Quote Originally Posted by Tainan Mantis View Post
The chapter on questions on answers, where empty hand is mentioned, is chiefly on weapons. The chapter finishes with a brief mention of empty hands.

....鐵拳則有太祖溫家之類。短打則有綿張。任家之類。皆因獨步神奇。....
Iron Fist has both Taizu and Wen Family. Short Strikes has Mian Zhang.
(Here it is likely a typographical error, and the meaning can be Soft Palms or Continuous Palms)
No matter what the style, they all have their unique characteristics.

Something very interesting to note about this is that Short Strikes is placed in the sentence opposed to the words Iron Fist.
Iron Fist is this...., and Short Strikes is this....,

Does anyone use the term Iron Fist?
The term has been in use in Shandong to represent a form of Longfist.
Anywhere else?
Main here is generally considered to mean Soft, Cotton.

Wen Family martial arts are now known as Chuo Jiao and Ba Fan Shou. Military and Scholarly Wen Family martial arts.
I think they are from Shandong. They preserved most of what Shaolin was like during the 1500s.

So, Iron Fist could be a term from Shaondong, many martial artists from Shandong visted Shaolin during the 1500s to 1600s.