The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 3 – Part 2

Qiu Chuji smiled faintly. “As for rescuing them, it is no easy thing, but it is not beyond heroes and brave men.¹ My plan is far harder than that, and far more trouble.”

Ke Zhen’e asked, “What more is there?”

Qiu Chuji said, “Both women are with child. Once they are rescued, they must be settled somewhere safe until their children are born. Then I shall teach the Yang child, and you seven shall teach the Guo child…”

The Seven Eccentrics of Jiangnan² listened as he went on, each word stranger than the last, and their mouths fell open. Han Baoju asked, “Then what?”

Qiu Chuji said, “In eighteen years the children will be eighteen. We shall meet again at the Drunken Immortal Wineshop³ in Jiaxing Prefecture and invite the heroes and brave men of the jianghu⁴ to a great feast. When we have eaten and drunk our fill, we shall have the two children test their martial arts against each other, and see whether my disciple is the better, or the disciple of the Seven Xias.”

The Seven Eccentrics stared at one another, struck dumb. Qiu Chuji went on, “If the seven of you fought me yourselves, even if you won another bout it would only be the many beating the few, and there is little glory in that. But when I have taught one pupil everything I know, and the seven of you have passed your arts to one pupil, and the two of them fight it out man to man, then if my disciple wins, the Seven Xias will have to admit defeat with all their hearts.”

Ke Zhen’e’s chest swelled with fighting spirit. He brought his iron staff⁵ down hard on the ground and cried, “Good. It’s a wager.”

Quan Jinfa said, “What if the woman Li has already been killed by Duan Tiande by then?”

Qiu Chuji said, “That is a matter of luck. If Heaven wills me to win, what more is there to say?”

Han Baoju said, “Very well. To rescue the orphaned and show mercy to the widowed is what the way of xia⁶ demands. Even if we cannot match you, we shall at least have done a good deed.”

Qiu Chuji raised his thumb and said in a ringing voice, “Third Master Han is right. If you seven are willing to take on the burden of raising Brother Guo’s orphan, I offer thanks in advance on behalf of the late Brother Guo.” With that he bowed round the circle with clasped hands.

Zhu Cong said, “This method of yours is a little too cunning. With a few words like these, you would have us brothers toil for you for eighteen years?”

Qiu Chuji’s expression changed. He threw back his head and laughed aloud.

Han Xiaoying said crossly, “What’s so funny?”

Qiu Chuji said, “I have long heard the great name of the Seven Eccentrics of Jiangnan. All through the jianghu they say the Seven Xias rush to the aid of those in trouble, true heroes and men of valour who do chivalrous deeds and uphold justice. Yet now that I meet you in person, heh, heh!”

Han Baoju and Zhang Asheng said together, “Well?”

Qiu Chuji said, “I fear the name is bigger than the men, and the meeting falls short of the reputation!”

Fury surged up in the Seven Eccentrics. Han Baoju slammed his palm down on the bench and was about to speak when Qiu Chuji said, “When the great heroes and true xia of old made friends, they did it to lay down their lives for those friends. As the saying goes, ‘They did not spare their own bodies, but hastened to a man in distress.’ So long as righteousness required it, what did it matter even to hand over one’s life? I never heard that Jing Ke⁷ or Nie Zheng⁸ counted the cost. When Zhu Jia⁹ and Guo Xie¹⁰ rescued the imperilled and ran to the aid of those in need, they did not haggle over terms either. Unworthy as I am, I would yet learn from the ancients.”

Zhu Cong was a scholar, and he knew the deeds of the xia of old recorded in the “Biographies of the Wandering Xia”¹¹ of the Records of the Grand Historian. At this rebuke he could not help feeling ashamed. At once he flicked open his fan and said in a ringing voice, “Daoist Elder¹² has put us right, and I admit my fault. We Seven Eccentrics will take on this undertaking.”

Qiu Chuji rose to his feet. “Today is the twenty-fourth of the third month. Eighteen years from today, at noon, we shall gather at the Drunken Immortal Wineshop and let the heroes of all the world see who are the true brave men!” He swept his sleeve, a gust filled the room, and he strode out of the door without a backward glance.

Han Baoju said, “I’m going after that Duan Tiande right now. If he crawls into some turtle-hole and vanishes without trace, it’ll be the devil of a job to find him.” He was the only one of the seven who was unhurt. He dashed out through the monastery gate, swung himself on to his fine horse Wind-Chasing Yellow¹³ and galloped off after Duan Tiande and Li Ping.

Zhu Cong called urgently, “Third Brother, Third Brother, you don’t know what they look like!” But Han Baoju was a man of furious impatience, and Wind-Chasing Yellow lived up to its name and ran like the wind. He was already far away.

---

Duan Tiande dragged Li Ping away at a run. Only when he looked back and saw no one coming after them from the monastery did he breathe a little easier. At the river he found a small boat, leapt on to its bow, raised his dao and ordered the boatman to cast off.

