The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 16 – Part 5

Guo Jing drew a deep breath and steadied the churning of qi and blood in his chest. He looked at the long-bearded man and thought in astonishment, This man’s martial arts are very nearly as good as Hong shifu’s¹ and Island Master Huang’s.² How can there be another man like this on Peach Blossom Island?³ Could he be the Western Venom⁴ or the Southern Emperor?⁵ The moment he thought of the Western Venom, a chill ran through him, and he thought, What if he’s played some trick on me? He raised his palm and held it up to the sunlight. There was no swelling or redness and no black mark, and only then did he feel a little easier.

The long-bearded man asked with a smile, “Can you guess who I am?”

Guo Jing said, “I have heard it said that there are five great masters under heaven whose martial arts have reached the very summit. Wang the Perfected One, Order Leader of Quanzhen,⁶ has passed away. Hong shifu, the Nine-Fingered Divine Beggar, and the Master of Peach Blossom Island I know already. Senior, are you Senior Ouyang, or the Southern Emperor?”

The long-bearded man laughed. “You think my martial arts are about on a par with the Eastern Heretic and the Northern Beggar, don’t you?”

Guo Jing said, “My martial arts are poor and my knowledge is shallow, so I would not presume to say. But as for that push Senior gave me just now, among all the famous masters I have had the honour to meet, apart from Hong shifu and Island Master Huang, there is truly no third who could match it.”

The long-bearded man was greatly pleased by the praise. A childlike delight showed on his hair-smothered face, and he laughed. “I’m not that Old Venom Ouyang Feng, and I’m not the one who sits on a throne either. Have another guess.”

Guo Jing thought it over. “I once met a Qiu Qianren⁷ who claimed to be as famous as Hong shifu and the others. But he was all name and no substance, and his martial arts were quite ordinary. I’m very stupid, and I truly cannot guess Senior’s honoured name.”

The long-bearded man chuckled. “My surname is Zhou. Does that bring anything to mind?”

Guo Jing blurted out, “Ah, you’re Zhou Botong!” The moment the words were out, he realised that to call the man by his name to his face was grossly disrespectful, and he hurriedly bowed low. “That was disrespectful of me. I beg Senior Zhou to forgive me.”

The long-bearded man laughed. “Quite right, quite right. I am Zhou Botong. My name is Zhou Botong, so if you call me Zhou Botong, where’s the disrespect? Wang Chongyang, Order Leader of Quanzhen, was my shixiong,⁸ and Ma Yu, Qiu Chuji and the rest are all my shizhi.⁹ You’re not of the Quanzhen Order, so there’s no need for all this fuss of calling me Senior this and Senior that. Just call me Zhou Botong.”

Guo Jing said, “How could I dare?”

Zhou Botong had lived alone on Peach Blossom Island for a long time and was bored beyond words. Now, suddenly, here was Guo Jing to talk to and while the time away, and he was enormously pleased. All at once a strange idea came into his head. “Little friend, how about you and I swear an oath of brotherhood?”

Of all the outlandish things he might have said, nothing could have been more preposterous. When Guo Jing heard it, his mouth fell open and would not close. He looked at the man’s face and saw that he was perfectly serious, not joking at all. After a long pause he said, “I am a junior of Daoist Elder¹⁰ Ma and Daoist Elder Qiu. By rights I ought to address you as Grand Shifu.”

Zhou Botong waved his hands in frantic protest. “All my martial arts were taught me by my shixiong, and I am not all that much older than the rest. Ma Yu and Qiu Chuji see that I have none of an elder’s dignity, so they do not treat me as one. You are most likely not my son, and I daresay I am not yours either. So why fuss about who is senior and who is junior?”

Just then they heard the sound of footsteps. An old servant approached carrying a food box. Zhou Botong beamed. “Something to eat!” The old servant lifted the lid and set out four small dishes, two pots of wine and a wooden tub of rice on the big rock in front of Zhou Botong. He poured wine for them both, then stood by with his hands at his sides to wait on them.

