The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 13 – Part 1

The cripple of the Five Lakes¹

Huang Rong went back to the inn and to bed, very pleased with herself for having done a good deed. She slept sweetly the whole night through, and the next morning she told Guo Jing about it. Guo Jing had himself put no small effort into the matter. He had fought Wanyan Kang² until their heads were broken and blood flowed, all to force him to marry Mu Nianci.³ Now, hearing that the two of them were of one heart, he was glad as well. What pleased him even more was that Qiu Chuji⁴ and the Six Eccentrics of Jiangnan⁵ would never again be able to press him to take Mu Nianci as his wife. As for Huazheng’s⁶ betrothal, he had no intention of marrying her anyway, so he saw no need to mention it to Huang Rong. A great weight lifted from his mind, and at once his spirits soared. The two had their midday meal, but Mu Nianci still had not returned. Huang Rong smiled and said, “No need to wait for her. Let’s be off.” She went back to their room and changed into men’s clothes.

The two went to the market town and bought a horse to ride, then circled round to the front of the Dai family residence. The lanterns and other accoutrements bearing the inscription “Imperial Envoy of the Great Jin” had already been taken down. It seemed Wanyan Kang had already set off, and Mu Nianci had naturally gone with him.

The two of them travelled at their leisure, enjoying the mountains and rivers, following the Grand Canal southward. That day they reached Yixing,⁷ famed throughout the land as the capital of pottery, where heap upon heap of unfired purple-clay ware lay half-hidden among the green hills and clear waters.

Further east they went, and before long arrived at the shores of Lake Tai.⁸ The lake girdled three prefectures, and all the waters of the southeast drained into it. Its circumference was five hundred li,⁹ and in ancient times it was called the Five Lakes.¹⁰ Guo Jing had never seen such vast waters. He stood hand in hand with Huang Rong at the water’s edge, and saw a long sky and far-off waves, green as far as the eye could reach, and seventy-two dark green peaks standing tall amid thirty-six thousand qing¹¹ of rolling water. He could not help throwing back his head and giving a great shout, full of joy.

Huang Rong said, “Let’s go out onto the lake.” She found a fishing village by the shore, left their horse with a fishing family, borrowed a small boat, and rowed out into the lake. As the shore fell away, the view opened wide and empty on every side, until truly one could not tell whether heaven and earth lay within the waters, or the waters within heaven and earth.

The wind stirred the front of Huang Rong’s robe and her hair. She smiled and said, “Long ago Minister Fan¹² took Xi Shi¹³ sailing on the Five Lakes. That was truly clever of him. To grow old and die out here, isn’t that better than being some wretched official?”

Guo Jing did not know the story of Minister Fan. “Rong-er,” he said, “tell me the story.” Huang Rong recounted how Fan Li had helped King Goujian of Yue¹⁴ avenge himself and restore his kingdom, and how when his work was accomplished he had withdrawn from public life and retired with Xi Shi into seclusion on Lake Tai. She also told how Wu Zixu¹⁵ and Wen Zhong¹⁶ had each been put to death by the kings of Wu and Yue respectively.

Guo Jing listened entranced. After a moment’s reverie he said, “Fan Li was certainly wise. But to be like Wu Zixu and Wen Zhong, and stay loyal to your country right up to your death, that is harder still.” Huang Rong smiled and said, “Indeed. As it is written: ‘When the realm possesses the Way, one does not change what is established within. That is the strength of the resolute. When the realm lacks the Way, one does not change even unto death. That is the strength of the resolute.’”¹⁷

Guo Jing asked, “What do those two lines mean?” Huang Rong said, “When the realm is well governed and you become a great official, you still keep the principles you held before. When the court is rotten, you would rather give your life for what is right than betray your integrity. That is what makes a man worth the name, a true man through and through.” Guo Jing nodded again and again. “Rong-er, how did you come up with such a fine principle?” Huang Rong laughed. “Oh my, if I could come up with that, wouldn’t I be a sage? These are the words of Confucius.¹⁸ Father had me read them when I was small. Father himself lived by ‘when the realm lacks the Way, unto death one does not change.’ That was supposed to be ‘the strength of the resolute,’ but people turned it round and called him ‘the Old Heretic.’”

Guo Jing sighed and said, “There are so many things I can never figure out. If I had read more books and known the words of the sages, I would surely understand them by now.” Huang Rong said, “That is not necessarily so. Father often says that some of what the great sages said is perfectly right, and a good deal of it makes no sense. When I watched him reading, he would often say, ‘Wrong, wrong, utter nonsense, outrageous!’ And sometimes, ‘Great sage, you’re talking through your backside!’ Just because he says the great sages talk through their backsides, and calls the Emperor a bastard, people call him ‘the Eastern Heretic.’¹⁹ Must the great sages and the Emperor always be right?” Guo Jing nodded. “Whatever you come up against, you have to think it over yourself, whether it is really right or not.”

