Leung Jan's Pin Sun Wing Chun of Gulao Village
Here is some info regarding Pin Sun Wing Chun terminologies to clear up some misconceptions regarding the art. It became apparent on another recent thread that most people in the WC world are misunderstanding scope and concepts of Leung Jan's PSWC. I made some basic corrections on the terms and said I would ask my Sifu Wai-Hun “Henry” Mui for some further clarifications on PSWC terminology. I went back to reply in that thread but it looks like that thread was deleted. So here's a new one, focused on this subject.
First off I'd like to emphasize that while the below terms define Leung Jan's 12 Fists form, people should realize that the PSWC is a SYSTEM and the smaller mini forms in the system could be thought of as 12 stations of development in learning the system. They are not just 12 self defense San Sik but mini-forms that are accompanied by a whole system of material that correlates to the stages of learning the mini-form parts of the form. It is also important to point out that this system is much different than later Gulao/Kulo san sik based point systems (Kulo-22 & Kulo-40). Those were more "public" teachings in Gulao, which really were a collection of the San Sik for village self defense. This Kulo/Gulao village San Sik is what villagers outside the gatekeeper family learned, and what outsiders may have been seen or learned in the village. In the village San Sik format, the material is broken down to basic building blocks and refers to an individual movement(s) such as tan sao for example. This in itself can be a fine system of Wing Chun fighting; just look at what can be done with Western Boxing in a similar training methodology. Therefore, Gulao popularly became known for this San Sik teaching that spread more widely, and people have assumed that this was the entire body of teaching from within Gulao, including Pin Sun Wing Chun. But this is not the case. Pin Sun is a different animal that has a complete system of development including mini forms that make up a single long form, many two-man sets, several different types and ranges of chi sao, a jong set based on the 12 Fists form, a variety of footwork drills and application drills and the long pole. Note that our long pole form is not done in a low side-body stance. Maybe because we teach the side-body stance and footwork as part of the basic curriculum and don’t save it as something to be learned much later when learning the weapons, as is the case in many other WC systems? In addition to the side body stance/footwork that can differentiate PSWC, it is also important to realize in understanding the system, that we PSWC also encompasses facing footwork and techniques in addition to the side body tactics.
Leung Jan's PSWC system was privately kept within the Leung family and then passed to his nephew, Wong Wah Sam. In the stories I’ve heard floating around, Wong Wah Sam is just some village peasant that is practicing martial arts ineffectively that LJ feels sorry for so teaches some WC San Sik. This is false. WWS was actually LJ’s nephew and he was charged with teaching WWS the family WC system. And WWS was most likely Wong Wah Bo’s relative, too, although this part hasn’t been verified by paper document. I’m sure I recall Sifu Mui at one time saying that WWB had asked LJ to teach the system to his relative WWS (according the Fung Chiu). Wong Wah Bo and his family lived in Gulao and were close to the Leung family. In fact Yim Wing Chun had married into the Leung family and lived in the village. She was Leung Jan’s aunt! Gulao village is located amidst a river delta and was very accessible to the Red Boats.
So I recently asked Sifu Henry Mui what he and his Sifu, Fung Chiu referred to PSWC’s system as, and what term they used for the 12 Fist’s of Leung Jan, which is what the Fung family referred to this set. I also asked him what they referred to the individual component forms that make up the LJ12 form, and what role San Sik played in the system’s terminology. Sifu is a fighter at heart and thinks it’s silly that American boys in 2014 get caught up in old Chinese terminology, and he often teaches in his broken English translations without the Chinese terms. I mostly agree with this sentiment, although as I’ve progressed in my learning the system I find it useful to know these terms to get a deeper understanding of the way the system is organized and to teach it. After getting the usual “Doesn’t matter” response and pressing him a bit further on this, Sifu explained LJ12 as “one complete circle” and the component forms as “individual circles” that strung together form the complete circle. The individual circles refer to the 12 parts of the form, and their accompanying material and applications in addition to the mini-form itself, which is typically three to five movements strung together done four times (alternating twice on each arm) when performed as part of the form. This roughly gives us the number 12 within each mini set, which in turn strung together make up the 12 Fists form. Note that the number 12 and three lines of four characters was an alpha-numeric code used by the triads at the time in their secret revolutionary communications.
Sifu Mui said they used the term “Ga Sik” for the 12 component forms, which roughly translates as “form”. He said that they may call them “Da Tong Ga Sik”, or “individual fighting forms”. He said that the 12 Fists of Leung Jan form translated as “Leung Jan Sup Yi Sik”. When I asked him whether they’d ever refer to these forms as “San Sik”, he shook his head no and said that term referred to the single techniques and referred to a different format than the Ga Sik or Leung Jan Sup Yi Sik forms. So there we have it.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Mutant
He was once describing Chi Sau usage and said something along the lines of, "You don't know who is calling if you don't pick up the phone." 
