Snake Crane Wing Chun - the oldest , original style of wing chun

Wing Chun history and art in general is a sensitive subject so I have issue a warning before start. Please , if you have problem with different opinions , if those opinions cause you mental pain and discomfort , if you believe that YOU and your style are entitled to some special respect and hold special place in Wing Chun community , do not, and I repeat ,do not read this article. You have been warned

There is everlasting debate which style is the oldest and more or most original. Everyone claims the same but not everyone can be right. Unfortunately there is no valid research on the subject to put those lineage wars at rest and debate will continue in the future.

Also , there are no clear criteria how do we determine the originality of the content and the age of the style. So before I start I want to establish at least some basic guide lines for determining the style’s originality and age.

1.       Direct historical evidence , which means artifacts and documents that can be verified

2.       Indirect historical evidence , mention in the sources of the particular time or having something ,like specific terminology ,rituals , heraldic that clearly suggest the time when those things have been used.

3.       Verifiable line of succession

4.       Establishing a single line of succession

5.       Technical content of the style

Talking about direct historical evidence, for now, the only style that presented verifiable documents form 1890’s is Snake Crane Wing Chun. These documents are examined by Foshan Wushu museum and to this day are the oldest Wing Chun documents in existence.  First documents that actually mention Leung Jan and his art are from the same time period but SCWC documents are several years older. While there are few claims form other styles that they have older documents and artifacts, these claims cannot be taken seriously because they are not available for examination because they are kept “secret” . If they are “secret” why even talking about it, if their existence is already announced why don’t let historians and archaeologists to examine them?  

Talking about indirect historical evidence, again, only Snake Crane Wing Chun has clear proof of late 19^th century origin. First evidence is old Bai See ritual, unchanged from the time of secret societies from 19^th century with blood sacrifice , witnesses , necessary props , spoken formulas ect. No other Wing Style has something  like that , not even remotely. Second evidence is Kuen Kuit. Kuen Kuit is a form of a poem that captures the essence of the art. Linguistically, only Snake Crane Kuen Kuit fits the late Ching dynasty era. All other kuen kuits of all other styles were written with modern Chinese language and fit era from the late republican period till today. (There was an attempt of kuen kuit forgery where SCWC kune kuit was used as a template but the forger’s knowledge of Chinese language was not sufficient and he used simplified Chinese characters which didn’t exist before 1954).

Snake Crane Wing Chun is also the only style that fulfill third and fourth point.  SCWC has clear , single line of succession back in the past till the middle of the 19^th century. All ancestors existence can be verified , we have their photos , personal documents ,school records ,  indirect sources where third person mention their existence and involvement in certain historical events, we have their property , living witnesses ,grave sites. We don’t have that for any of the other Wing Chun ancestor , not for Leung Jan , nor  Fok Bo Cheun or Fung Siu Ching or even generation later like Leung Bik ect. We cannot verify existence of  Leung Bik or Fok Bo Cheun for example . And we do not know what martial arts they all practiced because non of their styles survived in its original form today. Someone may say Leung Jan’s side body style is his original art but that style changed so much in last 30 years to fit the demands of the market that we don’t even know how the art looked like in second half of 20st century, from white crane like style it transformed to Yip Man like style today. Again, Snake Crane is the only style today with a single line of succession, all other styles came from at least two or more different sources and those sources were not always Wing Chun but other arts like Tai Chi , White Crane,  Hung Gar, Choy Lee Fut ect.

Last , technical content of Snake Crane Wing Chun is quite unique and originally Wing Chun based. While every other style has its own unique and original content we cannot be sure it is 100% Wing Chun based. Many of the ancestors practiced some other kung fu style prior to Wing Chun, starting with Leung Jan , Chan Wah Shun and other Leung Jan’s students, Fung Siu Ching and others . Only Ancestors of Snake Crane Wing Chun practiced nothing but Wing Chun. I am not trying to say that other styles are somehow inferior in any way to SCWC , just stating well known facts. Only for SCWC we can be sure its content is completely Wing Chun based and it was the same , unchanged art from at least 1890 where the oldest verified evidence brings us.

