A Scandal of the Wing-Chun School
Somebody Falsely Claims to be Leader of the School
by Hsuan Kung Tze

A reprint from "Secrets of Kung Fu" Magazine
Note: Originally all chinese names were in the mandarin dialect.

The tradition of Chinese kung fu attaches utmost importance to the cultivation of martial virtue. Kung fu learners consider it first important to respect their teachers and adhere to the principle. Therefore, an expert of kung fu is venerated by his colleagues first of all because of his martial virtue, and secondarily because of his martial skills. Chinese kung fu has all along considered important the difference of seniority. If one is a third generation disciple, he must not claim that he is of the second-generation, or he will be considered treacherous. Any martial artsman who tries to confuse seniority is looked upon as a traitor to his teacher and the founder. He will be intolerable to his school and will be looked down upon by people of other schools of the martial arts community. 18y the way, seniority is also clearly distinguished in martial arts circles in other countries. Take karate for example, a leamer of the white belt is not allowed to identify himself as of the black belt.)

A scandal recently broke cover when Sifu Leung Ting of the Wing Chun School falsely claimed himself to be "Head of the Wing Chun School". Martial artists of the Wing Chun School were astonished and irritated when the report that he claimed himself "Head of the School" was published in the press. People recalled that even late Grandmaster Ip Man, with his indisputably lofty prestige, never considered himself head of the school despite that he had every reason to do that (because of his close relationship with two different instructors Chun Wa Sheun for 3 years, living with and learning from Leung Bik for 5 years). After his death, Ip Man's many achieved disciples like Sifu Leung Sheug, Sifu Lok Yiu , Sifu Wong Sheun Leung, Sifu Toi Shan Tin. Ip Chun and Ip Ching, etc. all have been eligible to be elected the head. But none of them ever attempted to be the leader of the Wing Chun School, neither had anyone moted the election of a head.

That Leung Ting should claim himself Head of the Wing Chun School made People of the School aware of the gravity of the event. The three major organizers of the Wing Chun School in Hong Kong, ie., "Wing Chun United General Association", 'Wing Chun Athletic Association" and "Wing Chun Chinese Martial Arts General Association in Honor of Yip Man", held a joint conference on that very evening and unanimously arrived at the conclusion that it was necessary to clarify matters to the martial arts circles and society with respect to the incident of Leung Ting claiming himself head of the school. Therefore a press conference was held to which major senior exponents of various schools were invited. (it was what was called "Wu-Lin T'ieh a practiced that has gone on for very long time in martial art circles, whereby if a treacherous disciple emerges in a school, the school invites martial artists of various schools to denounce the offender.)

The press conference of the Wing Chun School gained wide attendance and the people there were emotional. Apart from the many chief instructors of the School, it was attended by senior members of more than ten schools and more than ten leading members of the Chinese Martial Arts General Association of Hong Kong, as well as innumerable journalists.

During the session, Sifu Wong Sheun Leung pointed out: Leung Ting did not begin to claim himself head of the school now. In fact, even before Grandmaster Ip Man passed away, he already identified himself the future head of the school to a reporter of a foreign martial arts magazine [where he figured he could get away with saying anything he wanted]. Leung Ting even went so far as to say that he represented Wing Chun, "Leung Ting" is tantamount to Wing Chun, Wing Chun is tantamount to "Leung Ting". He also said that Grandmaster Ip Man personally selected him as the leader of the instructors of the Wing Chun School. In many of his own articles, the self-styled "Chief Instructor of the Wing Chun School", "Grandmaster Ip Man's youngest disciple". He even blatantly printed the words '8th Dan Black Belt of Wing Chun on his business cards."

Sifu Wong Sheun Leung went on to point out: "The Wing Chun School is a Chinese kung fu school. It has no black belts and white belts at all, neither is its practiced to divide disciples into dans or levels. Leung Ting has persistently falsified, claiming himself "Leader of instructors", "chief instructor", "head of the school", and the "youngest disciple". All these are his tricks to raise his position. Now he even dares to deceitfully claim himself head of the school. We, members of the Wing Chun School can no longer tolerate this in muteness and allow a traitor to fledge in order to appease him."

Now, after all, is Leung Ting a disciple of Grandmaster Ip Man? Ip Man's eldest son Sifu Ip Chun testified that he had never seen his father teaching pugilism to Leung Ting. This proves that Leung Ting is not a disciple personally-tutored by Ip Man.

