The Life of the Martial Arts Legend

The Life of the Martial Arts Legend

Learn about the life of the martial arts legend who has influenced millions of martial artists around the world including many famous martial artists like the late Bruce Lee.

Ip Man is often referred to as Yip Man. He was born on the first of October, 1893 and died on the second of December, 1972.

Ip Kai Man was one of the first martial arts instructors, or Sifu, to teach the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun Kung Fu openly. He had several students who later became martial arts teachers in their own right, including Bruce Lee. He was born to Yip Oi Dor and Ng Shui, and was the third of four children. He grew up in a very wealthy family in Foshan, Guangdong province, and received an exceptionally high standard of education. His older brother was Ip Kai Gak. His older sister was Ip Wan Mei and his younger sister was Ip Wan Hum. Ip is the family name which is said first in Chinese culture.

Biography

When Ip Man was thirteen years old he started learning Wing Chun from Chan Wah-Shun. Because of his sifu’s old age, Ip Man had to learn much of his skills and techniques from his master’s second eldest disciple Ng Chung-Sok. Three years into Ip Man’s training Chan Wah-Shun died. One of his dying wishes was to have Ng continue training Ip.

At the age of 15 Ip Man moved to Hong Kong with help from Leung Fut Ting, a relative. At age sixteen, Ip Man attended school at St. Stephen’s College in Hong Kong. It was a secondary school for wealthy families and foreigners who lived in Hong Kong. According to Ip Man’s two sons (Ip Ching and Ip Chun), while at St. Stephen’s Ip Man intervened after seeing a foreign police officer beating a woman. The story goes that the police officer tried to strike Ip Man who used his martial arts to strike the officer down, at which point Ip Man and his classmate ran to school. The classmate is said to have told an older man who lived in the same apartment block. Ip Man was invited to see this man and the man asked Ip Man what martial art he studied. Ip told him, but said he would not understand. The man then asked Ip Man to show him his first 2 forms (Sil Lim Tao and Chun Kiu). The man then told Ip Man that his forms were “not too great.” Ip Man was then invited to Chi Sau (a form of training that involves controlled attack and defence). Ip Man saw this as an opportunity to prove his Kung Fu was good, but he was beaten after just a few strikes. It turned out that the old man was his master’s elder fellow-disciple (and so, by Chinese tradition Ip Man’s martial uncle or Sibak), Leung Bik , son of his master’s master Leung Jan . After that encounter, Ip Man continued his training lessons from Leung Bik. By the age of 24, Ip Man had returned to Foshan, his Wing Chun skills tremendously improved.

In Foshan, Ip Man became a policeman. He did not formally run a Wing Chun school, but taught several of his subordinates, his friends and relatives.

Kwok Fu and Lun Kai (2 of Ip Man’s students and friends) went on to teach students of their own. The art of Wing Chun in the Foshan and Guangdong area was mainly passed down from these two individuals.

Ip Man went to Kwok Fu’s village house during the Japanese Occupation. He only returned to Foshan after the war, to once again take up the job of a police officer. At the end of 1949, the Chinese Communist party won the Chinese civil war. Ip Man being an officer of the opposing Kuomintang political party, decided to escape to Hong Kong without his family when the Communists had come to Foshan. In Hong Kong, Ip Man opened a Wing Chun martial arts school.

Initially, business was poor because his students typically stayed for only a couple of months. He moved his school twice, to Hoi Tan Street in Sham Shui Po, and then to Lee Tat Street in Yau Ma Tei. By then, some of his students were skilled enough that they were able to start their own schools.

Some of Ip Man’s students and descendants compared their skills with other martial artists in combat. Their victories over other martial artists helped to bolster Ip Man’s reputation as a teacher.

In 1967, Ip Man and some of his students established the Hong Kong Ving Tsun Athletic Association.