Having this in mind , a lot of interesting questions are opening about true origin of Wing Chun and true significance of many "historical" figures .

My teacher is a street fighter

More than often we can hear how some Kung Fu teacher has or had “street experience”, or was a famous “street fighter”. These claims are used as sort of proof of teacher’s fighting skills. Before we take this claims for granted and consider a “street” fighter a competent teacher let’s analyze what  being “street’  fighter actually means.

So who are “street”  fighters  and how do they gain “experience’. Adolescents  are more  likely to engage in a physical conflict  because of the nature of their developmental stage and psychological and social immaturity, of course his is not a rule and majority of young people do not want  have no desire and do not engage in acts of physical violence .For  average adult person fist fighting is probably the last thing in his mind. Yet , there are people who do engage physical violence on regular basis . We can distinct three different kind of street violence, “instrumental”,  “affective” violence and “bulling”. Instrumental violence is used as a means to an end – for example, in a robbery to obtain cash or goods. Affective violence is an end in itself, driven by emotion , as we see in cases of aggravated assault , bullying is a distinctive pattern of harming and humiliating others, specifically those who are in some way smaller, weaker, younger or in any way more vulnerable than the bully. Bullying is a deliberate and repeated attempt to cause harm to others of lesser power.

Research with high-risk, violent offenders indicates that low self-esteem, developed from a young age, can play a key role in triggering violent behavior. For example, a person may feel badly about themselves following a difficult, traumatic, abusive or neglectful childhood. Yet that individual may outwardly appear confident, even arrogant – scholars propose that this is a defense against inward feelings of shame, weakness, vulnerability and inadequacy. The theory goes that these feelings are so painful, that if the individual perceives that someone humiliates them or shows them disrespect, they are unable to tolerate it. A violent response restores a sense of self-worth and pride, while also punishing whoever caused that sense of injury or humiliation.

Bullies are made, not born, this behavior is typically fostered at a very young age. A difficult upbringing can result in low self esteem, which coupled with aggressive behavior can create a child who not only lacks communication skills, but feels the need to defend themselves constantly.

As we can see there is a lot of similarities between classical bully and dangerous violent attacker with poor impulse control. Actually young bullies usually advance to the stage of violent offender and these behavior is usually connected with criminal activities, although that is not always a case.

All three groups  are motivated to commit violence  as a mean of  gaining social status in their social circles and to satisfy their urges which they cannot control. Violet offenders   tend to anticipate feeling positive emotions after victimizing others. Such “happy victimizer emotions” are uniquely related to proactive aggression and as such may characterize attackers, who tend to initiate aggressive behavior as they focus on their own gains rather than the victim's feelings.These emotions come from the feeling of control and power over the victim.

All three groups will be very careful in selecting their victims. They will never attack anyone who may be endangered them in any way. Young, strong , fit , confident people are rarely victims of these attacks while smaller  obviously weak or sick people who show fear and insecurity are usual victims.

It is very rare to see “street” fighters fight each other , they know the other person is violent as much as they are and there is a great possibility of injury , also, they cannot gain anything on psychological level from the person who fights back.

As we can see , to become a ‘street” fighter person must have some psychological predispositions because normal , average people are not aggressive and they try to avoid violence .

So , there is a question to be asked , even if the claims of certain kung fu teacher and his “street” experience are true ( which are usually not) , is it wise to be associated with that kind of person? Other question is ,whether or not “street’ experience improve someone’s fighting skills? The answer is no , because there is nothing to be learned from fighting weaker , smaller people unable to defend them self. Only way to advance fighting skills is to fight against people with good fighting skills and competition fights re definitely the best way to do it. Teacher with good competition record will be much, much better than someone with “street” experience . 

Be careful when you choose your kung fu teacher , wrong decision  can affect your life in many ways .