The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 1 – Part 1

Shocking events in the blizzard

The Qiantang River¹ rolled on, its vast waters flowing day and night without end, winding past Niu Family Village² in Lin’an³ Prefecture of the Liangzhe West Circuit before emptying eastward into the sea. Along the riverbank stood a row of several dozen tallow trees, their leaves as red as if ablaze, for it was the eighth month. The wild grass before and behind the village had only begun to yellow, and under the slanting light of the setting sun, the scene grew all the more desolate.

Beneath two great pine trees, a cluster of villagers had gathered, men and women and more than a dozen children, all listening with rapt attention to a thin, elderly man as he spoke.

The storyteller was some fifty years of age. His long gown of dark indigo cloth had been washed so often that it had faded to a white-tinged blue-grey. He clacked his two pearwood clappers together a few times, and the bamboo rod in his left hand beat a rapid, rattling tattoo on a small goatskin drum. He sang:

Untended, the little peach blooms alone,⁴
Grass lost in mist, stretching far, with evening crows.
Here and there, broken walls enclose old wells:
Once, each of these was somebody’s home.

The storyteller tapped his clappers again and spoke, “This poem tells how, after the ravages of war, every household that once stood here has become nothing but broken walls and shattered tiles. I was telling you how Old Ye’s family of four went through joy and sorrow, parting and reunion, gathering only to scatter and scattering only to gather again. The Jin⁵ soldiers had separated them, yet by some fortune they found each other again. Full of joy, they returned to their hometown of Weizhou,⁶ only to find their home burned to ashes by the Jin troops. With no recourse, they could only make for the capital at Bianliang,⁷ hoping to find some means of livelihood. Little did they expect: Heaven has storms no one can foresee; men have calamity and good fortune between dawn and dusk. No sooner had the four of them entered Bianliang city than a troop of Jin soldiers came riding toward them. The man leading the troop turned his little triangular eyes on them, and seeing that the daughter, Ye Sanjie,⁸ was beautiful, he leapt from his horse, seized her at once in his arms, laughed loudly, and set her upon his saddle, saying, ‘Little girl, come home with me and wait on your lord.’ How could Ye Sanjie agree? She struggled with all her might. The Jin officer bellowed, ‘If you refuse me, I’ll kill your parents and brothers!’ He raised his wolf-tooth club⁹ and struck Ye Silang¹⁰ on the head, and in that instant his brains spattered out and that was the end of him. Thus:

A new ghost joins the underworld, unjustly slain.
The mortal world shall see that young face never again!

“Old Ye and his wife were struck dumb with terror. They threw themselves forward, clutching their son’s corpse, and wept aloud. The officer raised his club and finished them both too, one blow apiece. But Ye Sanjie did not weep. She said, ‘Officer, there’s no need for such cruelty. I’ll come home with you!’ The officer was greatly pleased and took Ye Sanjie to his home. But little did he expect it: catching him off guard, Ye Sanjie darted forward, drew the dao from his waist and thrust it straight at his heart. Slow in the telling, swift in the doing! The steel drove in, and it seemed she must avenge her parents and brothers at last. But the officer, long seasoned in battle and skilled in martial arts, pushed her away with a casual hand. Ye Sanjie tumbled backwards. ‘Little wretch!’ the officer cursed, but the words were barely out when Ye Sanjie raised the steel dao and drew it across her throat. Alas:

Flower-faced and moon-fair, a peerless maid;
To the Nine Springs,¹¹ grieving, goes her fragrant shade.”

He told a passage, then sang one, and the villagers, every one of them, ground their teeth, raging and sighing.

The man continued, “Listen well, friends. As the saying goes:

In life, employ no deceitful heart.
Three feet above, the gods take note of every part.
If evil deeds went unavenged,
Then villains would devour the world, man by man.

“Yet the Jin soldiers have seized our Great Song’s realm, killing, burning, raping, pillaging, committing every evil under heaven, yet suffering no retribution. We can only blame the Emperor of our Great Song for being so feeble. Our Middle Kingdom was rich in soldiers and generals, yet the moment the Jin appeared, they fled far away, leaving only the common people to suffer. Such tragedies as befell Ye Sanjie’s family number in the thousands and tens of thousands across the lands north of the river, as common as the daily rice. You good people of Jiangnan¹² truly live in paradise. The only fear is the day the Jin arrive. Thus:

Better a dog in times of peace than a man in times of chaos.

“This lowly one, Zhang Shiwu,¹³ passing through your honoured district today, has served you, friends, the tale called Faithful and Chaste Ye Sanjie. Here the story ends, and so ends our gathering.” He hammered his pearwood clappers in a rapid clatter and held out a wooden tray.

