koxinga's efforts , Taiwan was soon conquered by Manchus. The Sung Chiang Battle array popularity was at the highest peak in that particular time . During 1700's and 1800's government control of the island was very weak , military and police forces were concentrated mostly in cities leaving the rest of the island undefended . Villagers were forced to form a militia, often payed by government , in order to protect them self from Japanese pirates , Aboriginal head hunters and domestic bandits. Village militias were quite strong in numbers and had training identical to army infantry units. They were also well trained because their lives depended on their skills and they were under constant threat of being attack by various criminal factions active at that time. Village militias lasted until 1895 and Japanese occupation of Taiwan

During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan (1895-1945) Sung Chiang battle array performance was forbidden and it never regain its former popularity .

Sung Chiang performing groups are organized by temple priests, who have traditionally been at the forefront of martial arts training. Performances usually take place in temple courtyards .A full-size Sung Chiang team has 108 members; smaller ones have 72 or, at a minimum, 36. Most of the teams are made up of men, but there are also teams made up of women and youths.

Many of the weapons used in the Sung Chiang battle array are actually old agricultural tools--rakes, sickles, hooks, umbrellas--used by the early peasantry. Sung Chiang performances are accompanied by drums and gongs, and by standard bearers acting as commanders. All team members must pray to Sung Chiang before a performance starts, and, at both the beginning and end of a performance, the performers gather at the temple gate, raise their weapons high, and shout 'Ho! Ho! Ho!'" The number of team members at a performance must not exceed 107 ,at particular point the spirit money and incense must be burned ,women born in the Year of the Tiger are not allowed at the beginning of a performance;

Today, Sung Chiang Battle Array purpose is to keep tradition alive and it has some religious purposes . In the past ,purpose of this practice was purely practical . It was mentioned before that villagers could not expect any government forces protection and they organized militia forces by them self. In the old days practice was focused on weapon training and practicing for fighting in the formation with all kinds of group maneuvers. Great deal of training was dedicated to shield usage. Empty hand practice , even if there is one , took a smallest proportion of the training.

Today Sung Chiang Battle Array performance is recognized from the government as a significant part of Taiwanese cultural heritage and there are a lot of efforts from  Council for Cultural Planning and Development to preserve it for the future generations.

This traditional martial performance is a great source of information for any serious martial arts history researcher , it is a window in the past and gives a great deal of information how people practiced martial arts before fire arms became commonly used . 

Kung fu village

There is no kung fu practitioner on Taiwan who heaven.t heard about Xiulo village . Today ,Xiulo and surrounding area is well known for the variety and quality of the martial styles practiced there. In the time of the Qing dynasty , Xiluo village was one of the most important centers of Kung fu .

Story of Xiluo village starts in China in Guan –Po. During the Ming dynasty in Guan-Po lived unusual clan , unusual in a way that they wanted to keep memory to their maternal and paternal ancestor so they used both their names for their family name , Zhang Liao. They were loyal Ming followers and after the fall of the Ming dybasty many of the Zhang Liao clan followed Koxinga’s father and Koxinga himself . In 1701 Clan elders decided to send four of their members led by Liao Chao Kung to Taiwan to find a place where clan can relocate and move from Qing prosecution . This four members are founders of the Xiluo village. Later manyof the clan members joined them and in time there was seven villages in Xiluo area .

Xiluo Township

It is said that Zhang Liao clan brought bone medicine to Taiwan as well as Lion dancing and one kind of exotic fruit.

At that particular time ,Taiwan was a frontier country and although there was some government troops stationed on the Island , these troops were mostly in Tainan protecting government officials and prosecuting members of the resistance. People who lived outside of the city walls of Tainan faced the threat from head hunters aboriginal tribes , Japanese pirates , local gangs and there was major dispute between different ethnic groups , especially between Hakka people and everyone else. Villagers could not rely on anyone for protection but them self . Zhang Liao clan was particularly good in defending their land and people . Villages at the time formed militias and trained and armed young , strong people who’s main job was to protect the lives of the villagers as well as protection of the crops and land .Each of the seven Xiluo clan groups developed their distinct fighting style using as a base martial styles they brought from China. In 150 years Liao clan made a good living on Taiwan . In 1849 , to show their gratitude to the ancestor they built an ancestral temple.  This temple was not only religious center but also a center of social gathering and a place where elders meet to resolve legal issues. In time celebrations organized by Liaos were so huge that they became famous all over Taiwan and people from all over the island went there to participate .

