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 .