The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 16 – Part 5

From a distance Da’erba watched him carrying on like a madman, waving his arms and kicking his legs, with no idea what he was doing. When Yang Guo suddenly fell, Da’erba started in alarm and went to help him. State Preceptor Jinlun laughed. “Don’t go disturbing his thoughts. It’s only a pity you’re too dull-witted to understand what is happening.”

Yang Guo slept for half the night, rose early the next morning and went on thinking. In seven days he passed out five times. To draw all the schools together and found one of his own: that was easier said than done. With the knowledge and cultivation he had then, he could never have succeeded, and it was in any case no matter of ten days or a fortnight. But after several days of thinking, it suddenly came to him in a flash. Every martial art was there for him to use. Since they could not be fused into one, there was no need to force it. In future, when he faced an enemy, he would use whatever was called for and whatever suited, without stopping to think where it came from, and that would be little different from founding a school of his own. Once he saw this clearly, his heart was at ease.

These several days of circulating his neili to heal himself, with Yang Guo’s help now and then, had cured eight or nine tenths of State Preceptor Jinlun’s injuries, and he could move about as usual. That day he saw that Yang Guo had suddenly grown calm, with the look of a man who has the whole plan in his head, and he knew the youth had gone a step further along the way of martial arts. “Brother Yang,” he said, “I’ll take you to meet someone. He is a man of great gifts and grand designs, broad-minded and generous. I promise you’ll be won over when you meet him.” “Who is he?” said Yang Guo. “The Mongol prince Kublai,” said the State Preceptor. “He is the grandson of Genghis Khan and the fourth son of Prince Tolui.”

Ever since he had seen the Mongol soldiers’ savage cruelty, Yang Guo had loathed the Mongols. He frowned. “I’m in a hurry to avenge my father’s murder. There’s no need for me to meet this Mongol prince.” The State Preceptor smiled. “I have promised to help you. How could I break my word? But the reigning Empress Dowager sent me to serve under Prince Kublai south of the Gobi, so I must report to him. His royal tent is not far from here. We can be there in a day.” Yang Guo had no choice. He reckoned he was no match at all for Guo Jing and Huang Rong, and that whether in wits or in strength the gap between them was beyond measuring. Without State Preceptor Jinlun’s help he could hardly have his revenge, so he had to go with him.

State Preceptor Jinlun had been invested as the Mongols’ First State Preceptor, Protector of the Realm, and the Mongol officers and men held him in the deepest reverence. As soon as they saw him arrive, they sent word to the prince. For generation upon generation the Mongols had lived in tents, and though they had now entered the cities, they were still not used to palaces and halls. So Kublai too lived in a camp tent.

The State Preceptor led Yang Guo by the hand into the royal tent. Yang Guo saw that it was more than twice the size of an ordinary Mongol tent, yet very plainly furnished. A young man, bareheaded and dressed in plain cloth, sat reading a book. When he saw the two of them come in, he left his seat at once to welcome them. “I have not seen you for many days, State Preceptor,” he said with a smile, “and I have often thought of you.” State Preceptor Jinlun said, “Your Highness, allow me to present a young hero. Young as Brother Yang is, he is a man of remarkable parts.”

Yang Guo had supposed that Kublai, being Genghis Khan’s grandson, would look either grand and lordly or fierce and warlike. He was surprised to find instead a young man who spoke Chinese and was modest and friendly.

Kublai looked Yang Guo over briefly, took the State Preceptor by the hand with his left and said to his attendants, “Bring wine, quickly. I’ll drink a bowl with this brother.” The attendants brought three great beakers and filled them to the brim with Mongol mare’s-milk wine. Kublai took his and drained it at a draught, and the State Preceptor emptied his too. Yang Guo seldom drank, but seeing his host so free of ceremony, he could hardly refuse, so he raised his beaker and drained it as well. The wine was fiercely sharp, with a strong sour tang. Kublai laughed. “Young Brother, how do you like the taste?”

