The Chinese Warrior Nun

In 17th Century China for 250 years the unrivaled Ming Dynasty had ruled over 200 million people. They had built the Forbidden City in the Palace which was the home of the Emperor and the seat of government and built the Great Wall of China.  From one of the powerful families and a general was born a baby girl, Ng Mui.  She learned the things girls of her station learned such as the tea ceremony, horse riding, sword fighting, archery, and self-defense fighting.

In 1644 when she was eighteen it will save her life.  There was a Little Ice Age where the crops froze and there was a famine within China.  As the people were starving, the Manchu people of the north of China, their enemy, takes advantage and comes to attack.  They exploit a commander into letting them through the wall and begin sacking and slaughtering villages killing soldiers and villagers alike.  Ng Mai escapes but her whole family dies.  The Emperor dies and the Manchu takes over.  The Manchu were viewed by China to be barbarians and they would put a yoke over the superior Chinese.

She heads south where the rebellion is.  She realizes that she must learn to fight someone bigger, stronger, and faster than herself.  She has an ah-ha moment when she watches nature.  She studies the lethal fight between a crane and a snake, a tiger and a deer, and watches a praying mantis pounce. She mimics these movements.  She travels covertly beating up bullies along the way.

She seeks sanctuary at a monastery stronghold for Shoulin warrior monks. They allow her to secretly train with them. She is taught that the best line of defense is an immediate and forceful counterattack.  Sustained rapid counter-attacks rather than big powerful movements can beat any opponent.  "It's not about fighting. It's about winning," says Si Fu Julian Hith a modern-day practitioner of the martial art.  By beating her mentor Lee Pasun she advanced to become one of the Masters.

Now the Manchu had come to take out the monks who had been training the Manchu army.  The monks are ready to fight to the death to protect the monastery.  That night the monastery is set on fire and while they are dealing with the fire, the Manchu enter the building and begin their attack.  The survival of the five Masters is all that matters now.  So the monks form a line and allow the Masters and a few monks to escape with them.  Ng Mui notices that her former mentor Lee Pasun was one of the traitors receiving money for his treachery.  Ma Ning Yee, however, was the main man behind everything.  She vows to get revenge on Lee Pasun.

Ng Mui goes to the Masters and hones her skills at her new marshall arts form and hones her ability to precision attacks to highly valuable targets. Eyes, nose, ears, throat, temple, and spine are the main targets.  That is when Wing Chun is born.  She trains one young woman Yim Wing Chun who it is named after to do this and leaves to fight a duel with Lee Pasun.  They fight on top of poles and sharpened sticks.  Ng Mui beats Lee Pasun and kills him.  Then she goes back to Yim Wing Chun and continues her training.  Yim will teach her husband who will teach someone in the family who will teach someone in the family, etc...  It will remain a secret until the 1940s when it is brought to Hong Kong.  The Manchu will remain in power for centuries but eventually will be driven out of China.  Famous people who practice Wing Chun are Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.  Actor Stephen Amell on The Arrow uses Wing Chun in his fighting style and when he works out on his Muk Yan Jong (workout dummy).  All of this brought about by a young woman wanting to fight against the enemy that had taken over her country in the only way she knew how.  Ng Mui, the warrior nun who fought the Manchu.