Wing-Chun comes from snake and crane shape boxing around 1810. In Chuan Jiao, Fu Jian, Yim Yee was going to be arrested by the government, so he fled with his daughter, Wing-Chun, and sold tofu for a living. His martial arts were healthy, beautiful, and effective and he taught them to Wing-Chun. One day while she was washing clothes by the river she saw a snake and crane fighting. She watched and learned from them and later she mixed the inspiration with her knowledge of Fu Jian Siu Lam styles to suit herself.

A merchant from Shang Xi named Leung Bok-Lao, who had been a student of the Hunan Siu Lam Temple, came to relax in a hotel. By chance, one day under the light of the moon he saw Yee and his daughter Wing-Chun practicing martial arts beside the tofu grinders. He thought Wing-Chun was beautiful and had excellent technique. He fell in love with her. He stayed and passed by many times to talk with them about martial arts. His first wife had died, and he though Wing-Chun had excellent fighting skills, so he wanted to marry her. He had a friend ask, but Wing-Chun was too embarrassed to answer. Yim thought Leung was good-looking, and was a fellow Siu Lam follower, so he agreed for his daughter and they were married.

After a few years, Yim Yee died, and Leung and Wing-Chun moved to Shang Xi. But due to the constant fighting of bandits and soldiers, they moved again to north Guangdong (Ngam Hong Yuen village). They opened a small business and taught "Wing-Chun Kuen" to some students.

In about 1815, they moved the school to Zhao Quing and continued teaching. The Red Junk Opera Company would often travel between Zhao Quing and Fat Shan. Wong Wah-Bo (Mo-Sang), Leung Yee-Tai (Mo-Deng), Ah Kam (Dai Fa Min), and Siu Fook (Siu-Sang) met them and learned Wing-Chun. The Opera performers later went back to Fat Shan.

When Wong Wah-Bo retired in Fat Shan, he taught the son of an herbal doctor named Leung Jan. Leung Jan taught many, many, students including Chan Wah, Chan Kwai and Leung Kai. Chan Wah graduated and went on to teach Chan Yu-Min, Ng Jung-So, etc. The history of the Wing-Chun system, as with the majority of Chinese systems, is shrouded in the mists and legends of the past. It, like most of the well-known styles, has its "Siu Lam connection". Legend has it that the founder of the system was a Buddhist nun named Ng Mui who was one of a group of experts who were researching the existing systems in order to develop a more streamlined fighting style which could be taught quickly so as to aid the Chinese in rising up against their oppressors.

Before their knowledge could be systematized and passed on, the Temple was razed to the ground, resulting in the death of many of the masters residing there. Ng Mui, being a nun, was not at the Temple at the time (only monks being permitted to stay there) and so managed to escape the violence. She fled southwards, some versions of the story having her traveling to Sichuan province while others have her ending up in Fu Jian. While in the region she met up with Yim Yee Gung, a friend and past student of her senior, the monk Ji Sin, one of the "Five Elders" of Siu Lam.

Prior to this, Ng Mui had witnessed a fight between a snake and a crane and from this event had been finally able to systematize the knowledge which she and her colleagues had been experimenting with. On learning that the daughter of Yim Yee Gung, the beautiful Yim Wing Chun, was being forced into marriage with a local ruffian, Ng Mui devised a way of stalling for time during which she taught the young Wing Chun her "new" method.

As far as records accurately describe, we know absolutely nothing of Yim Wing Chun or the inheritors of her skills — that is, until we come across the one man in the history of the system whose existence can be verified and who is known to have taught the system. His name was Leung Jan, an herbal doctor who lived in the southern Chinese city of Fat Shan during the early 19th century. As a fighter he was renowned for his unrivalled skill and was reputed to have never been beaten. He taught only a handful of students, the best known of whom were his two sons, Leung Chun and Leung Bik, and Chan Wa Sun who was also known as "Money-changer Wa".

Leung Jan himself was said to have learnt from two people, Wong Wa Bo and Leung Yee Dai, both of whom were said to have been experts at different aspects of Wing-Chun, and at least one of whom (Leung Yee Dai) was a traveling performer with a Chinese opera troupe which moved from place to place by boat.

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Special thanks to my brother Sifu Phu Pham for his kind permission to use this article. www.combatwc.com