The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 10 – Part 4

Qu shige¹ said, “According to the books, Ouyang Xiu² loved his niece in his heart, and wrote this lyric to confess what he felt. He saw her, a girl of twelve or thirteen, playing at tossing coins with her friends in the hall, laughing and shouting as they chased one another down the steps into the courtyard. She was so pretty and lively, so gentle and sweet, that he could not help being stirred. Later, when she was fourteen or fifteen, she grew lovelier still, but by then Ouyang Xiu was an old man of fifty or so, and all he could do was ‘take note’, heave a sigh and write this lyric. Afterwards someone saw it, and it caused a great scandal. Ouyang Xiu held high office then, and his virtue and his writing were admired throughout the land, yet the Censors at court attacked him fiercely. In truth he had only admired the girl’s beauty and sweetness in his heart. He never overstepped propriety, nor committed incest. A poem that went a little too far was no great matter. But why is Shifu so especially fond of this lyric, writing it out again and again?” He held up a sheaf of white notepaper in his left hand and waved it. On every sheet was written “Even then, when we met, my heart took note. How much more now.”³ He asked, “Little shimei, do you understand?” I shook my head and said, “No!” He leaned a little closer and asked again, “You really don’t understand?” I shook my head. He smiled and said, “Then why are you blushing?” I said, “I’m going to tell Shifu.” Qu shige suddenly turned pale. “Little shimei, whatever you do, don’t tell Shifu. If Shifu finds out he’ll break my legs, and then who will teach you martial arts?” His voice shook, and he seemed truly afraid. We were all afraid of Shifu, so I could hardly blame him. I said, “Of course I won’t tell Shifu. Do you think I’m that stupid! And get a scolding from Shifu?” Qu shige said, “Shifu would never scold you. Since you came to Peach Blossom Island,⁴ has Shifu ever said one harsh word to you?”

It was true. All these years Shifu had always been kind and gentle with me. He had never once scolded me, never so much as frowned at me in anger. But sometimes, when he knitted his brows and looked unhappy, I would say things to cheer him up. “Shifu, which of the shige has made you cross? Chen shige? Wu shidi?” Chen shige was rough-tongued and sometimes offended Shifu, and Shifu would give him a light backhanded slap. Chen shige’s qinggong⁵ was very fine, but however he dodged, Shifu’s careless palm always landed on the crown of his head. Still, Shifu struck very lightly, a gentle pat and no more. Wu shidi was stubborn and sometimes answered Shifu back. Shifu paid him no heed and only laughed it off, but then he would not speak to him for days. Wu shidi would take fright, kneel and kowtow to beg forgiveness, and Shifu would flick his sleeve and send him head over heels. Wu shidi would make a great show of a clumsy fall and come up covered in dust, and Shifu would laugh aloud and be angry with him no longer.

When Shifu heard me ask this, he said, “I’m not angry with Xuanfeng or Gangfeng or the rest. I wish it were them. I’m angry with Heaven.” I said, “Can one be angry with Heaven too? Shifu, please teach me.” Shifu set his face and said, “I won’t. You wouldn’t understand if I did.” I took his hand and swung it gently, pleading, “Shifu, please, please, teach me just a little. If I don’t understand, then you’ll just have to teach me more!” Whenever I pleaded like that, it always worked. Shifu smiled, went into his study and brought out a few sheets of white notepaper for me. My face went red again. I dared not look at him, afraid the sheets would say “Even then, when we met, my heart took note. How much more now” once more. Luckily, each sheet held other lines.

Lyrics of Zhu Xizhen,⁶ copied out by Old Heretic Huang⁷

Now I am old, and all things are changed. Among the flowers I do not drink, and tears wet my robe. Now I wish only to shut my gate and sleep, and let the plum blossom fly as it will, like snow.

An old man has no more of youth’s delights. Wine cloys, and I weary of pipes and strings. At dusk, wind and rain again, and beyond the tower the horn’s last notes die away.

Liu Lang has grown old, and cares nothing that the peach blossom smiles as before. Ten thousand li of east wind. The realm is broken, and its hills and rivers shine on fallen red.

Things of now and of old, the tears of heroes, and age pressing on. For ever I grieve that the evening sun goes west, and the late tide turns back.

