Going into the history a bit, looking at revolutionary societies from the Ming to the Qing to the Nationalists, there are some things to keep in mind. Between the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion, there was a schism that developed in the various revolutionary groups. While some had always been predatory in nature from their conception, others were genuinely focused on overthrowing the Qing and restore the Ming. The merits of the Ming are open to debate. Looking at those times from now, we have a different sense of the Ming and the Qing. It is true that the first emperor of the Qing was very supportive of Buddhism and did much to spread the teachings of Buddha. It is also true that towards the end of the Ming Dynasty the government was fairly corrupt. However, it is necessary to remember that the people at that time had quite a different view of being ruled by the Qing vs. the Ming. The Chu family was of the Han race, the Manchu were not. So, regardless of any social or economic reforms created by the Qing, they also forced all non-Manchu men to shave the front of their heads and plait their hair into long tails, reminiscent of the back end of a horse (among other mistreatments). So, some groups organized to fight against the Qing. The VTM has found some evidence that the Ming royal family was instrumental in creating at least one revolutionary group with the support of a Chan family (Chan like Chan Wah Shun, not like the form of Buddhism). Secret Societies of one sort or another have existed in China for centuries so the creation of another was no great shift in thinking.
After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty in 1683, most of the rebellious groups went underground. From current VTM research, Wing Chun was created in the time between the fall of the Ming and the establishment of the Qing – around 40 years between 1644-1683. This date may change with the collection of new information but it’s the working model we have right now.
Jumping forwards to the 1800s, the three Opium Wars occurred and the revolutionary groups involved didn’t fare well – and sanctions were levied against China. The revolutionary groups lost much in the way of popular support through the increasingly harsh sanction. At this time, a schism developed in the revolutionary groups. With the increase in drug trade, some groups wanted to maintain control of the drugs and continue to make money (there had always been groups involved in drugs, sex, racketeering, etc. in China for centuries). Other groups wanted to focus on keeping the foreigners off Chinese soil. Still other groups took no interest in either money or political action and instead focused on martial arts. Rolling forward to the Boxer Rebellion and its failure to remove the foreign powers, popular opinion towards the secret societies reached the lowest levels. Each of the three types of societies went even more underground, becoming many of the secret societies of today.
In terms of the fall of the Qing Dynasty, it happened with the support of the politically focused secret societies. These societies, in an earlier age, were anti-Qing and included training in martial arts – just as in the criminal societies and the martial societies. Yet, each of the three groups had different focus. HFY comes out of the martial societies – related to the political and criminal groups in the sense of a common history BUT walking a different path.
Keith: WCK was designed for fighting one-to-one, not group-on-group. Southern systems share this in common, an emphasis on one-to-one skills as opposed to small unit vs. small unit tactics. In Mastering Kung Fu, this is what was meant – the military strategic and tactic thinking was involved in the creation of the system and in the logic of the training methods. This is not to say that the system was designed to train a single soldier to function as part of a larger squad, platoon, company, battalion or regiment. Yet – with an understanding of how the limbs support each other, each part of the body can be considered as an element in an overall strategy; thus, the body serves as a vehicle to understand all forms of combat (think of combined arms warfare wherein artillery softens up a target (legs), then mechanized infantry move in to mop up (hands) – VERY simplistic analogy to the type of training in HFY that I have experienced).
In the revolutionary secret societies many styles were taught and utilized – HFY was not necessarily the hand-to-hand system of all cells in the societies – especially in light of the widespread use of hung ga… and even it HFY was, there are many training tracks that develop different hand-to-hand skills. In the societies not everyone was taught to understand why they did what they did. They were taught – if here, do this; if there, do that – and Kiu Sau and/or Chi Sau served to plug the holes in skill by developing fast reactions. Historically, not everyone was taught the whole HFY system.
Jeremy R.
