Wing Chun Masters Like This Page Sunday, August 5 at 1:33am Bao Quan (Wushu/Kung Fu Greeting) In the old

ld days, Chinese scientists used to greet each other by covering the lef t fist with the right palm. This meant peace; the hand covering the aggressive f ist. A warrior, however, held his weapon in the right hand. For this reason, the warr iors greet one another with the left hand covering the right fist. Eventually th is became the way of greeting for martial arts practitioners in China. During the Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911) when many Chinese fought against the Qing government to restore the Ming Dynasty, the original way of greeting was changed . The left hand became an open hand/palm which means 'moon' and the right fist was held against the left hand, the right fist symboli zed the Chinese character 'sun' . Together these characters mean 'Ming' 'bright.' This greeting is called 'Bao Quan' and was used as a secret way for recognizing revolutionary fighters , and it also means 'Destroy Qing, Restore the Ming.'

Today, it is used by Wushu/Martial Arts practitioners as a form of respect, and with the more modern explanation that the left hand symbolizes "5 Lakes " while th e right clenched fist symbolzies "4 Seas ." When the left hand is placed onto the right hand, it means that "People in the 5 lakes and 4 seas are all Brothers" .