Another Way To Look At Martial Arts: The Real Yip Man

“We all have inner demons to fight. We call these demons ‘fear’, and ‘hatred’, and ‘anger’. If you don’t conquer them, then a life of a hundred years… is a tragedy. If you do, a life of a single day can be a triumph.”
– Yip Man

"Do not fight with the strength, absorb it, and when it flows, use it."

-Yip Man

When the name of Yip Man is mentioned many often think of this scene;

Or his teaching of Bruce Lee;

I take some issue with that for several reasons. First of all, many consider the characterization of Yip Man in the movies as being accurate- they aren't to start with, at all. Secondly, his persona was dramaticized to keep up with how iconolized his student Bruce Lee is held; and thirdly, people do not even know his actual name, which was pronounced slightly differently than most Americans pronounce it.

Now that last point is a minor one, but it does highlight the issue that if one cannot even pronounce the name correctly, how accurately does one know the man's actual history, especially if only observed from stylized films.

Perhaps the real reason I am writing this article is because I hate 'master-worship'. Reverance for one's teacher is one thing, but raising them to the status of epic heroes is disingenuous.

That being said, I do have respect for the now considered patriarch of Wing Chun- Yip Man, but having heard him even claimed as a founder of Wing Chun when it predates him by centuries I decided to write this article to clarify a few things.

With that written, I would like to emphasize that like all famous masters in martial arts history, there are many stories which make is hard to differentiate between fact and fiction. I do love martial legends, but at the same time I recognize they take away from the truth of who are beloved past teachers were.

So let me just say, that if I am repeating a story that cannot necessarily be proven, I will distinguish it as that.

So let's begin.

Yip Man was born October 1st in 1893, in Guangdong province. He was born to a prosperous and influential family, and educated by Chan Wah Shun, who taught mainly scholastic education. It would be around nine or ten years of age when Yip Man would request proper martial tutelage from the man, who was dubious as to whether or not begin his training.

Here is where the first of the famous stories of Yip Man begins. This is a true account; he requested to be taught and was told by Chan Wah Shun that he would require three taels of silver to do this, believing the child would take a very long time to accumulate that much money. When Yip Man returned the next day, Chan Wah Shun believed he had stolen the money and confronted him with his family, only to find that they were the boy's entire life savings.

Yip Man would thence become the last of Chan Wah Shun's disciple, studying with him until his teacher's death. It must have been tragic- I myself have had a beloved teacher who passed away and from personal experience empathize with what the young man must have gone through. It is not easy to deal with, and one is often left feeling as though they are missing something- and with an incomplete training that is an essential truth.

When sixteen Yip Man was sent to St. Stephen's college, where he gained a reputation as an able fighter (and troublemaker) and is reputed to have never lost a fight. It was after a time there Yip Man was told about an old eccentric man in the town, and went to confront him to test his skills.

No matter the iteration, Yip Man lost the bout and decided to learn from the man he would come to know as Leung Bik.

My favorite telling of the story of how the two met and fought follows from http://www.cheungswingchun.com/g/999/yip-man.html

"'That evening Yip Man found the man living on a fishing boat anchored near the typhoon breakers in Hong Kong Bay.
"Hey, old man!" yelled Yip.
The old man did not answer.
Yip Man picked up a stone and threw it in the man's direction. "Hey, old man!" he yelled once more.
"What do you want, youngster?"
"I've heard that you are a great kung fu master and I've come here to find out. I'd like to spar with you."
No answer.
"Old man," Yip said again, "I'd like to spar with you."
The man stood silent. He stared into Yip's eyes, then moved his gaze up and down the boy's length. "I don't know, youngster," he said at last, stroking his chin. "You look pretty puny. I might be wasting my time. I'll have to see you do a form first."
This request irritated Yip Man. "All right, old man," he said, dropping into a pigeon-toed horse stance. "Watch!"
Yip performed the entire Shil Lim Tao form of Wing Chun, with its long isotonic motions which always seemed punctuated by a sudden combative pop.
The old man smiled. "Okay, youngster. Come on board. We'll spar."
No sooner had the two squared off than Yip Man raced after the old man in a blaze of punches. The old man met Yip's attack, stepped to the side, then ... SPLASSSHHH!
The old man looked down at Yip in the waters of Hong Kong Bay. "What's the matter, youngster?" he said. "I thought you wanted to spar!"
Yip climbed out of the bay, onto the dock, and back onto the boat. "Don't worry, old man," he said. "I'll show you sparring!": He launched after the old man, a jet on takeoff. A few techniques were exchanged at a furious pace, then ... SPLASSSHHH!
"Hey, youngster! Do you want to spar or do you really want to swim?"
Yip Man could not understand what had gone wrong. He had done so well against other supposed 'masters', but he didn't even know what this guy was doing.
Yip began to visit the old man at every opportunity. He would bring him wine and roast duck. Sometimes he would wash the man's clothes, then leave. But not a word was spoken between the two.
After about a month, the old man confronted Yip. "Look, youngster," he said, "I know that you are a Wing Chun practitioner. And I know that you aren't bad. I also know that you show me all this kindness because you want to learn from me ... Well, okay, I'm going to teach you, rather than let the art pass away. You see, I too am a Wing Chun practitioner. My name's Leung Bik. I am the son of your teacher's teacher."'

