Ip Man's life has been fictionalized for a number of movies, but what's the real story of the man who trained Bruce Lee? Regarded by millions of fans as a true kung fu legend, Bruce Lee is a massive martial arts icon, due largely to his performances in five classic movies, including Enter the Dragon, but the martial artist responsible for Lee's training has an equally interesting history.
The most important source of Bruce Lee's knowledge of kung fu came from the time he spent with Ip Man, a famous Chinese kung master whose life has been the subject of four Ip Man movies starring Donnie Yen. The Ip Man series, which spanned several decades, were biographical films that told fictionalized accounts of Ip Man's story. Ip was also the lead character in three separate biopics. 2010's The Legend Is Born: Ip Man put Dennis To in the lead role while The Grandmaster and Ip Man: The Final Fight, both released in 2013, starred Tony Leung and Anthony Wong as Ip Man respectively.
Born in 1893, the real Ip Man was a grandmaster of Wing Chun, an old style of kung fu centered on reflexive moments. While living in China, Ip began learning Wing Chun when he was only nine years old. Among his teachers were distinguished Wing Chun experts Leung Bik and Chan Wah-shun. While in his early 20s, Ip Man was already skilled enough to teach kung fu to others, but he didn't have a school of his own. Instead, Ip worked as a police officer.
He eventually moved to Hong Kong and took on several students, teaching the ways of Wing Chun to those who wished to learn. Many of the people trained by Ip Man were young boys who had been in engaged in gang violence on the streets of Hong Kong. Ip had hoped that Wing Chun would put them on the right path and improve their lives. One of these children was a teenage Bruce Lee. Lee, who began learning kung fu at the age of 13, developed his skills even further after meeting Ip, who was his kung fu master during the late 1950s, and after leaving Hong Kong, Lee had the skills he needed to open his own kung fu school.
Ip Man is credited with helping to make Wing Chun a popular martial arts style that is now taught all over the world, but that's not the extent of his effect. There's also the influence he had on Bruce Lee and subsequently, all those who learned from him. Training with Ip Man is where Lee learned the "art of detachment" and developed a deep and fundamental understanding of kung fu. Lee preached philosophical ideas about how a person should empty his/her mind and be "formless" like water, and these beliefs were rooted in the lessons he learned from Ip Man.