In the early 1830's village government invited a Southern Shaolin expert , A Shin Shi to come  and improve martial arts in the area. Elders organized official school in each of the seven villages and most of training was responsibility of A Shin Shi .

A Shin Shi was an expert in Golden Eagle boxing , and was very skilled fighter . In time Golden Eagle boxing was wildly accepted by Liaos and became their main martial style. A Shin Shi retired in 1862 leaving behind a great number of excellent students who spread the his reputation all over the island. Golden Eagle style later developed in several sub styles .

A Shin Shi was and still is considered as one of the best if not the best Taiwanese martial artists of all time , even more , he was highly educated and his personalty was flawless , therefor he was and still is a role model for many martial artists on Taiwan.

Xiluo and surrounding villages still preserve their martial arts although traditional kung fu is far from popular these days. These arts were unfortunately long lost in mainland China. Due to specific historical, economical and social climate, kung fu in Xiluo ans well as in other places in Taiwan changed little from the times of the Qing dynasty and  these rare styles can give us pretty good picture how martial arts looked like at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19 th century.

Kung fu temple in Tainan

This is short video story about one of the oldest temples on Taiwan , dedicated to one of the greatest Chinese heroes of all time . Guan Yunchang lived in a "Three kingdoms" period.He was the embodiment of loyalty, honor, and strength.For this , not long after his deadt people started to worship him as god . As a god, he is a guardian of justice,protector of warriors.

True kung fu teacher

I came to Taiwan several years ago, full of knowledge and I have to admit , little bit full of my self . I’d had all possible kung fu knowledge that could be found in my country , before I came here .For almost two years I’ve lived in Taipei. I had a lot of practice there, visited many schools , met and worked with some famous ”names”. To my disappointment, although level and quality of information in most of these schools are on the high level, and I had learned a lot , I hadn’t learned anything new , just a different variation and interpretations, some better , some worse, of the same principles in my primary art , nothing more advanced or higher level. After more than a year I’ve decided to give a chance to some other style of kung fu , although I have continued my research and practice of Wing Chun. I have tried several other arts but those schools were the same as Wing Chun schools I have visited before. The spirit of “money” was what I have felt there, inpatient instructors who cannot wait to finish the training and unwilling to give a deeper inside into their arts. Superficial smiles and politeness disappear as soon as you pay training fee and appear again just before the time for the next payment.  After couple of tries I gave up , in the eyes of these people I was just a stupid white guy who wants to be Chinese and who has to be ripped off . In Taipei is common practice to have double standards in teaching and different class prices, one for domestic students and other for foreigners . At that point, totally disappointed, I had stopped any practice with one exception , I have continued to learn one rare Wing Chun style form mainland China.

After almost two years in Taipei, my wife and I decided to move to her home town , Tainan. After we settled down I ‘ve started to feel that I need practice . Previous experience killed all my hope that I will find what I was searching fo , instead of finding good kung fu school I just wanted to find a place where I can blow off some steam. To my surprise, finding a kung fu school in Tainan was not an easy task. Kung fu teachers in Tainan notoriously avoid the internet and English language. With a great help of my wife, I have found Baji quan school .To be honest I have never heard about Baji before, my focus was ,and still is on southern kung fu styles, and I hadn’t slightest idea what does Baji even look like .Having experience from Taipei I was expecting same thing here but I didn’t care , I just wanted to be physically engaged , nothing more than that .

 Good things happen when you least expect them. That Baji school was what I was searching for. This story is not about me, it is about a man whose name I still cannot pronounce , a real kung fu teacher and person who has my utmost respect .

Like I said , I was expecting same thing as in Taipei . To my surprise this school is total opposite to those schools in Taipei. First, prices are the same for everyone . Teaching quality was the same for everyone, maybe even slightly better for me , at last that was my impression .People there respect their art and respect each other . They practice because they love the art, traditional kung fu , because it is part of their culture, part of who they are. All that positive atmosphere , spirit of the real, old ,traditional kung fu , respect and high personal and common values , all of that  was work of one man , 官鋒忠.

