Two faces of Leung Jan

Leung Jan is probably the most famous Wing Chun master of all times. He is considered a hero who embodies all possible virtues and he is a role model for many generations of practitioners, not only Wing Chun practitioners but other styles as well. Good doctor provided medical care for free for all those misfortunate people who got ill and had no money to pay medical treatment. He upheld moral and ethical code of his time to the highest level, he was a person of perfect character and perfect manners. Of course, being a doctor he was well educated and of course very rich. Over all that he was a best Kung Fu master of his time who fought the injustice, protected the oppressed and according to legend (some say history) he fought 300 challenge  matches and never lost.

 Doctor Leung Jan became famous in the early days of the 20^th century when he became one of the best selling characters of cheap pulp fiction novels and same stories were later reprinted in early 1960’s. These literature was very popular at the time and it brought fame to many fictional characters who were considered real historical figures for a quite some time , like Fong Sai Yuk and his mother , Five Elders from Shaolin temple ect. Stores from these old novels were considered a real history until recently. While Leung Jan was a historical character we don’t know virtually nothing about him, his life, work and martial arts practice. Only few details can be proved as facts.  Exact year of his birth and death is not known, there are several different dates of his birth and death. His final resting place is unknown, simply his grave site could not be located. It is not known how many children he had, number goes from one to five. It is not known how many students he had. It is also unknown how many fights, if any, he had. It is also unknown what was the name of the art he was practicing, there are no written record of the name of his art prior to his debut as a pulp fiction hero. Although there are some claims that Leung Jan actually name his art him self around late 1880’s there is no prof for that claim, it is entirely possible that name Wing Chun appeared for the first time in the novels. How he had conducted his medical practice is unknown as well as the claim that he cured poor people for free. It is also unknown how Leung Jan looked like. Most of information about Leung Jan’s life, public and personal affairs came mainly from popular novels in which good Doctor was main character and “oral histories”.

This is not historical article and there will be no attempt to prove of disapprove anything about Leung Jan, these subject was already covered in various articles some of which can be found on this very blog. Leung Jan has the most important place in Wing Chun tradition and there is a no amount of historical research nor the evidence found that can change his role and importance. 

This is the article about something else, it is the article about the face, actually two different faces of famous doctor. In recent years a few pictures (photos and painting) appeared and people who presented them claim these are original pictures of Leung Jan.

The first one was a photo ,,discovered” by the renowned Wing Chun master. The photo is obviously taken from an old grave site somewhere. First published in original shape and size later was edited with photoshop. Now there is an obvious question here, why if the photo was taken from the tomb stone, the entire tomb stone was not photographed so we can see the name of the tomb. If Leung Jan’s name is on the tomb that would be the hardest evidence that the published photo is his. Of course, if the name was different it is logical to show only the photo of the face and skip the name on the tomb. Not only that Leung Jan’s grave would be located and could with careful research reveal at least some mysteries of his life but such a place would become a place of pilgrimage for many people who follow his linage from all over the world just like Yip Man’s and Chan Wah Shun’s grave sites already became.

The second face of Leung Jan appeared by pure miracle on the old painting “found” in his old home in Foshan. In 2005  team of researchers form Foshan museum and few government officials went to old Leung Jan’s home and did the detail search of the place in order to find anything of historical value because the house was old and it would be tear down. They didn’t find nothing and left the house as they found it. Short after a person visited the house alone and by miracle found a portrait of Leung Jan, something that the whole team of professionals missed. 

Both attempts to finally give a face to most famous Wing Chun master are obvious frauds. The question  remains  why anyone had to do something like that? The place Leung Jan has in Wing Chun culture will not change with or without knowing how he had looked like. These frauds just mark one more dark spot in Wing Chun culture which is already more based on legends , blunt lies, fake histories, politics than on facts and real fighting skills.