The Concept of Crossing Hands in Traditional Chinese Martial Arts

Traditional Chinese martial arts have many progressive training methods intended to prepare practitioners for free-form combat, which nowadays is commonly referred to as Sanda (散打), although many people still use the term San Shou (散手). Both terms describe modern sport combat.

A breakdown of Sanda and San Shou:

The first character is the same for both terms.

San (散) means free or scattered

Da (打) means to hit or strike

Shou (手) means hand

In terms of the millennia of Chinese martial arts history, both San Da and San Shou are relatively modern.

In Chinese martial arts culture, we sometimes hear the old term, Guo Shou (過手), which means crossing hands. This is often wrongly portrayed in martial arts movies as two opponents actually crossing hands at the wrist. For example, Bruce Lee crosses hands with Bob Wall in Enter the Dragon. Similar scenes have been depicted in other martial arts movies.

Circumstances often dictated the intent of Guo Shu. For example, the testing of skills within the Guan (the martial arts school) was often referred to as Qie Cuo (切磋), which can be translated as cutting or polishing. Qie Cuo is a mutual controlled learning process where students test their sparring skills. Although controlled, this method allows students to develop timing, distance, and reaction skills, and to build fighting strategy. Contact may still occur, but when it does, it is accidental. Qie Cuo also helps both practitioners build confidence, correct flaws, and elevate their skill.

Guo Shu was a more significant matter and implied the testing of skills through actual combat. The seriousness of the contest was often determined beforehand, and this could range from the fight being stopped when one combatant yielded, or it could even be a fight to the death.

Challenges to the death required signing the Sheng Si Zhuang (生死狀 ), a life-and-death pledge or contract, which was meant to protect the victor. These fights typically took place on a raised public platform called a Lei Tai (擂台). Whether the match would take place with bare hands or with weapons was agreed upon in advance.

Three major reasons for Guo Shu matches on the Lei Tai were to settle personal grudges, to establish one’s martial arts superiority, or to test one’s personal skill.

Even with the signing of the life-and-death contract, no one was immune from the Qing Dynasty Imperial Law and authorities could still intervene to stop the match or put the victor to death afterwards.

The Bi Wu (比武) – Martial Arts Contest

Bi Wu, in essence, was a contest between two martial arts experts meant simply to test their skill. These matches usually took place in private so that neither of the contestants would lose face.

Martial Arts Movies and Lore

There are countless stories about masters going undefeated, and depictions of famous masters facing each other in movies. Chinese Gong Fu movies often include these types of scenarios. While such fighting certainly took place, Wu De (武德) – Martial Virtue dictated the observance of humility and the practice of restraint.