Who is hiding behind "Leung Bik's" name

Story about Yip Man’s teachers  is probably the best known among wing chun practitioners  today. Written by Yip Man himself and later edited by his students it became a romantic story about learning and practicing one of the best known wing chun practitioners of all times . Like most of the other ‘histories’  this story may be loosely based on some facts , but most of it’s content is pure fabrication, hype and exaggeration.

It is true Yip Man learned from Chan Wah Shun , but careful exam of the time line and different sources shows that Yip Man spent only 6 to 8 month with his first teacher . After  famous master died , and I seriously doubt he mention young boy he knew only for short time on his death bed ( like Yip Man’s sons claim), Yip Man continued his study with Chan Wah Shun’s senior student , Ng Chun So. He spent with him around two years  before he went to Hong Kong to continue his education .  Could he complete the system in this two years we cannot say , neither we can know what he was practicing , today there is no pure Chan Wah Shun’s  style , nor Ng Chun So’ style .  That part of his training will remain a mystery .  Yes, it is possible to learn the system in two years , so he may learned quite a lot in that time .

Now we are coming to the interesting part . The part that includes Leung Bik , son of the famous master Dr. Leung Jan .  A part from the fact that there was no evidence to support existence of such a person (Leung Bik) , no documents, pictures , passports, grave site , tax records , nor such a person is ever mentioned in records of other people of the time , how much could young boy in his teens learn and understand . Again He stayed couple of years in Hong Kong and then he returned to Foshan . For years  Yip Man worked as a police officer, he didn’t teach wing chun , he didn’t have students , he only practiced  in his free time in his old teacher’s  Ng Chan So school  where  Yiu Choi  hold classes and his neighbor Yuen Kai San came sometimes  .  From Yip Man’s side ,stories told by his students leave impression that Yip Man and Yuen Kai San were good friends and equals but that is not truth . Yuen Kai San was Yip Man’s senior and at one point became his teacher .  Yip Man’s and Yuen Kai San’s fathers were friends and fellow merchants . Yip family traded opium while Yuen family traded fireworks .  At one point angry mob burnt Yip’s mansion and Yip family hid at their neighbor house , Yuen family saved their lives . Yip Man’s father used his friendship and asked Yuen Kai San’s father to convince his son to accept Yip Man as a student.  Reluctantly , Yuen Ki San accepted and taught Yip Man some chi sao and superficially ,empty hand forms . Yuen Kay San only taught Yip Man the fixed structure but the system of dynamic structure and its moving through space . Also he taught him only  front facing, linear vector rolling hands platform ( tan\ fook \bong  ) , which is beginners form of chi sao  , but not the other platforms found in YKS and other systems like big huen sao platform, small huen sao platform , free form of chi sao which includes all of the previous platforms with actual moving through space while maintaining the structure .  That is why Yip Man’s system today has only one single hand chi sao platform and one double hand chi sao platform , and that is why empty hand forms of Yip Man’s system  resemble  to forms from Yuen Kai San’s system . 

In later years , Yip Man accepted several students but what he taught was  visually different from Yuen Ki San’s system but in essence that was an incomplete system without knives form(at least that is what Lun Gai , Yip Man’s student from that period said , Yip Man never taught him knives) and besides visual difference it is actually the same system Yip Man taught later in Hong Kong .

From this we can see that “Leung Bik” was most probably Yuen Kai San , bit Yip Man never used his name because he was never a disciple of Yuen Kai San and he had no permission to teach his system . There is one other important thing, legendary ancestor like Leung Bik , which gives direct connection to the most famous wing chun master of all times Leung Jan gives much more ‘face”, prestige that quiet and Yuen Kai san who lived far from public eye and had only couple of students . 

Story  is even more interesting if we consider what some of the Yip Man’s students said about Leung Bik. According to Moy Yat , Yip Man’s student and relative ‘Leung Bik “ was actually Fung Wah a student of Leung Jan.  Yip Man’s sons and Moy Yat officiated on Fung Wah’s funeral  and continue to pay their respect.  Whether Yop Man really learned from Fing Wah or nor ( we will probably never know) , this gives the story an interesting twist .

