The Story of Wing Chun
Wing Chun translates from Chinese as “beautiful spring”. The martial art famous actor Bruce Lee practiced originally, Wing Chun was developed by Shaolin monks who realized that they needed a new fighting system to defend themselves against the Chinese rulers at the time. When the Shaolin temple was burned down by these Chinese rulers, one of the Buddhist nuns luckily escaped. This Buddhist nun, called Ng Mu, carried with her the martial art that was not yet completed at that time. After she found refuge, she managed to finish developing this new martial art and perfected it.
Her first disciple was another female, Yim Wing Chun.
The Wing Chun Legend
Legend has it that Yim Wing Chun actually became the first disciple of the Buddhist nun, Ng Mu because of a marriage she did not want to occur. Her suitor was asked to wait a year before they married, during which Yim Wing Chun was trained in this new style of martial art. At the end of the year, the nun asked the suitor to fight against Yim Wing Chun for her hand in marriage. If he lost, Yim Wing Chun would not have to marry him, since she actually did not love him. The suitor, seeing her size and overt weakness, agreed wholeheartedly.
The story ends happily. Yim Wing Chun beats her suitor, free not to marry him.
The story demonstrates the ability of practitioners to defeat stronger opponents by their accurate application of techniques and movements.