Zhou Tong (Shaolin Abbot)
:
This article is about the Shaolin Abbot Zhou Tong. He is not be confused with the Water Margin Bandit Zhou Tong.The
Shaolin Abbot Zhōu Tóng (周侗) (
1040–
1119 CE?) was the adoptive father and second
martial arts teacher of
Song Dynasty general
Yue Fei. He also taught
Lu Junyi,
Wu Song and
Lin Chong, three of the outlaws on whom
The Water Margin is based. Zhou Tong was a rogue master of various types of Chinese boxing and weaponry, especially the Chinese
bow. His martial nickname was "Iron Arm" ("臂). [
1]
Weapons
Zhou Tong was renowned for his skill in archery. In Yue Fei's "semi-historical" biography, he taught Yue Fei a fictional technque known as "The Bow for Supernatural Arms". Some factual sources say Yue Fei was "able to draw a bow of over three hundred
catties (approx. 331
lbs) in strength, and to shoot with either the left or right arm."
Boxing
Zhou Tong was a master of the martial arts
Fanziquan (then known as
Bāshǎnfān) and
Chuojiao. The routines of Chuojiao, with its kicks, wide open stances and focus on hard power, were known as Martial Routines and those of Fanziquan, with their more compact movements combining soft and hard power, were known as Scholarly Routines, which is why both the Chuojiao Fanziquan pairing and even Zhou Tong himself were known as "Martial-Scholar".
At one time, Chuojiao was also known as
Shàolín Zhōu Quán Tuǐ (少林周拳腿) or "Zhou's Shaolin Leg Boxing" because Zhou Tong passed on his knowledge of leg skills to the warrior-monks of the
Shaolin Temple. It was also known as
Zhōujiāquán (周家拳) or "Zhou Family boxing"[
2]"not to be confused with Jow Ga or the Chow Gar branch of
Southern Praying Mantis, both of which are written using the same Chinese characters.
Zhou Tong was also master of an ancient art known as
Elephant Boxing (象拳;
Pinyin: xiàngquán), whose seizing, locking, and pressure point strike techniques he passed on to his adopted son. Yue Fei later adapted this style to create the "108 Fighting Techniques of
Chin na," which became a staple of the
Eagle Claw style.
Qiqong
|
From the "Testicle Eight Outstanding Techniques" Manual |
Zhou Tong practiced a
Buddhist sexual
neigong style known as
Shènzi bādà Qígōng (肾子八大奇功) or "Testicle Eight Outstanding Techniques", [
3] which is very similar to
sexual practices performed by
Taoist monks. Whether he created this style of qigong is unclear, but his name is usually associated with it.
A book of this style supposedly appeared during the
Ming Dynasty and was taught on
Wudang Mountain. It became a "hereditary style", taught only to close family members. [
4].
Zhou Tong was an Abbot between
Shaolin's so-called "Second and Third Lineages". Officially, the second lineage stopped some 300 years before his birth. [
5] This could mean he was just considered a "Senior Monk" and not an Abbot.
*
2nd:
Hui Neng (
638-
713) - Known as the "Father of Chan Buddhism". He was the 6th and last abbot of the 2nd lineage.:*
Hsing Su (7th-8th Century) - Considered by some to be the 7th Abbot of the 2nd lineage.:...
gap in records :*ZHOU TONG (
1040-
1119?):...
gap in records*
3rd:
Fu Yu (福裕) (
1203-
1275) [
6] - Was a vassal of
Kublai Khan. He was the 1st abbot of the 3rd lineage.
The time between lineages was full of civil war and multiple persecutions of Buddhism in China. During the early
Tang Dynasty, the
Shaolin Temple was burnt to the ground by mountain brigands.
Zhou Tong resigned from Shaolin for "Political" reasons. These reasons were caused by the following interconnected events:
Four Buddhist Persecutions in China
* In
567 Former Buddhist priest
Wei Yuansong submitted a memorial to Emperor Wu (r.
