Miao Family Swordplay

The Miao Family Swordplay (simplified: 苗家剑法, traditional: 苗家劍法, pinyin: Miáo Jiā Jiànfǎ, jyutping: miu4 gaa1 gim3 faat3), also called the Miao jian (苗家剑), was the hereditary jian art of the Miao family, descendants of one of the four bodyguards of the Storming King Li Zicheng. Its master in the novels, Miao Renfeng, the Golden-Faced Buddha, was called He Who Has Fought All Under Heaven and Found No Equal. In Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain he taught it to Hu Yidao during their five-day duel, and a habit formed in childhood gave the art its one known flaw. Resolved to end the feud of the four families, Miao Renfeng forbade his descendants to learn martial arts, so that the art would end with him.

Overview

The Miao Family Swordplay was thought peerless under heaven (SIDE ch. 2). Watching Miao Renfeng fight Hu Yidao, Baoshu recalled the saying that the dao is like a fierce tiger and the jian like a flying phoenix: Hu Yidao’s dao came down like a tiger from the mountain, and Miao Renfeng’s jian moved like a phoenix in flight, one hard and one soft (ch. 4). Over four days of fighting, Madam Hu found its defence so tight that it showed not the slightest opening (ch. 4). Hu Yidao told Miao Renfeng that through thousands of exchanges it had shown no flaw at all (ch. 5).

Miao Renfeng formed the jian hand sign with his left hand as he attacked (ch. 10). Among the art’s deadliest moves, Hu Yidao named Washing Jian, Embrace the Moon; Facing-Gate Leg, Reverse-Cleave Mount Hua; Lift the Jian, White Crane Spreads Its Wings; and Soaring-Palm Su Qin Bearing Jian (ch. 4).

The flaw

The art had one known weakness, in Miao Renfeng himself. Before Lift the Jian, White Crane Spreads Its Wings, his back always gave a slight shrug, as if he were ticklish. Madam Hu spotted it on the fourth day of the duel at Cangzhou, and on the fifth she coughed as a signal the moment she saw it, so that Hu Yidao could seize the initiative with the Eight Directions Hidden Dao Stance (ch. 4).

Miao Renfeng explained the habit to Hu Yidao. When he was eleven, his father, who taught him strictly, was teaching him this move when a flea bit his back. Not daring to scratch, he shrugged to shake it off. His father thought he was not paying attention and beat him soundly, and ever since, although his back no longer itched, he had shrugged before the move (ch. 5).

History

Origin

After the Miao, Fan and Tian bodyguards killed their sworn brother, the Flying Fox (飞天狐狸), their children were raised and taught by the heroes of the jianghu. Building on the family arts their fathers had taught them, the three families each founded their own line: the Miao family’s art became known as the Miao jian, the Fan family came to lead the Xinghan Beggars’ Guild, and the Tian family founded the Tianlong School (ch. 3).

The duel at Cangzhou

Miao Renfeng fought Hu Yidao for five days at Cangzhou. After the first day Hu Yidao rode through the night to Wuding in Shandong and killed Shang Jianming of the Eight Trigrams School, who had killed Miao Renfeng’s brothers, sister and sister-in-law. He did it with Soaring-Palm Su Qin Bearing Jian, a Miao Family Swordplay move he had picked up from Miao Renfeng in that day’s fighting, breaking Turning-Body Cleave the Mountain (反身劈山), the twenty-ninth move of Shang Jianming’s Eight Trigrams Dao. Hu Yidao said that with the peerless Miao jian the killing was easy and he had only acted on Miao Renfeng’s behalf; Baoshu understood that killing Shang Jianming with a dao would have made the Miao art look inferior. Miao Renfeng told him that avenging the Miao family with the Miao Family Swordplay showed great goodwill (ch. 4, 5).

On the third night Miao Renfeng explained the essentials of the art to Hu Yidao move by move, and Hu Yidao explained the Hu Family Bladeworks in return (ch. 4). On the fifth day, after trapping Miao Renfeng through his flaw, Hu Yidao proposed that the two exchange weapons and arts, so that neither family’s art would be shamed by the result. He took the jian and fought with the Miao Family Swordplay as if he had spent years on it (ch. 5). Miao Renfeng saw that Hu Yidao was learning the jian faster than he himself was learning the dao, and changed his bladework to wound him (ch. 5).

