I just came across this form called Shou Shu (see
http://www.mooresshoushu.com/) which makes all kinds of claims:
<blockquote>Our mission is to carry on the traditions of the most complete fighting art in the world, Shou Shu. We teach a pure martial art which has not been altered from it's true fighting traditions. Shou Shu is the fighting art of the Mandarin warlords who have been the ruling class throughout China's history. It is a rare art mostly unheard of in the typical histories written on martial arts. There are several reasons for this. The first, it was only taught to the eldest son of a Mandarin warlord. In this way it's secrets were kept closely guarded. It is an extremely powerful and sophisticated system which was considered a true treasure to those who trained in it. For this reason it was closely guarded and still is. Secondly, to be called Shou Shu it must have all seven animal systems. There are actually seven systems taught. Each of these systems is a martial art in themselves. Each is based on one of the seven fighting beasts. These are the bear (xiong ) , the tiger (hu ) , the mongoose(you ), the white crane(ba he ), the praying mantis (tang , the cobra (fu) , and the imperial dragon (long ). When these seven systems are combined only then may it rightfully be called Shou Shu. There are many systems out there which teach one or two of these fighting beasts and go by another name.
</blockquote>
The question is, is this real or another bogus one? Here's some of its supposed history, from a forum on that site (
http://mooresshoushu.com/board/viewt...FID=6&TID=13):
<blockquote>When Da' Shifu was a boy, he lived in the bay near Chine Town (I can't remember which one right now). At that time the Chinese didn't have much in the way of police protection and they were targets for criminals. A man was sent from Chine by the name of Lu Chin (spelling?) This man was a Da' Shifu. Being a time of peril, it was decided that Lu Chin would teach the Chinese people in the area so that they could protect themselves from criminals. Da' Shifu's best friend was Jimmy Chin who was Lu Chin's Grandson. Da' Shifu was invited to study.
After WWII, Da' Shifu then went to Chine to complete his education. He studied in what he said was like a college. This was in the town of Tinsin, now called TianJian. Each of the masters specialized in an individual beast.
I doubt that Shou Shu has been evolved from any of the modern arts. I would think of the evolution of the martial arts a little differently. For the most part they all originated in Egypt. At that time they were probably very basic. Lots of wrestling. They were then further developed in India. Eventually they made their way to China. I'm sure that along the way there were many different schools of thought. Each of these broke off and formed their own art. Each evolving in their own way. This is why if you compare some of the things that you see in other arts to Shou Shu, you can see some similarities but they are very far removed.
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Hmm.. here's a picture of their chief master "Da Shifu" (the shifu? as in "Da Mayor"?)
http://www.mooresshoushu.com/dashifu.shtml
I dunno... seems fishy, but maybe someone here knows one way or the other.
Registered User
Originally Posted by bodhitree
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