Guo Jing asked at once, “Where is Miss Huang? Why has she not come to see me?” The servant shook his head, pointed at his own ears, then at his own mouth. The meaning was plain: he was deaf and dumb.

Zhou Botong laughed. “Huang Yaoshi pierced this man’s ears to deafen him. Tell him to open his mouth and have a look.” Guo Jing made a sign, and the man opened his mouth. Guo Jing looked and gave a start. Half the man’s tongue had been cut out.

Zhou Botong said, “All the servants on the island are like this. Since you have come to Peach Blossom Island, if you do not die, you will end up the same way one day.”

For a long while Guo Jing could not say a word. He thought, How can Rong-er’s father be so cruel?

Zhou Botong went on, “Old Heretic Huang torments me every night, yet I will not yield to him. Last night he very nearly had me beaten. If you hadn’t lent me a hand, more than ten years of stubborn holding out would have gone for nothing in a single night. Come, come, little brother, here we have wine and food. Let us swear an oath before Heaven and become brothers, and from now on share our good fortune and our troubles alike. When Wang Chongyang and I swore brotherhood, he too tried to wriggle out of it… What? You truly do not wish to? My shige¹¹ Wang Chongyang’s martial arts were far above mine, and in those days he refused to swear brotherhood with me. Are your martial arts far above mine too? I very much doubt it.”

Guo Jing said, “This junior’s martial arts are far, far beneath yours. I’m truly not worthy to swear brotherhood with you.”

Zhou Botong said, “If we had to be equal in martial arts before we could swear brotherhood, then should I go and swear it with Old Heretic Huang and Old Venom? They’re bad characters. I won’t do it! You want me to swear brotherhood with this deaf-and-dumb fellow?” With a casual flick of his left hand he sent the mute servant tumbling head over heels. Then he seized his own beard and hair and yanked, stamped his feet, and flew into a great rage.

Seeing his face change colour, Guo Jing said hastily, “Senior and I are two generations apart. If I did as Senior says, people would be sure to laugh at me and curse me. And when I next meet Daoist Elder Ma, Daoist Elder Qiu and Daoist Elder Wang, wouldn’t I be utterly ashamed?”

Zhou Botong said, “Only you would have so many scruples. If you won’t swear brotherhood with me, it must be because you think I’m too old. My beard may be long, but I’m not old at all. Boo-hoo-hoo…” Suddenly he covered his face and burst into loud sobs, tugging wildly at his beard. “I’ll pull my beard out, every hair of it, and then I won’t be old!” And there and then he tore out a dozen or more hairs.

Guo Jing was thrown into a panic. “I’ll do as Senior says.”

Zhou Botong said through his tears, “I’ve forced you into it, and you’re only saying yes because you must, and you still call me Senior and so on. That doesn’t count. Some day when people ask, you’ll put the blame on me. I know you don’t want to call me your sworn brother.” Guo Jing was secretly amused that a man of his years could behave with so little dignity. Then Zhou Botong picked up one of the dishes and flung it away, and sulked, refusing to eat. The mute servant hurried to pick it up, not knowing what it was all about, and badly frightened.

Guo Jing could do nothing else. He laughed. “Since you mean so kindly by me, brother, how could this younger brother not do as you wish? Let’s heap up earth for incense right here, and swear ourselves brothers.”

Zhou Botong’s tears turned to laughter in an instant. “I swore an oath to Old Heretic Huang that unless I could beat him, I would not set one foot outside this cave except to relieve myself. I will kowtow inside the cave. You kowtow outside.”

Guo Jing thought, If you never beat Island Master Huang, are you going to spend your whole life in this little stone cave? He asked no more questions and knelt down.

Zhou Botong knelt beside him and recited in a clear voice, “Old Wild Child Zhou Botong¹² this day swears brotherhood with Guo Jing. Hereafter we shall share fortune and hardship alike. If I break this oath, may I lose all my martial arts and be unable to beat even a little dog or a little cat.”

