Grandmaster Tse’s Wing Chun Note 413

Wing Chun’s Four Major Hands

Everyone who studies Wing Chun knows about three major hands of Wing Chun Tāan Sáu 攤手 – Opening Hand, Bóng Sáu 膀手 – Wing Hand and Fuhk Sáu 伏手 – Resting on Hand. In the Wing Chun world people often to say Tāan, Bóng, Fuhk 攤, 膀, 伏,” and so everyone focuses on Tāan Sáu, Bóng Sáu and Fuhk Sáu. It is true that these are very common and important hands, which we use all the time. Tāan Sáu is most commonly used for blocking, Bóng Sáu is most commonly used for diverting and Fuhk Sáu is most commonly used for feeling. However, there is another hand that we use a lot and this is Wuh Sáu 護手 – Guarding Hand. Wuh Sáu is used to protect us when the hand is not in contact with the opponent. When we do Chī Sáu 黐手 – Sticking Hands with someone, we start with both hands on contact, but then we interact by attacking and defending and sometimes we will lose contact with one the hand, then we will have one of the hands in Wuh Sáu to protect our body and this means we use Wuh Sáu a lot and so Wuh Sáu is the fourth major hand of Wing Chun.

In the first section of Síu Lihm Tào  小念頭 (Reducing Thought) – Wing Chun’s first form on each side we do one Tāan Sáu, three times Fuhk Sáu and four times Wuh Sáu. From this you can see that Wuh Sáu is the most important hand, more important than Tāan Sáu, Bóng Sáu and Fuhk Sáu. If you can use the four major hands well, then your Wing Chun cannot be too bad.