I said, “Shifu, why do you always write about being old, old, old? You’re not old at all. You’re so full of vigour and your martial arts are so high that none of the young, strapping shige and shidi can match you.” Shifu sighed. “Ah! Everyone must grow old. Watching you young ones, I see your shifu’s head grow whiter hair by hair. ‘In the bright mirror of the high hall I grieve at white hair, dark threads at dawn and snow by dusk.’” I said, “Shifu, sit still, and I’ll pull the white hairs out for you.” And I really did reach up to his temple, pull out a white hair and hold it up in front of him. Shifu blew on it, a long, strong breath. I let go, and the white hair flew up, very high, and drifted out of the window, straight up into the sky. I clapped my hands and said, “‘A single plume, through all the ages, in the blue clouds.’⁸ Shifu, your learning and your martial arts come once in a thousand years. You truly are a single plume, through all the ages, in the blue clouds.” Shifu smiled a little and said, “Chaofeng, you’re always saying funny things to make your shifu happy. Still, happy days like this one don’t come often. However great your shifu’s learning and martial arts, he will grow old in the end, and you are growing up day by day, and one day you will leave him.” I took Shifu’s hand and swung it gently, saying, “Shifu, I don’t want to grow up. I’ll learn martial arts from you all my life and stay by your side.”

Shifu gave a faint, wry smile. “What childish talk! Ouyang Xiu’s lyric to the tune Ding Feng Bo puts it well.

Cup in hand before the flowers, I would ask you, what means has the world to keep the spring? Even could youth be kept, empty words. The heartless flower faces one who feels. Fair as the flower is, it must fall. Since ancient times, how long has a rosy face stayed fresh?

“You will grow up, Chaofeng. However strong our neigong⁹ becomes, we cannot beat Heaven. When Heaven means us to grow old, no amount of training is any use.” I said, “Shifu, your skill is so high. Chaofeng will train with you all her life and look after you till you’re a hundred, two hundred…” Shifu shook his head. “Thank you. It is enough that you have such a heart.

Cherish the spring that comes this year, for it is rare. Know that a flower’s face does not stay red. When the wine wears off, you will be gone. A thousand petals, borne off by the stream, if not by the wind.”

I said, “Shifu, Mei Chaofeng won’t go with the stream or with the wind. She’ll just learn the Divine Finger Flick!” Shifu roared with laughter. “You really know how to coax your shifu. From tomorrow I’ll teach you the first steps of the Divine Finger Flick.”

A few days later I asked Qu shige, “Why does Shifu call himself Old Heretic Huang? It’s such an ugly name. Shifu’s only ten years or so older than you, isn’t he? He’s neither old nor a heretic.” Qu shige smiled and said, “You say Shifu is neither old nor a heretic? Splendid. Shifu would be delighted to hear it.”

He told me that Shifu came of an old Zhejiang¹⁰ family of scholars. His forebears had done great service under the Founding Emperor and had been made marquises and dukes ever since, holding high office under every reign. Shifu’s grandfather was a Censor in the Shaoxing years of Emperor Gaozong. That year the traitor minister Qin Hui¹¹ had the great loyal minister Yue Fei¹² framed and killed. Shifu’s grandfather sent memorial after memorial to the throne to clear Yue Fei’s name, and the Emperor and Qin Hui were so enraged that they not only refused him but had him demoted. Shifu’s grandfather, loyal to the core, cried out aloud outside the court, calling on all the officials and the common people to rise together and save Yue Fei. So Qin Hui had him killed, and his family were banished to Yunnan as military exiles. Shifu was born in Lijiang¹³ in Yunnan. He read a great many books from childhood and mastered martial arts too, and from boyhood he cursed the Emperor and talked of overthrowing the Song, set on killing the Emperor and his ministers to avenge Grandfather Yue and his own grandfather. By then Qin Hui was long dead, and Gaozong was old and witless. Shifu’s father taught him the sages’ way of loyalty to the sovereign and duty to parents, but Shifu would not accept it and argued with his father endlessly, and the whole family called him unfilial. At last his father lost his temper and drove him out of the house. He went back to western Zhejiang, where, far from sitting the examinations, he went and wrecked the Minglun Hall of Qingyuan Prefecture, and pasted up great placards inside the imperial palace and outside the offices of the Chancellor and the Minister of War, and outside the gate of the Southern Kong Mansion in Quzhou,¹⁴ decrying the sages and slandering the worthies, denouncing the court’s evil government and saying it ought to be planning a northern campaign to win back the lost lands. The court sent hundreds of men to hunt him day and night, but Shifu’s martial arts were already very high by then, and how could they catch him? So Shifu’s name rang loud in the jianghu,¹⁵ and because he decried the sages and slandered his forebears, reviled the court and feared nothing, saying what the common folk wished to say but dared not, the jianghu gave him the name of the Eccentric Heretic Daxia.

