What happened at the Southern Shaolin Temple?

A temple fire, five people who escaped, a nun who taught a young woman, and a woman who learned from a crane. Legends, told by the masters themselves.

Many kung fu clubs tell a story that begins with smoke on a hillside in the south of China. Here it is, and here is who tells it. ⁵

Smoke rising from a hillside temple at night while five robed figures walk away along a path, in legend style.

What historians say

Historians say there is little, if any, written evidence for it. Even the date of the fire changes: 1647, 1732, or the middle of the 1800s. Three places in Fujian say they were the southern temple, and none can prove it. ⁵

Ip Man's story

The great Wing Chun teacher Ip Man wrote down his own version. In his story the fire was far to the north, at the Shaolin Temple on Mount Song, in the time of the Kangxi emperor, between 1662 and 1722, and a Buddhist nun called Ng Mui escaped. ¹⁰³

An older nun watching a young woman practise a hand position in a temple courtyard, in legend style.

Other schools tell it differently. The Hong Kong Wing Tsun Association UK says Ng Mui began the style after watching a crane fight a snake. ¹⁰⁸ Some Wing Chun families tell completely different stories, and nobody knows the true beginning. ⁶

A crane with spread wings facing a raised snake on a riverbank while a nun watches, in legend style.

A tiger and a crane

A man in a tiger claw stance and a woman in a crane stance, with a tiger and crane in the mist behind, in legend style.

The woman and the crane

A woman with a long stick and a white crane brushing it aside with its wing, in legend style.

There are many versions of her story, and in some it is a dream. Her father, Fang Zhong, is said to have lived in Fujian between 1644 and 1662, and a family hall in Yongchun still honours her and her husband. ¹⁰

Legends are told with love, but they are not records. The next chapter is about two southern masters whose lives were written down.

Written from checked sources, listed on the sources page. Pictures are drawn, with computer help, under our direction; none shows a real child. Recorded chapters and words are read by a computer voice; a word not yet recorded uses your device's own voice.