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Ip Man - Portrait of a Kung Fu Master
A Master s gift to the world is his life. By seeing his life or at least by seeing the portrait of his life as painted in the stories of those who knew him, a Master s life becomes a sketch of a path to Mastery.
From stories shared by his son, this book paints a portrait of the famous Wing Chun Grand Master, Ip Man, providing a set of fifteen principles as a guide to mastery. While there are broad lessons to be learned from this portrait, the details must be savored. Many of the great figures of history are shrouded in the mists of aggrandizement, but here the details, the fine strokes of the portrait, have remained to show the humble seeker something about the life of a Master.
Each chapter provides a principle or set of principles to contemplate. You will be richly rewarded if you seek to discern the principles and the man who strove to embody them.
These stories and the principles drawn from them are commended to you for your benefit and learning and enjoyment. Let them guide you in your journey, but do not look for them to tell you every step. In this portrait are great treasures for the taking but not simply for the asking.
116 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 25, 2015
Ip Man led an interesting life. The master of Wing Chun Kung Fu lived through tumultuous times that included the Boxer Rebellion, the Sino-Japanese War, and China's Communist revolution. After the Japanese occupation he served for a time as a police chief. Coming from a wealthy family, he experienced a riches to rags fall when the Communists took over. He had to move from his home in Foshan to Hong Kong. His use of kung fu was not restricted to the training hall, but, rather, included a few real world altercations. A couple films have been made(loosely) about his life.
All that being said, this book doesn't do a great job of capturing the life of this intriguing man. To be fair, the book isn't really a biography proper--though the title might lead one to believe it was. However, it's not entirely clear what the book is. Its fifteen chapters are each built around a principle and use vignettes from Ip Man's life to illustrate how the Grandmaster lived virtuously. This makes the book seem more like treatise on martial arts philosophy and/or strategy. However, some chapters do a better job of making clear what the actual principle is and how the events of Ip Man's life exemplify them than do others. In some parts it does a great job but in others it's only lackluster.
There are some fascinating stories about the man's life in the book, but they are generally told in a lifeless manner. In part this may be done on purpose as we are told that Ip Man eschewed embellishment and favored humility, but it makes the reading experience less than gripping. It's also probably that some of the details were lost when Ip Man died in 1972. This lack of detail leaves one at times wondering. Throughout most of the book we get a picture of Ip Man as a virtuous warrior. However, there is one vignette in which we read about the Grandmaster picking a fight with a man by taunting him with humiliating insults about the man's appearance. Ip Man does this to teach his student a lesson in courage. His lesson notwithstanding, this behavior paints Ip Man as anything but virtuous--rather than a humble martial arts master he becomes a pathetic bully. The author, Ip Man's son Ip Ching, suggests that this might have been a setup for the student's benefit, but with the prior assent of the bullied man. At any rate, there was no fight because the bullied man backed down--whether because it was staged or out of genuine fear remains unknown.
For some readers the most surprising omission will involve a lack of any mention of the man who was far and away Ip Man's most famous student, namely Bruce Lee. There may be a number of reasons for this omission, including a desire to prevent the teacher's story from being overshadowed by his student's fame. However, most readers would probably like some inkling of how the ill-fated superstar came to train with Ip Man and what he learned from him. In fact, the only reference to the entertainment aspect of kung fu is a picture caption that shows Shek Kin, the villain "Mr. Han" from Enter the Dragon, at Ip Man's funeral.
I would recommend this book only for those that have a particular interest in martial arts. It does offer tidbits of interesting events from Ip Man's life as well as a few great life lessons. It benefits from being a concise book, and thus is not a major time investment to read. However, I don't know that--short as it is--it would hold the interest of the general reader. Hopefully, someone will take on a more extensive English-language biography of this fascinating man's life while there are some key people still alive to be interviewed about his life story.
All that being said, this book doesn't do a great job of capturing the life of this intriguing man. To be fair, the book isn't really a biography proper--though the title might lead one to believe it was. However, it's not entirely clear what the book is. Its fifteen chapters are each built around a principle and use vignettes from Ip Man's life to illustrate how the Grandmaster lived virtuously. This makes the book seem more like treatise on martial arts philosophy and/or strategy. However, some chapters do a better job of making clear what the actual principle is and how the events of Ip Man's life exemplify them than do others. In some parts it does a great job but in others it's only lackluster.