Huang Rong went on, “I spent a great deal of time on books, and now I am sorry for it. If I hadn’t wanted to learn everything, pestering Father to teach me reading and painting, qimen and arithmetic and all the rest of it, and had devoted myself wholly to martial arts, why would we still fear Mei Chaofeng²⁰ or Liang the Old Eccentric?²¹ But it does not matter. Jing gege, once you have mastered Qigong’s Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing, Missing Three,²² you will have no fear of Liang the Old Eccentric either.” Guo Jing shook his head. “When I think it over, it probably still won’t be enough.” Huang Rong laughed. “It’s a pity Qigong left the moment he said he would. Otherwise I’d have stolen his Dog-Beating Staff²³ and hidden it, and not given it back until he had taught you the other three palms.” Guo Jing said hastily, “No, no, that won’t do. Learning these fifteen palms has made me more than content already. How could I play such pranks on Qigong, at his venerable age?”

Talking and chatting, the two of them stopped rowing and let the little boat drift with the wind. Before they knew it they were more than ten li from shore, and they saw a little skiff lying still on the lake several hundred feet away. A fisherman sat at its bow fishing, and a young boy was at the stern. Huang Rong pointed at the fishing boat and said, “Misty waters stretching away, and a lone rod fishing. It’s just like an ink-wash landscape.” Guo Jing asked, “What is an ink-wash landscape?” Huang Rong said, “A painting done in black ink alone, with no colours.” Guo Jing looked out and saw only green hills and green water, blue sky and blue-grey clouds, orange-yellow sunset and peach-red evening clouds, nothing at all the colour of black ink. He shook his head, quite at a loss.

Huang Rong talked with Guo Jing for a while, then turned her head and saw that the fisherman still sat upright at the bow of his boat, his rod and line motionless. Huang Rong laughed. “He certainly has patience.”

A light breeze blew across the water, and the ripples went slap, slap, slap against the bow. Huang Rong idly plied her oar and began to sing:

“Setting sail for a thousand li, I ride the waves away, A passing glance for the hills of Wu. Clouds gather at the Water Palace, tides follow the goddess divine, The Nine Rivers flow east. A traveller from the north, free-spirited, His bold heart stirred that his years are waning. He recalls his old hermitage by the Yi and Hao, His friends like Chao Fu and Xu You, A dream of the Southern Branch, and it comes to this!”²⁴

Her voice grew increasingly sorrowful as she sang, and when she finished she said to Guo Jing, “That is the upper stanza of Zhu Xizhen’s ‘Water Dragon Chant.’²⁵ Father used to sing it often, so I remember it.”

Guo Jing saw what seemed to be tears glimmering in her eyes, and was about to ask her the meaning of the song, when suddenly from across the lake came a bleak, desolate voice singing the very same tune, the lower stanza of “Water Dragon Chant”:

“Alas, the barbarian mists are not yet swept away, I ask the world: where are the heroes now? Strange counsels to restore the realm, Alas, all in vain, dust dims the white feather fan. Iron chains stretched across the river, Silken sails breasting the waves, The young Lord of Wu bore it hard. I grieve only to strike my cassia oar, Chanting the Song of Liang Father, tears falling like rain!”²⁴

Looking across, they saw that the singer was the fisherman with the rod. His voice rose and surged, stirring and full of spirit.

Guo Jing did not understand what either of them had been singing. He only thought it sounded pleasant enough. But Huang Rong, listening to the song, sat lost in thought. Guo Jing asked, “What is it?” Huang Rong said, “This is a song Father often sang. It speaks of an old man on the river, grieving that half the realm has been seized by the enemy. I never expected a fisherman on this lake to know it too. Let’s go and see.” The two rowed over. The fisherman had already taken in his rod and was steering his boat towards them.

When the two boats were a few dozen feet apart, the fisherman called out in a clear voice, “What a pleasure to meet fine guests on the lake. Will you come over and share a cup of wine?” Huang Rong heard the elegance of his speech and marvelled at him all the more. She replied, “I fear we would be imposing on you, sir.” The fisherman laughed. “Fine guests are rare. A chance meeting on the great lake, like duckweed drifting together on the water, gladdens the heart all the more. Come over, please.” A few strokes of the oar, and the two boats were alongside.