The question still remains , who is hiding behind “Leung Bik’s” name ? Fung Wah , Yuen Kai San , Leung Bik himself or maybe someone else ? Future research may shed some new light on this subject …

A gift of insult

 The gift of insults

Near Tokyo lived a great Samurai warrior, now old, who decided to teach Zen Buddhism to young people. In spite of his age, the legend was that he could defeat any adversary.
     One afternoon, a warrior - known for his complete lack of scruples - arrived there. He was famous for using techniques of provocation: he waited until his adversary made the first move and, being gifted with an enviable intelligence in order to repair any mistakes made, he counterattacked with fulminating speed.
     The young and impatient warrior had never lost a fight. Hearing of the Samurai's reputation, he had come to defeat him, and increase his fame.
     All the students were against the idea, but the old man accepted the challenge. 
     All gathered on the town square, and the young man started insulting the old master. He threw a few rocks in his direction, spat in his face, shouted every insult under the sun - he even insulted his ancestors. For hours, he did everything to provoke him, but the old man remained impassive. At the end of the afternoon, by now feeling exhausted and humiliated, the impetuous warrior left.
     Disappointed by the fact that the master had received so many insults and provocations, the students asked: 
     - How could you bear such indignity? Why didn't you use your sword, even knowing you might lose the fight, instead of displaying your cowardice in front of us all?
     - If someone comes to you with a gift, and you do not accept it, who does the gift belong to? - asked the Samurai.
     - He who tried to deliver it - replied one of his disciples.
     - The same goes for envy, anger and insults - said the master. - When they are not accepted, they continue to belong to the one who carried them.

Term “Self defense”  is well known to all martial arts practitioners , and not only to them and its meaning is clear . While the meaning of the term is clear ,  a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm.  there is a lot of confusion and debating about what self defense really is or is not . the most common is an opinion that it is an effective way to physically incapacitate the attacker, and there are situations when it is really unavoidable   , but what is more than often forgotten is the fact that self defense is much wider area and physical confrontation is the last resort . The  most important aspect of self defense is a prevention , the best solution to every attack is prevent it to happen . Again , prevention is often not fully understood and often is incomplete because  it lacks very important part . Awareness is extremely  important as well as  all those measures that help us to even come to the situation of becoming a victim of criminal assault . But this is not what I want to talk about in this article . I want to talk about street fights . It very rare situation where someone just attack other person without any reason , these kind of assaults are very rare . Street fight always has a “reason”. Either someone says something , give a “look” or act offensive somehow . People got pulled into a fight because they react on these kind of things ,they got offended or scared or both and they react  instinctively , without thinking. Truth is,  almost all street fights can be avoided. We have to understand what kind of people provoke others to fight. It is clear that normal person have no desire to hurt others , not physically nor emotionally. Only disturb people have urges to hurt others . These urges might be caused by mental illness but in most cases cause is  inferiority complex (an unrealistic feeling of general inadequacy caused by actual or supposed inferiority in one sphere,.). More than often these people were abused somehow as children . There are many reasons that cause people feel this way , usually they have no accomplishments of any kind , they lack education and intelligence ,sometimes they are physically inadequate (at last that is what they are thinking ) more than often belong to lower levels of society , or simply put , their life suck in some way and they have no mental and emotional capabilities to deal with that like a normal person .Strong feeling of inadequacy ,helplessness and fear these people try to compensate through violence . Often they try to provoke people who they envy , who have something they don’t . And this brings us to the story from the beginning . When someone tries to offend me or challenge me I do not give any response to that , I am aware what kind of person can behave in such a manner and I simply do not give them control over my emotion , because that is what they are trying to do . If you got offended by someone who doesn’t know anything about you and your life you gave up control to that person and you already lost , regardless of the outcome of the fight .If you show you care about what they say you just give them reason to continue and they will not stop because they feed on negative emotions of other people . But if you stay calm and refuse to participate in their game , all these negativity will stay with them .And the most important question is why would anyone care about what some random  people talk about them. Personally , I feel sorry for them , because only they know what is the burden they have to carry .

