Grand Assembly of Zhangmen under Heaven

Grand Assembly of Zhangmen under Heaven

Contents

The Grand Assembly of Zhangmen under Heaven (simplified: 天下掌门人大会, traditional: 天下掌門人大會, pinyin: Tiānxià Zhǎngménrén Dàhuì, jyutping: tin1 haa6 zoeng2 mun4 jan4 daai6 wui6) was the gathering of the zhangmen of the wulin’s schools that Fuk’anggan convened at his residence in Beijing on the Mid-Autumn Festival (SIDE ch. 13, 17). It was meant to rank the schools by contest for twenty-four imperial cups, chief among them the Jade Dragon Cups, and it ended at dawn in poison, a public scandal, the death of Feng Tiannan and a stampede for the gates (SIDE ch. 17, 18, 19).

Background

Purpose

Fuk’anggan was Minister of War and Minister of the Imperial Household Department (兵部尚书、总管内务府大臣), with command of the empire’s troops (SIDE ch. 14). As Yuan Ziyi explained to Hu Fei, he wished to draw the heroes of the jianghu into the court’s service with office and reward, as the examinations drew in scholars; but he also meant to meet the Red Flower Society, whose chiefs had once captured him and forced the emperor to rebuild the Fujian Shaolin Monastery, and whom he expected in Beijing that autumn (SIDE ch. 14). At the assembly itself Hu Fei saw a further aim: to set the schools against one another for empty rank, so that they would have no strength left to resist the Qing (SIDE ch. 17). Yuanxing’s own reading was the same: to win over the wulin against the Red Flower Society, and to sow discord among the schools (SIDE ch. 19).

Invitations

Invitations went out months ahead. The Xiyue Huaquan School received notice from Fuk’anggan in Beijing three months before the festival, the officer who brought it adding that each zhangmen would be expected to show his best before Fuk’anggan for ranking (SIDE ch. 15). The imperial bodyguard He Sihao travelled south to bring Wan Hesheng of the Weituo School and Feng Tiannan of the Wuhu School (SIDE ch. 5, 6). Yuan Ziyi spent her journey north seizing the zhangmen seats of schools along the way, to let Fuk’anggan know his assembly would come to nothing (SIDE ch. 7, 14).

The assembly

The four great zhangmen

Hu Fei attended with Cheng Lingsu, both in disguise, as zhangmen of the Xiyue Huaquan School, a seat he had won days before (SIDE ch. 15, 17). Sixty-two tables were set, two schools to a table, for a hundred and twenty-four zhangmen (SIDE ch. 17). Four were seated apart as the “four great zhangmen”: Chan Master Dazhi, abbot of Shaolin Monastery on Mount Song; Wuqingzi, Temple Master of Taihe Palace on Mount Wudang; Tang Pei, the “Seven Provinces Benefactor” (甘霖惠七省), zhangmen of the Three Talents Jian (三才剑); and Hailanbi, a Manchu officer and zhangmen of the Heilong School (黑龙门) of Liaodong (SIDE ch. 17).

The cups

Fuk’anggan announced that the emperor had sent twenty-four cups: eight Jade Dragon Cups, eight Golden Phoenix Cups and eight Silver Carp Cups. The four great zhangmen each received a jade cup; the rest would go to the strongest in contest, whose schools would rank as the “Eight Jade Dragon Schools”, “Eight Golden Phoenix Schools” and “Eight Silver Carp Schools”, and any cup lost to another school would change the ranking (SIDE ch. 17). Commander An (安提督) presided over the contest, with Tang Pei as arbiter (SIDE ch. 17, 18).

The fighting for the jade cups went on through the night. The Red Flower Society’s Xinyan seized two cups before Tang Pei recovered them, and Zhao Banshan, disguised as a guard, carried off another (SIDE ch. 17, 18, 19). Tian Guinong won his chair with his treasured dao, Shi Wanchen his by the terror of the Medicine King’s name, and Feng Tiannan his with silver needles that Tang Pei secretly fired from his boot (SIDE ch. 18, 19). Hu Fei then attacked Tian Guinong, took his treasured dao and cut Feng Tiannan’s gilded rod in four (SIDE ch. 19). The contests for the gold and silver cups were put off to the following night (SIDE ch. 18).

Dawn

At dawn the seven winners took their cups from Commander An’s tray, and all seven dropped them at once, their hands burning: Cheng Lingsu had dusted the cups with poison from her firecrackers (SIDE ch. 18, 19). Yuan Ziyi, arriving as the nun Yuanxing, accused Tang Pei of breaking the cups in league with the Red Flower Society and produced a letter sewn into his cap; Tang Pei, recognising her, admitted that her mother had hanged herself after he raped her, and that she was Feng Tiannan’s daughter. He wounded her with a needle and escaped through a window, and Hu Fei killed Feng Tiannan with the thrown Tianlong treasured dao as he fled (SIDE ch. 19).

Cheng Lingsu then blew smoke from her pipe that gave the whole hall stomach cramps, and cried out that the Medicine King was poisoning everyone. Shi Wanchen shouted that someone had poisoned the tea and wine, and the zhangmen, many of whom had come suspecting a plot to wipe them out, concluded that Fuk’anggan meant to poison them. When his guards tried to shut the gates, they fought their way out through three sets of doors (SIDE ch. 19). Retelling the night, Lu Feiqing told the Red Flower Society’s heroes that a young hero had broken up Fuk’anggan’s assembly with a few puffs of smoke (SIDE ch. 19).

Notable participants

See also

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