The villagers began producing two or three coins apiece, dropping them into the tray. In moments he had collected sixty or seventy. Zhang Shiwu gave his thanks, stowed the coppers in his pouch, and prepared to depart.

From among the villagers stepped a strapping young man of twenty or so. “Mister Zhang,” he said, “have you come from the north?” His accent was northern.

Seeing his stalwart frame, thick brows and large eyes, Zhang Shiwu replied, “Indeed.”

The young man said, “Let me treat you to three cups of wine, Mister Zhang.”

Zhang Shiwu was greatly pleased. “A stranger like myself, how dare I impose?”

The young man laughed. “Three cups shared, and we shall be acquainted. My name is Guo Xiaotian.”¹⁴ He indicated a fair-complexioned man beside him. “This is Brother Yang, Yang Tiexin.¹⁵ We two were listening to you tell Faithful and Chaste Ye Sanjie, Mister Zhang, and it was excellently told. We have a few questions to ask.”

Zhang Shiwu said, “You’re too kind. It must be fate that I should meet the two of you today.”

Guo Xiaotian led Zhang Shiwu to a small wineshop at the village edge, and they seated themselves at a table.

The wineshop’s keeper was a lame man who leaned on two wooden crutches. He slowly warmed two pots of yellow wine and set out a dish of broad beans, one of salted peanuts, one of dried tofu, and three salted duck eggs cut in half. Then he seated himself on a bench by the door, gazing up at the sun sinking at the edge of the sky, and never once glanced at the three men.

Guo Xiaotian poured wine and urged Zhang Shiwu to drink two cups. “Out here in the country there’s meat for sale only on the second and the sixteenth. We’ve nothing better to go with the wine, so you must forgive us, Mister Zhang.”

Zhang Shiwu said, “So long as there’s wine, all is well. From your accents, you two must be northerners as well?”

Yang Tiexin said, “We two brothers are originally from Shandong. We couldn’t stomach the indignities of the Jin dogs, so we came here three years ago. The people here are warm-hearted, and we liked that, so we stayed. Mister Zhang, you said earlier that living in Jiangnan is like living in paradise, and that the only fear is the day the Jin arrive. Do you think the Jin will fight their way across the river?¹⁶”

Zhang Shiwu sighed. “Jiangnan is a world of flowers, gold and silver lying everywhere, beauties wherever you look. Is there a day the Jin do not long to come over? But whether they come or not is not for the Jin to decide. It rests with the Great Song court in Lin’an.”

Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin were both astonished and asked in unison, “How do you mean?”

Zhang Shiwu said, “We people of the Middle Kingdom outnumber the Jurchens a hundred times over and more. If the court would but employ loyal ministers and worthy generals, a hundred of us could take on every one of them. How could the Jin possibly stand against us? This northern half of our Great Song’s realm was a gift to the Jin from three emperors, a father and his two sons: Huizong,¹⁷ Qinzong¹⁸ and Gaozong.¹⁹ Those three emperors employed treacherous ministers, oppressed the common people, and dismissed or beheaded the great generals who resisted the Jin. They handed over our splendid realm with both hands, and the Jurchens, not wishing to seem ungracious, could only accept it. If the court continues to employ traitors, it will be kneeling on the ground and inviting the Jin to come, and how could they refuse?”

Guo Xiaotian slammed his palm upon the table with such force that the cups, chopsticks and plates jumped. “Exactly!”

Zhang Shiwu continued, “Think of those years when the Daoist Lord Emperor Huizong desired nothing but immortality and wished to become a transcendent. The traitors he employed, Cai Jing, Zhu Mian, Wang Fu, were shameless creatures who helped the emperor squeeze the people dry. Tong Guan and Liang Shicheng were eunuchs who knew nothing but flattery. Gao Qiu and Li Bangyan were wastrels who accompanied the emperor to the pleasure houses. The Daoist Lord Emperor attended to no affairs of state. Every day, if he was not seeking the Dao or practising calligraphy and painting, he was sending men far and wide to search for rare and peculiar flowers, trees, and stones. When the Jin soldiers arrived at his gates, he had no recourse. He ducked his head and passed the throne to his son, Qinzong. At that time, the loyal minister Li Gang held the capital Bianliang, and generals from every circuit led troops to defend the throne. The Jin could not breach the walls and were forced to withdraw. But then Qinzong, heeding the words of traitors, dismissed Li Gang and, rather than employing generals renowned in war and seasoned in battle, put his faith in a charlatan named Guo Jing,²⁰ a man who claimed he could summon heavenly generals and call forth the wind and rain. He ordered this Guo Jing to summon celestial soldiers to defend the city. The heavenly generals paid him no mind. How could the capital not fall? In the end, both Huizong and Qinzong were carried off by the Jin. Those two witless emperors brought it upon themselves, but they dragged countless millions of the Middle Kingdom’s people into ruin with them.”

Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin grew angrier with every word. Guo Xiaotian said, “We have heard much of the great shame of the Jingkang era, when the two emperors Huizong and Qinzong were carried off by the Jin. We’ve heard talk of heavenly generals and such, but we took it for jest. Could there truly have been such folly?”

Zhang Shiwu said, “Every word of it is true.”

Yang Tiexin said, “Later, when Prince Kang took the throne at Nanjing, he had at his command loyal and brave generals like Han Shizhong²¹ and Grandfather Yue.²² He might well have marched north. Even if he could not have struck straight for the Jurchens’ lair, recovering the capital Bianliang would have been no great difficulty. Our only sorrow is that traitor Qin Hui,²³ bent on peace talks, had Grandfather Yue put to death.”

Zhang Shiwu poured wine for Guo and Yang, then filled his own cup and drained it in one draught. “Grandfather Yue wrote two lines of verse:

Ambitious, we hunger for the barbarians’ flesh.
Laughing, we thirst for the Xiongnu’s blood.

Those two lines speak truly the heart of all the people of the Middle Kingdom. Alas, the traitor Qin Hui was fortunate. It is only a pity we were born sixty years too late.”

Guo Xiaotian asked, “Had we been born sixty years earlier, what then?”

Zhang Shiwu said, “With the heroic spirit of you two, and the prowess of men of valour, we would have gone to Lin’an, seized that traitor by the collar, and the three of us would have eaten his flesh and drunk his blood, instead of sitting here eating broad beans and drinking cold wine!” At this, all three laughed aloud.

Yang Tiexin, seeing the first pot empty, ordered another, and the three continued to curse Qin Hui roundly. The lame man brought another dish of broad beans and one of peanuts. Hearing them curse with such vigour, he suddenly chuckled drily twice.

Yang Tiexin said, “Qu San,²⁴ what is it? Do you think we are wrong to curse Qin Hui?”

The lame man Qu San said, “You curse well, you curse rightly. How is it wrong? But I have heard it said that the true culprit who sought to kill Grandfather Yue in order to make peace was not Qin Hui after all.”

All three were astonished. “Not Qin Hui? Then who?”

Qu San said, “Qin Hui was merely the chancellor. Whether peace was made or not, he remained chancellor. But Grandfather Yue was bent on destroying the Jin kingdom and bringing Huizong and Qinzong back. If those two emperors returned, what would Emperor Gaozong have to do?” With these words, he hobbled back to his wooden bench, gazed up at the sky, and sat motionless, lost in thought. This Qu San, to judge by his appearance, seemed no more than forty, yet his back was bowed, his temples streaked with white. Viewed from behind, he looked more like an old man.

From outside the door came a little girl’s voice, “I’m killing tigers! I’ll kill three tigers for Daddy to drink wine with! Here comes the tiger! Here comes the tiger!” A rooster came flying through the door, pursued by a girl clutching a fire poker in both hands. The girl was five or six years old, her hair in two little plaits, her face and clothes covered in mud as though she had just climbed from a mud puddle. She saw Qu San and laughed. “Daddy, Daddy, I’m killing tigers for you!”

Qu San’s face softened with a smile, showing great tenderness. “Good girl, good girl. How many tigers have you killed?”

The girl thrust the fire poker at the rooster again, calling out, “Three big tigers! One, six, five, for Daddy to drink wine with. I’ll eat one myself!”

The rooster flew flapping out the door, and the girl chased after it, poker raised.

After a pause, Zhang Shiwu said, “Right, right! Our brother here speaks truly. The true culprit who brought about Grandfather Yue’s death was, I fear, not Qin Hui, but Emperor Gaozong himself. That emperor was shameless indeed. Such a thing was well within his nature.”

Guo Xiaotian asked, “How was he shameless?”

Zhang Shiwu said, “In those years, Grandfather Yue won victory after victory, slaughtering the Jin until the rivers ran with blood and the corpses piled like mountains. The Jurchens had no strength left to fight back, only to flee. Meanwhile, the righteous militia of our Middle Kingdom rose up everywhere in the north behind them, cutting off their retreat. The Jin were in frantic panic, not knowing which way to turn, when suddenly Gaozong sent a surrender petition, begging peace. The Jin emperor was naturally overjoyed and said, ‘Peace may be arranged, but first, Yue Fei must die.’ Thus Qin Hui devised his treacherous scheme and had Grandfather Yue murdered in Fengbo Pavilion. In the twelfth month of the eleventh year of Shaoxing, Grandfather Yue was done to death. A mere month later, in the first month of the twelfth year of Shaoxing, the peace was concluded. Song and Jin established the midstream of the Huai River as their border. Emperor Gaozong declared himself a vassal of the Jin. And do you know how he worded his surrender?”

