Salutation Question

[sam58]

I have noticed a difference in the way salutations are given between practictioners. In some instances it is given with the left palm covering the right fist. In other instances it is the other way around (right palm covering left fist).

Is there a proper way of doing this (right or left)? Any insights would be very helpful.

Thanks,
Fang Xuman

[Goldenmane]

I'm by no means an expert, but at the time of reading no-one had yet replied, so I'll jump in and make a comment or two.

The method of performing the bow seems to vary from style to style, and even from school to school. Some styles don't even incorporate a bow, though most of the "traditional" styles seem to incorporate them in the performance of forms. Some are performed with the hands touching together in front of the body, some with the hands extended. Sometimes they are done with open palms, sometimes with one palm and one fist, sometimes with bost fists, and there are more variations.

By far the most common seem to be very simple variations on the palm + fist model, either touching together or facing out (toward the opponent, if you will). Frankly, there seems to be no "right" or "correct" way of performing this. Each has it's significance, and is pretty much intricately bound up in the style and lineage. in my experience, the most common variations use a closed right fist and open left palm... though as Isaid, it is entirely dependent upon the history of the style.

-geoff

[tnwingtsun]

"Began studing TKD in the early 80's and reached 1st degree black. Stopped for a number of years and then began training in T'ai Chi. I have been doing this for about a year. "





Theres more to salutations than meets the eye or symbolic

jester,if you are a student of T'ai Chi look at you opening moves,

both have fighting applications and both old and new CMA

meanings,depends on what branch you come from,the top ones

use not only the salutation as a symbolic move but for the most part (IMHO)as a motion used to kill which is the (IMHO)

main purpose of CMA,no movements of top systems are wasted.

This may make some people mad but thats the way of the.............

Its not child's play

[David Jamieson]

the salute-

The common Kung fu/Wu shu salute is the left hand over the right fist.
This gesture goes back quite a ways in the chinese culture.

The left hand representing a house roof and therefore culture.
The right fist representing the warrior spirit.
When the warrior spirit is tempered with culture, there is peace and this is essentially what this greeting means.

Long ago, the gesture was reversed (right open hand over left fist), but when the hand salute was adopted into the various places that taught wu de (martial virtue) it became left over right so that a blade being held, such as a sword could be accomodated.

The Chinese have long been preoccupied with the virtues and the refinement of them. To salute with symbolism is another manifestation of this refinment of cultural practice.

We in the west shake hands, they in the east, face, salute and bow. Each way is a form of recognizing and validating each other as you meet.

As for all the different types of salutes and bows, this is primarily due to all the different schools and styles of martial arts.

Same as each countries military has a different march step or salute.

Some schools did indeed incorporate martially applicable motion into their salutations and form openings. Some have differing salutations at the beginning of a form inorder to define which school the form has come from, and as for the salute, which school the student belongs to.

In the end, it is a form of communicating a lot, without saying a word (very Chan :D ), and is typical of the martial arts sub-cultures now where it used to be quite common across all fields of study and profession in the eastern cultures and elsewhere.

peace

[Yung Apprentice]

How do you know so much info???!!! i swear man your a human book! If I knew as much info as you do, I think my head would POP!!

[NorthernMantis]

Some salutes (i.e. hung gar) were a sign of rebels trying to overthrow the Manchu government.It was a way to identify who was who.

The closed fist symbolises the sun,the open palm is the moon it is the symbol of the Ming which was the name of the previous dynasty whcih was ruled by Chinese.Many kung fu people went underground into different societies trying to verthrow the Qing (pronounced ching),the Manchurians who were seen a foreign opressors.There was even a motto "Forget the Qing bring back the Ming" or something similar.It's not the only salute however that was identified with the revolutionaries.

[David Jamieson]

ssshhhhhhh....geez!
:D
peace

[MaFuYee]

TNWT,

wow! the killing salute!

did you also notice the lethal applications of the macarena? - could it be that the macarena originated as a martial art, but was turned into a dance, to hide the lethal nature of the art, from rival hispanic gangs?

[NorthernMantis]

Quiet you:D

It wasn't enpugh destroying shaolin eh?

[Crimson Phoenix]

Nah nah, if you throw in the "Ming" hypothesis, it goes like this: the closed fist, right hand, represents the sun, and the open hand, the left, represents the moon..."Ming" in chinese is written with the caracter for sun on the left and the one for moon on the right, so when you salute someone it sort of draws the word "Ming" (bright, among other meanings) for him (sun on the left, moon on the right).
Of course, I heard many explanations about the salute, and some guy that dwelved with peeps with dubious activities swore it was a sucker punch in which you slap and punch your opponent's head at the same time during the "salute" hehehehehehe.
I guess we'll never know what the salute really stands for, or better yet we have to admit it has many meanings

[tnwingtsun]

LOL!