History

The history of most martial arts, including Wing Chun, has historically been passed from teacher to student verbally rather than by text, making it difficult to confirm or clarify the differing accounts of Wing Chun's creation, which has long been a subject of debate. Since students are usually more focused on learning the art itself rather than its history, historical fact easily becomes lost as these stories become romanticised and mythologised. Such legends nevertheless shape every practitioner's idea of what the art is and are therefore worth studying in their own right; for example, the traditions of many of its branches maintain that Wing Chun was designed for women and fighters of lighter build in general.

Theories have been proposed that apply the methods of higher criticism to the oral histories of Wing Chun and other Chinese martial arts or discern the origins of Wing Chun by determining the specific purpose of its techniques. Wing Chun starts to appear in independent third-party documentation during the era of the Wing Chun master Leung Jan, making the subsequent history of Wing Chun more amenable to documentary verification.