Yang Tiexin said, “It must have been shameless indeed.”

Zhang Shiwu said, “Indeed it was. That surrender petition, I remember it well. Emperor Gaozong, whose personal name was Zhao Gou, wrote, ‘Your subject Gou speaks: having received your grace, permitting me to serve as a vassal state, generation upon generation, we shall faithfully observe a subject’s rites. Each year, upon the emperor’s birthday and the New Year, we shall send envoys to offer congratulations without end. Annual tribute: two hundred and fifty thousand liang²⁵ of silver, two hundred and fifty thousand bolts of silk.’ He not only made himself a slave. He commanded that his descendants, generation after generation, serve the Jin emperor as slaves. Slavery was his own affair, but did that not make slaves of all of us in the Middle Kingdom too?”

Bang! Guo Xiaotian slammed the table again, overturning a wine cup. Wine flooded across the table. “Shameless! Shameless! What kind of damned emperor is that?”

Footnotes

1. 钱塘江 — Qiántáng Jiāng. The Qiantang River of Zhejiang, known for its tidal bore. See Wikipedia. ↩

2. 牛家村 — Niújiā Cūn. Literally Niu Family Village. A village outside Lin’an. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 临安 — Lín’ān. Capital of Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1276) known for its cultural refinement and West Lake scenery. Modern day Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. See Wikipedia. ↩

4. 淮村兵后 — Huái Cūn Bīng Hòu. “A Huai Village After the War”, a quatrain by the Southern Song poet Dai Fugu (戴复古). ↩

5. 金国 — Jīn Guó. The Jin Empire of the Jurchen Wanyan clan (1115—1234), which holds northern China. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 卫州 — Wèizhōu. A prefecture in northern China, in modern Henan Province. ↩

7. 汴梁 — Biànliáng. The Northern Song capital, modern-day Kaifeng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 叶三姐 — Yè Sānjiě. Her name meaning “Ye Three Sister” or “Ye Third Sister”, the third child of the family. ↩

9. 狼牙棒 — lángyábàng. Literally wolf-tooth club. A heavy war club, usually long-hafted, its head studded with iron spikes; commonly mistranslated as “mace”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 叶四郎 — Yè Sìláng. His name meaning “Ye Four Son” or “Ye Fourth Son”. ↩

11. 九泉 — Jiǔquán. Literally nine springs. The underworld, the realm of the dead. ↩

12. 江南 — Jiāngnán. Literally south of the river. Prosperous region south of the Yangtze River, encompassing modern-day southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang, and Shanghai. ↩

13. 张十五 — Zhāng Shíwǔ. His name meaning “Zhang Fifteen” or “Zhang Fifteenth”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 郭啸天 — Guō Xiàotiān. His name meaning “roaring at the sky”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 杨铁心 — Yáng Tiěxīn. His name meaning “iron heart”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

16. The Yangtze. Jiangnan lies south of it; the Song–Jin border ran along the Huai further north. ↩

17. 徽宗 — Huīzōng. Emperor Huizong of Song (r. 1100—1126), renowned for his calligraphy and painting but disastrous as a ruler. See Wikipedia. ↩

18. 钦宗 — Qīnzōng. Emperor Qinzong of Song (r. 1126—1127), captured by the Jin. ↩

19. 高宗 — Gāozōng. Emperor Gaozong of Song (r. 1127—1162), who founded the Southern Song. See Wikipedia. ↩

20. 郭京 — Guō Jīng. A Northern Song charlatan who claimed he could summon heavenly soldiers to defend Kaifeng against the Jin in 1126. His name differs from Guo Jing (郭靖, Guō Jìng) in character and tone. ↩

21. 韩世忠 — Hán Shìzhōng. The celebrated Song general who fought the Jin armies. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

22. 岳飞 — Yuè Fēi (1103—1142). The most celebrated Song general of the wars against the Jin, executed on false charges. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

23. 秦桧 — Qín Huì. Southern Song chancellor (1091—1155) who pressed for peace with the Jin and is remembered as the traitor behind the execution of Yue Fei. See Wikipedia. ↩

24. 曲三 — Qū Sān. His name meaning “Qu Three” or “Qu Third”. See Wuxia Wiki (spoiler). ↩

25. 两 — liǎng. A traditional unit of weight, one-sixteenth of a jin, and the unit in which silver was reckoned. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