Wing Chun originated from the Shaolin Temple around the 17th Century. During the Ching Dynasty, the Emperor ordered the destruction of the Shaolin Temple. Only five monks survived, known as the Venerable Five: Pak Mee (Pak Mei), Fung Do Tak (Fung To Tak), Miao Hin (Mui Hin), Gee Sin (Gee Shin) and the nun Ng Mui who possessed the greatest boxing skills.

Ng Mui found shelter in a temple at Tai Leung Shan. While there she met a young girl named Yim Wing Chun, who was very poor. Her father had a bean curd shop in which Yim Wing Chun worked. Since she was a beautiful young girl, a local gangster named Tiger Wong wanted her for a concubine. When Wing Chun and her father both refused, Wong said he would simply take her.

When Ng Mui heard of this, she devised a plan to help Wing Chun. Wing Chun was to tell Tiger Wong that she would happily marry him if he could defeat her in a fight, as a test of his manhood. Her only condition was to allow her to train for six months before the fight. Being the local bully, he confidently accepted the challenge.

In these six months, Ng Mui taught Yim Wing Chun an effective style of fighting which would enable her to overcome the size and strength of the bully. Wing Chun was able to defeat Tiger Wong and went on to marry the man she loved, Leung Bok Cho (Leung Bok Chau) to whom she passed on the boxing art which now bears her name.

The butterfly knife techniques were transmitted to Wing Chun and her husband by Miao Tsui Ha (Mui Tsui Ta), the daughter of Miao Hin. Leung Bok Cho went on to teach Leung Lan Kwai, whose successor in turn was Wong Wah Bo, a member of an opera troupe on board a junk, known to the Chinese as the ‘Red Junk’.

In the troupe was an actor named Leung Yee Tye (Leung Ye Tei) who had learned long pole techniques from a cook on the ship, who turned out to be Gee Sin (of the Venerable Five). Wong Wah Bo and Leung Yee Tye exchanged their knowledge. Thus it came to be that knives and poles together with boxing became part of the Wing Chun system.

Leung Yee Tye’s successor was Leung Tsan (Leung Jan), a gifted physician of the town of Fatshan, a town in Kwangtung Province. His skill as a fighter was legendary in that area of China. He was challenged many times but was never defeated. He also practised medicine, operated a herbal shop and taught kung fu. Leung Tsan passed his knowledge on to Chan Wah Soon (Chan Wah), known as “Wah the Money Changer”, who taught Wing Chun for some thirty-six years, but had only sixteen selected students, one of whom was Yip Man.