" History is often replaced by legends , our teachers passes old stories to us as a true history and those stories are often taken for granted , just because Sifu told us .Often times “history” of particular style begins with a story where some god or ancestor passed the system to the founder in a dream. Sometimes there is a research conducted and examination of the artifacts and written sources leads to some old (often unknown) hermit who lived in a mountain. The question is ,will we insist in believing impossible or improbable things or will we make an effort search for the true historical facts ?」
Abbot Chi Sin and Southern Shaolin
Snake Crane Wing Chun family historical records hold the
Abbot of Southern Shaolin monastery Chi
Sin and a nun Ng Mui as their founders. They developed the shorter bridge and
smaller stance system to deal with long bridge and wider horse stance system of
Ma Ling Yee , a traitor who assisted the Qing government in destruction of
Southern Shaolin Temple. Coincidentally, many southern systems also trace their
origin to Abbot Chi Sin and Southern Shaolin as their source. The question is,
with so many southern systems with distinctive flavors and differences that
exist today, did Abbot Chi Sin had time to create so many different systems?
Moreover ,different systems place Chi Sin in different time periods , so , the other question is ,
how long did he lived and is it possible that he lived couple hundred years?
There are even more important questions like, did the Southern Shaolin really
existed? Moreover, why create a completely new martial arts system to
solely deal with one person, traitor Ma
Ling Yee?
There were a lot of efforts to prove historical accuracy of burning the Southern Shaolin by Qing government. Furthermore, martial arts historians put a lot of effort in proving existence of Southern Shaolin monastery but to this day , without any success. Latest researches discovered that Southern Shaolin story has its roots in real historical events but the temple its self never existed and actual burning happened in 1855. Events which led to Southern Shaolin story creation are closely connected with Taiping uprising and “Dachen Kingdom” in Guan Xi. Red Boat opera troupe from Gunagdong province , led by Lee Man Mao ,joined the rebellion and established a headquarters in “Fine Jade Hall” in Foshan. Qing government ordered destruction of Fall Jade Hall as base for Anti Qing supporters and soon after Opera was prohibited in that area for more than a decade. After rebellion was crushed, rebels who survived and who were mostly opera actors scattered all over Guangdong . A lot of them found a refugee in Foshan. Since opera was banned and it was not safe to talk openly about these events, story about Southern Shaolin burning emerged containing all key elements of the real events. There was one more purpose of this story, to give a sense of unity and common origin for different anti Qing fractions who still operated at the time. Term "Chi Sin" , it came from Confucius teachings and represents a state of absolute kindness. As for a person with such a name really existed we do not have proof
History from the perspective of Snake Crane Wing Chun
There are different versions of Wing Chun history today, however, none of them have any mention of Red Boats and Lee Man Mau involvement Taiping rebellion. There is one very interesting question, how Wong Wah Bo, Leung Yee Tai and Leung Jan were able to practice the art openly after the Opera ban and prosecution of opera members who were involved in Taiping rebellion .The only conclusion , supported with available documents and other historical sources , Wong Wah Bo , Leung Yee Tai and Leung Jan were never took a part in the rebellion , that is the reason why they could practice their art openly , without any fear of prosecution. On the other hand, lineages whose ancestors took a part in the rebellion and anti Qing activities ,like Ban Chung Wing Chun and Snake Crane Wing Chun kept low profile over the last hundred years. Due to the low profile, these arts were passed down only to family members and stayed unchanged , still keeping all the characteristic of the classic martial style form Red boat period. Also origin of Wing Chun 3 empty hands sets and connection to the old rivalry between Wing Chun and Choy Lay Fut is still remained unknown to the public. Earlier in 2007 New Martial Hero published an article written by Mr Liu Kwong Wah about butterfly swords has some interesting points regarding the questions mentioned above . All unanswered questions regarding Wing Chun history brought me to my personal quest for facts. Following historical analysis contains data from, Snake Crane Wing Chun 3rd generation successor, Law Tiu Wen’s (1890) writings and also data and analysis from different sources like Yuen Kay Shan Wing Chun and GuangZhou Wing Chun which are for references and further studies.
