Zhou Tong ( and 周侗;
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...
: Zhōu Tóng) (died late 1121 CE) was the
archery
Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...
teacher and second military arts tutor of famous
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
general
Yue Fei
Yue Fei ( zh, t=岳飛; March 24, 1103 – January 28, 1142), courtesy name Pengju (), was a Chinese military general who lived during the Song dynasty, Southern Song dynasty and a national hero of China, known for leading Southern Song force ...
. Originally a local hero from
Henan
Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...
, he was hired to continue Yue Fei's military training in archery after the boy had rapidly mastered spearplay under his first teacher. In addition to the future general, Zhou accepted other children as archery pupils. During his tutelage, Zhou taught the children all of his skills and even rewarded Yue with his two favorite bows because he was his best pupil. After Zhou's death, Yue would regularly visit his tomb twice a month and perform unorthodox sacrifices that far surpassed that done for even beloved tutors. Yue later taught what he had learned from Zhou to his soldiers and they were successful in battle.
With the publishing of Yue Fei's 17th folklore biography, ''
The Story of Yue Fei'' (1684), a new, fictional Zhou Tong emerged, who differed greatly from his historical persona. Not only was he now from
Shaanxi
Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...
, but he was Yue's adopted father, a learned scholar with knowledge of the
eighteen weapons of war, and his
personal name
A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is known ...
was spelled with a different, yet related, Chinese character.
[Hsia, C.T. ''C.T. Hsia on Chinese Literature''. Columbia University Press, 2004 (), pp. 448–449, footnote #31] The novel's author portrayed him as an elderly widower and military arts tutor who counted
Lin Chong and
Lu Junyi, two of the fictional
108 outlaws on which the ''
Water Margin
''Water Margin'' (''Shuihu zhuan'') is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin, and is attributed to Shi Nai'an. It is also translated as ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' and ''All Men Are Brothers''.
The story, which is s ...
'' is based, among his former pupils.
[Qian, Cai. ''General Yue Fei''. Trans. Honorable Sir T.L. Yang. Joint Publishing (H.K.) Co., Ltd., 1995 (), p. 39.] A later
republican era folktale
A folktale or folk tale is a folklore genre that typically consists of a story passed down from generation to generation orally.
Folktale may also refer to:
Categories of stories
* Folkloric tale from oral tradition
* Fable (written form of the a ...
by noted
Yangzhou
Yangzhou, postal romanization Yangchow, is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province (Suzhong), East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yan ...
storyteller
Wang Shaotang not only adds
Wu Song to this list, but represents Zhou as a
knight-errant with supreme swordsmanship. The tale also gives him the nickname "Iron Arm", which he shares with the
executioner-turned-outlaw
Cai Fu, and makes the outlaw
Lu Zhishen
Lu Zhishen is a fictional character in '' Water Margin'', one of the four great classical novels in Chinese literature. He is the main character in the first segment of the novel, which spans about six chapters. Nicknamed "Flowery Monk", he ra ...
his
sworn brother.
[ Because of his association with the outlaws, he is often confused with the similarly named outlaw Zhou Tong.][ See number 6 on p. 4. Notice the author portrays him as the outlaw from the ]Water Margin
''Water Margin'' (''Shuihu zhuan'') is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin, and is attributed to Shi Nai'an. It is also translated as ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' and ''All Men Are Brothers''.
The story, which is s ...
and spells his name as 周通, instead of the correct 周同 (historical) or 周侗 (fictional).
Various wuxia
( ), which literally means "martial heroes", is a genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists in ancient China. Although is traditionally a form of historical fiction, its popularity has caused it to be adapted f ...
novels and folk legends have endowed Zhou with different kinds of martial and supernatural skills. These range from mastery of the bow, double broadswords, and Chinese spear
A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fasten ...
to that of Wudang hard qigong and even x-ray vision. Practitioners of Eagle Claw, Chuōjiǎo and Xingyi commonly include him within their lineage history because of his association with Yue Fei
Yue Fei ( zh, t=岳飛; March 24, 1103 – January 28, 1142), courtesy name Pengju (), was a Chinese military general who lived during the Song dynasty, Southern Song dynasty and a national hero of China, known for leading Southern Song force ...
, the supposed progenitor of these styles. He is also linked to Northern Praying Mantis boxing via Lin Chong and Yan Qing
Yan Qing is a fictional character in ''Water Margin'', one of the Four Great Classical Novels in Chinese literature. Nicknamed "''Langzi''" (浪子; meaning "the Wanderer" or "the Prodigal"), he ranks last among the 36 Heavenly Spirits, the fir ...
. Wang Shaotang's folktale even represents him as a master of Drunken Eight Immortals boxing.[Børdahl, 1996: p. 373.] However, the oldest historical record that mentions his name only says he taught archery to Yue Fei.[Yue, Ke (岳柯). ''Jin Tuo Xu Pian'' (金佗续编), 1234 – Chapter 28, p. 16.] Nothing is ever said about him knowing or teaching a specific style of Chinese martial arts.
Zhou has appeared in various forms of media such as novels, comic books, and movies. His rare 20th century biography, '' Iron Arm, Golden Sabre'', serves as a sequel to ''The Story of Yue Fei'' because it details his adventures decades prior to taking Yue as his pupil.[ This was later adapted into a ten volume Lianhuanhua comic book.][Xiong, Ti (匈棣). ''The Legend of Zhou Tong'' (周侗传奇) (Vol. 1–10). Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House (浙江美术 出版社), 1987] He also appears in a novel concerning one of his fictional martial arts brothers.[Lou, Yun He (楼云和). ''Jin Tai Fights the Shaolin Monastery Three Times'' (金台三打少林寺). Zhejiang Literature & Art Publishing House (浙江文艺出版社), 1986] He was portrayed by three different actors in a string of black and white
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey.
Media
The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
Yue Fei films produced in the 1940s and 1960s, one of which featured a ten-year-old Sammo Hung
Sammo Hung Kam-bo ( zh, t=洪金寶, j=Hung4 Gam1-bou2; born 7 January 1952) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, film producer and Film director, director, known for his work in martial arts films, Hong Kong action cinema, and as a fight choreog ...
as the lead
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
. Veteran martial arts actor Yu Chenghui
Yu Chenghui (16 August 1939 – 4 July 2015), sometimes credited as Yue Sing-wai, was a Chinese actor, action director and martial artist.
Martial arts career
Yu started practising martial arts at the age of 11, specialising in the use of the ''j ...
, who played the sword-wielding antagonist
An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the chief foe of the protagonist.
