Read my post in the introduction section, ShortBridge. I'm real, not a troll.
This John guy, ha, is this just an inside joke? Seems so.
Noone's ventured an answer to one or my original questions. Easy to miss a question embedded further down I suppose. Do shorter guys have an advantage in speed?
Didn't mean to suggest or imply that you were a troll. Never occurred to me, actually. Just trying to understand your perspective so that I could better dialogue with you.
I think "John" is a joke, but it wasn't my comment, so I won't say for sure.
I did answer your question. Chinese history is largely folk history, especially where Martial Arts is concerned. We don't know what I would like to and I don't think that it is entirely knowable. The various lineages all have their (our) own folk histories that put our Si Gung's at the top of that exclusive list and it gets argued and debated ad nauseam (which I won't contribute to). It doesn't lead anywhere and never gets resolved and it's all but destroyed any cohesive Wing Chun community. People are just arguing their bias and for the legend that they were taught.
It's much worse, for us Wing Chun guys, when you start bringing people in who were not actually Wing Chun practitioners. Because of Bruce Lee, who was a gifted individual, but an intermediate Wing Chun student at best (and not a Wing Chun sifu), everyone associated with or who is a fan of Bruce Lee has their followers arguing for them as well. It's a rat hole.
There are a few credible people who have actually put the time into the research to sort of answer the question that you originally asked, but even their conclusions are points of contention. I am not one of those people, but I recommend the book "Complete Wing Chun", but Rene Ritchie, Robert Chu, and Y. Wu as a source of some of that type of research. I'm not endorsing their conclusions, necessarily, my position is as originally stated "I really don't think it's possible to know."
Focus on training, understanding, and applying Wing Chun as long as it holds your interest and supports your goals.