Huang Rong and Guo Jing tied their small boat to the stern of the fishing boat, then stepped aboard and greeted the fisherman with folded hands.²⁶ The fisherman returned the greeting from his seat and said, “Please sit. I have an affliction of the legs and cannot rise. I beg your forgiveness.” Guo Jing and Huang Rong said together, “There is no need for courtesy.” The two sat down in the fishing boat and took the measure of the old fisherman. He was not yet forty, it seemed, his face gaunt and wasted as though from some grave illness, but he was tall. Even seated, he stood half a head above Guo Jing. At the stern a young boy was fanning a little stove to heat the wine.

Huang Rong said, “My friend here is surnamed Guo, and this junior is surnamed Huang. I got carried away and sang out on the lake without restraint. I fear I spoilt your peace, sir.” The fisherman laughed. “Hearing so clear a voice has swept the dust of the world from my breast. This humble one is surnamed Lu. Is this your first visit to Lake Tai, young friends?” Guo Jing said, “It is.” The fisherman told the boy to bring out dishes to go with the wine, and poured for his guests. The four little dishes were not up to Huang Rong’s own cooking, but their flavour was far from ordinary, and the cups and plates were all fine and spotless, for all the world like those of some great and wealthy house.

The three drank two cups together. The fisherman said, “The ‘Water Dragon Chant’ you sang just now, young friend, is full of pent-up feeling, a truly superb poem. That one so young should grasp its deeper meaning is rare indeed.” Hearing him talk like a greybeard, Huang Rong smiled faintly. She said, “Since the Song court crossed south, there has not been a single poet or scholar who did not carry the sorrow of a lost homeland.” The fisherman nodded in agreement. Huang Rong said, “Zhang Yuhu’s²⁷ ‘Song of the Six Prefectures’ says, ‘We have heard that the old men of the Central Plains still gaze southward at the emerald canopies and rainbow banners. Let the traveller arrive there, and righteous fury fills his breast, and his tears fall as if poured.’”²⁸ The fisherman slapped the table and sang aloud, “‘Let the traveller arrive there, and righteous fury fills his breast, and his tears fall as if poured.’” He poured three cups in succession and drained each to the dregs.

The two fell to talking of poetry and found much in common. In truth Huang Rong was still so young. What grief for a lost homeland could she truly feel? As for the deeper meaning of the poems, that was harder still for her to grasp. She was only repeating what she had heard her father say, but her remarks were so penetrating, and showed such lofty and refined taste, that the fisherman kept slapping the table in admiration. Guo Jing sat beside them and understood not a word. He was glad, however, to see the fisherman so taken with Huang Rong. They talked a while longer. Dusk was gathering, grey and heavy, and the mist on the lake grew thicker.

The fisherman said, “My humble home is just by the lake. If I may be so bold, I would like to invite you both to stay a few days.” Huang Rong said, “Jing gege, what do you think?” Before Guo Jing could answer, the fisherman said, “The hills around my home are not without their charms. Since you are out to see the sights in any case, I do beg you not to refuse.” Guo Jing saw the sincerity in his manner and said, “Rong-er, then let’s impose on Mister Lu.” The fisherman was delighted and told the boy to row back.

When they reached the shore, Guo Jing said, “We must return the boat first, and we left our two horses over there.” The fisherman smiled. “All the folk around here know me. Let him see to these things.” He pointed at the boy. Guo Jing said, “This insignificant one’s horse has a nasty temper. It would be better if I fetched him myself.” The fisherman said, “In that case, I shall await you at my poor home.” So saying, he plied his oar, and his little skiff vanished deep among the weeping willows. The boy followed Guo Jing and Huang Rong to return the boat and fetch the horses. They had gone a li or so when they collected a large boat from a household along the shore, loaded the horses aboard, and invited Guo Jing and Huang Rong to take their seats. Six sturdy boatmen rowed and sculled, and after several li across the lake they came to a water islet, mooring at a quay of laid bluestone. Going ashore, they saw before them a sprawl of connected pavilions and halls, a vast and splendid manor indeed. They crossed a great stone bridge and came to the front gate. Guo Jing and Huang Rong exchanged a glance. They had not expected the fisherman’s home to be so grand.

Before they had reached the gate, a young man of eighteen or nineteen came forward to greet them, with five or six servants at his back. The young man said, “My father bade me wait here for you. I have been waiting a good while.” Guo Jing and Huang Rong cupped their fists in modest thanks. They noticed he wore a long robe of fine silk, and his features bore a certain resemblance to the fisherman, though he was broad-shouldered and thick-chested, strongly built. Guo Jing said, “May I ask your honoured name, Brother Lu?” The young man said, “My humble courtesy name is Guanying. Please just call me by it.” Huang Rong said, “How could we presume?” The three spoke as they walked into the inner hall.

