Is there a "Northern" Wing Chun system?

[sunfist]

In '62 I practiced WC with a guy from China. He told me there is a method he learned from the North, where the entire training is the development of Chi, very much like the methods used in Yiquan. (I-Chi-Li) It took longer to develop in this method but from what I saw of him it was very powerful.
Another thing he told I'll mention in case anyone else has heard a similar thing. He said the real bodyguards to the emperor at the time Shaolin was destroyed were not only Manchu. They were Tibetan and Mongolian Lamas trained in Lions Roar. ( Of course the Chinese dislike this story as they are very nationalistic.) However I have seen Lions Roar twice. (Real LR, not this silly stuff on the internet. There is only, as far as I know, one Tibetan Dzogchen teacher in the US who knows and has taught this system.)
With one of the guys I saw doing LR, We compared it's moves to WC. It made a very strong case for my friend being correct. LR is extremely powerful, but for each of their offensive moves, there was an exact answer in one of the WC blocks or moves. I've always been curious about this concept of WC history, so wondered if anyone on this forum has ever heard a similar story?
Sunfist

[Red Rum]

Interesting...
I have heard of other styles (Tai chi, lau gar, etc) having similar characteristics to wing chun and vice versa.

What you have to remember is that wing chun was one of the newer kung fu forms to come from the shaolin temple and will therefore include many characteristics seen in other styles. It is like seeing elements of ju-jitsu in karate and vice versa.

The whole wing chun story is so undefined that people always argue which story is right. To be honest, I don't really mind as long as it works!!

We will never truly know what training Yip Man received - he may have taken elements of arts trained by students in his class and incoperated them into his wing chun, he may have kept wing chun 'pure' (ie not added any techniques to what he had been taught), we will never know for sure.

In the days of the temple, I am sure there were monks that passed through and caught bits of the various kung fu systems that were being taught at the time

[Bigbadade]

Interesting Subject. THere are three lines of WC the Foshan Style, the Yuen Kay Say and the Hong Kong (Yip Man Style). The foshan style incorporates slower tai chi style moves where as Hong Kong tends to use more speed and directness etc.

This is probably due to the environments of the two countries. When you refer to Northern Style it implies more use of Legs (higher and more kicks etc) so I think maybe there is no derivative of Wing Chun in this. THere are also many other Branches of Wing Chun taught through Family generations and different areas of China. The main thing is that ALL have the same philosophy, ethics and moves they are all slight derivatives of the same system.

[Red Rum]

Yeah. It would appear that Yip Man had a lot of fights etc when he was learning martial arts and through the wing chun wars, and the Yip Man system was probably developed to incorperate more fighting techniques (street fighting etc)

I thought Foshan and Yip Man were the same styles?

I know that there is the whole Benny Meng version of wing chun as well which is often ridiculed (the guy is a bit of a fool)

[Bigbadade]

Yip man had two teachers. Chan Wah Shun from Foshan and Leung Bik who he met whilst he went to study in Hong Kong. The Foshan style is very tai chi like and the forms differ slightly. Again the same thing but slightly different.