Some asked that if Leung Ting was not Ip Man’s pupil, he was at least Sifu Leung Sheung’s pupil. (in other words, he was Ip Man’s second-generation disciple.) But Sifu Leung Sheung declared that neither was Leung Ting his disciple. The Sing Hing of the Wing Chun School Leung Sheung said at the press conference: "I have a disciple called Chong Pei, Leung Ting has followed Chong Pei to learn kung fu."

This unambiguously establishes that Leung Ting was a junior member of the Wing Chun School, instead of being Ip Man’s disciple, he is Sifu Leung Sheung’s second generation disciple, or Grandmaster Ip Man's third-generation disciple, up to now the most junior member in the Wing Chun School.

The most highly-achieved exponents of the Wing Chun School at Present are Sifu Leung Sheung, Sifu Luk Yiu, Sifu Wong Sheun Leung, Sifu Toi Shan Tien [and of course Ip Man’s own sons] they have all been given an in-depth teaching of true kung fu by Ip Man and are well-known in martial art circles. Aside from the weapon techniques of the Eight-Slash Broadsword Skill and the Six-and-a-Half Dotting Staff Skill ( the Wing Chun School has only three sets of pugilism, i.e., the "Little Idea", of the elementary level, which is the foundation of Wing Chun Pugilism; "Looking for the Arm", which is good at finding the enemy's arms to launch counter-attacks, Sifu Lok Yiu is distinguished for this skill; the set of the supreme level is "Biu Gee", or Thrusting Fingers, of which Sifu Leung Sheung has a high and profound mastery. Sifu Toi Shang Tin, meanwhile, is expert of traditional Chinese surgery. Sifu Wong Sheun Leung has made great contributions by adding glory to the Wing Chun School, in earlier years, Sifu Leung always contested with skilled masters of other schools and won praise in the martial arts community. He also taught pugilism to his younger fellow disciple Bruce Lee on behalf of Grandmaster Ip Man.

 

Photos and their captions as they appeared in the Secrets of Kung fu magazine.

A photo taken at Grandmaster Ip Man's mourning ceremony, the one who wears black armband is Leung Ting, Ip Man's personally tutored disciples wear white bands around their waist, while his second--or third-generation disciples wear black bands on their arms. The photo shows that Leung Ting is not Ip Man's first-generation disciple, nor is he of the "8th Dan Black Belt of the Wing Chun School"' and it is utterly impossible for him to be Head of the School.

Sifu Ip Chun is making an address at the press conference. First in the right is Sifu Ip Ching.

Sifu Pu Chien-hua is delivering a speech on behalf of the Ving Tsun Athletic Association.

Sifu Wong Chun Leung enumerates the arrogant and ridiculous speeches and deeds of Leung Ting since long.

Dei Si Hing Sifu Leung Sheun is presiding over the press conference.

In the interest of space some photos were deleted. However their captions are as follows.

 

Representatives of other schools are making addresses at the meeting. Sifu Hu Shao-pao, Secretary of the Chinese Martial Arts General Association of Hong Kong. Dr. Nieh Chih-fei of the Ts'ai Li-fo School. Sifu Ch'en Hsiu-chung of Ta-Sheng P'i-kua Men. Sifu Cheng T'ien-hsiung of T'ai-chi Men. Sifu Lung Ch'i-ming of the Northern Shaolin School, who is also Vice-Ghairman of the Chinese Martial Arts General Association Sifu Tseng Chao-yu of the Ts'ai Li-fo School.

To deal with Leung Ting's self-proclamation of being Head of the Wing Chun School, the three main organizations of the Wing Chun School immediately held a joint conference. Below: Representatives of the three organizations: (from left): Sifu Pu Chein-hua, Sifu Chao Hung-chun, Sifu Ip Chun, Sifu Toi Shen tin, Sifu Leung Sheun, Sifu P'an Tung, Sifu Wong Cheun Leung, Sifu Wu Ts'an and Grandmaster Ip MAn's second son Sifu Ip Ching.

As a side note, this photo copy from a 1972 article was sent to me, not a very good copy and even worse when scanned, we had the 1987 copy on file. You be the judge--did Leung Ting replace his head with the other fellow or vice-versa.