Snake-Coiling Hand 蛇缠手

An exercise found only in Yiquan

The snake-coiling hand (蛇缠手, She Chan Shou) is one of Yiquan's solo hand exercises (Dan Cao Shou). So far it is attested in a single teaching film, where it is demonstrated by Bo Jiacong, a third-generation student of Yao Zongxun. He introduces it as a “unique Yiquan solo exercise”. It is practised first with one hand, then with both.

One-handed

The exercise starts in Hunyuan Zhuang. One hand rests; the other opens slightly and turns inward and back into the back-hand stance (背手桩). From there it travels forward and up at a 45° slant.

The arm is never fully straightened; the bend is always kept. The image is a child carrying a bowl of water without spilling a drop. Then the hand hooks in, sets the fingers and turns the wrist. In this way it neutralises the pressure (消) and then cuts with the edge of the hand (砍).

Two-handed

With both hands one first points backward. The image for this is “pushing open the window to gaze at the moon” (推窗望月). The hand shape, as Bo Jiacong himself says, looks rather odd. Then the hands alternate: one goes out while the other comes back. Once the movement has loosened up, it is shifted forward and combined with stepping forward and back.

“Like two pythons — both arms are as mobile as two pythons.”

As in every solo exercise in the film: the body works more than the hands.

Force to the fingertips

The core requirement is 力达指尖: force should reach the very tips. Bo Jiacong shows what happens otherwise. If one simply holds the arm out, an opponent can press it down. If instead one imagines grasping a small tree in front, the arm can no longer be pressed down. It then has two points of support instead of one.

This is the same logic as the external connections: an anchor that exists only in the imagination is treated as real, and so carries the force. Done correctly, one feels a live, slightly vibrating force in the arm.

The reason: Tuishou

Bo Jiacong explicitly calls the exercise the basic skill of Tuishou:

“Tuishou is exactly this state.”

The aim, then, is no fixed striking pattern. As in Shili, the arms should become mobile enough to meet any form of combat. He announces the application in free fighting but does not show it in the film. This is where the source ends.

What it is not

• Not the “startled snake” (惊蛇). That belongs to the four forms and to Jian Wu and is a directed discharge of force, not a solo exercise.
• Not silk-reeling force (Chan Si Jin, 缠丝劲). Both share the character 缠 (“to wind”), but 缠丝劲 names a quality of force, 蛇缠手 a concrete exercise.