Many people got involved in street fights because they think they are cowards if they do not give a response to challenge , but they everything but right . That is exactly what attacker wants . Sometimes they can be persistent and it is really hard to stay calm , but every time I find myself in that situation I think about my family and what is more important , to prove an idiot I am not a coward or to go back to my family instead to go to jail .My family depends on me and I won’t  allow myself to end up in jail and spend time in a court because some idiot’s inferiority complex. I have got a lot of challenges over time I never responded to any , simply I have better things to do than fight with people who actually need professional medical help . Does that mean I cannot fight? Of course not , I practice Chinese boxing hard , every day , for years  and I am more than capable to defend my family and myself , that is the thing everyone will find out if comes to physical engagement and I won’t lose ,because I know what am I fighting for .Knowing what am I capable of, it is easy to just walk away . 

The hardest fight is with yourself , to control your emotions , to keep the inner beast dormant , to allow reason and logic to stay in control . It is very hard to achieve that , very , very hard . Person must be emotionally mature and stabile on the first place but when certain level of emotional maturity is reached it is easy to truly understand people and circumstances we are in and to give proper response to that .Martial arts training can help a lot , but it is not crucial , what is important is how we perceive things and whether or not we put them in the correct context . If someone says something bad to me I can react like a child and hit him or understand that normal person would never do such a thing and just let it go. And if we let go , we win , because we know what did and why as well as the other guy , he will be aware of the fact that he lost not because we are afraid but because we know who he is , that he is not worth of our time nor our attention . All that negative emotion, insults , rage , fear , all that will stay with him to eat his poor soul like worm . 

Future of kung fu

 History in the last 400 years was not kind to kung fu , although there were two  short periods of wide spreading and flourishing ,or it is appear so , in general kung fu stated to slowly disappear and that trend is continue today . While forbidden and persecuted in the past by the third party ,today’s declining interest is no one else’s fault , the only blame goes to kung fu its self .

 From the down of history people everywhere had some form of fighting arts . While these arts were mainly weapon arts , there were some bare hands fighting systems for entertainment purpose and competition . First of these systems is found in the oldest human civilization ,Summer . We have these systems throughout history everywhere on the world , Europe , Asia , Africa , South America . Usually these systems were some sort of boxing of wrestling or mixture of these two .

  For the most part of its history , kung fu was , as all martial systems everywhere else o the world , concentrated on weapon training for military purposes. Only a small portion of kung fu , in any , paid any attention on empty hand fighting . After fall of the Ming dynasty , situation changed and Han people could not have military format weapons so kung fu put focus on small , hidden weapons , agricultural tools and empty hands techniques . Introducing the fire arms made old systems of fighting absolute . In second half of 1800”s kung fu stopped to be a fighting art and was adopted from upper social level of society as a sign of their wealth and position. Kung fu grew theoretically , technically but not in the terms of efficiency and effectiveness , actually the opposite happened . Systems were overwhelmed with enormous amount of forms , drills and other exercises which became purpose to its self . Mastering such amount of forms and drills required great amount of time , 20 years or more . Despite all that training , kung fu practitioners seldom fought . Without real experience people theorized what can happen in the fight and made a full systems of “techniques” practiced instead of sparring or competitive fighting , these techniques became too complicated in time and totally lost any base in real fighting . Of course , we all know stories about great master from the past who never lost a fight and won hundreds of fights . The truth is , that never happened , maybe they had a fight or two , but that amount of fights has every man on the world.  Kung fu practitioners believed that drills ,”techniques” training and forms can replace fighting . Today we have several generations of masters\teachers without fighting experience . Take an example of the most famous Wing Chun lineage ,Yip Man’s.  Yip Man never fought , despite of the legends , he never had any fights ,and even if he had , even if those stories are true , he had only 3 or fights . Now compare that to a boxer who have maybe a 100 fights in his career . We also know , from the testimony of his students , Yip Man rarely even touched hands with his students , there was no sparring of any kind . Again , compare that to a boxer who spar on almost every training . As we can see the gap in real fighting experience is enormous , and only real fighting experience can develop real fighting skills , just like the only way to learn how to swim is to go into the water .We know Yip Man had coupe of fights (actually we don’t , we have no record , just unproven stories) , Yip Man’s sons never fought , as well as most of his students , and there are great amount of third generation who never fought . In three generation without fighting , Wing Chun system changed a lot . There are too many drills , too many “sections” and form “applications” , emphasis is on chi sao but without any real force , because it is an “internal” art , ect . This is just an example , we have this happen in almost all kung fu styles . That is why we have no fighters in MMA or any other world recognized full contact competition with kung fu background , where top level fighters participate . And  this is a problem , most kung fu teachers refuse to realize some things . First , the amount of time required for training . In month in a boxing club someone can gain fair fighting skills , enough for basic selfdefense , on the other hand , in kung fu club in 6 month time student will still work very basic things without any fighting training . In several years of boxing training everyone can become descent fighter , probably not good enough for professional fighting , but to be able to deal with most  self defense situations , yes . In the modern world , where people have very little time for additional activities , expecting that someone spend 20 years in learning the system is ridiculous .People have very little free time and if someone even shows interest in kung fu he should be able to learn the system in a fair amount of time and to be able to see results soon after the training started , just like in boxing , muai thai , kick boxing … that is why people do not have interest in kung fu any more , especially young people , their world is fast , they expect fast results and there are arts that actually give fast results with a fair quality ,and that is the truth no matter how unpleasant it is .

