Grandmaster Tse’s Wing Chun Note 425

Studying with Sīfú 師父 – Part 12

One afternoon, I went to Sīfú’s 師父 home to for a lesson. There were no other students there, but I saw Sīfú putting medicine on a man’s leg. I had seen this kind of treatment many times and it is usually done by a Chinese Herbalist. My Uncle, Tse Chui Hung 謝超鴻 was a Chinese Herbalist and when I was 14 and studying with him I always saw people coming to his home to have massage and Chinese herbal treatment. This Chinese herbal treatment is called Dit Dá 跌打 in Cantonese and in China they call it TCM Orthopaedics Gǔ Shāng Kē 骨傷科 – Bone Injury Subject. When I was 14, I broke my left forearm, I experienced this treatment myself, when my Uncle used herbs on my arm, and after two weeks it felt much better. Now I do not feel any effects from that injury and my arm is very strong. This is also a natural way of treating injury as nature has its way to fix things. I was surprised to see Sīfú Ip Chun 葉準師父 could do Dit Dá, but of course, my Sīgōng Ip Man葉問師公 left a few books on Chinese medicine, which I believe were from Lèung Jan 梁贊’s family, so of course his family would have this knowledge as well.