Etymology
The English word antagonist comes from the Greek ἀνταγωνιστής – ''antagonistēs'', "opponent, competitor, villain, enemy, riv ...
in Jet Li
Li Lianjie (courtesy name Yangzhong; born 26 April 1963), better known by his stage name Jet Li, is a Chinese film actor, film producer, Chinese martial arts, martial artist, and retired wushu (sport), Wushu champion. He is a naturalized Singapo ...
's ''Shaolin Temple
Shaolin Monastery (少林寺 ''Shàolínsì''), also known as Shaolin Temple, is a renowned monastic institution recognized as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the cradle of Shaolin Kung Fu. It is located at the foot of Wuru Peak of the So ...
'', stated in a 2005 interview that he has always wanted to portray Zhou in a film.
History
Mention in Yue family memoirs
On his deathbed, Yue Fei's third son Yue Lin (岳霖, 1130–1192 AD) asked his own son, the poet and historian Yue Ke (岳珂, 1183–post-1240), to complete Yue Fei's memoirs. This two-part memoir was completed in 1203, some sixty years after the general's political execution, but was not published until 1234. It was later abridged in 1345 and published in the Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...
's dynastic chronology ''History of the Song Dynasty
The Song dynasty (Chinese: 宋朝; pinyin: Sòng cháo; 960–1279) of China was an imperial dynasty that ruled most of China proper and southern China from the middle of the 10th century into the last quarter of the 13th century. The dynasty ...
'' under the title '' Biography of Yue Fei'' (chapter 365, biography 124).[Wilhelm, Hellmut. "From Myth to Myth: The Case of Yueh Fei's biography", in ''Confucian Personalities'', ed. Arthur Wright and Denis Twitchett. Stanford studies in the civilizations of eastern Asia. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1962 (), p. 147.] Zhou's mention in Yue Ke's memoir was only briefly summarized in the Yuan rewrite. It reads, "He ue Feilearned archery
Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...
from Zhou Tong. He learned everything and could fire with his left and right hands. After Tong's death, he would offer sacrifices at his tomb".[)][Selby, Stephen. ''Chinese Archery''. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2000 (), p. 258.]
Western Washington University history professor Edward Kaplan explains Zhou was a "local hao" ( 豪 – "heroic (person)").[ He comments ''Hao'' can also mean "a ' knight errant' in poetic translation, or in prosaic terms a professional strongman and bodyguard.'"][ This means Zhou was a local hero from ]Tangyin County
Tangyin County () is a county in the north of Henan province, China. It is under the administration of Anyang
Anyang (; ) is a prefecture-level city in Henan province, China. The northernmost city in Henan, Anyang borders Puyang to the east, Hebi ...
, Anyang prefecture, Henan
Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...
province (th
same area as Yue Fei
.[Foster, Robert W. "Yue Fei, 1103–1141" in ''The Human Tradition in Premodern China''. Human tradition around the world, no. 4, ed. Kenneth James Hammond. Wilmington, Del: Scholarly Resources, 2002. (), p. 95.][Kaplan: p. 5.]
Historical and scholarly sources spell his personal name
A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is known ...
as 同 (Tong), meaning "same or similar".[ This differs from the spelling present in fictional sources, which will be further explained below. So, "周同" represents the ''historical'' archer.
]
Tutelage
Despite being literate, giving him a chance to become a scholar, young Yue Fei chose the military path because there had never been any tradition of full-fledged Confucian civil service in his family history. He would stay up all night reading military strategy books and idolized such great historical heroes as Guan Yu.[Wilhelm: p. 149.] However, the Yue family was much too poor to afford military lessons for their son, so, Yao Dewang, the boy's maternal grandfather, hired Chen Guang (陳廣) to teach the eleven-year-old how to wield the Chinese spear
A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fasten ...
. Yao was very surprised when his grandson quickly mastered the spear by the age of thirteen.[Kaplan: p. 13.] Zhou was then brought in to continue Yue's military training in archery.[Qian, Ru Wen (錢汝雯). ''Biography of Song Yue, Prince of E'' (宋岳鄂王年), 1924] Dr. Kaplan describes Zhou as the "most important" of the two teachers.[Kaplan: p. 10.]
A section of the ''Jin Tuo Xu Pian'', the second part of Yue Ke's original published memoir, describes one of Zhou's archery lessons and reveals that he took other children as his pupils:
"One day, hou
Hou or HOU may refer to:
* -hou, a place-name element
* Hou (surname)
* Hou (currency) (Chinese: ), a unit of currency in Greater China
* Hou (Odder Municipality), a town in Denmark
* Hou (title) (Chinese: ), a title in ancient China
* Denglong (m ...
T'ung gathered his pupils for an archery session and to display his ability put three arrows in succession into the center of the target. Pointing to the target to show grandfather ue Fei he said: 'After you can perform like this, you can say you are an archer'. Grandfather, thanked him and asked to be allowed to try. He drew his bow, let fly his arrow and struck the end of T'ung's arrow. He shot again and again hit the mark. T'ung was greatly amazed and subsequently presented to grandfather his two favorite bows. Thereafter grandfather practiced still more ntilhe was able to shoot to the left and right, accurately letting fly the arrow as he moved. When he became a general he taught this to his officers and men so that his whole army became skilled at shooting to the left and right and frequently used this technique to crush the enemy's spirit".[Kaplan: p. 11.]
The last sentence of the passage is similar to one from the Republican era ''Biography of Song Yue, Prince of E''. But instead of teaching them his own technique, it states Yue taught what he had learned from Zhou to his soldiers who were victorious in battle.[
]
Death
Zhou continued to teach the children until his death, prior to Yue's legal adulthood.[ Following his passing, Yue became extremely depressed since Zhou had been the greatest influence on his early life.][ Zhou's student would regularly visit his tomb on the first and fifteenth of every month with sacrifices of meat and wine and would shoot three arrows in succession with one of the two bows his tutor had presented him with (it is never mentioned whether any of Zhou's other archery pupils came to visit his tomb). Dr. Kaplan comments this continuous unusual display of mourning "went far beyond the ceremonial appropriate for even a highly respected teacher".][ Noted ]Sinologist
Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...