In the watery country of Jiangnan the rivers and canals were as dense as a spider’s web, and small boats were the everyday way of getting about, just as horses and mule-carts were in the north. Hence the old saying, “Northerners ride horses, southerners ride boats.” Seeing a vicious-looking military officer, the boatman dared not refuse. He untied the mooring rope at once, worked the scull, and took the boat out of the city towards the north.

Duan Tiande thought to himself, I have caused a catastrophe. If I return to Lin’an,¹⁴ quite apart from anything else, my uncle will take my life on the spot. I can only flee north for a while and lie low. Best if that wretched Daoist and the Seven Eccentrics of Jiangnan all die of their wounds, and my uncle is so enraged he expires too. Then it will be time enough to go back and take up my post. He kept the boatman rowing north the whole way.

Han Baoju’s horse was fast, but he spent all his time on the land roads asking questions here and there, so of course he never found him.

Duan Tiande changed boats several times, shed his officer’s uniform and made Li Ping change her clothes too. More than ten days later they crossed the Yangtze and came to Yangzhou,¹⁵ where they took a room at an inn. He was just thinking of finding somewhere to stay for a while when, as chance would have it, he heard someone asking the innkeeper about him.

Duan Tiande was horrified. He put his eye to a crack in the door and saw a short, fat man of extraordinary ugliness and a beautiful girl, both talking in thick Jiaxing dialect. They must be two of the Seven Eccentrics of Jiangnan. Luckily the Yangzhou innkeeper could barely follow them, and for the moment neither side could make itself understood. Duan Tiande hauled Li Ping out by the back door. She opened her mouth to scream, but he clamped his hand over it and gave her a hard slap across the face. Then, bearing the fierce pain of his broken arm, he hurriedly hired another boat and moved on.

He dared not stop for a moment. He went north up the Grand Canal without a break until he reached Liguo Town,¹⁶ by Weishan Lake¹⁷ in Shandong.

Li Ping was a poor countrywoman with big rough hands and big feet, plain to begin with, and now her belly was swollen and she spent the whole day cursing and weeping. Low scoundrel though he was, Duan Tiande had no thought of taking liberties with her. Day in, day out, the two of them did nothing but fight and swear at each other, and there was never a moment’s peace. Qiu Chuji had broken the bone of Duan Tiande’s right arm, and though a bonesetter had set it, it would be a long while mending. He was a military officer, but his martial arts were poor, and with only one good arm he found it hard going whenever Li Ping fought him with all her strength.

Within a few days the stocky little man and the young girl caught up again. Duan Tiande meant only to lie quiet in the room and let them pass, but Li Ping, learning that rescuers had arrived, began to shout at the top of her voice. Duan Tiande stuffed a cotton quilt into her mouth and beat her. Li Ping struggled and screamed for all she was worth. Han Baoju and his sister Xiaoying did not discover them, but it had been a very near thing.

Duan Tiande had brought her along in the first place as a hostage, thinking that in a tight corner she would deter his enemies from pressing too hard. But the situation had changed. He reasoned that a man alone could escape more easily, and that keeping this shrew beside him was nothing but a calamity waiting to happen. Better to kill her with one stroke and be rid of her. As soon as the Han brother and sister had gone, he drew his dao.

Every moment of every day, Li Ping had been watching for a chance to take her husband’s killer to the grave with her. But every night when she slept, he bound her hands and feet, and she had found no opportunity. Now, seeing the murderous light in his eyes, she prayed silently, Brother Xiao, Brother Xiao, I beg your spirit to shield me and let me slay this villain. I come to join you now. Quietly she drew from her bosom the short jian Qiu Chuji had given her. She kept it hidden against her skin, and so Duan Tiande had never found it.

Duan Tiande gave a cold laugh and brought his dao down. Li Ping had made up her mind to die and felt not the least fear. With every ounce of strength in her body she thrust the short jian at him. Duan Tiande felt a chill rush straight at his face and flicked his dao back to knock the short jian from her hand, but the blade was keen beyond belief. There was a clang, half his waist-dao fell to the floor, and the point of the short jian was already at his chest.

Duan Tiande reeled backwards in terror. With a rip the front of his clothes was slashed wide open, and a long line of blood was scored from his chest to his belly. Had Li Ping had a fraction more strength, she would have split him open. In his panic he snatched up a chair to fend her off and cried, “Put that knife away, quick, and I won’t kill you!”

By now Li Ping’s arms ached and her legs had turned to water. She was spent, and the child inside her would not stop kicking, so she could fight him no longer. She sat on the floor, gasping for breath, but her hand held tight to the short jian.

Duan Tiande was afraid Han Baoju and the others would come back, and if he fled alone he was afraid Li Ping would give his tracks away to his enemies. So he forced her on to a boat again and they pressed on, still north along the Grand Canal, through Linqing¹⁸ and Dezhou,¹⁹ into Hebei.²⁰

Each time they went ashore to rest, no matter how remote the place, before long someone came searching. After a while, besides the stocky little man and the girl, there was a third: a blind man carrying an iron staff. At least none of the three knew his face. He was always in the dark while they were in the light, so he managed to slip away in time, but there was one close call after another.

