Understanding the Ancient Philosophy of Wing Tsun Kung Fu

The art of Chinese Wing Tsun Kung-Fu was described by the ancient masters as a 'living philosophy.'

With reaching the highest levels of teaching in Wing Tsun, you will be taught how to understand yourself as well as how to interact with other human beings. Based on the amalgamation of Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian principles, the etiquette of Wing Tsun is aimed at enshrining important ideals in its practitioners.

These include a true appreciation of honour, loyalty, dignity, respect for other human beings and control of ones ego, emotions and temper. A person will never master himself without these, or the art of Wing Tsun, as these two are synonymous.

The art is regarded as the noble wing tsun because of these unique characteristics. Student development and progression is the primary goal of Wing Tsun. Indeed, 'Si-Fu' means 'Father-Teacher', an aknowledgement of the responsiblity of the Master when he accepts someone as his 'todai' (son). This in unlike most other Martial Arts, such as Karate where 'Sensei' simply means 'Teacher'.

Wing Tsun also has three sides to it: Physical, Spiritual and Health. It’s regrettably infrequent to find schools to teach these three together. But spiritual guidance and understanding requires a true master, whereas physical techniques can be copied. An important teaching in Wing Tsun is that a student's persona will develop as the student develops his or her physical techniques.

When you can understand the teachings of current and previous masters, you can and will comprehend the Martial Arts. You need to appreciate the history and the social background to it, for this to be possible. Thus, every part of the martial art that is ignored or changed before it is properly learnt undermines its foundations.

If you take away the culture then you take away the history.

There is no point in learning martial arts without learning its history. What you saw was just a series of moves which neither has any understanding nor any principles. This is not a true martial art.

This need to understand the Martial Art as a whole is no different than if you wished to study for instance the humanities or even law. As Hiliare Barnett, author of the book Constitutional and Administrative Law, states in her work, "to study the UK's constitution successfully, it is necessary to gain an insight into the history, politics and political philosphy which underpin the constitution, it is an essential component without which the structure, law and policies of the state cannot be understood."