Hellmut Wilhelm
Hellmut Wilhelm (10 December 1905 – 5 July 1990) was a German Sinologist known for his studies of both Chinese literature and Chinese history. Wilhelm was an expert on the ancient Chinese divination text '' I Ching (Yi jing)'', whic ...
claims even though the display of grief was genuine, it was also a way of emulating the stories of his heroic idols and " stablishing himselfin the public eye".[ Yue's father later followed him secretly to Zhou's tomb after striking him during an argument over his melancholic behavior. There, he saw him perform the unorthodox obediences involving the meat, wine, and three arrows. When he finally confronted him, the son confessed that "his gratitude for Chou's instruction could not be requited simply by the usual first and middle of the month ceremonies and so he ... shot off the three arrows to symbolize that Chou had been the source of his inspiration as an archer".][Kaplan: p. 12.] Dr. Kaplan's states this happened just prior to Yue's entrance into the army and that the entire event served as a symbol for Yue's "entrance into responsible manhood".[
The ''Chronology of Yue Wumu'' lists the events at Zhou's tomb happening in 1121 when Yue was nineteen,][ but Yue would have been eighteen in that year since he was born on "the fifteenth day of the second month of 1103".][Kaplan: pp. 3–4] The author of the original source material was using xusui age calculation, in which a child is already considered one year old at birth. Since Yue joined the military shortly after Zhou's death, a relative time frame can be given for when he died. During the early months of 1122, the Song empire mobilized its armed forces to assist the Jurchen in confronting their common enemy, the Liao dynasty
The Liao dynasty (; Khitan: ''Mos Jælud''; ), also known as the Khitan Empire (Khitan: ''Mos diau-d kitai huldʒi gur''), officially the Great Liao (), was an imperial dynasty of China that existed between 916 and 1125, ruled by the Yelü ...
.[Kaplan: p. 32.] Therefore, it appears that Zhou died in late 1121, before the call to arms was issued.
Fiction
Zhou Tong's fictional life story can be pieced together from two sources: '' The Story of Yue Fei'' and '' Iron Arm, Golden Sabre''. ''The Story of Yue Fei'' is a fictionalized retelling of Yue Fei's young life, military exploits, and execution. It was written by a native of Renhuo named Qian Cai (钱彩), who lived sometime between the reigns of the Kangxi
The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 1654– 20 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, born Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1661 to 1 ...
and Qianlong emperors in the Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
. The preface dates the book's publication to 1684. It was deemed a threat by the Qing emperors and banned during the Qianlong era. In the novel, Zhou is portrayed as an elderly widower and Yue's only military arts tutor. The General's historical spear master Chen Guang is never mentioned. Zhou teaches Yue Fei and his sworn brothers military and literary arts from chapters two through five, before his death.
In the writing of his novel, Qian Cai used a different character when spelling Zhou's given name.[ Instead of the original character meaning "similar", it was changed to 侗, meaning "rude or rustic". So, "周侗" represents Zhou's distinct ''fictional'' persona. This spelling has even been carried over into modern day martial arts manuals.][Liang, Shou-Yu and Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming. ''Xingyiquan: Theory, Applications, Fighting Tactics and Spirit''. Boston: YMAA Publication Center, 2002. (), p. 15.]
''Iron Arm, Golden Sabre'' was written by Wang Yun Heng and Xiao Yun Long and published in 1986.[ This novel, which serves as Zhou's own fictional biography, is a ]prequel
A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work.
The term " ...
to ''The Story of Yue Fei'' because it details his adventures decades prior to taking Yue Fei as his student. It follows his life as a young martial arts instructor in the Song army's Imperial guard, his struggles against the Xixia
The Western Xia or the Xi Xia (), officially the Great Xia (), also known as the Tangut Empire, and known as ''Mi-nyak''Stein (1972), pp. 70–71. to the Tanguts and Tibetans, was a Tangut-led Buddhist imperial dynasty of China tha ...
and Liao Tartar barbarian tribes and his tutelage of ''Water Margin
''Water Margin'' (''Shuihu zhuan'') is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin, and is attributed to Shi Nai'an. It is also translated as ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' and ''All Men Are Brothers''.
The story, which is s ...
'' outlaws. The last few chapters incorporate the storyline from the four chapters that he appears in ''The Story of Yue Fei''. This was later adapted into a ten volume Lianhuanhua
''Lianhuanhua'' () is a type of palm-size picture books of sequential drawings popular in China in the 20th century. It influenced modern manhua.Wong, Wendy Siuyi. 002(2001) Hong Kong Comics: A History of Manhua. Princeton Architectural Press. N ...
-style comic book called '' The Legend of Zhou Tong'' in 1987.[
]
Early life and adulthood
Zhou is born in Shaanxi and trains in the martial arts from a young age. He is taken as one of the pupils of Shaolin master Tan Zhengfang (谭正芳) and, learning the true essence of Shaolin Kung Fu, becomes proficient in things both literary and martial. Tan's other students include the future generals Jin Tai (金台) and Zong Ze ( 宗澤) and the future Water Margin outlaws Sun Li and Luan Tingyu. As a young man, Zhou catches the attention of Judge Bao Zheng and enlists in the military as an officer. His superiors take note of his great skill after he helps his classmate General Jin battle Liao Tartars in northern China and install him as a teacher in the Capital Imperial Martial Arts School. The school has three teaching positions named in order of prestige: "Heaven," "Earth," and "Man." Since he has the greatest skill, he occupies the Heaven position. He uses this post and his friendship with General Zong to get their classmate Sun Li installed as the Superintendent of Forces of Dengzhou
Dengzhou (), formerly Deng County (), is a city in Nanyang, Henan, China. It has an area of and a population of 1,500,000. The urban area is 35 km², and the urban population is 300,000. The city is located in the southwest of Henan provin ...
. Sun later becomes an outlaw under Chao Gai and helps defeat the evil Zhu Family, who learn military arts from his classmate Luan Tingyu.
As he grows older, Zhou becomes dissatisfied with politics because the Imperial court chooses to appease the northern barbarian tribes instead of standing against them. He then devotes himself wholeheartedly to his martial arts practice and creates several official and authoritative techniques including the "five step, thirteen lance piercing kick", which is a development of Shaolin Fanzi boxing, and the "Zhou Tong cudgel." He makes a concerted effort to transmit his martial efforts while teaching at the Imperial Martial Arts School and formally accepts two disciples: "Jade Unicorn" Lu Junyi and "Panther head" Lin Chong. Lu Junyi is a millionaire with vast land holdings and does not hold office, but Lin Chong inherits Zhou's position after his retirement, and continues to serve as the lead instructor for the 800,000 members of the Song army's Imperial Guard.
During this time, Zhou Tong also has an additional disciple named Wu Song. Wu Song becomes famous for killing a man-eating tiger with his bare hands and is appointed as a constable in his native Shandong
Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region.
Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...
. The county magistrate Sun Guoqin later sends Wu on a mission to Kaifeng with precious tiger bone balm in order to curry favor with influential personages. During his stay in the capital, he makes the acquaintance of Zhou. Zhou finds Wu to be a man of great strength, but feels that he lacks refinement in his martial technique and, therefore, offers guidance for Wu's training. Unfortunately, these two men only interact for a brief two months before Wu has to return home, never to see Zhou again.
