Chinese Kung Fu 中国功夫 - Wing Chun 咏春拳 modest, 咏春拳, Chinese, speaking, 中国功夫

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Wing Chun ("Spring Chant" [詠春]) is a type of Kung Fu Wushu (Wu Shu  = "Martial Arts") which, reduced to its bare essentials, is based on  the concept of know-how over brute strength (think of the iconic scene  in the Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indy,  facing a ferocious-looking Goliath type brandishing an over-sized  scimitar, whips out a modest but high-tech, relatively speaking, weapon –  a pistol – and plugs the brute, end of story, though the Wing Chun  fighter does not necessarily have to resort to any weapon other than his  bare hands... in addition, of course, to the momentum of the opponent,  since the weight and speed of an assailant can be used against him), the  key word here being "know-how", which we will elucidate in stages, or  by means of more or less concentric circles (arcs?) of meaning,  decreasing from large to small, as it were, eventually hopefully  encircling the sought-after meaning. You ready? Here goes...


All Chinese martial arts originate from the principle of  self-defense; they are not conceived as an offensive tactic, at least  not in the initial stages, though after an attacker's onslaught (kicks,  punches, etc.) is parried, the martial arts fighter then goes on the  offensive, "neutralizing", if possible, the attacker.
It is here  where Wing Chun differs from most other martial arts disciplines,  combining adroitness and suppleness of movement (and suppleness of  musculature) with self-control, well-rehearsed "internal" (wudang  [武当]) martial arts and an insight into the superior leverage that can  be achieved over the opponent, given one's own assets – size, shape,  balance, adroitness, suppleness, momentum, etc. – in relation to the  opponent's assets. Additionally, Wing Chun is tenaciously aggressive,  but in a clever, probing manner, like the mongoose, Riki-Tiki-Tavi,  pitted against the cobra in the Rudyard Kipling short story, The Jungle Book.

Thus, Wing Chun is as much about science as it is about art, though  Wing Chun most certainly involves art, which art chiefly lies in being  able to make a constant, ever-changing, or 'on one's feet', accurate  assessment of one's own strengths at any given point in time (including  tactical advantages/ disadvantages – i.e., openings – that reveal  themselves) during the "struggle" relative to one's opponents'  strengths, which of course means that one is in a better position to  exploit one's opponent's openings and to avoid exposing oneself to one's  opponent.
Most treatises on Wing Chun go to great lengths to specify what the discipline is not. Which is of course indirectly a statement of what it is. Some of the highlights of what Wing Chun is not about, followed by contrasting statements regarding what it is  about, are the following observations, which are related to the core  concepts of Wing Chun such as superior balance, suppleness (which  fosters striking speed) and general adroitness:
Steroid-like  musculature is a minus, while supple, flexible musclature is a plus; a  rigid, squat, 'feet solidly planted', elbows akimbo (extended outward  from the body) defensive stance is a minus, while a flexible, 'elastic  feet', yet firmly rooted (to be explained below), high and narrow  (elbows tight in to the body) defensive stance is a plus. The comparison  is often to a bamboo plant that grows on the sheer sides of mountains  where the wind blows relentlessly, and where the narrow, pliant bamboo  is rarely uprooted, whereas strong winds can often easily uproot a  monstrously large and rigid oak tree. Of particular concern in Wing Chun  is muscle tension in attacking or fending off an attack.
While  large, tensed biceps might be an advantage in delivering a very solid  punch, this is never the goal in Wing Chun, which is more in the "sting  like a bee" spirit of Cassius Clay/ Muhammad Ali than in the "slug it  out" spirit of Sonny Liston, the heavyweight boxing champion whose  defeat by Cassius Clay made the elegant (and intelligent) boxer who  would eventually change his name to Muhammad Ali a household name.
Since  the muscles that control the limbs are paired (one for extending, the  other for retracting the arm or the leg... though practically all of the  muscles of the body are paired, whether in the neck or the lower back,  etc.), an overly tight flexion muscle in the arm (i.e., an overly tight  bicep) will hinder the rapid extension of the arm via the extension  muscle (the tricep), with the result that, for example, a boxer with  large, overly tensed biceps will fare poorly against an opponent with  smaller, more relaxed biceps, since the latter boxer can parry the  slower punches of the "muscle-bound" boxer and can then himself deliver  punishing, rapid-fire punches which, over time, take their toll in terms  of cumulative damage to the opponent.
But Wing Chun is not  boxing, even though punching also belongs to the sport. Yet muscle  flexibility plays a major role in Wing Chun in several ways, such as:

• a limber muscle reduces fatigue and thus prolongs stamina,
• a  limber muscle in a limb deprives the opponent of a "handle" to latch  onto, or a fulcrum, as it were, that might make it possible for one to  be thrown, or for one's arms or legs to be trapped, or pinned (if an  opponent is "rubbery", it is all but impossible to use that opponent's  body against him!),
• a limber muscle in a limb is more deceptive  during probing attacks because it does not appear nearly as threatening  as a tensed muscle, therefore the opponent can be fooled by what is  unfolding, and might well be seriously disadvantaged by the time he  realizes what is under way.

It might be helpful at this  point to note that Wing Chun was developed by a female who – according  to the legend – knew that she would be facing a male opponent (all due  respect to female practitioners of Wing Chun notwithstanding, I will  refer strictly to my own male gender in the following, but only in order  to avoid the constant use of him/ her, his/ her and the like).  Therefore this special martial arts discipline is born out of the need  to exploit whatever advantages can be derived from a body that is  slighter in build than the larger body of a typical male opponent, but  naturally, the suppleness and adroitness principle applies generally,  regardless of gender, as in the Sonny Liston – Cassius Clay boxing  example above. Which brings us to the teacher-and-pupil legend of Ng Mui  and Yim Wing Chun, which is interesting even if we might not believe in  it, at least not literally...

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