The closest we have to a working history of our style is the Kuen Kuit, a ‘Grab-Bag’ collection of training ideas and maxims created by numerous authors over different generations and situations.
Something that becomes obvious after time studying and teaching Wing Chun, is that none of the original ‘Fist Logic’ was passed down in any kind of stable or readily definable condition.
The IDEAS were passed down more like pieces of poetry than as an operating manual.
This is complicated by several magnitudes simply because we work with translations of the original ‘Fist Logic’.
Mandarin Chinese, and even more so Mandarin Chinese from before the mid-20th Century, does not translate well to English, this is the fault of English, the language is too compact and bereft of the necessary tools to accurately describe poetic nuance.
This is hampered even more because the same piece of Mandarin script can be read in different ways.
Even by native speakers.
Add to that that each speaker translates the script differently into English we end up with nothing concrete to work with.
The closest we have to a working history of our style is the Kuen Kuit, a ‘Grab-Bag’ collection of training ideas and maxims created by numerous authors over different generations and situations.
My Sifu {Jim} Fung Chuen Keung who was born and raised in Hong Kong and spoke excellent English said that even in Chinese they were not meant to be taken literally and that most of them did not make direct translations.
For instance take the maxim ‘Loy Lau Hoi Sung, Lut Sau Jik Chung’
One of if not the most pertinent of the Battle Songs.
My Sifu could translate this to be applicable to just about any situation.
Three that I can remember are
- Stay when he comes in, follow when he goes out, break contact and attack.
- Escort what comes in, follow what goes out, when the hands are free strike.
- When they advance, do not retreat, when they retreat advance. Discard the hands and rush straight in.
Subtle but genuine differences can make a very big difference in understanding.
Other Maxims worth thinking on are ‘The Wing Chun Punch comes from the Heart’, add to this ‘Wing Chun does not take a backwards step‘, my reading is that this was not meant as a positioning advice or a restriction on movement but rather what we English refer to as ‘Bottle’.
There are many more, Google Kuen Kuit and pick one that spikes your interest.
Exactly what does ‘He walks the bow but I walk the string’ mean to you?
These Battle Hymns, these Maxims can of course mean anything you want them to mean, choosing what you want them to mean is how you develop your own Wing Chun.
“Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.”
Heraclitus
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Wing Chun Sydney, Australia 