Following his retirement, Zhou serves for a time as an advisor to General Liu Guangshi ( 劉光世), whose troops are garrisoned in Henan Province. But Zhou later becomes an outlaw himself after he aids the heroes of the ''Water Margin
''Water Margin'' (''Shuihu zhuan'') is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin, and is attributed to Shi Nai'an. It is also translated as ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' and ''All Men Are Brothers''.
The story, which is s ...
'' and is forced to flee from government forces. Meanwhile, he learns his elderly classmate Jin Tai is close to death and hurries to Shaolin (where the general had become a Buddhist monk after the murder of his family) to pay his last respects. As the oldest of Tan's pupils, Jin orders Zhou to find a talented youth to pass on all of his martial arts knowledge to. However, this reunion is cut short when the troops track him to Shaolin. He flees to Wine Spring mountain and lives in hiding for sometime before being invited by his old friend Wang Ming (王明) to become the precept of the Wang family in Unicorn Village.[
]
Old age and death
One day, Zhou surprises the children with a written exam and leaves the classroom to speak with a visitor. Wang's son, Wang Gui (王贵), tricks their maid's son, Yue Fei, into completing their assignment while they go outside to play. After easily finishing the task at hand, Yue writes a heroic poem
An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.
...
on a whitewash
Whitewash, or calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime ( calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk calcium carbonate, (CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes used ...
ed wall and signs it with his name. The children then burst into the classroom upon learning of Zhou's forthcoming return and tell Yue to escape in order to avoid apprehension. The old teacher eventually discovers the ruse and, after marveling at Yue's impromptu ballad, asks Yue to fetch his mother, Lady Yao (姚夫人), for an important meeting. With the entire Wang household assembled in the main hall, Zhou asks the Lady for her blessing to have the boy as his adopted son and student. She consents and Yue takes his seat amongst Zhou's students
A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution.
In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementary ...
the following morning. Because Zhou knows Yue is poor, he commands the four students to become sworn brothers. Zhou also begins to teach Yue all of the eighteen weapons of war.
Six years later, Zhou takes the group to visit his old friend, the abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...
of a small Buddhist temple on the "Hill of Dripping Water". Thirteen-year-old Yue wanders behind the temple and finds the "Cave of Dripping Water", in which lives a magical snake. When it lunges at Yue, he dodges to one side and pulls on its tail with his supernatural strength, causing it to turn into an , gold-plated spear named the "Supernatural Spear of Dripping Water". When they return home, Zhou begins to drill all of his students in the military arts— eighteen weapons of war, archery, and hand-to-hand combat. After three years of practice, Zhou enters them into a preliminary military examination in Tangyin
Tangyin County () is a county in the north of Henan province, China. It is under the administration of Anyang
Anyang (; ) is a prefecture-level city in Henan province, China. The northernmost city in Henan, Anyang borders Puyang to the east, Hebi ...
in which sixteen-year-old Yue wins first place by shooting a succession of nine arrows through the bullseye of a target two hundred and forty paces away. After his display of marksmanship, Yue is asked to marry the daughter of Li Chun (李春), an old friend of Zhou's and the county magistrate who presided over the military exams. Father and son then return home to their village.
Magistrate Li writes out a marriage certificate and dispatches a messenger to deliver the document to Yue Fei in Unicorn Village. Zhou and Yue set out at dawn and travel back to Tangyin to thank the Magistrate for his generosity and kindness. There, Li prepares a great feast for them, but when food is brought out for any servants that might have accompanied them, Zhou comments that they had come on foot without help. Li decides to let Yue pick from any one of his thousands of horses because every able military man needs a strong steed. After finishing their feast, Zhou and Yue thank Li once again and leave Tangyin to return home.[Qian: pp. 24–56] During their journey, Zhou recommends that Yue run the horse to test its speed. Yue spurs the horse on leaving Zhou in pursuit. When they reach the village gate, the two dismount and Zhou returns to his study where he feels hot from the race and removes his outer garments to fan himself. But he soon falls ill and stays bedridden for seven days. Then the book describes his death and burial:
"... his phlegm bubbled up and he died. This was on the fourteenth day of the ninth month in the seventeenth year of the Reign of Xuan He, and his age was seventy-nine ... Buddhist and Taoist Priests were asked to come and chant prayers, for seven times seven, namely forty-nine days. Then the body was taken up to be buried beside the Hill of Dripping Water".
Yue lives in a shed by his grave through the winter and in the second lunar month
In lunar calendars, a lunar month is the time between two successive syzygies of the same type: new moons or full moons. The precise definition varies, especially for the beginning of the month.
Variations
In Shona, Middle Eastern, and Europ ...
of the following year, his martial brothers come and pull the building down, forcing him to return home and take care of his mother.
The quoted death date is not only unreliable because the book is fiction, but also because the '' Xuan He'' reign era of Emperor Huizong lasted only seven years (1119–1125) and not seventeen. Although ''The Story of Yue Fei'' states Zhou died shortly before Yue took a wife, he historically died ''after'' Yue married.[ It is likely that the original author invented this fictional date.
]
Family
According to '' The Story of Yue Fei'', Zhou was married with a son.[Qian: p. 24.] But Zhou comments that his "old wife" died and his "small son" was killed in battle against the Liaos after leaving with the outlaw Lu Junyi to fight in the war.[Qian: p. 25.] In '' The Legend of Zhou Tong'', his wife is named Meng Cuiying (孟翠英) and his son is named Zhou Yunqing (周云清).[Xiong: Vol. 2 and 8] He defeats Meng in a lei tai martial arts contest and wins her as his wife. But she is shortly thereafter kidnapped by the wicked monks of the Stone Buddha temple. Both Zhou and Meng eventually defeat the monks with their combined martial skills and later marry at the Miaochuan Pass in Hubei province.
Zhou Yunqing first appears as a fierce, impulsive young man who rides his horse into the thick of enemy encampments wielding a long spear. He later dies in battle against the Liao dynasty
The Liao dynasty (; Khitan: ''Mos Jælud''; ), also known as the Khitan Empire (Khitan: ''Mos diau-d kitai huldʒi gur''), officially the Great Liao (), was an imperial dynasty of China that existed between 916 and 1125, ruled by the Yelü ...
