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Wing Chun is considered a principle-oriented rather than technique-oriented martial art. This means that it is not simply just a collection of unrelated ideas and martial arts techniques. Instead, it has a set of guiding principles at its core. This correlates with the definition of the term principle, used as a noun:

“a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behaviour.”

Wing Chun is a martial art in which principles are more important than specific techniques. This recognises that although Wing Chun does have techniques, that these are secondary; at the root of all techniques are underlying principles and all techniques can be adjusted in accordance with these principles. Such an approach based on the primacy of principles underpinning techniques allows the practitioner to make it their own. This requires that the underlying principles must be first understood and be able to be applied by the practitioner into any situation.

We can use a parent/child relationship as an example to help understand this. The parent’s actions are driven from a desire to love, protect and do the best for their child. They know that they cannot be there in every situation the child may face over the course of their lifetime. Rather than seeking to control each thought, action, and response the best solution for the parent is to teach the child a set of principles which will provide a sound perspective that will act as a guide to allow the child to best navigate difficulties they encounter along their path for themselves.

The same is true for the developing Wing Chun student. Understanding the principles requires the practitioner to walk their own path – applying learning to their individual body type, mindset, and physical attributes. This can be confusing for the developing Wing Chun student who may be expecting to be told what to do and how to do it by their ‘teacher’. The role of the Sifu within Wing Chun is not purely instructional in this way. Rather, they are there to help the student find their path by understanding the fundamental principles, and to then help them navigate their way by remaining focused on these principles so as not to inadvertently get caught up in techniques alone and stray from the path. This is unlike other martial arts that learn choreographed forms or memorized techniques and drills which are applied universally across all practitioners.

If we consider a fundamental purpose of Wing Chun being to allow the practitioner to be relaxed and free to express the art for themselves, this can never be achieved if they are tied physically and emotionally to techniques. Something expressed eloquently by Moy Yat.

“You must free yourself from dependence on mechanical expression and trust your body, your Kung Fu to protect yourself” – Moy Yat.

Wing Chun has a series of principles upon which all the movements are based. This is comparable to an operating system that makes everything else function correctly. It is a framework that all of the techniques are built on, instead of a style that is built around techniques. Each technique is a spontaneous response to a situation. The developing student must learn how to identify a situation from this perspective, then let a technique “come out” if it supports the principle that applies to that situation.

The techniques themselves are formed from the small number of simple movements contained within three hand forms and two weapons forms. To the beginning student these appear to be a series of unrelated techniques where the limbs are placed into respective positions relative to each other and the body. However, the forms not only give the developing student a series of techniques, but they also provide insight into the principles. It is for this reason that the first form is called Siu Lim Tao, translated as ‘Little Idea’. It provides the kernel from which the whole system can grow. Over time the advanced Wing Chun practitioner will come to understand how these are not isolated techniques but an integrated fighting system of whole-body expression.

Before this epiphany can be realised and the basic art individually tailored, the principles and basic techniques must first be learned and fully understood – instilled to the point that they are second nature. At the point of having achieved mastery over them the advanced student can then express these in a way that is best suited for them. But there are no shortcuts – deviating from the path before it is properly understood means that the core foundation will not have been sufficiently built. This is why, all students are taught pretty much the same concepts, theories, and exercises. This is necessary in order to gain a foundation.

Importantly, this is where Wing Chun is different compared with martial arts learning choreographed forms or memorized techniques. Indeed, this is why traditional Wing Chun did not have set belts and gradings. The Sifu, seeking to help the developing Wing Chun find their own path, aims not just to teach the techniques, but to encourage the student to learn the technique whilst seeking the principles beneath. By training with the student, the Sifu is able to assess the developing students ability in hand-to-hand fighting, rather than in just performing a set of movements. This is why Ip Man is famous for saying the following.

“If you believe everything I say, you will never be a good fighter” – Ip Man.

This shows that the developing student should always ask themselves and their teacher why they are doing something. Only by doing so will they understand the principle behind it and be able to correctly apply this. Each element that is taught should also be tested out through Chi Sau and sparring. It is not enough to be told something – you must practise it in real life and see that it works for you. Chi Sau is a type of training exclusive to Wing Chun which allows the developing student to try out each the application of techniques with a training partner.

This offers real-time feedback from a partner in a training environment and allows for the scaling up of intensity rather than trying to understand techniques in a life or death fighting situation. The developing student will quickly find during Chi Sau that some of the techniques they have been working on in the forms will work, but others will fail and need to be adjusted to avoid being hit. Additionally, training with lots of different people will help the developing student understand some movements will work against some people but not others, without adjustment. In doing so, the developing student comes to understand that the underlying principles help guide these adjustments of individual techniques.

The student who is not prepared to commit the time and effort into building the foundation and uncovering the underlying principles for themselves may feel that they have overtaken their fellow students, moving on to higher forms or looking flashy in Chi-Sau. However, this will quickly unravel when they find they are no longer able to progress along the path (and be overtaken by their fellow students) or when they encounter a skilled fighter who easily defeats them.

Technique alone will only take you so far in Wing Chun. As a student coming into Wing Chun, or as a Sifu teaching a variety of students with different motivations, it is important to know what it is that you (the student) are looking to get from Wing Chun. Some people are happy just following others in their training and this will provide them with a reasonable amount of skill that they could use for effective self-defence, but it is not Wing Chun.

For those students seeking to master Wing Chun, high level Wing Chun application is not pre-calculated or preconceived, it is not reproducing techniques that one has copied. It is true improvisation, responding to an opponent’s movement in ways that you may have never expressed before in practice. It is about being unpredictable, yet being able to respond appropriately. Wing Chun principles, then, are the fundamental laws of our combat, a glue that sticks it together as a cohesive unit and allows it to function correctly under pressure.

The approach keeps Wing Chun as a martial art a pure and integrated fighting system, while allowing for individual refinement and unique expression of that art that is consistent with its principles. It is a key part of why Wing Chun is recognised as having a uniquely scientific and logical approach. It also means that Wing Chun is not static, but an ever-evolving system.

Copyright @ Craig Sands