Origin od Wing Chun knives

There is a popular theory that Wing Chun knives originated from “Small Knives Society” a secret organization believed to be a part of “Heaven and Earth” society. It is wildly believed that members of “Small Knives Society” were freedom fighters organized to fight Qing dynasty and restore long gone Ming dynasty rule. It is also believed that they were all armed with “Butterfly swords” or “Eight cutting knives” which later became a signature weapon of Wing Chun style.

Even a superficial analysis of historical documents finds this claim completely without foundation in real events that happened at the time of Wing Chun creation. Let’s examine some facts about “Small Knives Society”.

First mention of “Small Knives Society” can be found in official records in Taiwan. In 1772 in Zanghua county, local small shop owner Lin Da, having been bulled and insulted by local soldiers rounded 17 people who made agreement to form a society and help each other in a time of need. Since caring military grade weapons was forbidden members were caring small knives, so that is where the name came from. Over next decade society grew in number and in 1782 violence escalated and several solders ended up dead. Authorities reacted quickly and arrested several leaders of the society. Nine of them were sentenced to dead penalty while fourteen were exiled and became military slaves. This was the end of first “Small Knives Society”. In official records it can’t be found what kind of weapons they all used but if they were all armed with same kind of weapons that detail would certainly be recorded. Also, these people were all captured and had no connection to Gunagdong or Red Boats or Opera trope.

                            Small Sword (Xiao Dao) used by Small Knives Society in Shanghai

In summer of 1798 in Jayji county in Taiwan, Xu Zhang with two other friends formed a society in order to commit robbery. Since “Heaven And Earth” society name was wildly known and attracted too much attention they chose name “Small Knives Society” as each member carried a small knife(singular) for self protection. At the end, society gathered 18 members but they were all caught by authorities before they manage to commit any crime. Captured members were executed in a public square as a warning to the people. Some were executed by decapitation and some by strangulation. Again there is no record that society members used swords later known as “Eight cutting knives” or “Butterfly swords”. Some maybe did but that has no significance nor connection to Wing Chun history as this was the end of second “Small Knives Society”.

Third “Small Swords Society”  believed to be a branch of the Heaven and Earth Society was established in 1849 in Xiamen of Fujian Province, and spread to Shanghai in 1851. The members of the Society include mainly Fujian and some Cantonese laborers living in Shanghai and part of proprietors of industry and commerce. The name ("Small Swords") refers to daggers used by society members for self defense  in close combat.

In Shanghai the society rose up to be a “protector” of small merchants and laborers and were even payed by the government for its “service”.

In 1853, the Society occupied the Chinese city of Shanghai without invading the foreign concessions. Large numbers of Chinese refugees from surrounding areas flooded into the foreign concessions in this period, dramatically increasing the population there. The Society's headquarters were in the Yu Garden of Shanghai, at the heart of the old city. Rebellion turned into pure robbery and soon conflict broke out between the Fujian and Guangdong factions, over whether they should leave with the loot they had acquired.  

Foreign forces sided with Qing government and they surrounded rebels cutting off supplies. Isolated and under attack, the rebels evacuated on February 17, 1855, having occupied the city for 17 months. The imperial trops spent three days looting, almost entirely destroyed the eastern half of the city with fire, while any remaining rebels captured were executed on the spot.

Again, it is obvious that this society has no direct connection to creation of Wing Chun. Small Sword society used a specific type of weapon that resembles Wing Chun swords in some features, but key word here is resembles. Wing Chun swords or knives are completely different weapon from  a “Small Sword”  used by rebels. Even the name is different , in Shanghai the swords used by rebells were "Xiao Dao" or literary "small sword", Wing Chun knives have several different names but non of these names is "Xiao Dao".

Making a connection between Wing Chun and “Small Swords society” is just one more attempt to give greater historical significance to style based solely on one artifact which only remotely resemble Wing Chun weapon. There is no evidence what so ever that would even remotely establish connection between “Small Sword Society” and Gunadong Red Boat opera Trope. Even more, 'Small Knives Society" was not a revolutionary group but rather an orgnaized crime group later romanticized by nationalist government to boost national pride and present Manchus as cruel and hated rulers. Maybe some of the rebels escaped to Guangdong, maybe even to the Red Boats but it is highly unlikely that these people influenced Wing Chun in any way. At the time of the Small Knives Society rebellion Leung Jan was already learning Wing Chun for more than five years and double knives were used on the Red Boats for a quite longer period, much before Small Knives Society was even formed.

What we today know as Wing Chun knives are actually a weapon wildly spread all over China for centuries before Wing Chun was created and can be found in most Kung Fu styles from Guangdong and Fujian provinces as well as in some styles from northern China. Double knives were not standadized in shape and lenght, there were a number of different weapons used all over China for centuries. Shape and lenght of the weapon is defined by its tactical purpose, Wing Chun knives were perfect to be used on the narrow assages and confiend spaces of the boats and people simply chose the weapon which was perfectly fit for that. 

Here are some examples of 19th century or older double swords, non of these are Wing Chun swords although some look like it much more than Xiao Dao used by Small Knives Society.