There are some fascinating stories about the man's life in the book, but they are generally told in a lifeless manner. In part this may be done on purpose as we are told that Ip Man eschewed embellishment and favored humility, but it makes the reading experience less than gripping. It's also probably that some of the details were lost when Ip Man died in 1972. This lack of detail leaves one at times wondering. Throughout most of the book we get a picture of Ip Man as a virtuous warrior. However, there is one vignette in which we read about the Grandmaster picking a fight with a man by taunting him with humiliating insults about the man's appearance. Ip Man does this to teach his student a lesson in courage. His lesson notwithstanding, this behavior paints Ip Man as anything but virtuous--rather than a humble martial arts master he becomes a pathetic bully. The author, Ip Man's son Ip Ching, suggests that this might have been a setup for the student's benefit, but with the prior assent of the bullied man. At any rate, there was no fight because the bullied man backed down--whether because it was staged or out of genuine fear remains unknown.
For some readers the most surprising omission will involve a lack of any mention of the man who was far and away Ip Man's most famous student, namely Bruce Lee. There may be a number of reasons for this omission, including a desire to prevent the teacher's story from being overshadowed by his student's fame. However, most readers would probably like some inkling of how the ill-fated superstar came to train with Ip Man and what he learned from him. In fact, the only reference to the entertainment aspect of kung fu is a picture caption that shows Shek Kin, the villain "Mr. Han" from Enter the Dragon, at Ip Man's funeral.
I would recommend this book only for those that have a particular interest in martial arts. It does offer tidbits of interesting events from Ip Man's life as well as a few great life lessons. It benefits from being a concise book, and thus is not a major time investment to read. However, I don't know that--short as it is--it would hold the interest of the general reader. Hopefully, someone will take on a more extensive English-language biography of this fascinating man's life while there are some key people still alive to be interviewed about his life story.
December 14, 2013
This was a Christmas present given to me by a student in 2010. The book is extremely good as a photo book. There are some excellent photos here of the modern Wing Chun Master.
I think very few people deserve the title 'Master', but Ip Man was one of them. The films, Ip Man, Ip Man 2, and a Legend is Born: Ip Man, were all good films.. Even if some artistic license was taken with the movies, I echo the point others made that maybe you could learn more from the films than this book.
I would love to give it a higher rating than three stars, but if Ip Ching was heavily involved in this book, surely it would have been longer?
As I say, it gets a strong three stars for the photos and the stories about Ip Man, which give you a strong sense of what the man was about. It's just a bit too short. The cynic in me says it was brought out to capitalise on the success of the movies, but I would hope that Ip Man himself would be broadly pleased with the book's content.
Is it a must buy? For martial artists, I would say yes, although the Amazon cost is a little high. For everyone else, maybe not. The content will be enjoyable, but like a chocolate eclair, it is great while it lasts, but so full of air, you devour it too quickly. A follow up would be greatly welcomed, but if there are to be no more *quality* Ip Man movies, I doubt we will see such a book.
As martial artists, we should respect Ip Man by doing our style of martial arts to the very best level that we can.
I think very few people deserve the title 'Master', but Ip Man was one of them. The films, Ip Man, Ip Man 2, and a Legend is Born: Ip Man, were all good films.. Even if some artistic license was taken with the movies, I echo the point others made that maybe you could learn more from the films than this book.
I would love to give it a higher rating than three stars, but if Ip Ching was heavily involved in this book, surely it would have been longer?
As I say, it gets a strong three stars for the photos and the stories about Ip Man, which give you a strong sense of what the man was about. It's just a bit too short. The cynic in me says it was brought out to capitalise on the success of the movies, but I would hope that Ip Man himself would be broadly pleased with the book's content.
Is it a must buy? For martial artists, I would say yes, although the Amazon cost is a little high. For everyone else, maybe not. The content will be enjoyable, but like a chocolate eclair, it is great while it lasts, but so full of air, you devour it too quickly. A follow up would be greatly welcomed, but if there are to be no more *quality* Ip Man movies, I doubt we will see such a book.
As martial artists, we should respect Ip Man by doing our style of martial arts to the very best level that we can.
July 26, 2020
Ip Man was born to Yip Oi-dor and Wu Shui, as the third of four children. He grew up in a wealthy family in Foshan, Guangdong, and received traditional Chinese education, alongside his elder brother Yip Kai-gak, his elder sister Yip Wan-Mei, and younger sister Yip Wan-Hum.
Ip started learning Wing Chun from Chan Wah-shun when he was 12. Chan was 64 at the time, and Ip became Chan's last student. Due to his teacher's age, Ip learned most of his skills and techniques from Chan's second eldest disciple, Wu Chung-Sok (吳仲素). Chan only lived for three more years after Ip's training started, and one of his dying wishes was to have Wu continue teaching Ip.
