Leung Ting: The Wing Tsun King's Lies about Yip Man

An Old Article

The finding of an old Article whose date isn't specified (but should be dating from 1972 to 1973), puts light onto Leung Ting and his relationship with Yip Man and his School's Elders.

In order to help you out with understanding the article well, keep in mind the following translations:
Yeh Wen = Yip Man
Liang Ting = Leung Ting
Huang Ch'un-Liang = Wong Shun Leung

We will now break down the original article without changing the form or content. Instead, we will guide you toward understanding this long writing.

Context: Martial Virtue and Seniority

The tradition of Chinese Kung Fu attaches the 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 in 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 been considered important in the difference in seniority.

Generations do matter - a Lot

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 arts man 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. (By the way, seniority is also clearly distinguished in martial arts circles in other countries. Take karate, for example, a learner of the white belt is not allowed to identify himself as of the black belt.)

The Leung Ting Scandal

A scandal recently broke cover when Sifu Leung Ting of the WingTsun 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 the 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.

After his death, Ip Man's many achieved disciples like Sifu Leung Sheung, Sifu Lok Yiu, Sifu Wong Shun Leung, Sifu Toi Shan Tin, and the internationally renowned Bruce Lee, 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, and neither had anyone moted the election of a head.

Press Conference to clear Things up

That Leung Ting should claim himself as Head of the Wing Chun School made the 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", "Ving Tsun 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 as 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 practice that has gone on for a 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.

Wong Shun Leung: "It's not the first time Leung Ting lies..."

During the session, Sifu Wong Shun Leung pointed out: Leung Ting did not begin to claim himself as head of the school now. In fact, even before Grandmaster Ip Man passed away, he already identified himself as the future head of the school to a reporter for a foreign martial arts magazine.

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, he self-styled "Chief Instructor of the Wing Chun School", and "Grandmaster Ip Man's youngest disciple". He even blatantly printed the words "8th Dan Black Belt of Wing Chun on his visiting cards".

Sifu Wong Shun Leung went on to point out: "The Wing Chun School" is a Chinese kung fu school. It has no black belt and white belt at all, and neither is its practice to divide disciples into dans or ranks!

Leung Ting has persistently falsified, claiming himself the "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 dared 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.

Leung Ting Lies about his Generation

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 said that if Leung Ting was not Ip Man's pupil, he was at least Sifu Leung Sheun'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 Sihing of the Wing Chun School Leung Sheung said at the press conference: "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 Four Wing Chun Exponents

The four most highly-achieved exponents of the Wing Chun School at Present are Sifu Leung Sheung, Sifu Luk Yiu, Sifu Wong Shun Leung, and Sifu Toi Shan Tien. They have all been given an in-depth teaching of true learning 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.

The Forgotten Wing Chun Master - Yip Man's Best Student

Sifu Toi Shang Tin, meanwhile, is an expert in traditional Chinese surgery. Sifu Wong Shun 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.

Members of the Wing Chun School asked: "What right is a disciple of the third generation to pretend to be the head of the school?"