What is Vĩnh-Xuân Quyền?

"We learn to live with the nature and not to against it" - Master NGÔ Sĩ-Quý

Vĩnh-Xuân Quyền is the name of the Chinese Martial Arts Wing-Chun Kuen, written in Vietnamese (widely called "forever spring" by Vietnamese practitioners). It is a Southern Chinese Martial Arts, one of the branches of the generic term Kung-Fu originated in the Temple of Shaolin which was built in 19th calendar year (495) by the Emperor Wei Xiao Wen (471-500).

Vĩnh-Xuân is a direct, scientific and clinical style of fighting, in which the attacker is quickly overwhelmed by speed and power. Being a martial arts, the fighting aspect is only one part of the whole system, and emphasis is also placed on physical and mental relaxation and health. The relaxation can benefit the practitioners every day in our stressful society.

Philosophy

We learn to react in harmony to environment challenges, in respect of human.

From the beginning, Vĩnh-Xuân has been constructed strictly based on the principles:

observe: acquiring the challenge. Vĩnh-Xuân perfects its techniques of sticking hands and also other body parts to capture information.
analyse: processing the challenge, comparing it with current knowledge, proposing a set of solutions.
response: selecting the best known solution.

It is so interesting that this model has still been valid in today technologies.

Finally, a man in fight must like a willow tree in storm: flexible, rigid and brave.

History

"The wise man exploits his intelligence, while the other only counts on his physique" - Master NGÔ Sĩ-Quý

Vĩnh-Xuân which is originated from Shaolin, was founded at the end of the 18th century, during the Qing period (1644-1911). Around 1732, many Shaolin monks cooperated with Revolution rebel groups, aiming to unify together and training martial arts in order to carry out their goal of "over throwing the Qing, restoring the Ming dynasty". Therefore the Qing dynasty decided to eliminate the Shaolin temple, almost all the Shaolin monks were massacred during this destruction. Five great masters of Shaolin: Jee Shim Sim-Si, Fung Do-Dak, Miu Hin, Bak Mui and Ng Mui-Si Tai escaped in promising to continue their rebel activities. This important event contributed to spread the Shaolin kung-fu through China.

Ng Mui refuged in the White Crane temple on the Daliangshan mountain and trained martial arts. One day, she incidentally witnessed a fight between a snake and a crane, their fighting techniques did inspire her. Afterwards she invented a new training method, this was a combination of her kung-fu knowledge and the animal fight she observed. After that she met Yim Yee (a tofu maker, Shaolin disciple and he also fled away) and his daughter, Yim Wing-Chun. Ng Mui learned her new style to Yim Wing-Chun and named this kung-fu Wing-Chun. Later on Wing-Chun married Leung Bok-Cho (a salt merchant) and taught him the kungfu. Leung Bok-Cho taught his students Wing-Chun, who worked on the Red Boat Opera. Among them were Wong Wa-Bo, Leung Yee-Tai, Dai Fa Min-Kam. Jee Shim Sim-Si incidentally had also hid in the opera and taught them his kung-fu style. Therefore, the styles of Ng Mui and Jee Shim Sim-Si were merged together to form the current Wing Chun techniques. Dai Fa Min-Kam got some students, among them were Fok Bo-Chuen and Fung Siu-Ching. These last masters played an important role in initiating the martial arts career of Yuen brothers (Yuen Chai-Wan, Yuen Kay-San who were the fourth and fifth sons respectively, of a rich firework family in Canton). Few years later, the brothers were sent to the Temple of Diamond where they spent seven years to finish their formation in the temple. Later on, they joined Chinese Amy to against Japanese occupation.

In 1936, Yuen Chai-Wan (known as Nguyễn Tế-Công in Vietnamese) refuged in Hanoi, Vietnam and worked as bodyguard for a Chinese family whose the son Cẩm Thúc-Cường became the first student in Vietnam. Nguyễn Tế-Công noticed some specific features of Vietnamese martial arts and he conducted researches in the area and combined certain techniques of Qi-Qong. Ngô Sĩ-Quý was a friend of Cẩm Thúc-Cường who admired Quy's violin talent. Afterwards, Cẩm Thúc-Cường introduced Ngô Sĩ-Quý to the master Nguyễn Tế-Công and the master discovered that Quý had exceptional potentials for the kung-fu. From that day, Nguyễn Tế-Công taught Cường and Quý Vĩnh-Xuân, both of them were about 17 years old. At that time, Ngô Sĩ-Quý knew that the kung-fu is Chinese and he just discovered its name Vĩnh-Xuân many years later, in a China Kung-fu Congress. Quý continuously developed his martial arts knowledge in integrating it with the modern biology knowledge and his students have loyally continued his career in Vietnam, Italy, France, Israel, Russia, etc. Nguyễn Tế-Công died later in Saigon in 1960 and Ngô Sĩ-Quý did in Cầu-Giấy, Hanoi in 1997. Among a number of students of Nguyễn Tế-Công, there were also Vũ Bá-Quý, Trần Văn-Phùng, Trần Thúc-Tiển, Hồ Hải-Long, Lục Viễn-Khai, etc. All of them already passed away today. Nguyễn Tế-Công got one son and one daughter who live in Saigon (today known as Ho-Chi-Minh city), but both of them probably did not follow his martial arts career. We do not have any information about Cẩm Thúc-Cường, someone said that he moved to Canada.

There are more and more articles written by different Wing-Chun guys. Please follow this links to read more
We try to collect few information of Vĩnh-Xuân masters here

In memory of master NGÔ Sĩ-Quý.
This page is updated by Vĩnh-Xuân Admin, on June 3rd, 2008.
Email: vinhxuan.admin@gmail.com

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