Snake Crane Wing Chun Successor Lineage line:
Chi Sin (1st) – Sun Kam (2nd) – Law Tiu Wen (3rd) –Law Ting
Chau (4th) – Law Chiu Wing(5th)
In 1855, the Qing Government burned the Fine Jade Hall and
banned Red boat troupes. Yik Kam, Red
Boat actor and Ban Chung Wing Chun
founder who was associated with Lee Man Mau and his Dacheng Kingdom which was
situated in GuangXi was still practicing the one long ,108 movements ,Siu Lim Tau set , also known
as Snake Crane Fist. He found a refuge in Poon Yu village , not taking any
other involvement in anti dynastic
activities and Ban Chung Wing Chun preserved this long Siu Nim Tao set to this
day .Why there was a need to break one long set into three empty hands sets
found in most Wing Chun styles today?
The reason for splitting was a need for
immediate application of the skills. The splitting should happened after 1855 but not after 1860. How do we know
this ?According to the Snake Crane Wing Chun notes(1890) written by Law Tiu
Wen, the 3rd generation successor we can
roughly calculate span of one generation is around 30 years. If we know that first generation
had one long Siu Nim Tao set and Law Tiu
Wen, the 3rd generation had 3 empty hands sets ,the split of the long SNT set
happened during 2nd generation period
. is approximately 1890-30 =1860.
Qing Government bribing Taiping Leaders
Most of the Southern Fist system has the similarities of being originated from Southern Shaolin and Abbot Chi Sin. From the Snake Crane Wing Chun Siu Lim Tau Song last verse has a significant meaning: 「Snake Crane (Fist) can subdue the traitors」. This shows that the Snake Crane Wing Chun was created to deal with Ma Ling Yee who specializes in using wider stance and longer bridge. However the questions is with why it was necessary to create Snake Crane Wing Chun system with smaller stance and shorter bridge. It is believed that Abbot Chi Sin or Nun Ng Mui were sufficient to handle the traitor Ma Ling Yee. Therefore, “Ma Ling Yee” is not a only one person but a group of traitors who are specializes in using wider stance and longer bridge.
After First Opium War . Choy Lee Fat Chen Heng with his disciples returned home, put forward "YeeWuKeungJok" slogan, and recruited numerous disciples who had excellent training. Two years later, more than a hundred men and women disciples are sent all across southern China and opened forty-four Choy Lee Fat 'HungShingMartialHall "in various parts of Guangdong, Guangxi. After the peasant movement broke out, Choy Lee Fa became the main military art of the Tai Ping Heavenly Kingdom forces.
After the Taiping Kingdom established its capital in Nanking, the momentum of the movement went nationwide. During those times they have encountered a lot internal conflicts and different points of view. Thus, there were generals who will be bribed and went over to the Qing Government. In 1854, the attack of the City of GuangZhou led by Lee Man Mau, the Red Boat troupe with the Taiping Army, and established Dacheng Kingdom in GuanXi in 1855, enraged the Qing Government. The Qing Viceroy Yip Ming Sum led the Qing Army ,burned the Fine Jade hall and the Red boats. The Survivors of the Red boat troupes and Anti Qing fighters were scattered. Most fled to Foshan for hiding. The traitors who had become members of Qing army, also resided in the same area. Canton opera theaters were banned for fifteen years. In order to seek revenge against the traitors, the evolution of one long set splitting to three sets was developed to shorten the time for training so that Foshan can be a stronghold for confrontation.
Why single form set system split to three forms set system.
Grandmaster Cheng Heng and his students from Choy Lee Fut were the trainers of the TaiPing Heavenly Kingdom army. As the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom grew bigger, the Qing government bribed and recruited many officials from the Taiping Army. Wing Chun evolved from the single long set which is non-open teaching and the way of fighting not being well known, to three sets for the purpose of quick training. The Single Set needs a longer time to learn and to handle .This is because it is based on ancient Chinese internal development as prerequisite thus it was separated into three sets to focus on the applications and it was easier to learn and handled in a short period of time. With the focus in applications, the three forms set system could train good anti-Qing fighters within a short time to deal with the traitors, by using the close contact fighting from the centerline to deal with the long range fighting from the side attack. And this is what it means by 「Snake Crane Fist can subdue the Traitor」 as the combat strategy of non-open teaching of Snake Crane Fist is using capturing the center line and close quarters concept against wide stance and long range bridge distance combat