Traditional Chinese Martial Arts Principles and Sayings #5

This series of essays deals briefly with Chinese Martial Arts Principles and Sayings. These sayings have been developed over time and are meant to direct your daily practice. Adhering to them will help you develop a proper mindset reflective of a true martial artist. They also reveal distinctive fighting concepts, strategies, and training precepts contained within the Long Fist school. They are not meant to be merely glanced over but instead require diligent study and should be incorporated in your thinking and practice.

I will provide the Pinyin, for those of you who are interested, as well as the English translation.

The Hands are like swinging doors, the Legs are for beating people –   Shou Shi Liang Shan Men, Quan Ping Tui Da Ren

Chinese martial arts theory has been passed down through proverbs and rhymes, but modern interpretation can often misrepresent the original meaning of these ideas.

The fact that the use of the legs plays an important role in Chinese martial arts cannot be disputed, especially in the Northern Long Fist School, or Chang Quan. The Hands are like swinging doors, the Legs are for beating people, is just one of many principles passed down that emphasizes the importance of training the legs. If we adhere to the literal translation of this rhyme, it implies that kicks are more effective than hand strikes for beating an opponent. However, we need to look deeper to understand the original and complete meaning of this verse.

Let us consider first “Shou Shi Liang Shan Men” – “The Hands are like swinging doors.” Men (门) – Door or Gate – has many meanings in Chinese martial arts. It can refer to a school, such as Ba Fan Men or Ba Ji Men, or to a door in the opponent’s defenses, an opening that can be attacked. Since we are dealing with martial arts fighting strategy, it is apparent that opening a door is the correct choice. So a more proper interpretation would be, “Hands are used for creating an opening.” Another interpretation for “The Hands are like swinging doors” is that the hands are used for blocking and for defending the body’s gates. Sealing our openings to the opponent’s attacks like a door swinging shut is a significant concept that serves to demonstrate the importance of the hands in defense.

Now let’s look at “Quan Ping TuI Da Ren” – “The legs are for beating people.” If we limit this interpretation to mean kicks, we underestimate and even restrict the function of the legs in fighting. For actual usage, such an interpretation is folly.

If we examine any routine, whether it is from the Northern or the Southern School, we will see that kicking appears to play a minor role. Even routines from systems renowned for their use of kicking techniques – such as Tan Tui, Cha Quan, Hua Quan, Chuo Jiao (腳戳), and others – may, at first glance, appear to employ more strikes than kicks. Look closely, however, and you will see that the legs actually play a major role. Tripping, sweeping, kicking, and all manner of footwork become evident and lend credence to the above saying.

Principles and theories, no matter how profound, are only as good as applied practice. If a principle stirs one’s thinking, provides a fresh perspective, or sheds new light on an old subject, then it is useful.