   And here we come to another issue , tradition . If you are 40 years old , spending 4 years in learning something is great amount of time , it is 1\10^th of your current life time, same amount of time I have spent in University . Now imagine 20 years in learning …Simply , that will almost never happen , first ,it is too long and second , like it was said before , it is a very questionable skill you having there . Many teachers “waters down” the curriculum on purpose in order to keep student learning as long as possible , but less and less people are willing to accept that , especially because there is no system that cannot be learned in a fair amount of time . Holding to the tradition may be important to some people , but they have to realize that tradition can kill kung fu . I often hear something like “I spent 20 years with my teacher” , and that is ok , but your teacher was your or your family personal friend , didn’t charge for classes ,he was coming to your house as a friend , you had a friendship , not real student- teacher relationship . So , there is a difference .

   Tradition is not only related to amount of time needed for training but also about other things. Many teacher expect , actually require from all their students to follow Chinese tradition . And many of them agree . As for me , I will never bow to ancestor’s photo , never offer a tea or light an incense stick to the ancestor photo , or do any ceremony on ancestor’s grave .  I am Serbian Orthodox Christian and I have my own tradition which I follow , I simply cannot anything else . Does that mean I do not respect kung fu or Chinese tradition ? Of course not , I have deep respect to all traditions , I actually know Chinese history better than average Chinese , I research Chinese culture with great passion ,I even help to preserve traditional culture , but that  is far as I can go . I don’t want to become Chinese and I cannot follow any other tradition besides my own .  This is a thing that will make many people to simply go to some other art , tradition and most importantly , religion free.

Third thing connected to tradition is conservation of the art content and it is closely related to the first issue addressed it this article . Stuck in the 19 century , technical content of the arts simply do not follow modern way of fighting . Fighting arts developed and changed tremendously in past several decades  due to exchange the information through joined trainings and most importantly full contact competitions . Keeping stubbornly the art in an ”original” state because the ancestors made it like that way and they won every single fight will just result in system without answers for modern conditions . Maybe the system worked 150 years ago , but the  world changed enormously from that time as well as the way of fighting and training . If art is not capable to adapt, change and adjust its self to ever changing conditions of the world of fighting and the world in general it will simply disappear.

Last , teachers must realize that preserving the culture does not mean conservation , because culture change over time , as everything else. Social norms , behavioral patterns , believes , desires , goals , simply put , complete way of life along with culture is changing over time and it is completely different form the time of some kung fu style’s creation . Keeping and living the norms of that time today is …well , decide for your self .

