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It's not widely known that there are five distinctly different styles of Wing Chun being practised in Foshan (ancestoral home of WC) today. These styles are Leung Jan, Pao Fa Lein, Wan Qi Shang, Guo Bao Chuang and Zhu Zhong Weng.

Here's some insight into one of these rare WC systems: Pao Fa Lein.

This style is said to have its roots in the Shaolin Monastery in Henan Province and was taught by a Buddhist monk whose nickname was Big East Wind. On leaving the Shaolin Monastery Big East Wind travelled south to Ching Yuen village. The Buddhist monk was a member of a secret society whose aims were to overthrow the Ching Government.

He made friends with two brothers Tse Kwok Cheung and Tse Kwok Leung. One of the brothers was a magistrate.

Big East Wind taught the two brothers his complete system before returning to the north. Soon the two brothers became fed up with their jobs and returned to their home in Foshan.

The two brothers adopted a son whose name was Liu Da Sheng. At the age of nine Liu began to learn the Wing Chun system which he mastered in ten years.

Many stories are told about Liu's fighting prowess. While still young a Kung Fu master by the name of Peng challenged him to a fight with the Millstone Broadswords. Liu killed the master and fled Foshan for fear of prosecution.

He returned around 30 years later and hoped to keep a low profile but his reputation was to great.

Hearing his skill a magistrate challenged him to a duel again with the Millstone Broadswords. Not wanting to make the same mistake Liu suggested that they use one wooden sword and one metal one, the magistrate agreed.

After the fight the magistrate's clothes were left in tatters by the wooden broadsword.

When he grew older he worked in a cosmetics shop making hair gel from sap. This process was called Pao Fa Lein so this became Liu's nickname.

The present day Grandmaster is Chu Chung who now lives in Hong Kong. Grandmaster Chu began his studies at the age of 14 and had learned the complete system before leaving for Hong Kong.

In Foshan the style was always known as Wing Chun but on his arrival in Hong Kong he found other styles of Wing Chun being taught so to differentiate his style from the others he named it after his teacher Pao Fa Lein.

Grandmaster Chu has never wanted to promote his style and has only taken a few disciples, namely his two sons Chu Wing Chi, Chu Ping and Mok Poi On.

The style has many forms for both fist and weapons (the first three have the same names as the Yip Man system) and ten weapons forms, these are Millstone Broadsword, Staff, Sword, Tiger Fork, A broadsword with a long wooden handle, Kwan Dao, Thirteen Section Whip, Millstone Broadsword versus Staff, Broadsword versus Broadsword and Staff versus Staff.

The style also has four wooden dummy forms. These are known as the Internal Dummy, External Dummy, Hard Dummy and Soft Dummy. The Dummy also has a sandbag mounted on each side.