Weituo School

Weituo School

Contents

The Weituo School (simplified: 韦陀门, traditional: 韋陀门, pinyin: Wéituó Mén, jyutping: wai4 to4 mun4), also called the Shaolin Weituo School (少林韦陀门), was a school descended from the Shaolin Order, founded by Great Master Yuantong (圆通大师), an eminent monk of Shaolin Monastery who had made a deep study of the Weituo Pestle (韦陀杵) and Six Harmonies Fist. It was known for three arts, fist, dao and spear, and had been famous in the wulin for several hundred years (SIDE ch. 6). In Hu Fei’s time its zhangmen was Wan Hesheng of Maple Leaf Manor near Hengyang, whose death left the seat open to a contest that Yuan Ziyi won (SIDE ch. 6).

Overview

Martial principles

All three of the school’s arts followed the Six Harmonies (六合): essence, qi and spirit as the three inner harmonies, and hand, eye and body as the three outer ones, applied so that eye joined heart, heart joined qi, qi joined body, body joined hand, hand joined foot and foot joined hip, the whole body inside and out acting as one (SIDE ch. 6). According to Yuan Ziyi, the essence of Six Harmonies Bladework lay in four words: empty, solid, skilful and striking (虚、实、巧、打) (SIDE ch. 6).

Relations with the court

When Wan Hesheng died, the imperial bodyguard He Sihao had come to invite him to Beijing for Fuk’anggan’s Grand Assembly of Zhangmen under Heaven, so that the school’s arts could be shown before all the martial masters under heaven (SIDE ch. 6). Liu Hezhen objected that the school’s zhangmen, whoever he was, should not court the powerful or go to the capital to befriend officials (SIDE ch. 6).

History

The succession at Maple Leaf Manor

Wan Hesheng, whose might was said to shake southern Hunan, died without a son, leaving three disciples: Sun Fuhu, Yuchi Lian and Yang Bin. At his funeral feast on the seventh day, attended by more than a hundred members of the school, mostly his grand-disciples, three elderly martial masters argued on behalf of each disciple, and the hall nearly came to blows. He Sihao proposed that the three settle the seat by contest before their shifu’s spirit tablet, the winner to take it and no one to dispute it afterwards (SIDE ch. 6).

Before Sun Fuhu and Yang Bin had finished their bout, Yuan Ziyi walked in and scorned their bladework. She claimed a connection with the school and named its founder, Great Master Yuantong, a piece of wulin history few there knew. She then defeated Sun Fuhu and Yang Bin within three moves each, using genuine Six Harmonies Bladework and Six Harmonies Spear in ways the school had never taught, and beat Yuchi Lian at his own Chikao Linked Fist. Yang Bin threw down his spear and ran from the hall (SIDE ch. 6).

Liu Hezhen, who had been heckling from a corner, then came forward. Together with Wan he had been known as the Weituo Twin Cranes (韦陀双鹤); he was the senior of the two, and said he could have taken the seat long before had he wanted it. He challenged Yuan Ziyi on the school’s treasured art, the Tiangang Plum Blossom Posts, laid out as thirty-six wine bowls turned upside down on the floor. He held the centre until she switched to spear and dao moves with bare hands and knocked him off; Hu Fei, unseen, slid two bowls under his feet. On her promise to win with Six Harmonies Fist alone, they fought again, and she turned the bowls over one by one with her feet until only the two he stood on remained, and he conceded (SIDE ch. 6).

After the contest

Liu Hezhen later fell in with Zhang Yunfei, a disciple of Tian Guinong, who had come to Maple Leaf Manor claiming to mourn Wan Hesheng. Deceived, Liu carried Tian Guinong’s poisoned letter to Miao Renfeng, which blinded him, and put out his own right eye in remorse when he learned the truth (SIDE ch. 8).

Yuan Ziyi went on to take other schools’ seats, and was presented in Beijing as overall zhangmen of the Shaolin Weituo School and several others (SIDE ch. 14). At the Grand Assembly she declared that she would no longer be the overall zhangmen of these nine and a half schools (SIDE ch. 19).

Martial arts

Core arts

  • Six Harmonies Fist (六合拳), with moves such as “Three Rings Around the Moon” (三环套月) and the difficult backhand “Anguish Fist” (苦恼拳), which needed more than ten years’ practice to carry real power (SIDE ch. 6)
  • Six Harmonies Bladework (六合刀法), opening from “Shoulder-Guarding Dao” (护肩刀) (SIDE ch. 6)
  • Six Harmonies Spear (六合枪) (SIDE ch. 6)

Special arts

  • Chikao Linked Fist (赤尻连拳): built on Six Harmonies Fist in the form of monkey fist, a close-quarters small-grappling art of seizing, hooking, locking and striking acupoints (SIDE ch. 6)
  • Tiangang Plum Blossom Posts (天罡梅花桩): the school’s treasured art, fought on posts, which Liu Hezhen laid out as bowls placed in a pattern he had practised for decades. Wan’s disciples had never been taught it (SIDE ch. 6)

Notable members

  • Great Master Yuantong: founder (SIDE ch. 6)
  • Wan Hesheng: zhangmen, one of the Weituo Twin Cranes (SIDE ch. 6)
  • Liu Hezhen: Wan’s shixiong, the other Twin Crane (SIDE ch. 6, 8)
  • Sun Fuhu, Yuchi Lian, Yang Bin: Wan’s three disciples, in order of seniority (SIDE ch. 6)
  • Yuan Ziyi: zhangmen by contest (SIDE ch. 6)

Locations

  • Maple Leaf Manor (枫叶庄): Wan Hesheng’s manor, surrounded by several hundred maple trees, three li north of a town near Hengyang (SIDE ch. 6, 7)

See also

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