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A Closer Look at the Number 108

by Ray Van Raamsdonk

According to legend, Wing Chun was invented during the Ching Dynasty (1644-1912)  by a Shaolin nun named Ng Mui. Ng Mui passed the art on to another woman called Yim Wing Chun in about the year 1772. Although the exact history of Wing Chun cannot be verified, much can be learned about it's historical origins by analyzing the art itself.

Wing Chun comes from a region in Southern China called Kwantung. The art was named after Yim Wing Chun who introduced it in Southern China. According to Master Wang Kiu, the art of Wing Chun is also known in the North of China, but there it is simply referred to as "ORTHODOX SHAOLIN". This means that Wing Chun is basically a systematized collection of the good movements and principles from the various Shaolin arts.

In China there were many monasteries where martial arts were practiced. The Shaolin monastery actually had many branches throughout China. Various books mention that the harder external systems come from Shaolin, while the softer internal systems, like Tai Chi, come from a monastery at Wu Dong mountain.

However, Dr. Khoe, a student of Master Wang Kiu, feels that Wu Dong was actually a branch of Shaolin and that all Shaolin arts have an internal and external part.

Because the monasteries were like universities, the monks spent much of their time in analyzing and classifying various martial arts. The monks at Shaolin grouped techniques and principles according to early Chinese theories about nature and the universe.

An important early theory about the universe was known as the Yin/Yang theory. This theory teaches that all things are part of a whole. This whole is composed of two complementary but opposite parts called Yin and Yang. Yin represents qualities such as cold, dark, internal, and passive; while Yang represents the more positive qualities such as warmth, light, external, and active. From this theory, any complete martial art would have both external and internal characteristics. From the Yin/Yang theory it became popular to group things into categories of 2, 4, 8 or 64.

Another system of grouping was called the 'Five Element Theory'. This system was first documented in the fourth century BC. In the Five Element theory, nature is understood to be a cyclic process of creation and destruction. This process was thought to consist of five phases labeled Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.

The Yin/Yang theory and the Five Element theory were used in both the development of Chinese medicine and Chinese martial art. In fact, all of Chinese thought was influenced by these two theories.

In China, the number three was also popular. The Chinese associated this number with Heaven, Man, and Earth. Western science also noted that there were three primary colors, three states of matter, and three dimensions.

The numbers 2, 3, and 5 were thought to be the fundamental building blocks of nature. The fact that there were three primary colors, and that we have two eyes and five fingers, gave this concept added support.

Because of the importance of these facts, the number 2, 3 and 5 were used in combination to number the techniques of the various Shaolin arts. For example, there was the five animal form, the five element form, and the pattern ten form. In addition, there were 18 (2x3x3) classical weapons, 36 (2x2x3x3) chambers in Shaolin, and various patterns based on the number 72 (2x2x2x3x3) and on the number 108 (2x2x3x3x3).

The number 108 was thought to be especially important. A mathematical look at this number reveals why 108 may have been so popular: it consists of five factors (two 2's and three 3's).

In addition, when you divide a circle into five equal parts, each pentagon angle is equal to 108 degrees. Furthermore, the central angles are 72 degrees while the circle has 360 degrees. When the circle is divided into 10 sections, you get the number 36.

The circle was used to represent perfection, or the whole. Therefore, Heaven was associated with the circle and the number 36, Man was represented by the number 108, and Earth was represented by the number 72. Because of the importance placed on the number 108, this number was associated with 108 famous martial arts heroes in a 17th Century Chinese novel, called the Water Margin. Many martial arts patterns were constructed of 108 movements. For example, there is the 108 movement Tai Chi sequence, the 108 movement wooden hoop, and there are 108 points used for hitting.

The Wing Chun system being a Shaolin art, also used the same 108 numbering system. This system seems to have been constructed very meticulously as to also include the numbers 2, 3, 5, 8, and 10. The early version of Wing Chun passed on by Master Wang Kiu, consists of 10 formal sets. These formal sets are logically grouped into five categories, each consisting of 108 movements which, in turn, are grouped into 8 or 10 sections. Like modem computer error correcting codes, this numbering system has kept one version of the art intact by making modifications easy to detect.