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Yip Man
葉問
Yip Man; 葉問
	; Yip Man
Born	1 October 1893; Foshan, Empire of Great Qing of China
Died	2 December 1972 (aged 79); Hong Kong
Cause of death	Throat cancer
Other names	葉繼問, Yeji Q
Occupation	Martial arts practitioner
Title	Gung-Gung
Children	Ip Ching & Ip Chun

"Ip Man" redirects here. For the film, see Ip Man (film).

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Yip (葉).

Yip Man (simplified Chinese: 叶问; traditional Chinese: 葉問; pinyin: yè wèn, Cantonese Jyutping: jip⁶ man⁶; Ip Man;^[1] also known as 葉繼問 1 October 1893 - 2 December 1972) was the first martial arts master (Chinese: Sifu) to teach the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun openly. He had several students who later became martial arts teachers in their own right, including Bruce Lee.

Yip Kai Man was the last Wing Chun student of Chan Wah-shun ^[2]^[3]^[4] when he was 70 years old. 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, and received an exceptional traditional Chinese education. His older brother was Ip Kai Gak. His older sister was Ip Wan Mei and his younger sister was Ip Wan Hum.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Biography

When Yip Man was thirteen years old he started learning Wing Chun from Chan Wah-shun (陳華順). Because of his sifu's old age, Yip Man had to learn much of his skills and techniques from his master's second eldest disciple Ng Chung-sok (吳仲素). Three years into Yip Man’s training Chan Wah-shun died. One of his dying wishes was to have Ng continue training Yip. At the age of 15 Yip man moved to Hong Kong with help from Leung Fut Ting, a relative. At age sixteen, Yip Man attended school at St. Stephen's College in Hong Kong.^{[citation needed]}It was a secondary school for wealthy families and foreigners who lived in Hong Kong. According to Yip Man's two sons,^{[citation needed]} while at St. Stephen's Yip Man intervened after seeing a foreign police officer beating a woman. The story goes that the Police officer tried to strike Yip Man who used his martial arts to strike the officer down, at which point Yip Man and his classmate ran to school. The classmate is said to have told an older man who lived in his apartment block. Yip Man was invited to see this man and the man asked Yip Man what martial art he studied. The man then asked Yip Man to show him his first 2 forms (Sil Lim Tao and Chun Kiu). The man then told Yip man that his forms were “not too great.”^{[citation needed]} Yip Man was then invited to Chi Sau (a form of training that involves controlled attack and defence), Yip 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 Yip Man's martial uncle), Leung Bik (梁璧), son of his master's master Leung Jan (梁贊). After that encounter, Yip Man continued his training lessons from Leung Bik. By the age of 24, Yip Man had returned to Foshan, his Wing Chun skills tremendously improved.^{[citation needed]} In Foshan, Yip Man became a policeman.^{[citation needed]} He did not formally run a Wing Chun school, but taught several of his subordinates, his friends and relatives. Amongst those informal students, Lok Yiu, Chow Kwong-yue (周光裕 (六仔)), Kwok Fu (郭富), Lun Kai (倫佳), Chan Chi-sun (陳志新) and Lui Ying (呂應) were amongst the most well-known. Chow Kwong-yue was said to be the best student among his peers, but eventually he went into commerce and dropped out of martial arts all together. Kwok Fu and Lun Kai went on to teach students of their own. Wing Chun in the Foshan and Guangdong area was mainly passed down from these two individuals. Chan Chi-sun died young, and Lui Ying went to Hong Kong. Neither of them took any students.

Yip 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, after the Communist party won the Chinese civil war, being an officer of the Kuomintang, he decided to escape to Hong Kong without his family when the Communists had come to Foshan.

In Hong Kong, he opened a 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 (海壇街) in Sham Shui Po, and then to Lee Tat Street (利達街) in Yau Ma Tei. By then, some of his students were skilled enough that they were able to start their own schools. Among the first were Leung Sheung, Lok Yiu, Chu Shong-tin, Wong Shun Leung and Lo Man Kam(Yip Man´s nephew).

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

In 1967, Yip Man and some of his students established the Hong Kong Ving Tsun Athletic Association (香港詠春拳體育會).

In 1972, Yip Man suffered throat cancer and subsequently died on the 2nd of December that same year.

Within the three decades of his career in Hong Kong, he established a training system for Wing Chun that eventually spread across the world.

[edit] Films

Main article: Ip Man (film)

A film loosely based on the life of Yip Man was released in 2008 and stars Donnie Yen as the martial artist. The film takes a number of liberties with Yip Man's life, often for dramatic effect. Yip Man's eldest son Ip Chun appears in the film and served as a consultant for the film. The film focuses on Yip's life during the 1930s to the 1940s during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The film is the first to be based on the life of Yip Man. A sequel to the film is in the works and will focus on Yip's disciples, which includes Bruce Lee.

Wong Kar-wai is reportedly working on his own biopic titled The Great Master. The film has been in development and will feature Tony Leung Chiu-Wai as Yip Man. However, it was revealed that Wong's five-year rights to make the Yip Man biopic had expired [1].

[edit] Martial arts lineage

[edit] Yip Man's legacy

Yip Man left behind a huge legacy of Wing Chun that now spans across the globe. Yip Man also left behind a written history of Wing Chun, whose factual accuracy has been debated.^{[citation needed]}

Yip Man also filmed three of the five Wing Chun forms before he died.^{[citation needed]}

Many other artifacts of Yip Man's life are on display in the "Yip Man Tong" museum in Foushan, China.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

^ As written in Romanised text in his passport which is on display in the Yip Man Tong museum in Foushan in China.
^ Sam kwok Wing Chun – Yip Man Family Tree
^ Mastering Wing Chun, By Samuel Kwok
^ Ip Man Portrait of a kung Fu Master, by Ip Ching
^ external copy of the History of Wing Chun Written by Yip Man.
^ History and Philosophy of Ip Man including family tree

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Yip Man

[0] As written in Romanised text in his passport which is on display in the Yip Man Tong museum in Foushan in China.

[1] Sam kwok Wing Chun – Yip Man Family Tree

[2] Mastering Wing Chun, By Samuel Kwok

[3] Ip Man Portrait of a kung Fu Master, by Ip Ching

[4] xternal copy of the History of Wing Chun Written by Yip Man.

[5] History and Philosophy of Ip Man including family tree

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