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| Snake Crane Wing Chun |
Snake and Crane: An Introduction to Snake Crane Wing Chun Hand Techniques
Snake Crane Wing Chun is a distinctive branch of Wing Chun preserved in Hong Kong. For much of its history it was transmitted within a relatively small circle of practitioners, and today it preserves a technical curriculum with several characteristics that distinguish it from better-known Wing Chun branches.
According to Snake Crane Wing Chun lineage tradition, the system traces its origins to the Red Boat opera community and preserves teachings transmitted through the early generations of the lineage.
These traditions are important to the identity of the system, but they should be distinguished from independently documented history. As I discussed in my article on the history of Snake Crane Wing Chun, the existence of a relatively small lineage does not by itself prove that every technique has remained completely unchanged since the nineteenth century.
What we can examine directly is the system that practitioners preserve today.
One of its most interesting features is the relationship between snake and crane methods.
Snake Reels, Crane Withstands
An important concept in Snake Crane Wing Chun is commonly expressed as “snake reels and crane withstands.”
The imagery describes two different but complementary approaches to contact.
The snake represents actions that attach, wrap, control or interfere with the opponent's bridge. Rather than simply colliding with an incoming arm, the practitioner seeks to establish contact and use that contact to restrict or redirect the opponent's movement.
The crane represents a different structural quality. Here the body and bridge are organized to receive, withstand, redirect or neutralize incoming force.
These descriptions should not be understood too literally.
The practitioner is not simply imitating an animal.
“Snake” and “crane” provide a traditional vocabulary for describing different qualities of movement, structure, contact and force.
That distinction is important.
蛇鶴爭暉 — Snake and Crane Competing at Their Best
Another expression associated with the system is:
蛇鶴爭暉
It can be understood in the context of the system as the snake and crane each displaying or competing through their characteristic strengths.
This does not necessarily mean that every movement belongs permanently to one animal category.
A movement may resemble a snake technique morphologically while its actual application depends on the direction of force, contact with the opponent, body structure and tactical situation.
This is one reason why simply copying the external shape of a Wing Chun technique tells us relatively little about how it is supposed to function.
The same hand position can perform quite different jobs.
Snake Hand Methods
Within the terminology used in Snake Crane Wing Chun, several familiar Wing Chun movements can be associated with snake characteristics.
These include techniques such as:
Tan Sau, Lan Sau, Fok Sau and Lap Sau.
Their external appearance will be familiar to practitioners of many Wing Chun branches.
What matters, however, is not simply the name of the hand.
The important question is what the hand is doing at the point of contact.
A snake-oriented action can establish contact with the opponent's bridge, follow its movement, control space or restrict the opponent's ability to continue an attack.
This is closer to the idea of a snake coiling around something than to simply blocking it.
Crane Hand Methods
Other movements are associated more strongly with crane characteristics.
These include methods such as:
Ton Kiu, Guan Sau and Bong Sau.
Again, classification by appearance alone can be misleading.
The crane concept concerns how the structure supports the bridge and how force is transmitted through the body when encountering pressure.
The arms do not function independently.
The position of the elbow, shoulder, torso and stance influences whether the structure can receive and redirect force effectively.
Consequently, what appears to be a simple arm movement is actually part of a larger body action.
One Movement, Different Qualities
This is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the snake-and-crane concept.
A technique does not necessarily possess only one fixed quality.
Depending upon the situation, the same basic movement can behave differently.
It may yield.
It may redirect.
It may adhere.
It may control.
It may receive pressure structurally.
It may immediately become an attack.
The external movement may remain recognizable while its functional quality changes.
Beginners usually learn the visible geometry first.
With experience, attention gradually moves toward pressure, timing, direction, contact and body organization.
That is where the distinction between merely knowing the shape of a technique and actually understanding its function begins to appear.
More Than Animal Imitation
Terms such as “snake” and “crane” can easily encourage overly literal interpretations of traditional Chinese martial arts.
A practitioner does not need to pretend to be a snake or a crane.
The animal terminology provides a conceptual language.
Snake describes certain ways of establishing and manipulating contact.
Crane describes certain structural and force-related characteristics.
The two are not necessarily opposites. They can complement each other and can appear within the same exchange.
This is what makes Snake Crane Wing Chun particularly interesting from a comparative Wing Chun perspective.
Many of its hand positions are immediately recognizable to practitioners of other Wing Chun branches.
Yet the explanations attached to those movements can reveal different ways of understanding familiar techniques.
And that is more useful than simply asking which branch is older or more “original.”
The better question is:
How does each branch understand and use the movements it has preserved?
That is where comparison becomes genuinely interesting.
Guan Sau(Cultivating hand): Lower block usually used to protect lower gates from various attacks. It is performed just like a crane’s wing lowered down in a sweeping movement ,”cleaning “ and “picking up” everything that coms toward the lower gates
Bong Sau(Crane’s wing hand): It is performed by rolling the forearm out and the raising the elbow up, the fingertips are moving forward toward the center of the opponent . Bong sau can be performed to cover lower, middle and upper gates.