Soon there was a new headache. Li Ping suddenly went mad. At inns and on the road she would rave aloud at all hours, drawing every eye, and sometimes she tore at her hair and ripped at her clothes and carried on in every strange way imaginable. At first Duan Tiande thought that blow after blow had addled her wits, but after a few days it dawned on him. She was afraid her pursuers would lose the trail, and she was leaving signs for them on purpose. That made it all the harder to shake them off.

By now the height of summer was past and the first autumn winds were stirring. Running from his pursuers, Duan Tiande had come far into the north. The silver he had brought was nearly gone, and his enemies were still hard on his heels. He thought in bitter self-reproach, When I was an officer in Lin’an I had meat and fish and good old wine, money and painted girls, and a merry life it was. Then for no good reason I had to go after a thousand liang²¹ of somebody’s silver and go to Niu Family Village to kill this thieving shrew’s bandit of a husband, and now I suffer this living hell. Several times he was on the point of abandoning Li Ping and slipping away on his own, but each time he thought better of it and never dared. Nor did a single one of his attempts to do away with her by stealth succeed. His protective talisman had become a millstone he could neither shake off nor kill, and he had to stay on his guard against her taking revenge for her husband. He was utterly wretched.

Before long they came to Zhongdu,²² the capital of the Jin, in Daxing Prefecture. Duan Tiande thought, The capital of the Great Jin is a big place and full of people. If I hide away somewhere quiet and kill this shrew when I get the chance, my enemies will never find me, however great their skill.

His head was full of these rosy calculations, but they had scarcely reached the city gate when a troop of Jin soldiers marched out, seized the pair of them without asking a single question and forced them to carry loads on shoulder poles. Li Ping was dressed as a man by now, and as she was rather small, the soldiers gave her a lighter load. On Duan Tiande’s shoulders went a load of a hundred jin²³ or so, and it bowed him down until he groaned to high heaven.

The troop was following an official north. He turned out to be an envoy sent to proclaim the edicts of the Jin Emperor to the Mongol tribes, and the soldiers of his escort were seizing Han commoners at random to serve as porters for the baggage and grain. Duan Tiande protested a few words, and the soldiers’ leather whips came lashing down about his head and ears. He had seen this sort of thing many times, and there was nothing strange in it. The only difference was that it had always been he who whipped the heads of the common folk, and today it was the Jin soldiers whipping his. The whips were much the same, and the heads were much the same. The only difference was whether the pain was another man’s or one’s own. And in that difference lay a world.

Footnotes

1. 英雄好汉 — yīngxióng hǎohàn. Literally heroes and good fellows. A stock phrase for bold, upright men. ↩

2. 江南七怪 — Jiāngnán Qī Guài. Literally seven eccentrics of Jiangnan. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 醉仙楼 — Zuìxiān Lóu. The Drunken Immortal Wineshop, on the shore of South Lake in Jiaxing. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

5. 铁杖 — tiě zhàng. Ke Zhen’e’s iron staff, which doubles as his walking stick. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 侠 — xiá. A person adept in the martial arts who acts with chivalry and upholds the right. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 荆轲 — Jīng Kē. Warring States assassin who tried to kill the King of Qin in 227 BCE on behalf of Crown Prince Dan of Yan, and died in the attempt. See Wikipedia. ↩

8. 聂政 — Niè Zhèng. A Warring States assassin who killed Xia Lei, chief minister of Han, then disfigured himself and took his own life so that his sister would not be traced. See Wikipedia. ↩

9. 朱家 — Zhū Jiā. A celebrated xia of the early Han dynasty, famed for rescuing people in distress without seeking reward. See Wikipedia. ↩

10. 郭解 — Guō Xiè. A renowned xia of the Western Han, famed for settling disputes and aiding the needy, and executed by Emperor Wu for his influence. See Wikipedia. ↩

11. 史记游侠列传 — Shǐjì Yóuxià Lièzhuàn. “Biographies of the Wandering Xia”, chapter 124 of the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian. See Wikipedia. ↩

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

13. 追风黄 — Zhuīfēng Huáng. Han Baoju’s horse, named for its speed. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 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. ↩

15. 扬州 — Yángzhōu. A major city on the Grand Canal in Jiangsu. See Wikipedia. ↩

16. 利国镇 — Lìguó Zhèn. A town by Weishan Lake in Shandong, on the Grand Canal. ↩

17. 微山湖 — Wēishān Hú. The largest freshwater lake in Shandong, on the Grand Canal. See Wikipedia. ↩

18. 临清 — Línqīng. A city in western Shandong on the Grand Canal. See Wikipedia. ↩

19. 德州 — Dézhōu. A city in north-western Shandong on the Grand Canal. See Wikipedia. ↩

20. 河北 — Héběi. Literally north of the river. The region north of the Yellow River, roughly modern Hebei Province. ↩

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

22. 中都 — Zhōngdū. Literally central capital. The Jin dynasty capital, in present-day Beijing. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

23. 斤 — jīn. A unit of weight, about 590 grams in the Song dynasty. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