. After his son's death, Zhou retreats to th
Xiangguo Temple
for a long mourning period. He later takes seven-year-old Yue Fei as his adopted son and sole heir years after the boy's father drowns in a great flood:
"I see that he ue Feiis clever and handsome and I, an old man, wish to have him as my adopted son ... He need change neither his name nor his surname. I only want him to call me father temporarily so that I can faithfully transmit all the skills I have learned in my life to a single person. Later, when I die, all he has to do is to bury my old bones in the earth and not allow them to be exposed, and that is all".[Qian: pp. 33–34]
However, after comparing events from ''The Story of Yue Fei'' and an account of Yue's life from the sixteenth-century work ''Restoration of the Great Song Dynasty: The Story of King Yue'' (大宋中興岳王傳), literary critic C.T. Hsia concluded "that his father did not istoricallydie in the flood and that, although Yueh Fei showed almost filial regard for the memory of his teacher Chou T'ung 同 (not 侗), the latter had not been his adopted father".[ The ''Restoration of the Great Song'' was one of the earliest of four "historical novels" (fictionalized dynastic chronologies) written about Yue during the ]Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
, all of which predate ''The Story of Yue Fei''. Despite the addition of popular legends, Xiong Damu ( fl 1552), the author of ''The Story of King Yue'', relied heavily on historical chronologies including Zhu Xi
Zhu Xi (; ; October 18, 1130 – April 23, 1200), formerly romanized Chu Hsi, was a Chinese calligrapher, historian, philosopher, poet, and politician during the Song dynasty. Zhu was influential in the development of Neo-Confucianism. He con ...
's (1130–1200) ''Outlines and Details Based on the T'ung-chien'', Yue Ke's family memoir, and the Yuan dynasty's official '' Biography of Yue Fei'' to write his story. So, ''The Story of Yue Fei'' was the first full-blown fictionalized novel to introduce the adoption storyline.
Appearance and voice
He is generally portrayed as a large elderly man with a powerful voice. A modern folktale by noted Yangzhou storyteller Wang Shaotang (1889–1968), whom folklore researcher Vibeke Børdahl called "the unrivaled master of this he 20th
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
century", describes Zhou thus,
"He was beyond the age of fifty, he was more than fifty, and standing upright he measured about eight feet. His face had a golden tan, arched brows, a pair of bright eyes, a regular head form, a square mouth, a pair of protruding ears, and under his chin there were three locks of beard, a grizzled beard. On his head he wore a sky-blue satin scarf, and he was dressed in a stately sky-blue satin coat with a silken girdle, a pair of wide black trousers without crotch and satin boots with thin soles".
Heroes and religious masters with above normal height are a recurring theme in Chinese folklore. For instance, his student Wu Song is said to be over nine feet tall in the same folktale. In '' The Story of Yue Fei'', the General simultaneously duels with two other warriors vying for first place in a military exam; one is nine feet tall and the other is eight feet tall. A Hagiography
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...
of the Taoist
Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the ''Tao'' ...
saint Zhang Daoling states he was over seven feet tall.
When Zhou is vocalized in " Yangzhou storytelling", he speaks in "Square mouth public talk", which is a manner of speaking reserved for martial heroes, highly respected characters, or, sometimes, lesser characters that pretend to be an important hero. Square mouth public talk is actually a mixture of two forms of dialogue: ''Fangkou'' and ''Guanbai''. ''Fangkou'' (square mouth) is a manner of steady, yet forceful over pronunciation of dialogue that was possibly influenced by Northern Chinese opera. ''Guanbai'' (public talk) is monologue
In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes a ...
and dialogue that is sometimes used for "imposing heroes". This mixture of styles means Zhou Tong is treated as a highly regarded hero.
In her analysis of Yangzhou storytelling, Børdahl noted that the aforementioned tale about Zhou and Wu Song uses different forms of dialogue for both characters. Wu speaks square mouth utilizing standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standar ...
without rusheng (short glottal syllables). On the contrary, Zhou speaks squaremouth using the Yangzhou tone system, which ''does'' utilize rusheng syllables. Therefore, she believes "square mouth dialogue should at least be divided into two subcategories, namely the Wu Song variant—without rusheng, and the Zhou Tong variant—with rusheng".[, pp. 27, 38–39]
Students
Water Margin outlaws
The ''Water Margin
''Water Margin'' (''Shuihu zhuan'') is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin, and is attributed to Shi Nai'an. It is also translated as ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' and ''All Men Are Brothers''.
The story, which is s ...
'' (c. 1400) is a Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
military romance about one hundred and eight demons-born-men and women who band together to rebel against the lavish Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
government. Lin Chong and Lu Junyi, two of these outlaws, are briefly mentioned as being Zhou's previous students in ''The Story of Yue Fei''. They are not characters within the main plot, though, as both are killed by "villainous officials" prior to Zhou becoming precept of the Wang household.[ Most importantly, the two were not among his historical students since they are fictional characters.
Zhou's portrayal as their teacher is connected to a recurring element in Chinese fiction where ]Tang
Tang or TANG most often refers to:
* Tang dynasty
* Tang (drink mix)
Tang or TANG may also refer to:
Chinese states and dynasties
* Jin (Chinese state) (11th century – 376 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, called Tang (唐) b ...
and Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
heroes train under a "celestial master", usually a Taoist immortal, prior to their military exploits.[Hsia, 2004: p. 140] C. T. Hsia suggests the mold from which all other similar teachers are cast is Guiguzi, master of the feuding strategists Sun Bin and Pang Juan
Pang Juan (died 342 BC) was an ancient Chinese military general of the Wei state during the Warring States period.
Life
Early life
Pang Juan was a fellow student of Sun Bin and both of them studied military strategy together under the tutela ...
, from the Yuan dynasty tale ''Latter Volume of the Spring and Autumn Annals of the Seven Kingdoms'' (七國春秋後集).[ Hsia goes on to say that Qian Cai, Yue's fictional biographer, associated Zhou with the outlaws because "most such teachers n the military romance genreare celestials" with at least two students.][Hsia, 2004: p. 149.] But in adopting this format, Qian reversed the traditional pattern of "celestial tutelage" since Zhou is written as a human, while his students are reincarnations of demons (Lin and Lu) and the celestial bird Garuda
Garuda (Sanskrit: ; Pāli: ; Vedic Sanskrit: गरुळ Garuḷa) is a Hindu demigod and divine creature mentioned in the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain faiths. He is primarily depicted as the mount (''vahana'') of the Hindu god Vishnu. Garuda is a ...
(Yue Fei).
Although Lin and Lu have been connected to Zhou since the early Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
, Wu Song did not become associated with him until Wang Shaotang created a 20th-century folktale in which the two meet in Kaifeng.[ The tale takes place during Wu's mission to Kaifeng, but before the murder of his older brother ]Wu Dalang
Wu Dalang (), also translated as Wu the Elder, is a major character in the classic Chinese novel ''The Plum in the Golden Vase'', and a minor character in the ''Water Margin'', another classic. In both novels, he is murdered by his adulterous wife ...
