History

Ving Tsun Kuen "the fist of beautiful spring" is a fighting system whose origins lie in the province of Szechuan in southwest China. Some of the many legends handed down, such as B. those of the Buddhist nun and combat expert Ng Mui and her master student Yim Ving Tsun, can be dated to the late 17th century. However, only a few historically secured facts are known about the system.

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It is certain that the Ving Tsun system was practiced and perfected by government opposition secret societies. It is very likely that these secret societies also included leading members of the ancient Shaolin monasteries. It can also be assumed that these people, with their traditional wealth of experience in the ancient martial arts and health methods, contributed significantly to the development of the Ving Tsun fighting method.

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The masterful representatives of this martial art had no interest in disseminating information until well into the 20th century. For this reason, even old masters of this art who are still alive today know relatively little reliable historical facts to report. However, the existence of the most important people such as Leung Jan (1816-1890) or Chan Wah Shun (1836-1909) is documented.

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Another fact is the existence of a logically structured, complete and functioning Kung Fu style, consisting of six forms of movement building on one another, namely three unarmed, a wooden doll exercise form, a long stick method and a double knife form. These forms deal with certain learning contents and give the practitioner certain skills. The ingenuity of the system can only be recognized when all content is networked in conjunction with appropriate partner exercise methods. ​

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We owe much of what is known about Ving Tsun today to the late Hong Kong Grand Master Yip Man. His more than 50 years of passionate development work as well as his master students who were open to the West contributed significantly to today's understanding of VingTsun.

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Ving Tsun became known in Hong Kong in the 1960s for his success in random street fights without rules. Here Wong Shun Leung gained local fame in HK. However, the system received worldwide attention in the 1970s through Bruce Lee, who had learned this style in Hong Kong from Yip Man and Wong Shun Leung and triggered a real martial arts boom.