Well yeah. If you think that a table is a goldfish for long enough, then it can become a goldfish, but that'd only become your reality. Others would have to recognize the table as a goldfish to understand your perspective
So in other words its still a table and it is only in 0.000000001% of cases it isn't Same here - ergo it isn't actually true
You got off lucky Also...his left? Or your left? (Bet you're doing a physical re imagining now aren't ya?)
We salute left over right. The salute occurs in 99% of our forms. I recently noticed that one of its uses is to setup dragon techniques. At the same time I realized that my dragon is much stronger on the right than on the left. Possibly because of years on unconscious practice. I am now experimenting with doing it right over left with the dragon coiling the other way and it feels weird - but very interesting.
Yeah :thinking: It was the mirror image of me. His right hand over his left fist. ---------- The salutation becomes a tradition, but for some reason, I've been taught martial applications of the different salutations. For males, right fight in left palm, usually you want to be flat foot on one side and heel lifted slightly on the other side. For males, left fist in right palm, usually you want both feet flat on the ground. This of course is just for certain applications. I digress.
We can make lots of interpretations of something-doesn't mean they have any validity. Yours makes no sense. 1)= "I won't hold anything back",and 2)= "fight to death".Don't see how #1 doesn't =#2,or at least the possibility of same. I agree,it would have a different feel,just like any physical action done on the opposite side. Seems neither I nor anyone else here would understand it.I'd just think it was a Bak Mei salute or something. What "most people'? There are people on here with up to 5+ decades in CMAs who have never heard of this. All beliefs come from somewhere,either arising over time from various ideas and/or practices,or because someone states something as fact and others buy into it.An example of the latter--- an instructor who tells his students some kung fu fairy tale stuff,they buy it,and pass it on.Next thing,everybody in that section of town believes,erroneously,that a salute performed reversed = death match.Which it would to them,but no one else. Seems you don't understand this isn't something that's common knowledge, so no one has to say "this isn't something that I personally would believe in", they only have to point out that there is nothing historical or folkloric to corroborate this- only some statements by some individuals who cannot back it up,other than to plead something can be interpreted some way by/for certain individuals. Everything has a source,an origin.Some may be lost in the mists of time,but things don't spring out of a vacuum. "somethings can just be true to certain individuals." Right,like this whole salute thing may be true for your circle,or neighborhood,or WITHIN a particular martial system.But in the wide MA world or the CMA world, this interpretation is not true. MA wise I think it's safe to say that any MA using such a salute got it handed down from CMAs or just took it for themselves.So what are talking then? American Kenpo and its derivatives or something?
The left hand covering the right fist isn't exclusive to martial arts, or China for that matter, you can find it all over Asia as a general greeting or peace gesture. The Bao Quan (抱拳) or covered fist is specifically used in Chinese martial arts and has a multitude of variations and interpretations (I posted some Hung gar ones earlier but they are common). A lot of Neo-Confucianist pairs/'opposites' can be expressed (external/internal, sun/moon, male/female, primary/secondary...and endless list). YouKnowwho is right in that naturally most people are right handed, so their strong punching side is their right fist, making left covering right more natural. So I think it stands to reason, most people when naturally performing these bows whatever the form, will use their right fist just as they'd use their right hand to do most things. But Jackie Chan, who is ambidextrous, could easily choose his favorite and probably did. He has trained his whole life both left handed and right handed to remove orthodoxy in his movements (like any advanced kung fu practitioner should, in my opinion). The left (or right) hand doesn't have to cover the fist at all, in many styles, the hands are separated, such as in Lam family Hung gar, the left hand is often a Fu jow (tiger claw), and the right fist, and they are separated. In Tang family Hung gar, the left hand is the open flat palm and right the fist, but they are only covering while hidden, upon 'bowing", they are separated in the "salutes". But that's the 'martial' bow from the forms themselves, which are also techniques. A more casual bow to your class mates looks like this (as seen in Yee's marketing materials, T-shirts, etc). This is the 'anti-Ching' version, for reasons already explained by YouKnowWho (credit is due!). The open flat hand and right fist (the one above) came to represent 'Fan Ching fook Ming' ("Destroy the Ching, Restore Ming"). You need to read the Chinese pictographs to know why, but there's a reason the bow was a "hidden" symbol, and unnoticeable to the Manchu. AT first glance, it looks similar to the same peace greeting in use in China for probably millennia, and no Ching soldier would know otherwise...BUT these hands are making very specific representations of Chinese symbols that, when combined, signify "Sun and Moon" = "Ming" (明) The various interpretation on the "covered fist" are many like I said, so any one of those is a can of worms. During the Ming Dynasty, this hand position was common throughout China (martial or not). Later it was the secret hand signal of the anti-Ching resistance (since it referenced the late Ming). And if we want to really go out there, we can even go to legendary nuances, such as this bow in some Hung gar schools and others, this bow should be formally done above your eyebrows, to signify Bak Mei the White Eyebrows as the immortal enemy of Shaolin, and he is beneath them for his alleged treachery. That's not something I made up, it's pretty common to bow that way in Southern martial arts, whether or not it's based on anything historical it sure is a colorful and dramatic aesthetic. The whole "let's fight to the death!" symbolism I don't find any source for, but there is a definite trend to associate the left hand in Chinese martial arts as 'hidden' or 'black', or stealthy/unexpected in a way, as many left-handed techniques share this monicker specifically because someone who fights primarily with their left side was seen as 'tricky', in the same way we use 'Southpaw' in the west to signify something different than the orthodox. In this way an attack with the right hand tiger claw would be called "Strong Tiger", while the same attack with the left claw would be "Black Tiger".
Some relevant wiki trivia - "Historically, the left side, and subsequently left-handedness, was considered negative in many cultures. The Latin word sinistra originally meant "left" but took on meanings of "evil" or "unlucky" by the Classical Latin era, and this double meaning survives in European derivatives of Latin, and in the English word "sinister". Meanings gradually developed from use of these terms in the ancient languages. In many modern European languages, including English, the word for the direction "right" also means "correct" or "proper", and also stands for authority and justice. In most Slavic languages the root prav is used in words carrying meanings of correctness or justice."
