Good afternoon.

Recently I have been teaching a brief history of Wing Tsun and it has come to my knowledge that this is completely undervalued by students and masters alike. This is perhaps for a number of reasons, but the biggest problem, in my estimation, is that people simply don’t know why they need to know about the history.

When I actually posed this question to some of my students I was greeted with a stunned silence. The fact is that it’s not normally what someone expects to be asked in a martial art class. However, for me this makes it all the more poignant - and important. There simply seems to be a void in this area throughout the martial art community. A few years ago I asked a ‘Master’ in charge of a large association about the history of the ‘art’ he was teaching and received the answer that he was ‘not interested in the history at the moment – marketing is more important.’ As I will state a little later, he couldn’t be more wrong. I wouldn’t say that this is the prevalent view in the western Martial arts community, but it is certainly a dominant one.

I have to confess that I am unashamedly biased on this topic as history is one of my passions and my first degree was in history. However, it is not for this reason that I promulgate this view; as someone who believes in teaching students to the highest possible level, I don’t teach it simply because it is on the Wing Tsun syllabus. For a true master adhering and upholding traditions is vital, but far more imperative is the purpose for them. As Grandmaster Leung Ting frequently states, there is no point in keeping traditions if they have no use. (But note – you should always seek to understand the reasons rather than simply discard them out of ignorance. One of most beautiful aspects of Wing Tsun is that if you go deeply enough inside the art you are able to truly comprehend you the logic behind the traditions.)

Once thing is clear - without history you have no martial art. How can you attempt to learn any martial art effectively if you have no idea of where it came from? It gives you the context and allows you to put what you are learning in perspective. Nowhere is this more true than in Wing Tsun which has been the product of continuous improvement and evolution over 300 years. Each master has added something to the system - not one person can be credited as  having made the system as it stands today. The art of Wing Tsun is also the art of understanding yourself – if you appreciate the system better you understand how to adapt Wing Tsun to suit yourself.

One of the other significant points (and little realised) is that a knowledge of history gives a greater grasp of ones own humanity. It is all too easy to fall into the trap of believing that you ‘invented’ the art as you are a master or high level practitioner of it. This kind of pride and vanity has always been a potentially lethal ‘sin’ and appreciating the origins, founders and previous masters, along with their sacrifices for the art, is a key part helping to overcome your ego.

This is a topic I could certainly write at length on, but I just want to bring a few points to light in the hope that it can help students and anyone interested in martial arts. The final consideration that I would like to end with is a simple one – how can you know where you are going if you don’t know where you came from?

Sifu