Qu shige said, “Some years ago the wulin¹⁶ ran with blood over a secret manual of martial arts called the Nine Yin Manual,¹⁷ and countless people were killed or maimed. The Order Leader of the Quanzhen Order, Wang Chongyang the Perfected One,¹⁸ invited the greatest masters of the wulin to Mount Hua¹⁹ to try their skill against one another. They called it the Huashan Sword Summit.²⁰ It was agreed that whoever proved the greatest would keep the Nine Yin Manual, and that from then on no one would fight or scheme for it, so that peace would return to the jianghu everywhere. Five men took part in the Sword Summit, and they were called the Eastern Heretic, the Western Venom, the Southern Emperor, the Northern Beggar and the Central Divine. The Eastern Heretic is Shifu, and people also call him Old Heretic Huang, though in fact he was the youngest of the five. The Central Divine was Chongyang the Perfected One. When the contest was over, the Eastern Heretic, the Western Venom and the other two all acknowledged the Central Divine as first.”

I asked, “Eldest Shige, what is the Nine Yin Manual? Shifu’s skill is so great. Can that Central Divine really be better than him?” Qu shige said, “I’ve heard that the Nine Yin Manual sets down the finest and deadliest martial arts of every house and school under heaven, and how to train in them. Whoever gets the book and trains as it says will have no equal under heaven! Luckily Chongyang the Perfected One was already the greatest martial artist under heaven, so even with the book he was still only the greatest under heaven. And he was a just and kindly man who would never use his strength to bully others, so when the result was announced everyone was glad and no one objected. Little shimei, in the martial way there truly is a sky beyond the sky and a man above every man. To us Shifu seems far beyond reach, but there may well be someone who could beat him by a move or so.”

The lines Shifu had recited so casually that day, “When the wine wears off, you will be gone, borne off by the stream, if not by the wind,” came true in the end. When Shifu woke from his wine I really was gone, gone off with my second shige, Chen Xuanfeng. My second shige had thick brows and big eyes and was all sinew and bone. He was two years older than me, but he hardly ever spoke to me. He only watched me in silence, often until my face went red and I turned away. When the peaches ripened on Peach Blossom Island, he would often bring a double handful of fresh red peaches into my room, set them on the table and go without a word. Qu shige was more than ten years older than me. Lu shidi was two years younger, and Wu shidi and Feng shidi younger still. To me they were all children. On the island only my second shige was just a little older than me. He was very rough. Once he took my hand and said, “Little thief-sister, let’s go and steal peaches.” I was cross. I shook off his hand and said, “What did you call me?” He said, “We’re going to steal peaches, so we’re thieves, and of course you’re a little thief-sister.” I said, “Then what about you?” He said, “I’m thief gege.” I called out loud, “Thief gege!” He said, “That’s right! Thief gege is going to steal little thief-sister.” I took no notice of him, but my heart felt sweet. That night he took me peach-stealing, and we stole lots and lots. He put the peaches on the table in my room, and in the dark he suddenly took me in his arms. I struggled but couldn’t get free, and all at once my whole body went soft. He whispered in my ear, “Little thief-sister, I want you to stay with me for ever and ever and never leave me.”

A flush of red rose into Mei Chaofeng’s face. Guo Jing heard her breathing quicken, and then she gave a long, soft sigh, a very tender sigh, and the arm locked about his head loosened a little. Mei Chaofeng said softly, “Why? Why did Shifu break Qu shige’s legs? And why did he drive him off the island?”

Her great enemy was in her grip now. The two of them sat in silence at the mouth of the hole, with not a sound anywhere around them, and she sank back into memories of the past.

