The famous general Yue Fei laid the foundation for modern Chinese martial arts.

Not only a military icon, the famous general Yue Fei is also famous for his martial arts. Many Chinese folk martial arts documents believe that he is the one who laid the foundation for Sanshou, the modern fighting martial art of the mainland today.

The image of famous general Yue Fei on screen - Photo: SH

Legend of the Nhac family's Sanshou

In Chinese history, Yue Fei (1103-1142) is always mentioned as a symbol of loyalty, as well as a great military strategist.

But not only that, the legends of Chinese folk martial arts also link Yue Fei with today's combat martial arts system - the art of Sanshou.

According to many ancient documents of Hubei province (during the Southern Song Dynasty, it was Ezhou, where Yue Fei was stationed for a long time), Yue Fei was born in a chaotic time and learned martial arts early to join the army.

Not only that, when he became a general, he also systematized a number of martial arts that were rich in practical combat at that time, creating a set of "Yue Family Fist", or commonly known as "Yue Family Sanshou", applied to train soldiers.

This system of Sanshou includes hand, foot and grappling attacks, specializes in close combat, and is highly regarded on the battlefield.

Yue Fei played by Huang Xiaoming (center) - Photo: XN

"Scattered" means scattered, not forming a coherent system of boxing techniques. "Scattered" is understood as a type of martial art that uses bare hands, not following a fixed set of boxing techniques.

This "sanshou" system is in contrast to traditional Chinese martial arts and kungfu such as Shaolin, Wudang, Nga Mi... It is not philosophical, does not need a systematic system, but is rich in practicality and flexibility.

Many folk and martial arts documents of the Ming and Qing dynasties mentioned "Yue Family Fist" as one of the "Five Fists of the Northern School".

Martial arts schools in the Hubei, Jiangxi, and Anhui regions today still circulate sets of martial arts considered to be the descendants of the Yue family's Sanshou.

Martial Arts of China magazine (2004) also noted that some folk martial arts forms were associated with Yue Fei's name and had a practical combat structure, focusing on fast, direct attacks, with little decoration.

In the novel Legend of the Condor Heroes , Jin Yong once mentioned the Yue family's martial arts through the character Ouyang Feng's comment that "The Yue family's martial arts passed down by Yue Fei is a masterpiece in martial arts."

Yue Fei laid the foundation of ideology and spirit.

It is worth mentioning that when China entered the modern era, along with the need to reform martial arts to put them into competitive combat, martial arts researchers relied heavily on the combat spirit of Yue family Sanshou .

Sanda (also known as Sanda) was born in the mid-20th century as a form of sport combat, with clear rules, protective gloves and a scoring system.

Punching, kicking, grappling, and throwing techniques were all standardized. Many Chinese martial artists believe that the philosophical roots of Sanshou can be traced to Yue Fei.

Martial artist Tran Huu Long (former coach of the Guangdong Sanshou team) once commented: "Modern Sanshou is the synthesis of the quintessence of Chinese martial arts, in which Yuejiaquan - Sanshou is considered an important classical branch, with practical combat characteristics, close to military confrontation."

Sanshou is today China's number one fighting art - Photo: ESPN

The obvious similarity between Nhac Gia San Thu and today's San Thu is the emphasis on flexibility, not being constrained by a fixed set of forms.

If traditional boxing focuses on performance and sequence, then Sanshou focuses on practical moves, both defense and counterattack.

Elements such as knockdowns and tosses - which were used by Yue Fei to help soldiers quickly defeat opponents on the battlefield - were retained and then standardized into techniques in Sanshou competitions.

This inheritance has led many martial arts scholars to consider Yue Fei to be the "spiritual founder" of Sanshou.

Of course, modern Sanshou is also influenced by many other martial arts such as Hung Quan, Shaolin, Tai Chi, but Nhac Gia Quyen with its neat, combative characteristics has played a fundamental role in ideology.

With Sanshou, Song Yadong (right) is a rare Chinese fighter capable of competing in the UFC ring - Photo: UFC

The anecdotes and documents about the Yue family's Sanshou are not entirely accurate and are still vague. But the important thing is that when combined with the boxing system created by Yue Fei, a great military genius, the status of Sanshou was also raised.

"It's easy to fight against the mountains, but difficult to fight against the Yue family's army" is a popular saying that shows Yue Fei's outstanding military prestige at that time. He and Han Shizhong were considered the two most outstanding generals of the Southern Song Dynasty.

Like the use of soldiers, fighting skills in the ring emphasize speed, strength, flexibility, accuracy and efficiency.

And today, when Sanshou has entered the world , becoming one of the most popular martial arts, studied by many Western martial artists, mainland people cannot help but be proud of Yue Fei - a symbol of Chinese culture.

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/danh-tuong-nhac-phi-dat-nen-mong-cho-vo-thuat-hien-dai-trung-quoc-20250921230907676.htm