The Principals of Wing Chun

Most Wing Chun People when asked about our style drag out the really tired cliche´ that Wing Chun is a "Concept" based Martial Art, while this is true it is also misleading, it allows Students to be sloppy as long as they are following the "Concept".

 But what are these "Concepts"?

And where can they be referenced from?

Most Students look at me as if I have started speaking Swahili when I ask them "Then where can we find these Concepts to show our Students"?

Even the idea that Wing Chun is based on a set of "Concepts" appears to be a "Concept" itself, so what do we have to base our training and our Future on?

At its Genesis Wing Chun was heavily connected to the Secret Societies committed to the overthrow of the Manchurian oppressors, as such little if anything was written down, add to this the fact that few Chinese could read or write it is no surprise that the information regarding Wing Chun's workings were passed down orally from Master to Student,  to try to avoid the natural entropy of "Chinese Whispers" they where formatted into sayings or songs, the Keun Kuit,  training hints that of themselves give away little but with the help of a good Instructor can contain all the information needed.  But it should be obvious that different people will quite naturally translate the same thing in a slightly different way, so from the outset these Songs where never meant to be a definitive guide.

A quick search of Wing Chun Principles on Google and you become aware that just about every School has its own idea of what the Principals are, some have 5, some have 7 some even have 13, indeed the Concept of there being a Concept is just a Concept itself.

In my Sifu's School we had 5 "Core Concepts", Directness, Simplicity, Practicality, Economy of Movement and Non use of Brute Force, through these my Sifu would explain the workings of Wing Chun, often when he was expanding on something he would say something like "Conventional Wing Chun Wisdom" offers us this suggestion, in time I realised that he was referring to the Keun Kuit but he seldom mentioned it by name, the things he mentioned the most where having a Body that holds no tension and the avoidance of force, both incoming and outgoing.

Of course we have our Forms, and for each School there is only one way to do the Forms, and for all Schools they must be done correctly, because our forms are the blueprint for how we move our body, both in shape and effort, after many Years of playing your forms it is hard to decide if the forms comply with the Principles or if the Principles are derived from how we do the Forms.

If the Principles do come from the Forms, then the Principles are real and actual, and not "Conceptual".

Wing Chun is a Circle that eventually returns to where it began, we ask a question, we receive an answer but the answer just creates more questions, more answers, and everything begins and ends in Stillness, or at least the idea of Stillness.

The Dictionary definition of a "Concept" is...

 "An  abstract idea, a plan of intention",

 I very much doubt that there is any coincidence in the fact that Siu Nim Tao translates to the way of the small idea.

Or to the fact that my Sifu used to refer to Nim Lik as the "Force of Intent".

Once my Sifu told me the "Secret" to understanding Wing Chun, he told me to turn up to his classes and pay attention.

Now there is a Concept.