Zhou Tong (archer)

Zhou Tong ( and 周侗; pinyin: Zhōu Tóng) (died late 1121 CE) was the archery teacher and second military arts tutor of famous Song dynasty general Yue Fei. Originally a local hero from Henan, 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, but he was Yue's adopted father, a learned scholar with knowledge of the eighteen weapons of war, and his personal name was spelled with a different, yet related, Chinese character. 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'' is based, among his former pupils. A later republican era folktale by noted Yangzhou 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 his sworn brother. Because of his association with the outlaws, he is often confused with the similarly named outlaw Zhou Tong.

Various wuxia 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 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, the supposed progenitor of these styles. He is also linked to Northern Praying Mantis boxing via Lin Chong and Yan Qing. Wang Shaotang's folktale even represents him as a master of Drunken Eight Immortals boxing. However, the oldest historical record that mentions his name only says he taught archery to Yue Fei. 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. He also appears in a novel concerning one of his fictional martial arts brothers. He was portrayed by three different actors in a string of black and white Yue Fei films produced in the 1940s and 1960s, one of which featured a ten-year-old Sammo Hung as the lead. Veteran martial arts actor Yu Chenghui, who played the sword-wielding antagonist in Jet Li's ''Shaolin Temple'', stated in a 2005 interview that he has always wanted to portray Zhou in a film. Provided by Wikipedia