Book Feature: Leung Jan by Sifu Kendra Mahon

For the seventh book of her Masters of Kung Fu series, Sifu Kendra Mahon, known as Kung Fu Kendra, has chosen a master from her own family tree: Leung Jan, the nineteenth-century physician of Foshan whom the Wing Chun world calls the King of Wing Chun. Leung Jan: The Wing Chun Doctor of Foshan is coming soon to Amazon in Kindle and paperback.

A Doctor at the Root

Known in Foshan as Jan Sin-sang, “Mr. Jan,” a title of respect used for doctors and teachers, Leung Jan ran a medical hall that was both pharmacy and clinic. According to traditional accounts he came from a family involved in medicine and inherited his father’s business; he is remembered as skilled in dit da, the traditional medicine of injuries. Historians, the book notes, have pointed out that his standing as a respected professional may help explain why he taught so quietly and to so few people. Fifty short chapters across five parts follow him from the river towns of the Pearl River Delta to his medical hall, his home village of Gulao, the principles of his art and its spread to the world, with a lesson closing every chapter and a workbook closing every part.

Facts Before Legend

Mahon is direct about how little is documented. Almost everything about Leung Jan comes from oral tradition written down decades after his death. His birth year is given as about 1826, with some sources saying 1821; the name of his hall survives in several forms; lineages disagree on whether Leung Yee-tai or Wong Wah-bo was his main teacher. The famous nickname is treated as a sign of how he was remembered rather than an official title, and stories that he was never defeated are set aside as unconfirmable. A chapter on myths explains that he did not found Wing Chun and could not have taught Ip Man or Bruce Lee, since he died in 1901. “Legends grow because people love their heroes. Correcting a myth does not make a hero smaller.”

The Students Who Carried It

The heart of the book is a small circle: his sons Leung Bik and Leung Chun, the little-known Lee Wah, and Chan Wah-shun, the money changer whose stall, in the best-known telling, stood near the pharmacy. Through Chan Wah-shun and his senior student Ng Chung-so in Foshan, and through Leung Bik in Hong Kong, the art reached Ip Man. In his final years Leung Jan is said to have taught villagers in Gulao a version built from short drills, now known as Gulao or Pin Sun Wing Chun and still kept by teachers there. Writing from the Ip Man line, Mahon gives that branch real respect. “As a teacher in the Ip Man line, I find this fascinating rather than threatening.”

On Screen and in History

Readers who first met Leung Jan through Sammo Hung’s Warriors Two (1978) and The Prodigal Son (1981) will find both films discussed with affection and care. The first has an invented plot but captures the real bond between a money changer and his teacher; the second, with Yuen Biao as a spoiled young Leung Jan, is described as almost entirely fiction, though it draws on real names from tradition. The TVB series Real Kung Fu and Wing Chun get the same treatment. “A story can carry a truth even when its details are invented.”

The result is a portrait of a quiet master: a healer who taught few, went home to his village, and left an art now practised around the world.

About the Author

Sifu Kendra Mahon, known as Kung Fu Kendra, has trained since 2005 and holds Master level (purple sash). She teaches Traditional Wing Chun as it was passed down to her by Master Brian Lewadny, who learned it from Grandmaster William Cheung. She is the author of 13 books and counting, including The Way of Wing Chun and Masters of Kung Fu series, and created the Become a Sifu Wing Chun Online Certification Course. Read what her students say on the Kung Fu Kendra reviews page.

Where to Get It

Leung Jan: The Wing Chun Doctor of Foshan is coming soon to Amazon in Kindle and paperback. Book 1 of the series, Bruce Lee: The Philosopher Behind the Fist, is available now. See all of her books on her Amazon author page and on kungfukendra.com.

Editor’s note: Wing Chun Magazine is published by Sifu Kendra Mahon.