The end of the line

Miao Renfeng laid down a family rule that from his generation on no Miao descendant would learn martial arts, and he took no disciples. If he were ever killed, no Miao child could avenge him, and the debt of blood between the four families might at last be written off (ch. 3). Baoshu remarked that he was willing to let the peerless Miao Family Swordplay die with him (ch. 3). Hu Fei, who had heard that the Miao school taught sons and daughters alike, asked Miao Ruolan why her father had taught her nothing, and when she explained, he praised Miao Renfeng as truly worthy of the name daxia (ch. 6).

The final duel

In the final duel of Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain, fought with branches on the cliffs near Jade Brush Peak, Miao Renfeng attacked Hu Fei with the Miao Family Swordplay. He thrust at Hu Fei’s chest with Yellow Dragon Turns and Spits Tendrils and was about to use Advancing Step Plucks the Stars when the edge of the cliff gave way and both men fell onto an overhanging rock. There he attacked with Step Forward, Pluck the Moon at the Cloud’s Edge and Turn the Wrist, Yide Storms the Tent, and prepared to finish with Lift the Jian, White Crane Spreads Its Wings. His back shrugged as always, and the ice of the cliff reflected it like a mirror. Hu Fei, who knew from Ping Asi how his father had won, used the Eight Directions Hidden Dao Stance before the move was half made. The novel ends as Hu Fei decides whether to strike (ch. 10).

Techniques

Lift the Jian, White Crane Spreads Its Wings

(提撩剑白鹤舒翅 — Tíliáo Jiàn Báihè Shūchì)

A move of jian and palm together: the right hand thrust the jian at a slant while the left hand rose, like a white crane spreading its wings (ch. 4, 10). Hu Yidao judged it an attack used as defence, hard with softness in it and very ruthless. Miao Renfeng sometimes used it to answer Hu Yidao’s Threading-Hand Hidden Dao, Advancing-Step Chain Dao and Coiling-Body Pluck-Heart Dao (ch. 4). It carried the art’s one flaw, the shrug that came before it (ch. 4, 5, 10).

Soaring-Palm Su Qin Bearing Jian

(冲天掌苏秦背剑 — Chōngtiān Zhǎng Sū Qín Bèi Jiàn)

The move with which Hu Yidao killed Shang Jianming, after learning it from Miao Renfeng in the first day of their duel (ch. 4).

Other named moves

Washing Jian, Embrace the Moon (洗剑怀中抱月) and Facing-Gate Leg, Reverse-Cleave Mount Hua (迎门腿反劈华山), named by Hu Yidao among the art’s deadliest moves (ch. 4)
Yellow Dragon Turns and Spits Tendrils (黄龙转身吐须势), a thrust at the chest (ch. 10)
Advancing Step Plucks the Stars (上步摘星式) (ch. 10)
Step Forward, Pluck the Moon at the Cloud’s Edge (上步云边摘月), a slanting thrust (ch. 10)
Turn the Wrist, Yide Storms the Tent (返腕翼德闯帐) (ch. 10)

Notable practitioners

Miao Renfeng’s father

Miao Renfeng’s father taught him the art strictly, and beat him for the shrug that became his flaw (ch. 5). He later went beyond the passes with Tian Guinong’s father and died with him in the cave of Li Zicheng’s Treasure (ch. 8).

Miao Renfeng

The master of the art in both novels. In Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain he fought Hu Yidao to a standstill with it (ch. 4, 5), and in Beijing he killed eleven palace guards with his jian and wounded Saihetu in the arm (ch. 9). In Side Story of the Flying Fox, the jianghu knew him as a master of the jian: his reputation for the Miao Family Swordplay led his enemies to expect little of him with a dao (SIDE ch. 2, 11), and he had once taken two fingers from the left hand of the King of Venoms with his jian (SIDE ch. 11).

Hu Yidao

Hu Yidao learned the art from Miao Renfeng in the course of their duel, used it to kill Shang Jianming, and fought Miao Renfeng with it on the last day (ch. 4, 5).