Honorable Combat

So, being a second generation black belt, I grew up with stories of the "Old school" Now I would guess that my dad was towards the end of the old school era, which was followed by the 80's which I've heard described by several people as the "Crazy years" lol into the 90's which doesn't really have a name, and then the modern era which I would personally call the "departure" era, or the "division" era. Sorry, little tangent there... So back to the old school days, the days of Shou Shu lore, where men where men, and then there were Men from Moore's, who beat the other men at will. I would say this was due to many things; Da Shifu was very activly involved in the direct teaching, his presence was noticable, it was a different time, to name a few. But when I was coming up, we just didn't train as a whole the way the old school guys did. I'd like to think I did, down at the studio 16 to 20 hours a week, and not B.S. ing, but actually training, working on bodies, or simple working my blocks stances and weapons over and over and over. I think that's what makes a good Shou Shuist. But one thing I always felt was missing was real time application. Sure I did my share of sparring and reactions, I ALWAYS said "Lets do reactions" When a shifu would aks what should we do tonight? Getting back to my point/question, I have heard the term honorable combat throughout my years. My dad described it as sparring, but more than that. As I understood it, this was one area in particular Da Shifu INSISTED ones ego be left at the door. But I was hoping for a broader definition of the term. What exactly was honorable combat, what was it's purpose, its application. How was it carried out monitered and built upon? I've also heard the term "midnight Shou Shu" which was either in the studio with all the lights turned out, or at Lodi Lake using nothing but cigarettes in hand as visual markers. Da Shifu? SSW? Care to shed some light on these topics?