Snake Crane Wing Chun Mun discipline rules:

     Conducting righteousness and loyalty is worth to honor  永行忠義堪歌詠

     Keeping one's word is more aspired than spring flower  言出九鼎志更春

According to the oral history of Snake Crane Wing Chun, this couplet plaques were erected in the South Shaolin Wing Chun Hall, and Snake Crane Wing Chun was created in this hall. By means of short bridge narrow stance to deal with the long bride big stance traitor, Ma Ling Yee, who bribed by Qing Government and burning the Southern Shaolin Temple. The term “Wing Chun” is a combination of the last characters of this couplet. Since most Wing Chun techniques have the shapes of snakes and cranes, it is called Snake Crane Wing Chun.

Zangwei couplet (藏尾聯)

Zangwei couplet(藏尾聯) is a kind of poetry, which refers to those who assign certain content to be expressed to the last word of each poem in turn, and each sentence must be coherent from context to context. The above Snake Crane Wing Chun Mun discipline rules is a pair of Zangwei couplet.

Honoring Spring flower(Wing Chun flower)

In addition to the natural scenery of mountains and rivers, most ancient literati also had a special liking for flower, especially spring flowers and often honor them in poem, so they were called “Wing Chun flowers(praising spring flower) “.

According to textual research, the fire of the South Shaolin, that is, the burning of the Qionghua Guild Hall（矎花會館）and the Red Boat in 1855, related to the Red Boat Tai Ping Heavenly Kingdom Uprising of Lee Man Mau, a martial artist of the Red Boat, and the establishment of the “Dacheng Kingdom” in Guangxi in 1855. And the last statement of the Snake Crane Wing Chun Lim Tau Song, “Snake Crane Fist is able to overcome the Southern Shaolin traitor”, refers to splitting a set of Snake Crane Fist into three sets of form with the concept of short bridge narrow stance to deal with long bridge big stance. It is also, after the fire of Qionghua Guild Hall（矎花會館）, to create Snake Crane Wing Chun to deal with traitors in the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, the term “Wing Chun” should appear after 1855.

Wing Chun meaning

Wing詠 means to praise, while Chun春 refers to Spring flower, （矎花, Viburnum macrocephalum f. keteleeri) which refers to Qionghua Guild Hall（矎花會館）. Therefore, Wing Chun means to honor the Qionghua Guild Hall after the fire. This Zangwei couplet is indeed an expression of “Wing Chun”.

念頭歌

Nim Tau Song

1) 白鶴戲水蛇歸洞

White crane plays around with water, and the snake returns to the cave.

2) 飛麟九轉表掌通

Flying snake rotates the head in nine ways to represent the palm techniques

3) 蛇鶴爭揮堵勁融

Snake and crane show off their best techniques and strength.

4) 鶴足三提翼四功

Crane feet step three times and the crane’s wing flips in four ways.

5) 白鶴摺翼登天際

White crane folds the wings and flies to the sky.

6) 蛇鶴能制逆宗童

Snake Crane Fist is able to overcome the Southern Shaolin traitor.