I have a question of Shen Wu in connection with San Shou. For the longest time, I thought of San shou as chinese kick boxing or chinese free style kungfu fighting. But recently I learn that San Shou is a system of fighting developed for the Chinese Red Army.

San Shou as my kungfu friends from my High School and Jr High School days told me, is just using all of your kungfu in a personalize way to fight in no rule situations except for in the right. Most people pull from Choy Li Fut, Wing chun, and JKD with a little Muy Thai sometimes.

If San Shou is view in this way, isn't Shen Wu, San Shou but pulling from the internals instead of the more common styles used.

This is just a thought. I'm not sure if my view of San Shou is right. I'm just wondering if Shen Wu could be viewed as San Shou base on the internals. Or is Shen Wu aim to be something different all together.

I can't speak for Shen Wu since I don't practice it (laughter, sighs and grimaces in the audience). But Tim has written on the meaning of
the phrase "shen wu" as the "essence" of the martial arts, including martial spirit/mindset.

My impression of the term "san shou" is that it simply means "free fighting". I've seen it used in connection with taijiquan tuishou and baguazhang roushou, as well as just general sparring.

"San Da" is the term I've heard used for the system that the People's Army in mainland China is taught. Li Tailiang was a san da instructor and "san shou" coach in Beijing before coming over here. If you have access to the Internal Martial Arts Journal (www.sixharmonies.org), you might find more discussion of the term.

Tom is right, "San Shou," in its original meaning, refers to the "free fighting" or technical application portion of any martial art. Modern San Shou or San Da came originally from the Red army hand to hand training. The Chinese government surveyed the existing styles of martial art (both Chinese and foreign), and chose what they felt was best of several arts. San Shou as a free fighting martial art, is primarily composed of Northern Chinese kicking techniques, some Chnese hand techniques with a heavy emphasis on Western boxing, and throws from Chinese Shuai Jiao. In sport fighting, ground fighting is not allowed.

Hi Tim. You're right. Have you seen the book "From East to West, the San Shou kung fu of the Chinese Red Army": Paladin Press?

I have the book, I like it.

I'm so glad - I co-wrote it
You do good work yourself.

Good work!

BTW - the army in China is called the "People's Liberation Army" or PLA.... Red Army is an archaic 70s era term coined in the US

hi alll nice work

Thank you.

Wasn't San Soo also a fairly recent Military Gongfu system? I think it developed more in Taiwan than Mainland China though.

San shou / san soo are the same (more or less) - free fighting, utilizing the best techniques for the person. San shou has always been around but it most recently began to be more 'reality based' as opposed to some who look for formula 'tuishou', wing chun hands, etc and the like.

As anyone knows, people will try to grab you 95% of the time if you do not go down by a 'sucker' punch initially.