He is not just a martial artist , he is a man of many talents . He is an artist , a musician who is trying to preserve an art of playing on traditional Taiwanese clay instrument . Only a few people today know how to play that instrument . He has enormous amount of patience .When I started to practice I knew almost nothing about traditional Chinese culture although I have lived in Taipei for almost two years . Taipei and Tainan are two different universes. Not knowing the rules I imagine I was pretty annoying and sometimes even offensive , but all I have met was understanding and patience . In time I have learned a lot, not only the martial part , that was not the most important part of the training , I have learned a lot about people , their way of life and thinking , I was accepted completely (well , not completely , there was some people who were not happy I was there , but that was never shown openly because of respect of the teacher and his decision) .

Best way to judge someone’s personality is to see him with kids and官鋒忠 love kids with all his heart . 

官鋒忠 founded “Maita” association which goal is preservation and spreading original spirit of Chinese martial arts . On the other hand he is an innovator , he possess a great knowledge and understanding  of his art and he is putting a great effort trying to make one traditional martial style more understandable and acceptable for younger generation on one side and to explain it through scientific method on the other . He is also aware how important is for kung fu to pass borders of Asia and spread among all people . Like he said , kung fu belongs to everyone .

I could go on forever to talk about this great man who is ahead of his time , great martial teacher , a person who possess all the features of the legendary heroes from old folk stories. If you come to Tainan and you want to learn real kung fu this is a right place for that .

http://www.maita.tw/

Kung fu Robin Hood

An outlaw who robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, a courageous warrior who fights against injustice and protects the innocent , man of many skills who plays with the authorities and it is impossible to catch, he enters the stronghold of the enemy full of enemy soldiers , steals the treasure and escapes undetected .His fighting skills are legendary , he can fight as many enemies at once as he wants , he has an ability to disappear in front of the eyes of his prosecutors , he is often disguised in his quests . This is not a story about famous medieval English outlaw , Robin Hood , this is a story about Taiwanese version of “kung fu Robin Hood” known as “Righteous Thief”.

   While Robin Hood never really existed ,“Righteous Thief” was a real person and legend of him has strong support in real events.

   Righteous Thief’s real name was Liao Tien Ding. He was born on April 5, 1883 in a small village near Taichung. When he was two years old his father was killed in a fight and his mother remarried soon after. His family was poor so Liao started to work as a general laborer for wealthy families. His attitude toward work was less than careless and he was unable to keep a job for a longer period. At the end, no one wanted to hire him anymore.

   With no job opportunities Liao decided to move to Taipei. Due to his habit to steal from his employers he was fired many times over. Soon , he turned to be a full time thief. He operated all over Taiwan and was caught in Taichung and sentenced to ten month in prison. As soon as he got out, Liao continued his “career”, specializing in burglary of rich people’s houses.

One of his burglaries made him very popular among people . He broke in a Koo family mansion .Koo family was very close to the Japanese colonial government and head of the Koo family was even a member of Japanese parliament at some point . Part of loot from this “job” Liao gave to the poor families and he continued to do so during his later “career”.

His next two “jobs” made him a folk hero. He killed a Taiwanese cop who had been working undercover for the Japanese police. The biggest “achievement” was breaking into Japanese police dormitory and stealing weapons and ammo. After this he became the most wanted man on Taiwan.

While police was trying to find him , common people worshiped him .He was admired for his ability to steal from rich people who were at the time seen as Japanese collaborators. He was even more admired for his ability to attack Japanese police publically and get away with it . His habit to share part of his loot with the poorest families brought him a name “Righteous Thief”.

 Over time story about him grew and his abilities were highly exaggerated. People believed that he could fly and walk on the walls, become invisible, use magic and run on the water .

In realty Liao was an extraordinary kung fu practitioner with a set of skills developed for his “line of work”. Besides fighting skills he was good disguising. He liked to disguise as an old woman in order to easily deceive Japanese police. He was a master of the “blue foot cloth” skill. This skill involved various use of a three meters long linen cloth, worn as a belt. Usually it was used as an emergency mean of escape.  

Shrine dedicated to Liao Tien Ding

 Liao died young , at the age of 26. While hiding in Taipei county he haven't slept for days always in the move in order to avoid capturing. After several days of running and hiding he finally fell asleep. At November 18, 1909.a friend who was with him at the time betrayed him and killed him in his sleep. That is how one of the most popular folk heroes off Taiwan ended his life.