Are sparring and sparring the same thing?

Sparring is a form of Chinese martial arts sparring. As you can see here, Sanshou is a general term for this form of combat in the Chinese martial arts. And Sanshou is one of the forms of competition.

The unarmed combat sport of Chinese martial arts has always been known by the names "Sanshou" and "Sanda". As far as I can remember, in the past, it was mostly called Sanshou, for example, in October 1928, the first "National Examination" held by the Central State Martial Arts Museum was called Sanshou, and for many years thereafter, the competitions at all levels of the "National Examination" system were called Sanshou. After the liberation of China, the confrontational competitions of wushu were once stopped, and for quite a long time they were called "competitive wushu", with the core of the competition being the "prescribed routines" and the so-called "difficult maneuvers", which were essentially a comparison of gymnastic competitions. The core of the competition was the "prescribed routines" and the so-called "difficult movements", which was essentially a copy of the gymnastic competition, with a little bit of theatrical martial arts and dance added to it. In the early 80s of last century, the unarmed combat of wushu from the test gradually on the official development, the old loose hand finally resurfaced. However, should it be called "Sanshou" or "Sanda"? At that time, the authorities did not specialize in research, so it has always been two names used in parallel, without any theoretical interpretation and definition, even in the officially issued rules of competition and college textbooks are also so. Turning to the information I have on hand, in May 1980, Wuhan Sports Institute set up a "sparring test group", compiled the "sparring competition rules", which is probably the first rules since the 80s. The 1982 revision of these rules was renamed the "Rules of Competition for Shot Put Competition". Slightly later, the September 1983 edition of the National Physical Education Department's common textbook, Wushu, also had the first section of Chapter 10 as "Scattered Hands". Since then, most of the rules issued by the government have been called Sanshou instead of Sanda, and the 1991 and 1994 editions of the general textbook "Wushu" also use "Sanshou". All this gives the impression that "Sanshou" is the officially recognized name that is being established, while "Sanda" is an alias, an unofficial folk title.

However, the two names have been used interchangeably in contemporary athletic practice, as well as in major officially sponsored events. The large number of such books written by individuals is even more so when you call it sparring and I call it sparring, each in its own way, without distinction.

In the past few years, the Chinese and Thai unarmed combat "competition" has been held several times, and has become a very attractive martial arts event. My impression is that at the beginning of the tournament, the Chinese side called themselves "Chinese Kung Fu", but later changed their name to "Chinese Sanda". For why not use "kung fu" or "sparring", but to use "sparring", wushu management center has not done to explain, everything is in the confusion in the natural way. A few years than down, the advantage of Chinese sparring athletes is becoming more and more obvious, Muay Thai seems to be far from the past media rendered as invincible, we are very encouraged. After the media publicity and repeated broadcasts, now "Sanda" is almost a household name, everyone is familiar with it, compared to the official rules and textbooks have always used "loose hands" but inevitably fall into disrepute, I am afraid that from now on, "loose hands" will be the most important word in Chinese martial arts. I am afraid that from now on, the term "loose hand" can only exist in books, and will gradually be forgotten.

Sometimes the loose hand, sometimes the loose fight, in fact, which name should be used? What is the rationale? I think this is not a small problem, this is the authorities have long neglected the theoretical research caused by a series of blunders in another obvious example. At the end of last year, in the program "Night Talk of the Five Rings" of Central Radio 5, I once raised my voice to ask "What is a sparring match? What is sparring? I asked the question of "What is Sanshou? What is Sanda?" in the sincere hope that the competent authorities will solve the problem as soon as possible, so as to eliminate the negative impact on the image of wushu brought about by the confusion on the basic concepts. Because this conceptual confusion and error is too much, with the ancient and elegant cultural taste of the martial arts is too incongruous.

I personally believe that there should be a distinction between sparring and sparring, and it is best not to mix them. Simply put, the former should refer to the strict rules of unarmed combat sports; the latter refers to irregular, experimental or informal competition, sparring and so on. I advocate that the term "sparring" should continue to be used, and the competent authorities should take the lead in insisting on the use of the term, rather than being careless and creating confusion. In my humble research, the term "loose hands" not only has a long history, but also has a deeper meaning, which is more in line with the spirit of competition advocated by traditional Chinese sports. Compared to "Sanshou", the word "Sanda" is straightforward and shallow, with insufficient meaning, not even comparable to Karate or Taekwondo, and we have not yet found its origin. Preliminary judgment, it may be a recent word, in all likelihood, is the folk low culture people's verbal language, as if the practice of boxing as "play boxing", called the boxer as "the potential" and so on.

In the early 80's, I have pointed out in the "hand fight" article, Juyan Han Jane in the remnants of the "phase of the wrong animal, the phase of the scattered hand" six words, history of Mr. Chen Banghuai suspected that the Han before the work of martial arts, "the hand fight" of the anonymous text. I think this is basically credible, have done further interpretation. Visible "scattered hand" the word ancient. I suspect that the Han Dynasty "scattered hands" is derived from the Zhou Dynasty "scattered shot" in the word, and "scattered shot" has a similar meaning, the original meaning is to practice shooting, is a strict The original meaning was to practice shooting, a practical exercise after the strict training of "ritual shooting". In the Tang Dynasty, the court warriors were called "Sanshou," one of the five types of law enforcement warriors. What is more interesting is the martial dance of the Tang Dynasty, which was introduced to Japan as an eastern neighbor, and there is a kind of dance called "Scattered Hands Breaking Formation Music", "The dance is divided into two main sections, and after the appearance of the stage, a little dance, that is, put the Jinmou on the stage, and then danced with the bare hands, with more squatting and bending of the stock posture. The second time again to take the Jinmou and dance, or flat lift, or up, or down side, very see command military situation. There are some such examples, limited to space, not good to cite more, see my other article. In short, the Qing dynasty taijiquan masters have called the fighter for the scattered hands, other boxing schools also have. During the Republic of China, Mr. Zhang Zhijiang and his main assistants, such as Mr. Tang Hao, etc., are scholarly martial artists with profound education, they should be named dispersed hand with some thought and basis, only our research can not keep up with the people who preside over the results of scientific research in martial arts and do not pay attention to draw in a timely manner, often with no subjective views, people are just like the clouds.

These years, the technical level of loose hand has soared trend, excellent players such as Liu Hailong, really pure martial arts, the world said brave! The whole process of the competition is too heavy, and even some vulgarity, some of the elegant name, such as "Putian knives" and so on, similar to the old public novels in the green characters, should be grasped, there are some choices. Etiquette is also thin, sloppy and even too casual. Athletes on the stage often appear to be eager to win, restless, lack of "give way and rise" demeanor, lack of "every major event has a quiet breath" of the "quiet breath". In short, I think we must strengthen the traditional culture of the game, improve the cultural content and taste, some need to be stipulated, strictly enforced. From this point of view, I think it is much better to call "Sanshou" than "Sanshou"

Traditional martial arts Sanshou and Sanshou the most detailed introduction

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