. Zhou teaches Wu the "Rolling Dragon" style of swordplay during the constable's one-month stay in the capital city.[Børdahl, Vibeke. ''Four Masters Of Chinese Storytelling: Full-length Repertoires Of Yangzhou Storytelling On Video''. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies; Bilingual edition, 2004 (), p. 166.] This tale was chapter two of Wang's "Ten chapters on Wu Song" storytelling repertoire, which was later transcribed and published in the book ''Wu Sung'' in 1959.[ It eventually carried over into the storyline of '' Iron Arm, Golden Sabre'' and, subsequently, '' The Legend of Zhou Tong''. In the latter version, Wu instead learns Chuōjiǎo boxing from Zhou during a ''two''-month stay in the capital.
Wang's tale portrays Zhou as an aging itinerant swordmaster with "a fame reverberating like thunder" throughout the underworld society of Jianghu.][ He is made the sworn brother of the outlaw "Flowery Monk" ]Lu Zhishen
Lu Zhishen is a fictional character in '' Water Margin'', one of the four great classical novels in Chinese literature. He is the main character in the first segment of the novel, which spans about six chapters. Nicknamed "Flowery Monk", he ra ...
,[ a military officer-turned-fighting monk, who is, according to Hsia, first among the most popular protagonists of the ''Water Margin''. He is also given the nickname "Iron Arm" (铁臂膀), which carried over into the title of his fictional biography ''Iron Arm, Golden Sabre''.][ While the tale fails to explain the reason for the moniker, it does mention Zhou's ability to direct his qi to any part of his body to make it hard enough to overpower the " Iron shirt" technique of another martial artist. Furthermore, Zhou shares the same nickname with Cai Fu, an executioner-turned-outlaw known for his ease in wielding a heavy sword.
Because of his association with these outlaws, Zhou is often confused with the similarly named outlaw "Little Conqueror" Zhou Tong.][ In the ''Water Margin'', this Zhou Tong is a bandit chief of Mount Peach Blossom whom Lu Zhishen beats for trying to forcibly marry the daughter of the Liu family. He dies later under the sword of ]Li Tianrun
The following is a list of characters in ''Water Margin'', one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.
108 Stars of Destiny
The 108 Stars of Destiny are at the core of the plot of ''Water Margin''. Based on the Taoist concept ...
, an officer in the rebel army of Fang La
Fang La (; died 1121) was a Chinese rebel leader who led an uprising against the Song dynasty. In the classical novel ''Water Margin'', he is fictionalised as one of the primary antagonists and nemeses of the 108 Stars of Destiny. He is sometime ...
. So, the connection between both Zhou's is based solely on the romanized
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
transcription
Transcription refers to the process of converting sounds (voice, music etc.) into letters or musical notes, or producing a copy of something in another medium, including:
Genetics
* Transcription (biology), the copying of DNA into RNA, the fir ...
of their name.
Yue Fei
'' The Story of Yue Fei'' comments Lu Junyi is Zhou's last student prior to taking on seven-year-old Yue Fei and his three sworn-brothers Wang Gui, Tang Huai (湯懷) and Zhang Xian (張顯). He teaches them literary and military lessons on even and odd days. The novel says Yue is talented in all manners of "literary and military matters" and even surpasses the skill of Lin and Lu.[Qian: pp. 39–40] After Yue acquires his "Supernatural Spear of Dripping Water", Zhou tutors all of his students in the eighteen weapons of war, but each excels with one in particular; Yue Fei and Tang Huai, the spear
A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fasten ...
; Zhang Xian, the Hook-Sickle spear and Wang Gui, the Yanyue Dao. All of them learn the skill of archery
Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...
in addition.[ Some of these and other children are mentioned in Yue Ke's memoir as being his grandfather's historical childhood friends, but they are never specified as being Zhou's students.
]
Books written by modern-day martial artists make many claims that are not congruent with historical documents or current scholarly thought. For instance, internalist
Internalism and externalism are two opposite ways of integration of explaining various subjects in several areas of philosophy. These include human motivation, knowledge, justification, meaning, and truth. The distinction arises in many areas of de ...
Yang Jwing-Ming says Zhou was a scholar who studied martial arts in the Shaolin Monastery
Shaolin Monastery (少林寺 ''Shàolínsì''), also known as Shaolin Temple, is a renowned monastic institution recognized as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the cradle of Shaolin Kung Fu. It is located at the foot of Wuru Peak of the So ...
and later took Yue as his student after the young man worked as a tenant farmer
A tenant farmer is a person (farmer or farmworker) who resides on land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management, ...
for the official-general Han Qi ( 韓琦, 1008–1075).[ During this time, he learned all types of military weapons, horseback riding, and hand-to-hand combat. The General later created Xingyi and Eagle Claw boxing from his internal and external training under Zhou.][Liang, 2002: pp. 15–16.] However, history Prof. Meir Shahar
Meir Shahar ( he, מאיר שחר, born in 1959 in Jerusalem) is the Shaul Eisenberg Chair for East Asian Affairs at Tel Aviv University. Academic career
Meir Shahar attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and then studied Chinese in Taipei. H ...
notes that unarmed boxing styles did not develop at Shaolin until the late Ming dynasty. He also states that Ji family memoirs and Qing dynasty records suggest Xingyi was created hundreds of years after the death of Yue by a spearplayer named Ji Jike (fl. 1651). In addition, the appearance of Han Qi in the story is a chronological anachronism
An anachronism (from the Ancient Greek, Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronology, chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time per ...
since he died nearly 30 years before Yue's birth.[Wilhelm: p. 150.] Yue historically worked as a tenant farmer and bodyguard for descendants of Han Qi in 1124 after leaving the military upon the death of his father in late 1122, but he learned from Zhou well before this time.[
Eagle Claw Grandmasters Leung Shum and Lily Lau believe "Jow Tong" (the ]Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...
rendering of his name) was a monk who brought young Yue to the Shaolin Monastery and taught him a set of hand techniques, which Yue later adapted to create his ''Ying Kuen'' ( Eagle fist).[Leung, Shum and Jeanne Chin. ''The Secrets of Eagle Claw Kung Fu: Ying Jow Pai''. Tuttle martial arts. Boston: Tuttle Pub, 2001 (), pages 13 and 15] Liang Shouyu states practitioners of Emei
Mount Emei (; ), alternately Mount Omei, is a mountain in Sichuan Province, China, and is the highest of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China. Mount Emei sits at the western rim of the Sichuan Basin. The mountains west of it are know ...
Dapeng Dapeng or Da Peng may refer to:
*Peng (mythology) or Da Peng, mythological bird
*Dapeng (state) (大彭), a state during the late Shang dynasty
*Dapeng Peninsula (大鹏半岛), in the east of Shenzhen
*Dapeng Subdistrict (大鹏街道), Longgang D ...
