The greeting in Wing Chun Kyun – 拳 禮

It's a lot of time that I am searching info about the various traditional chinese greetings, and I think I have come to a good point. Now I want to share the main points of my research, in the hope that some Master or some good guy would help me to make my notes more systematc.

Let's start from the core: the greeting in the Chinese Traditional Martial Arts is very important. There are many ways to do the traditional greeting, and some of them are very specific to specific Schools or regions of China. The main one that you can easily find is represented from joining the left open hand the right one in a fist shape, which are symbol of the union of the Sun and the Moon. At an esoteric level, this union means the harmony of the cosmo, the union of body and spirit, i.e. the union of the Yin and the Yang.
The ritual of greeting can be said 禮 [Li], indicating the ceremony, the politeness, finally also the ritual itself. It is written Lai in cantonese and has a simplified form 礼 [Li], which derives from 礻 (示 shì), the altar, and 乚. The right side 乚 is the simplified form from 曲 on 豆 representing a vase full of flowers, offered in sacrifice to the gods. 

Inside the Kwoon the greeting made by students to their Master (or one the other) has the meaning of respect and brotherhood. Definitely represents a sign of peace, not only with respect to whom you are facing, but also towards ourselves; it is the inner peace, the balance that we aim to achieve in the search for harmony, the true purpose of martial arts. When you walk towards this goal, the WuShu becomes research of awareness of ourselves.
At a historic level many researchers date the birth of greeting around the 17th century. During the Ching dynasty's dictatorship, all the sects were against the oppressors. All adopted the motto "Let's overthrow the Ching, let us restore the Ming". Remember that the Ming ruled between 1368 and 1644, and this is considered a period of glory for China.

From this motto, for instance, comes also the Hung Gar greeting: the hands represent the day and night (or the sun and the moon), of which the chinese characters form the ideogram Ming. Bringing the hands to oneself's chest means being against foreign rulers and have the heart for China ("we are against foreign rulers and our hearts are for China"). Keep oneself's fists on the flanks means that the Union can succeed in freeing the country ("fighting together we can take back our country"). The greeting, in this interpretation, indicates a willingness to overturn the Ching (darkness) and restore the Ming (light). At the time of the Ming loyalist rebellion against the Manchu, the clenched fist was the positive forces (Yang) and the palm was the negative forces (Yin). The meeting of the Sun and the Moon was, in a very simple gesture, show your devotion to the revolutionary cause and realize the motto Fan qing, fu ming ("Overthorw the Ching, restore the Ming!").

Beyond the possible historical reconstruction, which is not in my main intent, it is important to consider the greeting in the martial arts as a form of culture, which has its origins in the tradition of a people. If we think of the vastness of the territory of China, its ethnic groups, various religious influences, secret sects membership, we realize immediately that the creation of multiple methods of greeting was almost obvious. There are bows, join fists or palms, one hand wrapping around the fist, rotation of arms and hands in vigorous and strong, or quick and light, gestures, etc. 

The different gestures hide a single spirit, which means respect, courage, strength, humility and belonging to a code of honor. The complexity and the gestures in these greetings are also a sign of recognition or distinction between practitioners of the same discipline or coming from particular places. They Also identify the membership in secret sects. For many traditional martial Schools, greeting gestures are encoded: you could use them only after a tough apprenticeship in recognition of belonging to that family, school or discipline.

In other practices, it accompanies the ritual of greeting the recitation of certain proposals aimed at goodness, humility, compassion and courage. It is obvious the influence of religious concepts that merged with traditional martial practices. It fashioned the rite of greeting as well as the contents of the practice. Typical example is the greeting of Siu Lam. 

Some martial disciplines have subsumed the concepts of religions and philosophies. The greeting sometimes becomes a small ceremony, when, for example, is carried out three times (Saam Bai), especially in schools that follow the Confucian or Buddhist philosophy. According to tradition, the first greeting is aimed to the Supreme entity, the second to the ancestors and the third to his own SiFu.
Today the greeting used in the Schools is run in an upright position, feet together, open and relaxed left hand, the right hand closed in a fist shape and both together in front of the chest. The symbolism of the open left hand against the punch is explained usually so: the thumb of your left hand, folded on the side, indicates that there is no pride and arrogance, the four fingers extended and together represent the four qualities of morality, intellect, health and skills, useful for a good practice. The clenched right fist symbolizes bravery and strength, the left palm rests on the punch with the precise aim of not transmuting the audacity in confusion and the power into violence. The circle that forms between your arms and your chest symbolizes high-mindedness and unity among Martial Artists. The greeting is performed in martial attitude once between students and teacher at the beginning and at the end of the lesson. Many schools, however, are running their own greeting, preserving the history of its practice.

Always remember that the greeting is a sign of respect and is part of the martial ethics (WuDe). If we consider in such a way, it represents a sign of membership, a kind of moral pact that binds practitioners together in a kind of solemn oath. The greeting is a ritual, which incorporates the essence of the practice. The symbol is a projection, is a dumb language, reflecting the tradition and the cosmic order, which makes it possible to reveal the essence of things, to find a foundation that delimits the traditional path.
The greeting is also a martial technique. Actually the fist and the palm are ready for use: the hand can grasp (Kam Sau), divert (Taan Sau), while the fist can counter-attack (Da) in the case of sudden aggression. The greeting is a sign of respect, but can also be an invitation to fight, this depends on how we execute it...

In the chinese martial arts, the greeting plays an essential role because you do it before and at eh end of each technique. "Begin and end with courtesy" is an ancient Chinese precept that has retained all its importance. In a school (Guan in Mandarin and Kwoon in cantonese), one learns quickly to greet, as you must do at the beginning and end of each lesson or before executing a form.
The greeting should always be executed with calm, concentration and according to a prescribed ritual. It's a sign of respect towards each other, as well as being a sign of self-control. It is in itself also a time of transition, both in preparation for the fight, and also to return to calm after the assault.
The sun (Ri) and the moon (Yue) are the symbolic source of greeting, we said. The name itself, greeting, contains the first fundamental notion that martial arts teach: the greeting is in the respect and the respect starts with the greeting. The notion of respect include reciprocity; students greet the teacher, but he must greet students also.

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