TAKE ME TO THE RIVER.

We should not overlook that Dr Leung Jan had no intention of inventing a new style.

If you research just about any Kung Fu, for each style you will find several books, diagrams and instructions dating back many generations.

But not Wing Chun.

Why is this?

This is speculation, based on good research but never the less still just me reading between the lines.

We know without a doubt, that Wing Chun was formulated [not created or invented] around mid-1850 in Foshan, by Doctor Leung Jan, a doctor, bonesetter and herbalist.

Dr Leung worked with the local opera troupe in a position I imagine much the same as modern-day sports teams have physios and physical therapists.

His knowledge of anatomy and his experience working with active Martial Artists would have deeply influenced his thinking.

Dr Leung was himself a Martial Artist of some merit but his earlier style was not recorded, smart money would bet on it being a Shaolin style, but there is also a decent argument for Xing Yi, Wing Chun shares many movements and ideas with Xing Yi.

Through his work with the troupe, he would have seen at first hand which of the movements/shapes caused the most injuries [ this would be due mostly to poor alignment] and which movements/shapes appeared to be structurally sound.

It does not take a huge leap of the imagination to think that he would have naturally amended the art he practised to fit his findings.

Foshan in 1860 would have been a very tricky place to live, and an even trickier place to be well off financially, this is just me imagining things but it would be no surprise if we found that he had been the victim of several attempted muggings and he may have found the classical Kung Fu not fit for purpose in those situations.

So he embarked on a journey to change what he knew.

He jumped in the river.

Everything physical in Wing Chun already existed in the other styles.

Dr Leung combined his knowledge and intelligence with the physical aspects of his previous training into what became Wing Chun.

We should not overlook that Dr Leung Jan had no intention of inventing a new style.

It was Dr Jan’s approach and thinking that formed the core of today’s Wing Chun.

From the outset, there were no original movements, postures or techniques, just a new way of thinking about existing movements, postures or techniques.

Depending on our frame of reference Wing Chun has either no actual movement, postures or techniques, or it encompasses all movement, postures and techniques.

I prefer the latter option, and as such we are not only free to employ this thinking to any new development of movement, postures or techniques but are expected to make this connection, and advance this progression.

To stay in the past was the very thing Dr Jan moved away from.

Our first task is to decide which house we choose to live in.

Remain in the past, in effect in the thinking and ability of the late 19th century, or to go boldly where no man has been before and try to resolve Wing Chun’s Fist Logic with up to date thinking allied to the ever-changing landscape of Human movement.

How well we understand something is determined by how well we can act upon it, how well we can act upon that knowledge.