Qigong believe Yue trained under Zhou as a child and competed to become China's top fighter at an early age. Their lineage story dictates Zhou also took Yue to a "Buddhist hermit" who taught him said qigong style. Northern Praying Mantis Master Yuen Mankai says Zhou taught Yue the "same school" of martial arts as he did his ''Water Margin'' students and that the General was the originator of the praying mantis technique "Black Tiger Steeling Heart".[ Although Martial arts historian Stanley Henning admits that Yue's biographies do not mention boxing, he says "he uealmost certainly did practice some form of bare handed fighting" to prepare for his weapons training.][Henning, Stanley E., M.A. "Chinese General Yue Fei: Martial Arts Facts, Tales and Mysteries". ''Journal of Asian Martial Arts''. Vol. 15 #4, 2006: 30–35 2] But he does not suggest who Yue might have learned it from.
Martial arts
There is insufficient historical evidence to support the claim he knew any skills beyond archery. Contemporary records never once mention Zhou teaching Yue boxing.[ Despite this, various ]wuxia
( ), which literally means "martial heroes", is a genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists in ancient China. Although is traditionally a form of historical fiction, its popularity has caused it to be adapted f ...
novels and folk legends have attributed many different military and supernatural skills to Zhou. These range from mastery of the bow, double swords and Chinese spear
A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fasten ...
to that of Wudang hard qigong, Chuōjiǎo boxing and even X-ray vision. Wang Shaotang's folktale even represents him as a master of Drunken Eight Immortals boxing.[
In the Shaolin Temple of Henan province at the end of the Ming dynasty, the warrior monks were practicing leg techniques exercises and jumps that they attributed to Zhou Tong. There is a system of fighting called "The Shaolin legs and fists of Zhou Tong" () attributed to Zhou Tong. Mostly, Shaolin martial arts focusing in leg techniques and jumps are referring to Zhou Tong as the founder of their respective styles.
Zhou can also be linked to these combat arts through his historical and folklore students. Practitioners of Eagle Claw, Chuōjiǎo and Xingyi commonly include him within their lineage history because of his association with ]Yue Fei
Yue Fei ( zh, t=岳飛; March 24, 1103 – January 28, 1142), courtesy name Pengju (), was a Chinese military general who lived during the Song dynasty, Southern Song dynasty and a national hero of China, known for leading Southern Song force ...
, the supposed progenitor of these styles.[ Yuen Mankai believes Zhou taught Lin Chong and Lu Junyi the "same school" of martial arts that was later combined with seventeen other schools to create Mantis fist.][Yuen: p. 7.] This combination of various schools refers to an eighteenth-century martial arts manual that describes the gathering of eighteen masters at the Shaolin Monastery
Shaolin Monastery (少林寺 ''Shàolínsì''), also known as Shaolin Temple, is a renowned monastic institution recognized as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the cradle of Shaolin Kung Fu. It is located at the foot of Wuru Peak of the So ...
that supposedly took place during the early years of the Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
. Lin Chong and Yan Qing
Yan Qing is a fictional character in ''Water Margin'', one of the Four Great Classical Novels in Chinese literature. Nicknamed "''Langzi''" (浪子; meaning "the Wanderer" or "the Prodigal"), he ranks last among the 36 Heavenly Spirits, the fir ...
are listed as two of the eighteen masters invited, which means their skills of Mandarin Duck Leg and ground fighting
Ground fighting (also called ground work or ground game) is hand-to-hand combat which takes place while the combatants are on the ground. The term is commonly used in mixed martial arts and other combat sports, as well as various forms of martial ...
are treated as two separate schools, instead of one. But he believes Mantis first was created during the Ming dynasty and was therefore influenced by these eighteen schools from the Song. He also says Lu Junyi taught Yan Qing the same martial arts as he learned from Zhou.[Yuen: p. 8.]
Very few references are made to the people who supposedly taught martial arts to Zhou. In '' The Legend of Zhou Tong'', he learns as a child from a Shaolin master named Tan Zhengfang. Practitioners of Chuōjiǎo claim he learned the style from its creator, a wandering Taoist named Deng Liang.[ Practitioners of Geok Gar Kuen, a style attributed to Yue Fei, believe he studied under Han De, a " chivalrous person" from ]Shaanxi
Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...
.
In popular culture
Zhou has appeared in various kinds of media including novels, comic books, and movies. Apart from ''The Story of Yue Fei'' and ''Iron Arm, Golden Sabre'', he appears in a novel based around his older martial arts brother, Jin Tai.[ A recent ]graphic novel
A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...
of ''The Story of Yue Fei'', deletes all mythological elements from the storyline and presents it in a historical manner. Instead of traveling from Hebei
Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...
to Hubei
Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...
to inspect land, Zhou travels from Shaanxi to Kaifeng City in Henan to visit an old friend who had been promoted to General. While en route to the capital city, Zhou takes note of a great famine plaguing the peasantry and even hears stories of some people resorting to cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...
. However, when he arrives in Kaifeng, he sees the empire is wasting money on the construction of large imperial gardens, the court officials Cai Jing
Cai Jing (1047–1126), courtesy name Yuanchang (), was a Chinese calligrapher and politician who lived during the Northern Song dynasty of China. He is also fictionalised as one of the primary antagonists in ''Water Margin'', one of the Four G ...
and Wang Pu have extravagant residencies, and hears that even eunuchs
A eunuch ( ) is a male who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function.
The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium ...
are rich because they are given high government posts. Upon locating his friend, Zhou is distressed to find him in stocks
Stocks are feet restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law describing ...
and shackles and being escorted to the farthest reaches of China by imperial guards. He later learns that the General had accidentally offended some court officials and was sentenced to permanent exile on some trumped up charges. Apparently having little or no money, Zhou decides to visit Wang Ming in Hubei (mistakenly called Hebei) and becomes the estate's tutor.
Another noticeable difference in the storyline takes place when Zhou travels with his teenage disciples to visit his friend the Abbot. Instead of Yue wandering behind the temple to battle the magical snake, he stays with Zhou and the Abbot, while the other disciples go off to explore. Zhou watches as the Abbot tests Yue's strength by asking him to move an ornate 300-pound copper stove dating from the Han dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
. The abbot then lifts a stone floor tile and presents the boy with a large book on military strategy. He goes on to tell Yue how he was once a great soldier who fought in campaigns against the Liao and Western Xia empires, but became a monk after the Song agreed to become a vassal of each state. He later made a name for himself by teaching military skills to youths from the surrounding area. Since he has no heir of his own, the Abbot presents Yue with his own personal spear and instructs him in the proper use of the weapon. Zhou kindly protests the gift at first, but allows Yue to keep it out of friendship.