In 1972, Ip Man suffered cancer and subsequently died on the 2nd of December that same year. About 6 weeks before he died he asked his 2 sons and his student Lau Hon Lam to film him performing the Wing Chun system as practice by him. He only managed Sil Lim Tau, Chum Kiu and the Dummy form. This is because he was in a lot of pain and was weak and unsteady on his feet. He was going to do Biu Gee, the Knife form and long pole. However Grandmaster Ip Chun and Ip Ching and Sifu Lau Hong Lam stopped Ip Man because Biu Gee, the knives and full pole form require a lot of energy to perform. Ip Man had many students and worried some of them were adapting the system due to their own incomplete knowledge and felt that filming it was the only way to stop the frauds and cheats.

Memoriezzzzzz ......Bruce Lee and his story of kung fu.

There is a saying in kung fu that “it is hard for a student to find a good sifu, but it is even more difficult for a sifu to find a good student” It is also said that there are systems of kung fu that have been lost over the passage of time because the masters could find no worthy student to whom to pass the traditions and heritage.

This could well have been the case for Wing Chun, had Leung Bik, son of the famous Wing Chun Master Leung Jan, not met Ip Man, his only student. Ip Man proved not only to be a great student, but a genius in fulfilling the responsibility of passing the art on to the future generations of masters.
It was due to Ip Man’s innovations that Wing Chun was able to spread from a little city in Southern China to become one of the most popular and sought after systems of Martial Arts in the world.
Ip Man was born in Foshan, China, at the end of the Qing Dynasty. Foshan was situated in the most prosperous region of the Zheyleng Delta of Guangdong province. Wong Fai hung, Cheung Hung-shing, Leung Jan, Leung Siu-Ching, etc., came from Foshan. So Ip Man, grew up hearing the stories of the exploits of these great kung fu men. It’s not surprising that he would develop into one of the greats himself.
Ip Man’s education in Wing Chun began as a youth when he became a student of Chan Wah Shun, who was a student of the famous Leung Jan. Chan Wah Shun accepted Ip Man as a student towards the end of his teaching career, when he was quite old. Master Chan was a big man by Chinese standards. So his Kung fu was powerful. Ip Man learned from Master Chan until the masters, death, and continued his training with one of his senior Kung Fu brothers (si-hing) until Ip Man left Foshan for Hong Kong.
p Man moved to Hong Kong to attend school. Here, he had a chance meeting with an old gentleman who was a martial artist. This old man crossed hands with Ip Man and beat him soundly. This disturbed Ip Man very much, as he had developed his kung fu to a high level and considered himself to be quite proficient. As it turned out, the old gentleman was Leung Bik, the son of Master Chan Wah Shun’s teacher, the famous, Leung Jan.
Master Leung Bik’s Wing Chun was much more refined than what Ip Man had leaned from Master Chan. While Chan Wah Shun had been a big man, Leung Bik was much smaller. There also was a pretty wide gap in the education level between the two masters. Chan Wah Shun was nor very well educated, while Leung Bik’s father was a well-educated doctor of Chinese medicine. This education was passed to his son. Thus, Leung Bik was better able to understand the underlying principles of the Wing Chun system. This knowledge was passed to Ip Man.
Upon learning all that Leung Bik had to teach him, Ip Man went on to explore ways to simplify Wing Chun, making it easier to understand. In addition to his education in Wing Chun, Ip Man received an advanced formal education in his youth. He learnt the theories and principles of modem science and could therefore make use of modem technological knowledge, such as mechanical and mathematical theories, to expand the principles of Wing Chun. Ip Man even changed terminology, such as the Five Elements and Eight Diagrams (Ba Gua) that were commonly used in metaphysics. This helped to demystify Wing Chun, thus making it easier for the common student to understand and apply the system.

It is thanks to Master Ip Man that the modern Wing Chun system is so popular. Among the kung fu systems, Wing Chun is considered one of the simplest to learn and understand. The system is known to be direct, simple, economical in application, and highly effective in combat. Master Ip Man’s contributions to the evolution of Wing Chun can be credited for building the systems reputation. These innovations demonstrated the intelligence of Ip Man.