Wing Chun... a brief history
During the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) China was ruled by the Manchurians, a non Chinese people from the north.
Anti Qing revolutionaries set to overthrow the government were hunted by the Manchurian armies. The revolutionaries also known as the Heaven & Earth Society found a safe house at the Shaolin Temple in the Hunan province.
The Shaolin Temple was legendary for its radical thought and development of fighting skills. Seeing the monastery as a threat to the Manchurian dominance the armies moved against the Temple and burnt it to the ground.
Five Kung Fu elders made good their escape. These were Jee Shim, Bak Mei, Mui Hin, Fung Dao Duk and Ng Mui. The last, Ng Mui, found refuge in the White Crane Temple on the slopes of the Daling Mountains between the borders of Sichuan and Hunan province.
At the White Crane Temple Ng Mui refined her knowledge of the fighting styles of the Shaolin Temple into a highly efficient, direct and yet unnamed style.
Ng Mui passed her knowledge onto a local girl named Yim Wing Chun who lived with her father and sold bean curd at the local market. Yim Wing Chun was known for her beauty and was taunted by a local bully who pressed himself upon her to marry.
Using the skills passed to her by Ng Mui she defeated the bully who the fled in disgrace from the area. Yim later married a salt merchant named Leung Bok Chao.
Leung Bok Chao was also skilled in Kung Fu and trained with his wife Yim Wing Chun. Leung later named the new style in honor of his wife. Leung passed the Wing Chun system to Leung Lan Kwai who was a member of the Red Junk Opera Company.
