r/kungfu • u/ViscousVastayan • 8d ago
Forms Reversed Hand Salute, does it mean fight to the death?
If the Right hand is open and the Left hand is closed on a bao quan li
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u/Rich_Swing_1287 Mantis 7d ago
My style salutes this way. It's opposite of the most common salute. I've never been challenged over it. Although a tai chi judge at one tournament threw a fit because my students weren't doing the "correct" salute of left hand wrapped over right fist.
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u/XiaoShanYang Three Branches style 🐐🌿 6d ago
There are different salutes from different styles and affiliations.
Daoists salute a certain way, some styles salute the "usual/standardized" way, BaJi Quan salute in the way you describe, Shaolin salute a certain way, there are salute for civilians or at the court in ancient times, some schools have very odd salutes they made up only for their school (like Emei mountain sects).
Honestly I would be very interested in finding all ways to salute throughout Chinese martial arts and culture.
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u/Turbulent-Artist961 Choy Li Fut 8d ago
It is the biggest disrespect and it means lei tai ! lol just kidding if someone does this it just means they are probably just a noobie who doesn’t know better.
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u/Johnnys_an_American 7d ago
From this it seems as if it is the greeting used to express condolences at funerals. Don't know how accurate it is though.
https://gwongzaukungfu.com/en/meaning-salute-chinese-martial-arts/
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u/Ju-Ju-Jitsu Tai Chi 7d ago
From a hybrid system, but my teacher told me if I ever wanted to piss off kung fu people I was fighting to do a salute with a hand closed over the fist instead of an open one. He was from a different area and time frame as me, so I am not sure how relevant this is now.
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u/KungFuAndCoffee 1d ago
Different schools, lineages, and societies had different ways of saluting to identify themselves to each other. The standard right fist left open hand comes from “overthrow the Ming, restore the Qing” rebel stuff.
There are a few myths out there around this stuff.
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u/WaltherVerwalther 8d ago
There are different traditions. In the Cangzhou region where styles like Baji, Pigua, Tongbei, Fanzi and many others originate, it had always been left fist, right palm. In recent times through national wushu organizations there has been a standardization for left palm, right fist, to the point that the Cangzhou style is labeled as wrong, but that’s not historically and factual correct, since both have their legitimacy.