Guo Jing could not help laughing at his self-styled title of “Old Wild Child” and the outlandish oath. Zhou Botong glared at him. “What are you laughing at? Hurry up and say it after me.” So Guo Jing recited the oath in the same form, saying “Guo Jing this day swears brotherhood with Old Wild Child Zhou Botong” and so on, except that the last line became “unable to beat even a little mouse or a little turtle.” Then Guo Jing bowed to his elder brother once more.

Zhou Botong roared with laughter and cried, “That’ll do, that’ll do.” He poured himself some wine and drank it. “Old Heretic Huang is a real miser, giving people thin stuff like this to drink. Only that beautiful girl who came one day brought proper wine. That was worth drinking. Pity she never came again.”

Guo Jing remembered Huang Rong telling him she had been scolded by her father for secretly bringing wine to Zhou Botong, and had left Peach Blossom Island in anger. It seemed Zhou Botong knew nothing of it. His thoughts turned to Huang Rong, and anxiety seethed in him like boiling water.

Guo Jing had not eaten for a day. He had no appetite for wine but ate five great bowls of plain rice before he was full. The mute servant waited until they had finished, then cleared away the dishes and withdrew.

Zhou Botong said, “Brother, how did you come to offend Old Heretic Huang? Tell your elder brother about it.” So Guo Jing told him the whole story, how as a boy he had unwittingly killed Chen Xuanfeng,¹³ how he had fought Mei Chaofeng¹⁴ tooth and nail at Returning Clouds Manor,¹⁵ how Huang Yaoshi had flown into a rage and meant to take it out on the Six Eccentrics of Jiangnan,¹⁶ and how he himself had promised to come to Peach Blossom Island within a month to accept death.

Zhou Botong loved nothing better than a good story. He tilted his head, half-closed his eyes, and listened with keen relish, pressing Guo Jing for every detail whenever he grew brief.

When Guo Jing finished, Zhou Botong asked, “And then what happened?”

Guo Jing said, “And then I ended up here.”

Zhou Botong pondered for a moment. “Hm. So that pretty little girl is Old Heretic Huang’s daughter. She’s fond of you, so how is it she vanished without a trace once she got back to the island? There must be a reason. She has been locked up by Old Heretic Huang, mark my words.”

Guo Jing’s face showed his anxiety. “This disciple thinks so too…” His brow furrowed. He wanted to go out and search at once.

Zhou Botong’s face hardened. “What did you say?”

Guo Jing knew he had said the wrong thing, and said hastily, “Your little brother misspoke. Big Brother, please don’t take it amiss.”

Zhou Botong laughed. “This is one form of address that must never, ever be got wrong. If you and I were acting a play, then whether you called me wife or mother or daughter, you’d have to get it more exactly right still.” Guo Jing agreed repeatedly.

Zhou Botong tilted his head and asked, “Can you guess why I am here?”

Guo Jing said, “I was just going to ask you.”

Zhou Botong said, “It is a long tale. Let me tell it to you properly. You know of the five men, the Eastern Heretic, the Western Venom, the Southern Emperor, the Northern Beggar, and the Central Divine, who contested martial arts on the summit of Mount Hua,¹⁷ do you not?”

Guo Jing nodded. “I have heard it spoken of.”

Zhou Botong said, “It was the depth of winter. The summit of Mount Hua was sealed in deep snow. The five of them sat talking with their mouths and fighting with their hands. They fought for seven days and seven nights in the falling snow, until at last the Eastern Heretic, the Western Venom, the Southern Emperor, and the Northern Beggar all bowed before my shige Wang Chongyang’s martial arts and acknowledged him first under heaven. But do you know why those five men held the Huashan Sword Summit?”

Guo Jing said, “That I have never heard.”

Zhou Botong said, “It was over a scripture…”

Guo Jing broke in, “The Nine Yin Manual.”¹⁸

Zhou Botong said, “That is right! Brother, young as you are, you know no small amount about the wulin.¹⁹ But do you know the origin of the Nine Yin Manual?”

Guo Jing said, “That I do not.”

Zhou Botong tugged at the long hair that hung beside his ear, looking immensely pleased with himself. “Just now you told me a lovely story, so now…”

Guo Jing interrupted, “What I told you was all true. It was not a story.”