“This wine is fiery, bitter and sour,” said Yang Guo. “It goes down like a blade. The taste is not fine, but it has the true character of a man.”

Kublai was delighted and called again and again for wine, and the three of them each emptied three beakers. Relying on his refined neili, Yang Guo drank without showing the least sign of it. “State Preceptor,” Kublai said happily, “where did you find such a fine talent? He is truly a blessing for our Great Mongol nation.” The State Preceptor then gave a brief account of Yang Guo’s history, and in the telling he raised Yang Guo’s standing very high, all but treating him as a great figure of the Central Plains wulin. Nor did he hide how his own bid to become Wulin Alliance Chief had been foiled by Yang Guo’s meddling. Flattered like this, Yang Guo could not help feeling a little giddy.

Kublai had been ordered to take the Great Song realm in the south. Long years in the Central Plains had made him an admirer of Han ways, and he spent his days among Confucian scholars, reading the classics and studying books.¹ He had also sought out masters of the martial arts far and wide, made friends with guests of every kind, and was planning the campaign south against the Song. Anyone else, seeing how young Yang Guo was, would surely have found the story hard to believe. But Kublai was a man of outstanding ability and wide magnanimity, and he trusted State Preceptor Jinlun without reserve. In high delight he at once ordered a great banquet to be laid.

Before long the banquet was spread, the tables laden with wine and meat, half Mongol fare and half Han. Kublai said to his attendants, “Ask the heroes of the Recruitment Hall to come and join us.” The attendants bowed and went out of the tent. “These past few days,” said Kublai, “several more guests have arrived at the Recruitment Hall, each with some rare gift. They are a true blessing to the nation, though none of them is so complete in letters and arms as the State Preceptor and young Yang here.”

As they talked, the attendants announced that the guests had come. The tent flap opened and four men walked in. The first was tall and gaunt, his face bloodless, like a walking corpse. Kublai introduced him to the State Preceptor and Yang Guo as Xiaoxiangzi,² a renowned elder of western Hunan. The second, short and swarthy, was Nimoxing, a master from India. Of the two behind them, one stood eight feet tall, with great coarse hands and feet, a foolish grin on his face and a vacant stare. The other, high-nosed and deep-eyed, with curly hair and a yellow beard, was a westerner, yet he wore Han clothes, with lustrous pearls hanging at his neck and jade bracelets at his wrists, all aglitter with jewels. Kublai introduced them in turn. The giant came from the Muslim borderlands and was called Ma Guangzuo.³ The westerner was a great Persian merchant whose family had dealt in pearls and jewels for three generations in Bianliang, Chang’an, Taiyuan and elsewhere, and he had taken the Chinese name Yin Kexi.⁴

When Nimoxing and Xiaoxiangzi heard State Preceptor Jinlun called “the Mongols’ First State Preceptor”, they looked him coldly up and down, and both their faces showed they would not accept it. Seeing how young Yang Guo was, they took him for a disciple or grand-disciple of the State Preceptor and paid him still less attention. When the wine had gone round three times, Nimoxing could hold back no longer. “Prince,” he said, “Great Mongol land very very big. This Great Monk is First State Preceptor, so his martial arts must be very very big too. We want to see.” Kublai smiled and said nothing. Xiaoxiangzi took up the thread. “Our friend Nimoxing here comes from India, and we have always heard that the martial arts of Tibet and Mongolia came from India. Can it really be that the pupil has outshone the teacher? I for one find it a little hard to believe.”

State Preceptor Jinlun saw the piercing light in Nimoxing’s eyes and the faint greenish cast that showed through Xiaoxiangzi’s face, and he knew both men’s neigong⁵ ran deep. Yin Kexi was all grins and chatter, doing his utmost to play the vulgar huckster, and the State Preceptor thought of the Han saying, A good merchant hides his wealth as if he had none. The more useless this man made himself out to be, the more he probably had in reserve, and he was not to be taken lightly. The giant Ma Guangzuo, however, was nothing to worry about. The State Preceptor smiled faintly. “That this old monk was made State Preceptor is by the grace of the Empress Dowager, the Great Khan and His Highness the Fourth Prince. I am truly unworthy of it.”