Misunderstanding and superstition , there is no lack of it in kung fu . Believing supernatural powers gained through “Qigong” and “internal” training are the reason why kung fu became the laughing stock among full contact disciplines . Training without any serious physical engagement , without any power , believing that after time of practice “power” will come from “inside”  is really ridiculous . So what really internal means . When people ask me to give an example of internal fighter I say , Mohamed Ali . He was always relaxed , and he followed all the rules of internal arts . Was weak and without physical power ? No ! Was he practicing “internal” art? No!! So how come he gain internal skills? Simply , through enormous amount of hard training and fighting experience , he came to the point where his art became “internal” and he became probably the  best fighter of modern times . Internal does not mean there is no hard training , just the opposite , internal training , in order to “work” requires much more hard work that “external” training , anyone who says differently either never fought or does that on purpose .

There are two possible ways to the future for kung fu in general . Adaptation and returning to its roots or disappearing .  Unfortunately , I do not see any signs of improvement , actually situation became worse . Young people have other interests and seldom decide to practice kung fu .  What will future bring remains to be seen

Downfall of kung fu

First traces of kung fu were found  around 3000 years B.C . For almost 5 millenniums kung fu developed , grew and improved on  battlefields  all over Asia . Kung fu in all its aspects reached its peak during the Ming dynasty period after which the downfall of Chinese martial arts started and  unfortunately continues today .

For the most of the time of its existence , kung fu was primarily weapon fighting art . Empty hand techniques were rudimentary and considered not important . Despite of the common believe , kung fu was practiced exclusively by military and law enforcement , common people had no chance nor opportunity to practice martial arts . The way practicing was also completely different from today, common soldiers practiced fighting and maneuvering in large formations, weapon techniques were compatible with that kind of warfare and there were not many “solo” techniques . The complete systems of weapon fighting and some rudimentary empty hand techniques were reserved for officers and government officials . One more interesting thing , before the end of the Ming Dynasty , kung fu styles , in a sense we know and perceive them today , did not exist . People define their arts purely by teacher’s linage , so if asked , during the Ming dynasty what is his martial style , someone would say his teacher name and further lineage . Styles as we know them today were invented later ,in the second half of the Ching dynasty rule .

When Ching overthrew the Ming two things happened which caused start of the slow declining of kung fu . Main instructors , people who possessed the complete knowledge of fighting systems were military officers . Most of them were killed , some of them manage to escape and hide but most of the military knowledge ,including martial arts were lost forever . Some of the officer changed sides and got high positions in Manchu government , they passed down their arts, but unfortunately that was just a fraction of the previous amount knowledge . We know this is true according to the government military exames . These tests during Chig dynasty could never reach standards from the time of Ming , simply most of the instructors were killed and training systems were lost . Manchus simplified the exams and made them easier to pass.

Ching dynasty didn’t pay too much attention to modernization of the army and that is probably the reason why kung fu didn’t disappear completely . Fire arms were introduced to the Ching army pretty late , so the first two century of Ching;s rule their army still relied on the traditional , old weapons . On the other hand , common people could not own any weapons , especially long weapons like spears , swords ect. Therefore , kung fu started to develop in specific direction. Training was concentrated on small , hidden weapons and empty hand techniques , compatible with this kind of training started to develop. 

In the 1850’s , fire arms finally became the main type of weapons used by Ching army which made old weapons absolute . This was a final blow to the old weapon orientated kung fu systems. Many systems simply disappeared and many changed focus in training .  Empty hand practice became main focus in kung fu training and one other thing happened , a rich class of traders and merchants adopted this kind of practice as a status symbols which distinguish them from common people who couldn’t afford the tuition fees . Most , if not all kung fu styles we know today were created from the time of 1800 to 1930’s

Although this change of focus in training and change of the social position saved kung fu from disappearing , martial arts , not used on battlefields , practiced by people who actually despised violence and did not learn it for fighting purposes but as a sign of the social status , along with a specific culture of that period and secrecy and almost none interaction and exchange between styles , kung fu became more theoretical than practical . Occasional fist fights didn’t help much in efficiency  improving and development of kung fu .

In 1900 a Chinese secret group, the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists started boxer rebellion . Boxers believed their kung fu will protect them from firearms which led slaughter of the rebels. This event led many people to stop kung fu practice and many teachers simply closed their schools. Again a great deal of knowledge was lost forever .

