Self preservation is logically the aim of all self defence arts. However, Wing Chun makes it a guiding principle. Many martial arts gamble on having superior speed or strength. They gamble on their stopping power. This is not the case with Wing Chun. Wing Chun prefers to minimise the risk of being struck or counter-struck. Wing Chun by far prefers to ensure that the attacker can’t strike us whilst ensuring we can strike them. Taking risks is not part of Wing Chun tactics.
In Wing Chun there is a fist saying “Hit if you can, don’t hit if you can’t”. This expresses the view that to “hit and hope” is not the Wing Chun way. I have a saying, coined many years ago when I was young training with two superb disciples in the mountains: “Hit hard, hit fast, hit first, hit last”. the thinking here is that we must strike the opponent before they hit us, we must strike with adequate impact force to stop the opponent in their tracks, we must strike quickly so as to avoid deflection and to shock the opponent, we must also be in the position of knowing that our strike will be the final strike in the encounter. Throughout this we must be aware of not being vulnerable to being struck or counter struck ourselves.
Wing Chun structures, angling and stepping all act to ensure the defender’s safety. Use of the pyramidal and triangular structures, gate theory and an understanding of the ten directions and three times, centerline, our multiple levels of protection as we deflect and counter, targeting, sticking (chi), trapping hands (fun sau) and running hands (jau sau) are all designed to ensure that once an attacker has struck out they are not going to have the opportunity to use that limb again to re-attack and that our attack has a clear line to the target. We thus ensure our safety by these means.