“Then you ought to step down and make way for a worthier man,” said Xiaoxiangzi, with a sidelong glance at Nimoxing and a cold little smile at the corner of his mouth.

The State Preceptor reached out with his chopsticks and picked up a big piece of beef. “This is the fattest, biggest piece on the plate,” he said with a smile. “I had no particular wish to eat it. I merely happened to reach out my chopsticks and happened to pick it up, and that is what the Buddhists call affinity,⁶ nothing more. If any Recluse here has a mind to it, he is welcome to take it.” With that he held his chopsticks still above the plate and waited quietly for someone to try.

Ma Guangzuo did not see that State Preceptor Jinlun’s words carried a hidden barb, and that the big fat piece of beef stood for the lofty seat of the Mongols’ First State Preceptor. Seeing him offer the beef to his guests, Ma Guangzuo promptly reached out his chopsticks to take it. Just as his chopsticks were about to touch the meat, one of the State Preceptor’s chopsticks suddenly shot sideways and knocked lightly against his. Ma Guangzuo felt his arm jolt violently. He could not keep his grip, and his chopsticks fell on the table. The State Preceptor’s chopsticks let go of the beef, but before it could land, they had darted back in time to catch it again. Everyone looked at one another in astonishment. Ma Guangzuo still had not understood. He picked up his chopsticks and gripped them hard with all five fingers, thinking, This time you’ll never knock them out of my hand. He reached for the meat again. Once more the State Preceptor’s chopstick shot sideways. This time Ma Guangzuo’s grip was so tight that, sure enough, the chopsticks did not fall, but there was a soft crack and the pair snapped into four, as cleanly as if cut with a blade, and two halves dropped onto the table.

Ma Guangzuo flew into a rage. With a great roar he threw himself at the State Preceptor to grapple with him. Kublai laughed. “Valiant Ma, there’s no call for anger. If you want a contest, it can wait until after we have eaten.” Ma Guangzuo stood in awe of the prince, and he went back to his seat seething. He pointed at the State Preceptor and bellowed, “What sorcery did you use to break my eating tools?” The State Preceptor only smiled, his chopsticks still holding the beef out in front of him.

Nimoxing too had thought little of State Preceptor Jinlun at first, but having seen how deep his neili ran, he no longer dared underrate him. Being Indian, he did not eat with chopsticks but with his hand. “Fat beef,” he said. “Big fellow cannot grab it. Me, I want to eat it.” Suddenly his five fingers turned into iron claws and snatched at the meat. The State Preceptor shot out the right-hand chopstick and flicked it several times, quick as lightning, at five acupoints on Nimoxing’s hand: the centre of the palm, the wrist, the back of the hand, the web between thumb and forefinger, and the tip of the middle finger. Nimoxing flipped his hand over and chopped down at the State Preceptor’s wrist with a whoosh. The State Preceptor’s arm did not move. He turned the chopstick upright and flicked it several times more, and Nimoxing suddenly felt its tip touch the web of his thumb and snatched his hand back. The State Preceptor’s chopstick swung back and took hold of the beef again. So fast were his strikes at the acupoints that the chopstick had flicked several times and returned before the beef had even begun to fall.

Yang Guo and the others saw it all clearly. In that instant the two of them had traded several moves. The State Preceptor’s chopstick had been very fast, but for Nimoxing to snatch his hand clear in time, with not a hair’s breadth to spare, showed that his martial arts were formidable too. “Fine skill!” said Xiaoxiangzi in a sinister voice. Kublai knew the two were testing each other with martial arts of the highest order, but what arts they were using he could not make out. Ma Guangzuo goggled with his great eyes, round as copper bells, looking from one to the other, with no idea what was going on.