Zhou Botong said, “What difference does that make? So long as it is good to hear. Some man’s whole life is nothing but eating, shitting, and sleeping. If someone told me every last trifle of his life as a true account, what greens and bean curd he ate, how he took his piss and his shit, Old Wild Child would die of boredom before the man was half done.”

Guo Jing nodded. “I suppose that is so. Then I beg Big Brother to tell me the story of the Nine Yin Manual.”

Zhou Botong said, “Before our Great Song, there was an emperor called Huizong.²⁰ Emperor Huizong was a devotee of the Dao. In the Zhenghe era he ordered a search for every Daoist text under heaven, had them carved on woodblocks and printed. There were five thousand four hundred and eighty-one scrolls in all, and the collection was called the Wanshou Daozang.²¹ The man put in charge of the carving was called Huang Shang…”

Guo Jing said, “So he too was surnamed Huang.”

Zhou Botong said, “Pah! What do you mean, he too was surnamed Huang? This has nothing whatever to do with Old Heretic Huang Yaoshi, so don’t go getting the wrong idea. There are plenty of things in the world surnamed Huang. Yellow dogs are surnamed Huang, and so are yellow oxen.”

Guo Jing thought that yellow dogs and yellow oxen were unlikely to share a surname, but he did not bother to argue, and listened as Zhou Botong went on.

“This Huang Shang, who had nothing to do with Old Heretic Huang, was a remarkably clever man…”

Guo Jing had been about to say, “So he was a remarkably clever man too,” but the words were on the tip of his tongue when he held them back.

Zhou Botong said, “He was terrified that this great Daoist canon contained errors which the emperor would discover and which would cost him his head, so he read through it scroll by scroll with the utmost care. He did not expect that after several years of this, he would come to a profound mastery of Daoist philosophy, and from that mastery he penetrated the deep principles of martial arts. Without a teacher, he taught himself neigong²² and waigong,²³ until he became a great master of the martial arts. Brother, this Huang Shang was a great deal cleverer than you. I have no such talent, and I daresay neither have you.”

Guo Jing said, “Naturally. Five thousand-odd scrolls of Daoist books. If I had to read them through from beginning to end, I couldn’t do it in a lifetime. Heaven knows how many of the characters I wouldn’t even recognise, let alone learn any martial arts from them.”

Zhou Botong sighed. “There are clever people in this world, to be sure. But if you ever meet one, you’re almost bound to have terrible luck.”

Again Guo Jing did not agree, and thought, Rong-er is as clever as can be, and meeting her was the greatest good fortune of my life. How could that be bad luck? He had never liked arguing with people, so he said nothing.

Footnotes

1. 洪七公 — Hóng Qīgōng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 黄药师 — Huáng Yàoshī. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

4. 西毒 — Xī Dú. Literally western venom. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 南帝 — Nán Dì. Literally southern emperor. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

7. 裘千仞 — Qiú Qiānrèn. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 师兄 — shīxiōng. Male senior. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Xiōng means older brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 师侄 — shīzhí. Lineage nephew. The disciple of one’s shixiong, shidi, shijie or shimei. Shī means teacher. Zhí means nephew. ↩

10. 道长 — dàozhǎng. Literally Daoist elder. A respectful form of address for a Daoist priest. ↩

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

12. 周伯通 — Zhōu Bótōng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 陈玄风 — Chén Xuánfēng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

15. 归云庄 — Guīyún Zhuāng. Literally returning clouds manor. The Lu family manor on Lake Tai. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

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

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

19. 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. ↩

20. 宋徽宗 — Sòng Huīzōng. Emperor Huizong of Song (r. 1100—1126), a patron of Daoism and the arts whose reign ended in the Jin conquest of northern China. See Wikipedia. ↩

21. 万寿道藏 — Wànshòu Dàozàng. The Daoist Canon of the Wanshou era, a collection of five thousand four hundred and eighty-one scrolls of Daoist texts commissioned by Emperor Huizong. ↩

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

23. 外功 — wàigōng. Literally external skill. The physical arts of combat, as distinct from neigong. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