The Four Gates (踢打摔拿) — kick, strike, throw, seize

Chinese martial artists have a four-character shorthand for the whole territory of unarmed combat: 踢打摔拿 (tī dǎ shuāi ná) — kick, strike, throw, seize. They are the four basic methods a complete fighting art must cover, and the four-syllable phrase is one of the standard formulations of the 四擊 (four attacks). A style may specialize — northern long-fist leans on the kick, mantis on the strike, the wrestling traditions on the throw — but the ideal, repeated across schools, is to be whole in all four.

The four methods

• 踢 (tī) — kicking. The leg arts: the springing kicks of Tan Tui, the paired low kicks of Chuojiao, the leaping kicks of northern long-fist.

• 打 (dǎ) — striking. The hand (and elbow, shoulder, knee) arts: the dense "seven long, eight short" hitting of mantis, the explosive close blows of Baji.

• 摔 (shuāi) — throwing. Off-balancing and putting the opponent on the ground — the domain of 摔跤 (shuāijiāo), Chinese jacket-wrestling, one of the oldest documented Chinese combat arts.

• 拿 (ná) — seizing. Joint-locking and controlling — the domain of 擒拿 (qínná), the art of catching, twisting, and immobilizing a limb.

The classic strategic maxim ties them to range: 「遠踢、近打、貼身摔（拿）」 — "at distance, kick; close in, strike; body-to-body, throw or seize."

擒拿 Qinna — the seizing art

Qinna (擒拿, "catch and hold") is the joint-locking and seizing method present, in some form, across nearly every Chinese style. It works the body's hinges against their range — wrist, elbow, shoulder, neck — and traditionally divides into families like 分筋 (separating sinew), 錯骨 (mis-seating the joint), and 點穴 (pressing cavities / vulnerable points). The first two are ordinary, demonstrable grappling. The third shades toward legend:

摔跤 Shuaijiao — the throwing art

Shuaijiao (摔跤) — Chinese jacket-wrestling — is among the oldest of the Chinese combat arts, descending from the ancient grappling called 角抵 (jiǎodǐ) and carried into modern times through the 善撲營 (Shànpū Yíng), the Qing imperial wrestlers. It is throwing raised to a complete system, and it was a documented competition category in the Republican-era National Examinations (摔角門).

The modern contrast

The point of the four gates shows up sharply in the modern sport of 散打 / 散手 (sǎndǎ), which was deliberately built on 踢打摔 — kick, strike, throw — while excluding 拿 (seizing) for competitor safety. It is a clean illustration of the old framework: the complete classical art claims all four gates; a safe modern ruleset keeps three and sets the fourth aside.

See also

Praying Mantis (螳螂拳) — famous for combining all four gates densely

Chuojiao + Fanzi (戳腳翻子) — specialists of the kicking gate

The 1928 National Examination — where the gates were tested in the ring

Concepts & Principles — the rest of the ideas behind the movement