Guo Jing and Huang Rong saw that the manor within was richly appointed, with carved beams and painted rafters, every detail wrought with ingenuity, quite a different character from the plain, massive estates of the north. Huang Rong studied the layout of paths and courtyards as they went, a faint look of surprise on her face.

Past three successive courtyards they came to the rear hall, where they heard the fisherman calling from behind a screen, “Come in, please, do come in.” Lu Guanying²⁹ said, “My father’s legs do not permit him to move freely. He awaits you in the east study.” The three went round the screen and saw the study door thrown wide. The fisherman sat upon a couch within.

Footnotes

1. 五湖废人 — Wǔ hú fèirén. Chapter title. The Five Lakes are the Lake Tai region. ↩

2. 完颜康 — Wányán Kāng. See Wuxia Wiki (spoiler). ↩

3. 穆念慈 — Mù Niàncí. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 丘处机 — Qiū Chǔjī. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 江南六怪 — Jiāngnán Liù Guài. Literally six eccentrics of Jiangnan. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 华筝 — Huázhēng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 宜兴 — Yíxīng. A city in Jiangsu Province famed since antiquity for its purple-clay (zisha) pottery. ↩

8. 太湖 — Tàihú. Literally great lake. Lake Tai, on the border of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. See Wikipedia. ↩

9. 里 — lǐ. A traditional unit of distance, about 500 metres or one-third of a mile. ↩

10. 五湖 — Wǔ Hú. Literally five lakes. An ancient name for Lake Tai. ↩

11. 顷 — qǐng. A unit of area, about 6.7 hectares. ↩

12. 范大夫 — Fàn Dàfū. Literally Minister Fan: Fan Li (范蠡 — Fàn Lǐ), the statesman who helped King Goujian of Yue avenge his defeat by Wu. He then withdrew from public life and is said to have sailed away on Lake Tai with Xi Shi. ↩

13. 西施 — Xī Shī. One of the legendary Four Great Beauties of ancient China, a woman of Yue presented as a gift to the King of Wu. ↩

14. 勾践 — Gōujiàn. King of Yue (r. c. 496—465 BCE) who endured years of humiliation before destroying the state of Wu. See Wikipedia. ↩

15. 伍子胥 — Wǔ Zǐxū. A minister of the state of Wu in the Spring and Autumn period, ordered to take his own life by King Fuchai. ↩

16. 文种 — Wén Zhǒng. A minister of Yue who helped King Goujian destroy Wu and was later ordered by him to take his own life. ↩

17. 中庸 — Zhōngyōng. From the Doctrine of the Mean, a classical Confucian text. The quotation reads in full: 国有道，不变塞焉，强者矫；国无道，至死不变，强者矫. ↩

18. 孔夫子 — Kǒng Fūzǐ. Confucius (551—479 BCE), the philosopher and teacher whose sayings are collected in the Analects. See Wikipedia. ↩

19. 东邪 — Dōng Xié. Literally eastern heretic. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

20. 梅超风 — Méi Chāofēng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

21. 梁老怪 — Liáng Lǎo Guài. Literally Liang the old eccentric. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

22. 七公 — Qīgōng. His name meaning “Seven Elder” or “Seventh Elder”: 七 is his rank in his generation and 公 an elder’s courtesy. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

23. 打狗棒 — Dǎgǒu Bàng. The jade-green bamboo staff carried by the Guild Chief of the Beggars’ Guild as the token of his office. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

24. 水龙吟 — Shuǐ Lóng Yín. Literally water dragon’s chant, the name of a ci tune. The lyric is by Zhu Xizhen (朱希真), the courtesy name of the Song poet Zhu Dunru (朱敦儒 — Zhū Dūnrú). ↩ ↩²

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

26. 作揖 — zuò yī. A traditional greeting, bowing forward with the hands folded before the chest. ↩

27. 张于湖 — Zhāng Yúhú. The literary name of Zhang Xiaoxiang (张孝祥, 1132—1170), a Southern Song poet known for his patriotic lyrics. ↩

28. 六洲歌头 — Liù Zhōu Gē Tóu. “Song of the Six Prefectures”, a ci tune. The lines quoted come from Zhang Xiaoxiang’s lyric to it, lamenting the loss of the Central Plains to the Jin. ↩

29. 陆冠英 — Lù Guānyīng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