The Wing Chun kuen kuit: “Gay do sifu chue jing tong” means : “how many sifu pass down the true art?” It is an interesting one for this reason: everyone learning a martial art under the rubric “Wing Chun” believes they have a sifu who is passing down the true art. They believe their lineage is legitimate and in many cases that others are not. A few are right. Yet there is so much variety in the Wing Chun world as to not only what passes for Wing Chun but also very much as to the quality of it all that not all can possibly be passing down the true art!
Some diplomats of the Wing Chun world might argue that the variety - which involves considerable contradictions and importing of foreign material or devising of pseudo-techniques as well - is simply a manifestation of the fact that Wing Chun is a conceptual rather than a technical art. This is such utter nonsense! Of course Wing Chun is based on principles - not concepts, the concepts are secondary to the principles - but this doesn’t negate the simple fact that there are optimal technical ways of operationalising the art which have been passed down to some and been very much bastardised along the way for others! This “conceptual art” thinking allows any and everyone to do everything and anything and argue it fits under the “concepts”.
Some sifu may well actually possess the true art. I believe after decades of extensive Wing Chun exposure that they’re a rare few. However, even amongst this group - or perhaps I ought say it really is especially amongst this group - the prospective student has to ascertain that the sifu will actually teach them fully. A number of sifu, regardless of passing down the true art or not, will unreasonably and indefensibly extend the period of teaching their students to extract more money from them. Some will demand too much payment and if the student is unable to pay will restrict their teaching. Others will only teach those they like - apparently on some whim.
Where does that leave us? Well, in a real mess, actually. Passing down the true art, entails having first received the true art. Leaving that not inconsiderably significant factor aside we can expand on what is entailed in the true art. The true art entails understanding and incorporating the full set of Wing Chun principles into all we do when we use our art. Not a “core” set of principles, not a reduced or minimalised set of principles but all the principles. It entails understanding and incorporating the full set of Wing Chun concepts, including the theory of the art. It entails understanding and utilising concepts as they apply in a specific context. It entails understanding and incorporating the full set of Wing Chun techniques not a “core” set of techniques, not a reduced or minimalised set of techniques but all the techniques. (Not those imported from other arts - an example here is the roundhouse kick. It is not that “some branches of Wing chun have roundhouse kicks”, it is that there is no roundhouse kick in the true art. Those that do it have imported it!). Passing down the true art also entails the full set of applications of the full set of concepts and techniques. Not simply the “standard” common material but the full range of applications. In order to ensure that the true art is passed down it’s also important that Wing Chun students understand, once they acquire the full, true art, how to pass it down themselves. The implication in the kuen kuit, “gay do sifu chue jing tong” - “how many sifu pass down the true art?” is obviously that it is rare. So I’m not the only one to think this is the case. Certainly bears thinking about!