560-
578) of the
Northern Zhou Dynasty calling for the "abolishment of Buddhism". In
574 and again in
577, Emperor Wu had
Buddhist and
Taoist images destroyed and their clergy returned to lay life. He believed the temples had become to rich and powerful, so he confiscated their land and gave it to his own soldiers. During this time, Shaolin was closed (but it was later reopened and rennovated at the request of the next Northern Zhou Emperor). This was the 1st and 2nd of the "
Four Buddhist Persecutions in China".
* In
845, the Taoist
Emperor Wuzong of the
Tang Dynasty initiated the "
Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution" in an effort to appropriate war funds (by stripping Buddhism of its financial wealth) and to drive "foreign" influences from China. Wuzong forced all Buddhist clergy into lay life or into hiding and confiscated their property. During this time, followers of
Christianity,
Islam,
Judaism,
Manichaeanism and
Zoroastrianism were persecuted as well. The persecution lasted for twenty months before
Emperor Xuanzong ascended the throne and put forth a policy of tolerance in
847. This was the 3rd of the "Four Buddhist Persecutions in China".
* In
955 Emperor Shih-tsung (r.
954-
959) of the
Later Zhou Dynasty (
951-
960) had 3,336 of China's 6,030 Buddhist temples burnt to the ground. He had untold numbers of priests and nuns killed and forced many to return to lay life. It is believed that this persecution was cause by the conflict between
Buddhism and
Taoism, as well as the "moral decline" of the clergy. This was the 4th and final of the "Four Buddhist Persecutions in China".
Fake Monks
* Constant wars drained China of money. This forced the court to raise taxes and to sell Buddhist "ordination certificates" (to prove a monk's tax, work, and military exempt status) in order to raise money. In
1067 these certificates became official policy. As a result, rich members of the lay community began to appropriate Buddhist temples in an attempt to build "cloisters" of tax exempt wealth. (But in
1109, an imperial decree stopped wealthy laymen from funding these temples and four years later in
1113 these temples lost their tax-exempt status. By
1129 it was estimated that 5,000 of thes certificates were sold on an annual basis.) Some laymen even purchased their own ordination to avoid taxes. This way they would not have to pay money to the state, nor keep the Buddhist precepts since they were not real clergy. With an uneven balance of clergy and civilians, the state lost a major source of taxes and military personnel.
Rise of "Neo-Confucianism"
* During the late
Tang and early Song Dynasties,
Neo-Confucianism rose to popularity. The new
Imperial Examination System (keju 科舉) required young hopefuls to fully memorize the
Confucian Classics. Those who passed where rewarded with high paying government posts. This forced some to forsake the Buddhist faith in order to advance their family's social status.
*Neo-Confucians spoke out against Buddhism because, "Imperial and family relationships were forsaken for obedience to the fees of the priests", and its
egalitarian philosophies destroyed the proper "Senior-Junior" social structure of the day.
* During the Prime-Ministry of Neo-Confucian "Reformer"
Wang Anshi (
1021-
1086), the state overtook Buddhism's "goodwill" programs (i.e.
orphanages,
granaries,
hospitals, ect.), nearly driving the religion into extinction. This stripped
Shaolin of its economic power.
*With the rise of Neo-Confucianism came the downfall of the
Northern Song Dynasty's military prowess. Instead of strengthening the "Border Armies" to withstand assaults from the Song's many northern enemies, war funds were instead transferred into financing the Imperial Examinations. This "abandonment" of military strength stripped Shaolin of its historical and political connections to the Chinese monarchy.
With no economic or political backing to support Shaolin's survival, leaving it vulnerable to attack, Zhou Tong resigned his Abbotship and sought refuge in the mountains.
During his wanderings, he took the future-
Water Margin bandits
Lu Junyi,
Wu Song, and
Lin Chong as his students. These men were known as some of the strongest martial artists in 12th century China.
