Julian Hitch - Winning not fighting : why you need to rethink success and how you achieve it with the ancient art of Wing Tsun

Wing Tsun Kung Fu is an ancient martial art which contains wisdoms to teach you how to succeed in life: at home, at work, in combat. And it does this by revealing that, ultimately, winning cannot be achieved by fighting.

It is, at its heart, the study of the human condition. It offers an understanding of our own true nature and how we can relate to the world in the healthiest way.

Wing Tsun approaches winning from a completely different perspective from any other martial art. Its objective is to not create conflict and, if conflict arises, to address it with the minimum of force in the fastest time. It provides the skills to prevail against a larger, stronger opponent. And it understands that the toe-to-toe trading of blows cannot succeed.

It does all this because of its specific historical origins.

Wing Tsun is not a combat sport. Unlike boxing or Taekwondo where the objective is to fight within a constrictive set of rules it instead focuses on not fighting. Its purpose is opposite to that of a combat sport.

Some writers have taken sports like tennis and football, and written books that look to apply their principles to life. But Wing Tsun is not an activity to be used as an analogy. It is a thoroughly practical and philosophical approach to life developed over many centuries.

In the next chapter, John is going to explain why war is an unsuitable metaphor for business and life. So it may seem contradictory that we will use a martial art, which contains aspects of combat, as a guide to life. But there is no contradiction here. Wing Tsun is not a metaphor.

Fundamental to the art is the teaching of how to win at life. To avoid fighting, and instead to flourish.

Wing Tsun is not a religion. It does, however, draw on the wisdoms and insights of four Eastern traditions: Taoism, Confucianism, Mahayana Buddhism and Zen.

In simplistic terms, Taoism is a philosophy that teaches harmony with oneself and with nature, and is principally an oral tradition supported by a number of texts including the I Ching and the Tao Te Ching. The I Ching, written around 900 BCE , is a guide to accessing ones unconscious brain, whereas the Tao Te Ching, written by Lao Tzu around 500 BCE, is a fuller guide to Taoist philosophy.

Confucianism was created by Confucius around the same time as the Tao Te Ching was written, and Confucius and Lao Tzu knew of each other. In many ways, however, the two philosophies could not be more different. Whereas Lao Tzu and Taoism encouraged freedom and spontaneity, Confucius promoted a set of rules and hierarchies that aimed to create social harmony through imposed structure.

Buddhism originated in India around the same time as Taoism in China, and Mahayana Buddhism is the form of Buddhism that spread across northern Asia and which celebrates the practical application of the religion in everyday life.

Zen is the product of Taoism and Mahayana Buddhism coming together. Zen teaches that much of what we think is true is, in fact, illusion.

Wing Tsun is a powerful combination of these contrasting philosophies. And, more than that, it applies them to a physical art that has a coherent structure and methodology. All four traditions offer insights we can use in our everyday lives, but only Wing Tsun translates these wisdoms into practical actions, as we shall see.

Wing Tsuns roots can be found in northern China, where in 495 CE the Shaolin Temple was founded on the sacred Songshan Mountain. One of the ancient centres of Buddhism, the temple was located far from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. However, this was a time of constant warfare, and the secluded location left the monks open to bandit attacks. Worldly dangers were very real to the founders of the Shaolin.

In 520 CE the Indian mystic Bodhidharma, an expert in combat and the founder of Zen Buddhism, arrived at the temple to help spread its teachings. Recognizing the link between physical and spiritual well-being, he set about training the monks in physical exercises to strengthen the body, mind and spirit and, crucially, to enable them to protect themselves against attackers.

And so they became the first community of combat monks, who used the medium of their physical training to achieve spiritual enlightenment. The martial aspect provided structure and discipline, and the art brought freedom and creativity.

From that point onwards, the Shaolin Temple quickly became a rare beacon of acceptance and community, with people of different sexes, races, classes and faiths all mingling together in one complex. So potent was its teaching that, by the seventeenth century, four further such temples had been founded across China. Wing Tsun emerged from the southernmost of these temples, in Fujian Province.

However, in 1644, the Ming dynasty was overcome by the incoming Qing dynasty. The Qing armies pushed into the south of China and searching for Changping, the last princess of the Ming dynasty destroyed the Fujian temple. Thanks to the bravery and sacrifice of every other monk, five top masters escaped Changping among them. And through them, the teachings of the temple survived, put together in an art.

Three women stand at the heart of the development of Wing Tsun, among them Princess Changping, who became known in the Shaolin Temple as the formidable nun Ng Mui. This female influence created a special balance and perspective which allowed Wing Tsun to be powerfully different from all other martial arts. And, through these women, Wing Tsun was passed on. Indeed, the art was named after Ng Muis first student, a young woman called Wing Tsun, which means beautiful springtime.

From 1644 on, Wing Tsun was taught in secret to protect the five masters and their disciples from the Qing dynastys wrath. And for centuries this secrecy became almost integral to the art. It wasnt until the 1940s and Grandmaster Yip Man (now famous for being the teacher of Bruce Lee) that it became available to the wider public.

To understand the depth of Wing Tsuns teaching and its wisdom, it is perhaps helpful to put it into a wider perspective. Most other martial arts are surprisingly modern, and they were all created by men: Karate (which also originally came from the Shaolin Temple) was created in the 1880s, as was Judo (1882); Aikido was born in the 1920s, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in 1925, Krav Maga in 1948 and Taekwondo in 1956.

Wing Tsuns feminine influence created a vastly different approach to conflict. Recent studies have shown that having women involved in government increases the likelihood of peace indeed, just a 5 per cent increase in the presence of women in representative government results in a five-times reduction of the likelihood of war. Similarly, negotiations and peace talks that involve women are 35 per cent more likely to have a lasting result. Women peacemakers have famously had an impact in Burundi, Rwanda, Sudan, Liberia, South Africa, Northern Ireland and Colombia.

In the modern world, Wing Tsun takes this natural wisdom to its zenith and provides a much-needed counterbalance to the male-dominated and commonly accepted attitude to force.

To make this possible, the Wing Tsun masters created a simple but particular definition of winning. Its a combination of three elements, all of which are needed for us to live a truly contented life:

1. Enjoying the present
2. Achieving longevity
3. Being yourself

These are guiding principles rather than rules that you must follow. For winning is not about comparing yourself to or competing with others. It is personal. Wing Tsun has always been interested in the empowerment of the individual, and these wisdoms will allow you to live the life that