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Furious Tiger
07-05-2001, 12:56 AM
I have a question, When in the Kwoon and we pay courtesy to Sifu with left extended in the spear form that represents the Sun and the right hand in the fist form that represents the Moon. What is difference between the left hand wrapped over the right fist?

Furious Tiger

eightgates
07-06-2001, 01:39 AM
Hi Furious Tiger,

I understand the left palm to represent the moon and the right fist to represent the sun. If you look at the Chinese character for Ming, it is a composite character comprised of the symbol for sun on the left and the symbol for moon on the right. Also, a closed vertical fist is commonly called "jihk kyuhn" which means "sun fist" because the closed fist is thought to resemble the Chinese character for sun.

Long ago, I was told that the left hand enclosing the right fist signified non-aggression since the closed fist was being held in check by the left hand. It is a common form of greeting similar to how Westerns wave hello or the Middle-Eastern "salaam" is performed. In the martial context, it originally meant that you were either paying respects or if you were about to fight, it was to be a friendly match and you didn't intend on fighting to the death. As you probably know, some schools have their own particular way of saluting. In the past, this helped identify other practitioners and to whether they were friend or foe.¿

Kung Lek
07-06-2001, 10:31 PM
Hi-

FT, my Si Fu has written an article concerning the hand salutes of Sil Lum.

You can find the article at http://www.escape.ca/~sillum/Index.htm

from there, enter the site and select "article" from the table at teh bottom which will take you to the hand salute article among others that my also be of interest to you.

peace

Kung Lek

Furious Tiger
07-07-2001, 04:40 AM
Thanks to all. I kinda sorta knew, but now I know for sure.

Furious Tiger

Daelomin
07-15-2001, 11:55 AM
I have read that the spear hand and fist means "everywhere all men are equal".