In 1911 China finally became a republic , free of Ching rule and government started to promote and support kung fu practice . It was a golden age of kung fu , or it seems so . This is also a period when kung fu became more than a fighting art . Kung fu was mixed with religion ,philosophy , esotery … focus moved to health , self development , religious practice … all these things , not negative in  essence led to further complicating of the styles , inventing new forms , adding new religious and  philosophical    content , making them often too complicated . Many styles completely lost their fighting aspect .

In late 1930’s in China  got involved  Second World War . Most young man went to fight and kung fu schools stayed empty . Simply there was no students to whom old masters could pass their knowledge . A lucky few , who didn’t have to go to fight on the front ,stayed in schools yet to meet the worst time in kung fu history . For China second world war didn’t end in 1945 like it was for the rest of the world . Civil war continued for four more years , devastating the country in every possible way . People fought for their country on both side and simply , there was no time for kung fu practice . Many masters closed their schools because the lack of students and many were killed just because someone thought they support one or the other side in the war.

In 1949 civil war finally ended . Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan and communists who came to power isolated country from the rest of world . After 11 years of constant war and several crop failures which happened one after another the worst famines in history of the country hit China .  Hungry people ,looking more like skeletons that alive people , roamed around searching for anything that could be eaten. Talking about kung fu training in that conditions has no sense . People were preoccupied with bare survival , even a scraps of food could mean a difference between life and death . Many masters died at that time from hunger , many systems simply disappeared .

But the worst was yet to come .The most devastating blow to traditional kung fu came with cultural revolution which came as soon as the hunger stopped. In this anti traditional movement ,kung fu practice was seen as retrograde  remains of  Feudal China and was strongly forbidden . Many kung fu master were imprisoned , sent to a labor camps and those were the lucky ones , many were simply killed or crippled .

From 1936 till 1976 when ban on kung fu practice was finally lifted a great deal of traditional kung fu simply disappeared . Not only the technique but also the cultural and historical heritage were simply erased from existence . The only forms of kung fu practice allowed in communist China  were modern Wushu which is far from kung fu as much as watching TV is and Tai Chi for health purposes .

After  cultural revolution there was not much interest for kung fu practice , it was still considered retrograde , feudal practice and government  and society in general didn’t approve this practice, although not forbidden it was not socially accepted which led to the further loss of knowledge .

Kung fu movies from Hong Kong became very popular , especially in the west in the 70’s  and 80’s when” kung fu craze “ started after Bruce Lee’s death . These movies , on one hand popularized kung fu all over the world bit on the other , they were for decades only source of any kind of information about kung fu . People accepted information from these movies totally uncritically and believed everything was true.

These movies shaped the mind of people on west as well as on the east and kung fu adjusted to the public view and expectations of those who wanted to practice and expected to practice what they have seen in the movies . Many kung fu styles totally changed their conception and technical  content in order to look exactly as people expected , just like  kung fu looks like on the movie screen . Techniques are totally unrealistic but they look very attractive if performed in great speed and they leave an impression of great fighting skill . Popular movies not only shaped technical content and approach of kung fu , but also the culture , history , heritage … simply , whatever was said or done in the movies that became a standard in real life . Even  things like “drunken kung fu” which was invented by late movie director Lau Kar Leung for the purpose of the movie ,and he clearly stated tht he was the one who invented the story, people still believe and practice “drunken kung fu “ today .

Custom of hiding things from outsiders , not showing everything and keeping key elements for carefully chosen individuals also led to low quality of training .

‘Watering down” the style in order to keep students , especially foreign ones, as long as it is possible and taking their money also harmed kung fu immensely .

Last , but least , superstition , believe  in supernatural , keeping old senseless tradition , cult like behavior also damaged kung fu .

Future of kung fu is not bright . Not proven in a ring like MMA , Thai Boxing , Kyokushin ,BJJ , there is declining interest for kung fu . Majority of martial arts practitioners have only interest in effectiveness , proven effectiveness of the style and have no interest in culture, heritage , customs ect, which became main content of many styles . I hope, as a kung fu practitioner , Chinese martial arts will find a way to prove them self in full contact fighting and save them self from disappearing .