Lu Junyi was his last student prior to taking on young Yue fei and his four sworn-brothers
Wang Gui,
Tang Huai,
Zhang Xian and, later,
Nui Gao. All of Yue Fei's sworn-brothers became his most trusted generals during his campaign against the
Jin Empire. (Zhang Xian later became the first general of
Yue Yun (岳雲) (
1119-
1142), Yue Fei's adopted son.) [
7]
He taught Yue Fei the skill of archery,
Tang Huai learned the spear,
Zhang Xian learned the
"Hook-Sickle" spear, Wang Gui learned the
Guan Dao, and
Nui Gao learned the double clubs.
Literature
|
The front cover of Zhou Tong's Biography |
A
Wuxia novel called
Tiě Bèi Jīn Dāo Zhōu Tóng Zhuàn ("臂金刀周侗传) or "Iron Arm, Golden Broadsword: The Biography of Zhou Tong" details the "semi-historical" adventures of Zhou Tong before adopting Yue Fei. [
8] This is now a very rare book. In
1986, only 66,000 copies were made.
Family
According to Yue Fei's biography, Zhou Tong was from
Shaanxi Province. He was married and had a son, but both mother and son died prematurely. His son
Zhou Yunqing (周云清) followed
Lu Junyi to fight the
Liao State and died in battle. Zhou Tong later adopted young Yue Fei as his son when the boy was 7. However, an alternate history suggests he adopted young Yue Fei after the age of 11. [
9] The book èr wáng shì (鄂王事), by Sun Qiu (孙'), suggests it was after the age of 15.
Death
The book states Zhou Tong developed a fever brought on by an exciting horse race between him and his 16 year old adopted son. He died seven days later on:
"...the fourteenth day of the ninth month in the seventeenth year of the Reign of Xuan He, and his age was seventy-nine"
1He was laid to rest at the "Hill of Dripping Water" (physical location?) and Yue Fei came to visit him on the 1st and 15th of every month. On his bi-annual visits, Yue Fei would shoot three arrows in honor of his adopted father.
Film
In the
1962 film
The Birth of Yue Fei (岳飛出世), Zhou Tong was portrayed by
Jing Ci Bo ("次伯). A 10 year old
Sammo Hung played young Yue Fei. [
10]
Veteran martial arts actor
Yu Cheng Hui (于承惠) [
11][
12], who played the villian, "Wang Renzhe", in
Shaolin Temple (
1982) and "Master Shadow-Glow" in
Seven Swords (
2005), has expressed interest in playing Zhou Tong in a future movie. In an interview, Mr. Yu said he never shaved his famous beard for any role, even at the request of movie producers, because he wanted to portray the legendary figure. [
13]
Yu Cheng Hui is also a famous swordsman and even created his own sword form called
shuāngsh'u jiàn (雙手劍) or "Double-handed Sword". Its alternate name is
tángláng jiàn (螳螂劍) or "Praying Mantis Sword".[
14]
1This is not a reliable date since the
"Xuan He" reign era of
Emperor Huizong lasted only seven years (
1119-
1125) and not seventeen. Most sources say Zhou Tong died when Yue Fei was sixteen (
1119). This would be the first year of Xuan He.
*
Song Dynasty*
Yue Fei*
Shaolin*
Shaolin Kung Fu*
Chuojiao*
Fanziquan*
Water Margin*
Emperor Wuzong of Tang China*General Yue Fei ISBN 962-04-1279-6
*THE KAIFENG STONE INSCRIPTIONS: The Legacy of the Jewish Community in Ancient China ISBN 0-595-37340-2
*èr wáng shì (鄂王事) - by Sun Qiu (孙') [ISBN ?]
*http://www.caiwenyu.com.br/07_como_Xing_Yi_ing.htm
*http://www.san.beck.org/AB3-China.html
*http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Song/song-religion.html
*http://www.chinavoc.com/kungfu/schools/cata_chj.asp
*http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=1553&C=1363
*http://goasia.about.com/od/chin2/a/shaolin.htm
*http://www.shaolinwolf.com/Shaolin/theabbots.php
*http://www.sgi-usa.org/buddhism/dictionary/define?tid=11
*http://www.sgi-usa.org/buddhism/dictionary/define?tid=1954
*http://www.canadaeastwushu.com/
