162 Fist Fighting and Self-Cultivation
printed alike), which attest to its popularity in Qing times (see appendix).
Weituo’s exercises were borrowed from an early nineteenth-century edition,
for they did not figure in earlier ones.^79
The original version of the Sinews Transformation Classic was likely au-
thored in the early seventeenth century. As Tang Hao has suggested, the key
to its dating is provided by a postscript dated 1624 that accompanies some
editions and is signed by the Purple Coagulation Man of the Way (Zi ning
daoren), Zongheng, from Mt. Tiantai, in Zhejiang.^80 Nothing is known of
Zongheng, and all we can infer about him is his self-perception as evinced by
his sobriquet. This is marked by a tantalizing ambiguity that is perhaps in-
tentional just as it is typical of Ming religious syncretism. The term “Man of
the Way” (daoren) was usually applied to Daoist priests, but it could also des-
ignate a Buddhist monk, and Mt. Tiantai held an equally eminent position in
Fig. 34. “Weituo
offering his [demon-
felling] club”; Dao-
guang (1821–1850)
edition of the Sinews
Transformation Classic.