Qu shige had always looked at me tenderly too, and by then I was eighteen and understood what his eyes meant. But he had been married. His wife had died, leaving him a little daughter, and besides, I was already in love with thief gege, so I could only avoid Qu shige’s eyes. One night thief gege was in my room, holding me in my bed, when someone outside the window shouted, “Chen Xuanfeng! You beast, come out here!” It was Qu shige’s voice. Thief gege scrambled into his clothes and rushed out of the door, and outside I heard the whoosh of wind as Qu shige fought him. I was terrified, and cried out, begging, “Eldest Shige, I’m sorry, please spare us!” Qu shige said coldly, “Spare you? ‘Even then, when we met, my heart took note. How much more now.’ Whose handwriting is that? I might spare you, but I doubt Shifu will.” There was a crack as someone took a heavy blow. Chen shige shouted, “Aiyo! You really mean to kill me?” Qu shige said, “Of course I do! Mei shimei, you said you’d train with Shifu all your life and serve him for ever. You deceived Shifu.” Chen shige shouted, “Shifu doesn’t mind, but you have to! You’re not meddling, you’re jealous, you shameless thing!” I looked out of the window and saw two shadows fighting at great speed, but my skill was not good enough to make them out clearly.

Suddenly there was a loud crack. Chen shige flew up into the air and crashed to the ground. Qu shige said, “I’m not jealous. I’m venting Shifu’s anger for him, and today I’ll kill you, you faithless, ungrateful beast!” I jumped out of the window and threw myself over Chen shige, crying, “Eldest Shige, spare him, Eldest Shige, spare him!” Qu shige sighed, turned and walked away.

Footnotes

1. 师哥 — shīgē. Male senior, the colloquial form of shixiong. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Gē means older brother. ↩

2. 欧阳修 — Ōuyáng Xiū. Northern Song statesman, historian and essayist, one of the Eight Masters of the Tang and Song. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 望江南 — Wàng Jiāngnán. A ci tune title, literally gazing towards Jiangnan. The lyric quoted, attributed to Ouyang Xiu, begins 江南柳，叶小未成阴 and closes 恁时相见早留心，何况到如今. ↩

4. 桃花岛 — Táohuā Dǎo. Huang Yaoshi’s island in the East China Sea. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 轻功 — qīnggōng. The martial art of body lightness. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 朱希真 — Zhū Xīzhēn. Zhu Dunru (1081—1159), courtesy name Xizhen, a Song dynasty poet. ↩

7. 黄老邪 — Huáng Lǎoxié. Literally old heretic Huang. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 万古云霄一羽毛 — Wàn gǔ yúnxiāo yī yǔmáo. Literally a single plume in the clouds through all the ages. A line from Du Fu’s “Thoughts on Ancient Sites”, in praise of the matchless Zhuge Liang. ↩

9. 内功 — nèigōng. Literally internal cultivation. The practice of developing neili through breathing and meditation. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 浙江 — Zhèjiāng. A coastal province in south-eastern China. ↩

11. 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. ↩

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

13. 丽江 — Lìjiāng. A town in northwestern Yunnan Province. ↩

14. 衢州 — Qúzhōu. A city in western Zhejiang Province, seat of the southern branch of the Kong family, the descendants of Confucius who moved south with the Song court. See Wikipedia. ↩

15. 江湖 — jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. The world of martial artists, outside mainstream society. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

16. 武林 — wǔlín. Literally martial forest. Those who actually practise, teach or study martial arts. The wulin sits inside the jianghu and is narrower than it: every member of the wulin belongs to the jianghu, but a pedlar or physician of the jianghu who never trained is no part of the wulin. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 九阴真经 — Jiǔyīn Zhēnjīng. Literally true scripture of the nine yin. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

18. 王重阳 — Wáng Chóngyáng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

19. 华山 — Huàshān. Literally splendid mountain. Mount Hua, the western of the Five Sacred Mountains, in Shaanxi. See Wikipedia. ↩

20. 华山论剑 — Huàshān Lùnjiàn. Literally sword discussion at Huashan. Use of discussion is key as the participants were engaged in a martial arts exchange and a philosophical debate on mastery, rather than just a physical contest. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