Master Tse’s Wing Chun Note 307

Yan Jéung 印掌, Jihk Jéung 直掌, Gahm Sáu 㩒手, Ngun Jéung 䟴掌 – Part 1

Wing Chun has a number of palm techniques, which look very similar and have similar sounding names, like Yan Jéung 印掌, Jihk Jéung 直掌, Gahm Sáu 㩒手, Ngun Jéung 䟴掌, so what is the difference between them?

If we look at Yan Jéung 印掌 first, “Yan 印” means “Print” and “Jéung 掌” means “Palm”, so it is “Printing Palm”. It is a palm strike and is like printing a palm on the target, usually on the opponent’s chest. So Yan Jéung – Printing Palm is a strike that uses the palm.

How about Jihk Jéung 直掌? “Jihk 直” means “Straight” and again “Jéung” means “Palm”. This means in this attack we need to straighten our arm in order to hit with the palm. However, it may be that we have already hit our target before the arm has straightened. So then, what is the difference between Yan Jéung and Jihk Jéung?

With Yan Jéung we do not need to straighten the arm, so any palm strike, which is like printing on the opponent’s body is Yan Jéung, however, Jihk Jéung requires us to straighten the arm, otherwise we cannot call it Jihk Jéung. However, in Wing Chun, whenever we strike with the palm or the fist, we are required to straighten the arm, so in reality, Yan Jéung and Jihk Jéung are the same technique, and they are still the same even if we hit the opponent before we have straightened the arm. So Yan Jéung and Jihk Jéung and really the same hand.