A second graphic novelization drastically changes the storyline involving Zhou. Like the original, Zhou becomes the tutor of the Wang estate, but, when news of his arrival prompts rich families to send their sons to learn from him, he is forced to accept droves of these students on a trial basis. He eventually chooses his friends' sons as his indoor disciples and Yue as his "godchild". Years later, he takes his now teenage students not to see the Buddhist abbot, but to teach them military strategy out in the mountain wilderness. Yue senses trouble after his martial brothers separate to explore the forest and rushes off to rescue them, only to be confronted by a monstrous snake. After vanquishing the beast with his sword, Yue discovers a magic glowing spear within a cave and reports back to Zhou. Following their training, Zhou becomes ill from overexposure to the cold mountain air on the return trip home and dies soon after. Instead of just Yue, all of his students live beside his grave for a mourning period of one hundred days before returning home to their families. These events take place three years before Zhou originally died in ''The Story of Yue Fei''.
Stories including Zhou have also been used to educate. The secondary school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...
system of Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
teaches children the value of mentorship by making them read about the close teacher-pupil relationship between Zhou and Yue. A morale tale called "Yue Fei Studies Archery" in ''Children's Pictorial'', a Chinese magazine tailored for children ages two through seven, demonstrates how great achievements are only made possible via diligent practice. The story states how young Yue stumbles upon Zhou's training hall in a neighboring town while gathering fire wood. Yue applies to become a student, but Zhou tells him he must first practice the art of the "far-sighted person" by staring into the morning sun to improve his eyesight. After years of unrelenting practice, Yue is able to spot a lone goose flying off in the distance and two cicadas on a tree far into the forest. Zhou then officially takes him as his disciple and adopted son. Under his tutelage, Yue is able to master the eighteen weapons of war and to shoot a falling leaf from one hundred paces away.
He is mentioned numerous times in author Robert Liparulo
Robert Liparulo is a former American celebrity journalist and author. His publications include a short story featured in James Patterson's short story compilation, ''Thriller''. He was a contributing editor for the American Christian New Man ma ...
's thriller ''Deadlock'' (2009). Zhou is first featured in chapter eight during a conversation between the main character John "Hutch" Hutchinson, a journalist bent on stopping the maniacal plans of a billionaire madman, and his friend's young son Dillon, an archery enthusiast. When Hutch asks him if he had ever heard of the archery-champion-turned-actor Howard Hill
Howard Hill (born Lemuel Howard Hill and later cited Howard H. Hill;"Lemuel" is verified as Hill's first name in th"Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910" image of original census page for John F. Hill family, "Wilsonville Town", Shelby C ...
, Dillon replies: "I don't think so ... You told me about Zhou Tong".[Liparulo, Robert. ''Deadlock''. Thomas Nelson, 2009 (), p. 54] Hutch then says: "Oh, yeah. Zhou Tong was something. Taught the Song dynasty to be the best military archers in history. But Howard Hill as the best.[ Later in chapter fifty, while Hutch is trailing a killer through an airport, a page goes out over the intercom system for a "Mr. Zhou Tong". When the page goes out again, Hutch muses: "Zhou Tong had been a famous archery teacher and military arts tutor in the Song dynasty. illon and Ihad long telephone conversations about him, because of Tong's blending of archery skills and self-discipline. He was an inspiration to e Dillon had sensed that and wanted to known everything about him". He finally realizes that the page had to have been left by Dillon's mother Laura to catch his attention. The page is sent to warn him of a trap, but Hutch receives it too late.
Screen actors who have portrayed Zhou in films from the 1940s and 1960s include Wong Sau Nin, Li Ming, and Jing Ci Bo.][ Jing starred alongside a ten-year-old ]Sammo Hung
Sammo Hung Kam-bo ( zh, t=洪金寶, j=Hung4 Gam1-bou2; born 7 January 1952) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, film producer and Film director, director, known for his work in martial arts films, Hong Kong action cinema, and as a fight choreog ...
, who played young Yue Fei.[ Veteran martial arts actor ]Yu Chenghui
Yu Chenghui (16 August 1939 – 4 July 2015), sometimes credited as Yue Sing-wai, was a Chinese actor, action director and martial artist.
Martial arts career
Yu started practising martial arts at the age of 11, specialising in the use of the ''j ...
, who played the sword-wielding antagonist
An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the chief foe of the protagonist.
Etymology
The English word antagonist comes from the Greek ἀνταγωνιστής – ''antagonistēs'', "opponent, competitor, villain, enemy, riv ...
in Jet Li
Li Lianjie (courtesy name Yangzhong; born 26 April 1963), better known by his stage name Jet Li, is a Chinese film actor, film producer, Chinese martial arts, martial artist, and retired wushu (sport), Wushu champion. He is a naturalized Singapo ...
's ''Shaolin Temple
Shaolin Monastery (少林寺 ''Shàolínsì''), also known as Shaolin Temple, is a renowned monastic institution recognized as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the cradle of Shaolin Kung Fu. It is located at the foot of Wuru Peak of the So ...
'',[ stated in a 2005 newspaper interview that he never shaved his trademark beard, even at the request of movie producers, because he wanted to portray Zhou in a future film.][ He went on to say "He is an outstandingly able person from the northern and southern Song dynasties and many ''Water Margin'' heroes are his disciples. This person is very important in the martial arts and many people want to portray him in films".]["他是一个奇人,横跨北宋南宋两朝代,很多水浒好汉都是他的弟子。这个人物在武术界很重要,很多电影人都想拍这个人物。"]
See also
* List of archers
* Man Jiang Hong
''Man Jiang Hong'' () is the title of a set of Chinese lyrical poems (''ci'') sharing the same pattern. If unspecified, it most often refers to the one attributed to the Song dynasty general Yue Fei.
Poem and meaning
Authorship controversy
...
References
External links
Stories of Loyalty
– This Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
scan shows a very brief illustrated Yue Fei biography with drawings of Zhou. The book confuses Yue's father, Yue Huo, with him when Zhou asks the boy if he would die for his country.
Swordplay under the Moon
Another name for the tale about how Wu Song comes to learn swordplay from Zhou. Go to the bottom of the page for the choice of reading a snippet of the tale or watching a short clip of the verbal performance.
*
This page claims Zhou created a leg-oriented boxing style as a Shaolin monk and later passed it onto the ''Water Margin'' outlaw Wu Song.
Podcast of the traditional tale "Yue Fei Remembered the Benevolence of His Teacher Zhou Tong"
on the Sound of Hope Radio Network.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhou, Tong (Archer)
1121 deaths
Buddhist folklore
Chinese male archers
Fictional Chinese people in literature
Chinese educators
Chinese martial artists
Chinese warriors
Fictional wushu practitioners
Song dynasty people
Year of birth missing
Chinese folklore
Water Margin characters
Fictional Song dynasty people