Originally posted by yuanfen
You not only have his personal fighting skills which we know bits and pieces of....but the kind of detailed(teacher's) legacyof the art he left behind with his good students is so formidable that we are still at the phase of discovering things about the art rather than surpassing them. Learning how to learn. Only a little over 50 years of general public exposure to his personal view of the art. We are still linking together the various perspectives of those who knew him. New paradigms don't supplant earlier paradigms very easily.
Hi Yuanfen,
Good solid points as always.
God knows how he acquired his knowledge, but I don't believe it possible that anyone has surpassed Yip Man's knowledge. As for his ability, perhaps a Wing Chun practitioner of greater size and strength could have beaten him in a fight after a comparable amount of training, but we can only conjecture since none of us knows all that Yip Man knew. And, if Gnugear means to question Yip Man's ability as a teacher, as opposed to him as a fighter, wouldn't it follow then that Yip would have universally less qualified followers, so gnugear's question would be answered with a resounding "no."
Regards,
Uber Field Marshall Grendel
Mm Yan Chi Dai---The Cantonese expression Mm Yan Chi Dai, translates to "Misleading other people's children." The idiom is a reference to those teachers who claim an expertise in an art that they do not have and waste the time and treasure of others.
Wing Chun---weaponized Chi (c)