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Ip started learning Wing Chun from Chan Wah-shun when he was 12. Chan was 64 at the time, and Ip became Chan's last student. Due to his teacher's age, Ip learned most of his skills and techniques from Chan's second eldest disciple, Wu Chung-Sok (吳仲素). Chan only lived for three more years after Ip's training started, and one of his dying wishes was to have Wu continue teaching Ip.
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August 17, 2019
For a martial artist myself this is a great book for fans of Bruce Lee as he taught him had this gifted to me by my instructor such a great gift re-read it a few times.
February 19, 2020
good book
July 18, 2021
Consists of a series of anecdotes and is pretty thin on details from Grandmaster Ip Man's life. The pictures are pretty cool though, I guess.
February 23, 2023
With all the many films on the life of Ip Man being largely fabricated or over the top representation of events, I wanted to have an idea of what his life really looked like. This short book by Ip Man's son, Ip Ching, touched on his real life events and leaves you with an impression of what Ip Man represented to so many. As a Wing Chun practitioner from Ip Man's lineage, I felt it behooved me to acquaint myself with this short biography.
November 8, 2015
The book is good in terms of giving a quick insight into the life of Ip Man and the sort of person he was. But I felt that the book was tainted by (perhaps unintentional) self-praising as the book was centered around the author, Ip Ching--also a wing chun practitioner, one of Ip Man's sons. He didn't mention, for example, names of those very good students of Ip Man. He talked about the five highly chosen students but no names were dropped, which I found a bit odd, considering he had dropped names of a few other students. He only mentioned that one of these great students continued to learn the most advanced part of wing chun from the grandmaster's son, after Ip Man passed away. I felt that if the book focuses more on Grandmaster Ip Man and all of his good virtue (less on the author), the book would uphold to the higher standard and would be in line with all the wisdom of Chinese philosophy that's been presented since the start of the chapter.
May 13, 2008
A nice, simple window into the life of Ip Man. This book is written in very plain English which also seems a bit child-like but you can still catch small pieces of the man between the stories. Also, it seemed like the author was writing this specifically towards someone to solidify his opinions, which takes away from what I was hoping was more about Ip Man. Still worth the time if you practice Ving Tsun.
Z
Z
April 4, 2013
I thought this book was going to be a more indepth historical look at Ip Man and his influence on Kung Fu. Instead it is a strange mix of "kung fu lessons" with ancedotes of Ip Man's life and teachings. I found it interested but I wanted more history about the man himself and was left with little. I feel I gained more understanding from watching the two films loosly based on his life, Ip Man and Ip Man 2
January 7, 2014
Simplicity at its best only if you know who is ip man.Though the book does not talk about in-depth information of wing chun and IP man but small life lessons on wing chun and Chinese philosophy is beautifully expressed. It is probably the only book on ip man I know please suggest me other books if there are any.
April 3, 2015
Many know the famous Ip man as the master of Bruce Lee, but this book is written to show more. Before known as the teacher of the greatest martial artist of all time, he was the greatest martial artist. Not only does this book tell the relationship of Ip Man and Bruce Lee, but tells the fighting legacy of the honorable Ip Man.
November 15, 2016
Ip Man was a gifted man in the art of Wing Chun Kung Fu. He lived a very interesting life with a lot of ups and downs, moving back and forth between Foshan and Hong Kong. I would suggest this book to anyone with an appreciation for martial arts. Ip Man was a good man and a great role model for anyone.
July 2, 2008
i hoped to find much more about Ip man, when his son is writing the book.
I didn't noticed any word which make a difference between Ip man and an ordinary good man!!
The writer is a Wing Chun Grand master, so he could look at Ip man's life using Wing Chun point of view...
i didn't satisfied...
I didn't noticed any word which make a difference between Ip man and an ordinary good man!!
The writer is a Wing Chun Grand master, so he could look at Ip man's life using Wing Chun point of view...
i didn't satisfied...
June 7, 2010
This book is ok. It doesn't capture his life much. I feel like it's a version of what Ip Ching remembers his father as. Wish he talked more about his family, brother, and mother.
January 20, 2011
I love this book and I also love the movie it is a good book and a good movie if you like martialarts then you'll love this book OMG!!!! I love it
July 7, 2013
Great biography on Grandmaster Ip Man with vey nice pictures written by his son. However my only flaw is not one single mention of Bruce Lee.
September 28, 2015
A bit short but an interesting look into a very interesting man.
September 5, 2024
Nice little book on Ip Man from his son.
It's not detailed but enough to know the master a bit more
It's not detailed but enough to know the master a bit more
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews