The Chun (春) in Wing Chun is a beautiful metaphor rife with meaning. Literally meaning the season of spring, we can deduce youth, life, refreshing change, rejuvenation. The art of Wing Chun is indeed quite young compared to the traditional gung fu styles practised in the feudal China of the 1700s. On the mountains of Omei, our two monastic founders, Ng Mui and Mui Shun, sought to inject new life in the prevailing, stuffy notions about martial arts of that era. The result was a revolutionary, new martial art stripped of unnecessary and inefficient concepts, strategies, principles and last, but not least, techniques. The fluidity and martial relaxation evident in accomplished Yuen Kay San Wing Chun practitioners, such as sifu Yun Hoi, is an embodiment of this life quality of spring. Rigid and overly tense execution of techniques are what I’d call “dead” techniques because one does not have the wherewithal to quickly change in mid-flight, or react with razor sharp sensitivity to the opponent’s reaction. And overly floppy strikes, in contrast, are “lifeless” because they lack the power to inflict its intended damage.
Another great and revolutionary martial artist, none other than Miyamoto Musashi (1584 – 1645) on the other side of the western Pacific Ocean pulled off a feat similar to that of Wing Chun’s founders in the same era. Musashi breathed new life into the prevailing sword fighting arts of the samurai in Japan. He wrote his insights gleaned from a life time of life and death challenge matches into the famous “A Book of Five Rings”.
Which art is better? This is a favourite topic of discussion among martial artists. There are no easy answers to that, but one should be careful of too quickly dismissing the effectiveness of any art other than our own. Having had the great good fortune to have studied under martial arts giants both from Japan and China to a very high level, sifu Yun Hoi is very well placed to give an informed opinion based on his own life-long experience on both sides to comment on the quality and effectiveness of both karate and Wing Chun gung fu. Musashi’s words, which are the title of this blog, do not just refer to mere technique…