My friends Chris LeBlanc and Michael Selin have a new blog about my Shen Wu (or, in Japanese "Shinbu") martial methods and related Jiu Jitsu topics:

http://shinbujj.wordpress.com/about/

Great, I'll have to keep my eye on that blog!

Thanks Tim, and Chris!

We'll be updating soon with more pics and info, seminar announcements, and even some articles from Tim and hopefully other students!

I always thought Shen wu translated to Divine nothingness.

That's a different "Wu."

Ah,

So then its divine martial art?

More like "Essence of Martial Art."

That one was next.

Hey while where on the subject, I've heard that 武-bu/wu is a combination character. Combining 戈- Hoko in Japanese, the old word for spear. and 止- Tomo in Japanese meaning stop.

So some real 武 to mean "stop spears" Or to stop conflict. However I have also heard that 止 means low or foot in chinese. So 武 could mean foot (soldiers) with spears. Which wouldn't have any kind of "stop conflict" nature, but more of a here we come with conflict nature.

Could you share more about the character 武, Tim?

Oh- it won't let me put characters in, sorry...

Pulled out the Matthews...For - pardon me but "24790" (tomo, zhi/chih in Chinese) to mean "foot" it has a different radical, but it is pronounced the same in Mandarin.

Wu is comprised of ge/hoko which is an old school Chinese halberd type weapon and tomo/zhi which means to stop/still.

There is a defensive/protective element to it that is different from simply "fighting."

Chinese martial ethos is much more about control, and for lack of a better word a "surgical" application of violence and not one that condones violence. The highest levels of the inherited tradition in Japan are also reflective of this. Winning a match with the sword "still in the scabbard" is another rendering of the acme of skill being winning a fight without fighting....your martial prowess is such that you do not have to fight because the opponent is already defeated. By no means in a pacifistic sense, rather in an overwhelming martial bearing - or such a skillful rendering of orthodox and unorthodox (zheng/qi) tactics, that causes the enemy to give up without contesting.

There IS a moral element of not killing needlessly, however.

And thus, Shen Wu.

Wu - ji

Wu - wei

shen - jing - chi

Wu - shu

these are the words i was going off of.

I guess chinese is better when read properly, not thru english translation.

Either way, it all kinda fits.

Different wu in wuji and wuwei than in wushu.

Shen is the same but the meaning is a bit different....

Im gonna learn mandarin someday...

Maybe cantonese too. harder to find cantonese though..

As far as Japanese goes, and I would guess chinese as well, you can't read the romonji and understand what something says. You have to know what characters are being used. There are just too many homonyms.

republicans are anti-homonym.

True, there are lots of homonyms.. Not that there is anything wrong with that...

Im more of an adverb. Tbh