168 Fist Fighting and Self-Cultivation
(fl. 705) was not yet born at the time he supposedly rendered the manual into
Chinese. Most conspicuously, the creator of the Sinews Transformation Classic
treated a fictional protagonist of a famous Tang story as if he had really existed.
The Bushy-Bearded Hero (Qiuran ke) was not a historical figure, and there is
no way he could have handed the manual to Li Jing. Evidently, the “Purple Co-
agulation Man of the Way” did not get his history right. The Qing scholar Ling
Tingkan (1757–1809) dismissed him as an “ignorant village master.”^95
Even though the compiler of the Sinews Transformation Classic evidently was
not very learned, he did attempt some allusions to Buddhist hagiography. The
legend of Bodhidharma’s return to the West is mentioned, as is his farewell
conference in which he metaphorically bestowed his marrow (sui) on his cho-
sen disciple Huike. It is possible that the latter had attracted the author’s atten-
tion because the term “marrow” had figured in the Daoist discourse of internal
bodily transformation. An influential sixteenth-century manual of inner al-
chemy was titled, for example, the Red Phoenix’s Marrow (Chifeng sui). Be that as
it may, the “Purple Coagulation Man of the Way” had Bodhidharma bestow on
his successor—along with the Sinews Transformation Classic—a Marrow Cleans-
ing Classic (Xisui jing). A text bearing that title (and prefaced by Huike) was
added to some editions of the Sinews Transformation Classic by the nineteenth
century.^96 It likely contributed to the prevalence of the term “marrow” in the
twentieth-century discourse of physical education and national rejuvenation.
Republican reformers sought to revitalize the nation’s “marrow” by a combina-
tion of traditional martial arts and Western sports.^97
In case Li Jing’s authority would not suffice, the “Purple Coagulation Man
of the Way” manipulated another national hero to enhance his book’s pres-
tige. It turns out that the great Song general Yue Fei (1103–1142) had been ini-
tiated into the mysteries of the Sinews Transformation Classic. This is revealed in
a second preface, which spurred a wave of allusions to the patriotic hero in
later military literature. By the eighteenth century, Yue Fei had been credited
with the invention of Xingyi Quan, and by the nineteenth century the “Eight-
Section Brocade” and weapon techniques were attributed to him as well.^98 The
Sinews Transformation preface is signed by Yue Fei’s historical lieutenant, Gen-
eral Niu Gao (1087–1147):
I am a military man. I cannot read as much as a single written character.
I like handling the long spear and the broadsword. Maneuvering on
horseback and drawing the bow make me happy.
When the Central Plains were lost [to the Jurchens], emperors
Huizong (r. 1101–1125) and Qinzong (r. 1126) were taken captive to the
north. Prince Kang crossed the river [to the south] on a clay horse, and
there were various disasters in Jiangnan. I responded to the call of my
commander, the junior guardian, Field Marshal Yue Fei, and I was
designated his second in command. I scored several victories, following
which I was appointed general-in-chief.