The saying "Tai Chi covers Northern China while Yong Chun leading the South" fully describes the popularity of Yongchun Quan. Yong Chun Quan is an unusual branch of the martial arts in Southern China. It is Bruce Lee, the contemporary martial artist and actor well known by the West world, who introduces this boxing to the whole world.

 

Yongchun Quan (Wingchun Boxing) originated in Fujian province in China, later spreading south to Guangdong, Macao and Hong Kong. It is just one of a number of styles under the general term, "Nan Quan," the Southern School of Boxing, a vigorous and aggressive school popular south of the Yangtze River.

 

Yongchunquan or the Yongchun boxing is said to have been created by Yan Yongchun of Liancheng County in Fujian Province. It is said that during the reign of Emperor Jiaqing (1796-1820) of the Qing Dynasty, there was a Shaolin boxing master named Yan Si in Quanzhou of Fujian. To escape oppression, he left the city to take refuge with his family, and stayed in seclusion at Liancheng. Yan Si had a daughter called Yan Yongchun. She followed her father to practice martial arts since childhood and later became a Wushu master herself.

 

One day, when Yongchun was washing clothes at a riverside, she noticed a white crane fighting a green snake. She watched the fight carefully for a long time and came to understand their fighting rules. Thereafter, she combined the tangling and hissing of the crane and snake with the movements of the white crane boxing and the southern-style Shaolin boxing, forming the original Yongchun boxing.

 

The features of Yongchun Quan include: steady stances, generation of forces, three tricks with six forces, fists playing close to one's own body, usage of explosive power, stressing on real combat, focusing on completion of movements, combination of offence and defense by forcing up or crushing down the fists or feet from the opposing side. This style of boxing emphasizes speed of play, keeping fists and feet close to one's body for better protection, as well as to prepare for attacks and fighting the opponent at close range. When fighting, Yongchun boxers contain their chest, arch the back, close their elbows and knees, draw in their ribs, and keep their thighs closed to protect the groin. When they use their feet for attack, they must also use their hands in cooperation. When they kick they do not expose their groin and when they deliver fist down, their hands do not leave the front of their body.