At twenty-four years old Yip Man returned home, with skills comparable to a grandmaster. Due to the politics which often can take place in martial arts, Yip Man's original teacher had not been taught Wing Chun correctly by Leung Bik's father so as to handicap the man. Thus when Yip Man returned to his brother students, they accused him of having learned an entirely different style, and a vast schism remained. This was at a time when one's style practiced was usually the only one practiced, and was believed to be the best possible. If it weren't, then why learn it and not another which may be better? One's innate personal ability was disregarded, and any greatness of skill was attributed to the art, not the individual. Thus when Yip Man returned, practicing the proper form of Wing Chun his brothers shunned him.

He never let it hold him back however, and instead continued to improve himself.

Something that disappoints me is that the real life of Yip Man is in many ways far more dramatic than anything portrayed on television. For example, he is portrayed as most of the drama in his life having taken place because he was a martial arts teacher, but that was never his actual life role; for many years he worked on the Foshan police force, and there are some pretty epic stories concerning it, my favorite being when he chased a robber;

"Tsu Ping was a wanted criminal for theft and became targeted by Yip Man's police squad and was soon located and pursued, Yip Man's teammates given strict orders not to engage the man directly in public as he was armed and most likely would not only cause a scene, but injure passerby's. The plan was for Yip Man to subdue him (probably exaggeration) and only then would his teammates make the arrest.

Yip Man, dressed as a scholar approached Tsu Ping, who was not threatened by the small man (Yip Man was only 5'5") but when his name was called, the thief became suspicious and fled. Eventually apprehending the man as he tried to withdraw his gun, the thief would later recount he never thought he would be apprehended by a small scholar."

Another of Yip Man's legendary exploits was in the pursuit of a criminal who has ascended to a flat roof by its inner stairway.

"...As Yip Man came to the roof the thief had by then jumped over the parapet to another roof on the neighboring house, which though quite close, was about to go down the stairs from case from the roof of the house. Yip Man made the jump instead of allowing the thief he was pursuing to escape, following suit he also jumped over the space between the two roofs.

The thief, seeing the police officer approaching, slammed the door of the roof stairway whom had landed just in front of it, very near to the edge of the roof. Most onlookers on the street believed the detective would fall because the suddenly slammed door would force him to stop and fall back. Instead Yip Man swayed backward, able to keep his balance, and would soon thereafter apprehend the criminal. This story helped spread stories of Yip Man's competence in Kung Fu."

There are others, such as a time Yip Man disarmed a gun with his finger, and another where he demonstrated exceptional kicking power, practically kicking down trees to apprehend fugitives.

How did only the dismembering a gun get into the movies??? I'd have rather watched Yip Man the detective and Master than just the war hero he was portrayed as being, which were completely fabricated.

The breadth of his nationalistic ferver went to refusing to teach Japanese troops martial arts, and his property being confiscated when he refused to collaborate. That happened to literally millions of Chinese, and is in no way particularly exceptional, even if admirable for loyalty and national pride.

Yip Man would no longer be able to rely on his family's wealth, and this became the impetus which caused him to begin teaching his martial style.

In his final years in 1970 he was diagnosed with throat cancer (he is purported to have greatly enjoyed smoking tobacco and opium, and there is even rumor this was his primary reason to begin teaching, but I do not think that true, mainly because I have had difficulty finding hard evidence of such.) and in 1972 made his only martial film, which was a demonstration of Wing Chun techniques on a wooden dummy, to preserve the proper techniques.

Yip Man died December 2nd at the age of seventy-eight.

Among his final students was Bruce Lee, who through the establishing of his own legacy would cause that of his teacher to become renowned as well.

In that regard the actor and martial artist did a superb job in honoring his teacher.

Yip Man left a profound legacy for the style he taught, including the legend of its origin between a Shaolin nun and her Student whom the art would be named after. He was whom taught its origins based on the fight between a snake and crane.

The story can be found here in its original Chinese (handwritten by Yip Man) and in English. It is a very good story.