Swords
Meeting Zhou Tong by Chance reads, “The steel blades of double swords shone as bright as snow in his hands. Now he was giving a performance of his swordplay . How did he play? How he did play? Ha! How could this be called swordplay! He looked like a snowball, as if he were totally wrapped in snow! He performed his swordplay extremely well!” The tale continues on to emphasize his skill was so good that even if a person threw a bowlful of writing ink at him during his swordplay, not a single drop of it would land on his white clothing.
According to The Story of Yue Fei, Zhou had an intimate knowledge of Chinese sword history. Yue Fei says, “Formerly I have heard my late teacher mention that any truly sharp sword can sever a dragon in water and cut down a rhinoceros on land and that there is an origin for each of the famous swords, like the Dragon Stream Sword, the Tai O Sword, the White Rainbow Sword, the Purple Lightning Sword, the Sword of Fish Intestine, the Moxieh Sword, Gan Jiang’s Sword, the Sword of Great Tower and others.”
The book Four Masters Of Chinese Storytelling: Full-length Repertoires Of Yangzhou Storytelling On Video reads, "During Wu Song’s stay in the capital, he studies the swordplay of the 'Rolling dragon sword' from the senior master, Zhou Tong."
Read more about this topic: Martial Arts Of Zhou Tong, Military, Eighteen Weapons of War
Famous quotes containing the word swords:
“When men change swords for ledgers, and desert
The student’s bower for gold, some fears unnamed
I had, my Country—am I to be blamed?”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
“They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
—Bible: Hebrew Isaiah, 2:4.
The words reappear in Micah 4:3, and the reverse injunction is made in Joel 3:10 (”Beat your plowshares into swords ...”)
“If all would lead their lives in love like me,
Then bloody swords and armor should not be;
No drum nor trumpet peaceful sleeps should move,
Unless alarm came from the camp of love.”
—Thomas Campion (1567–1620)