Yin Kexi said with a broad grin, “You’re all far too polite! You push and I yield, you won’t eat and I won’t eat, and meanwhile the food’s gone cold.” With that he slowly reached out his chopsticks, and on his wrist a jadeite bracelet and a gold-set jade bracelet clinked and jingled against each other. Before his chopsticks had even touched the beef, the State Preceptor’s chopsticks gave a faint quiver, stirred by Yin Kexi’s inner force: he had seized the initiative, using his inner force to keep the State Preceptor’s chopsticks from moving out. The State Preceptor simply pushed his chopsticks forward and let him take hold, sending his own force along the chopsticks and on up Yin Kexi’s arm. Yin Kexi hurriedly met it with force of his own. But the State Preceptor’s force came and went in the same instant, and the beef, which Yin Kexi had already taken, was carried by Yin Kexi’s own force straight back onto the State Preceptor’s chopsticks. The State Preceptor laughed. “Brother Yin insists on yielding it. You are much too polite.” It had been a victory of craft, and Yin Kexi had fallen for the trick. At the same time he had found that his opponent’s neili far surpassed his own. Luckily he had not made a fool of himself, so he only smiled, turned his chopsticks to the plate and picked up a small piece of beef. “All my life,” he said with a smile, “what I’ve loved is pearls, jewels and riches. I’m not much for fat beef. A little piece will do me.” He put the meat in his mouth and chewed it slowly.

State Preceptor Jinlun thought, This Persian has a bearing out of the ordinary. He turned to Xiaoxiangzi. “Since you are so modest, brother, I shall have to eat it myself.” As he spoke, he drew his chopsticks in by half a foot. He guessed that Xiaoxiangzi’s neili was considerable and dared not be careless. Drawing his chopsticks back half a foot meant that when he sent out his inner force, he would be half a foot closer, and his opponent half a foot further off. Xiaoxiangzi gave a cold laugh. His chopsticks rose slowly, then suddenly darted out, caught the beef and, riding the momentum, wrenched it back towards himself a full half-foot.

State Preceptor Jinlun had not expected him to be so quick. He hurriedly put out his force to wrench it back, and inch by inch the beef came back towards him. Xiaoxiangzi rose to his feet and braced his left hand on the table, shaking it until it creaked and rattled, but he could not stop the beef moving towards the State Preceptor. State Preceptor Jinlun looked perfectly at ease, while beads of sweat broke out on Xiaoxiangzi’s forehead. Which of them was the stronger was plain to see.

Suddenly a loud voice called from far off, “Guo Jing, Brother Guo, where are you? Come out, quick. Guo Jing, you Guo brat!” At first the shout came from the east, but in a twinkling it came from the west. East and west were nearly a li⁷ apart. It sounded as though one man had finished shouting and a second had taken it up, yet it was one man’s voice, unbroken all the way from east to west. The speed of the man’s movement and the strength of the neili in his shout were seldom seen in this world.

As everyone looked at one another in amazement, Xiaoxiangzi let go with his chopsticks and sank back into his seat, beaten. State Preceptor Jinlun laughed heartily. “Thank you for yielding, thank you!” He was just about to put the beef in his mouth when the tent flap flew up, a figure flashed in, and a hand snatched the fat beef from the State Preceptor’s chopsticks. The newcomer bit off half and chewed it noisily.

This gave everyone a great fright, and they all sprang up together. They saw a white-haired, white-bearded old man with a ruddy, glowing face and a beaming smile. He sat himself down on the felt rug on the floor of the tent, parted his white beard with his left hand and with his right put the remaining half of the beef into his mouth, smacking his lips as he ate.

The guards at the tent door, who had failed to stop the white-bearded old man, bellowed, “Seize the assassin,” and at once four long spears thrust at his chest together. The old man reached out his left hand and caught all four spearheads in one grip. “Young Brother,” he said to Yang Guo, “fetch me some more beef. I’m famished.” The four Mongol warriors pushed with all their might but could not move him a hair. Then they strained to pull back, but though the four of them struggled until their faces were scarlet, the spears seemed to have been cast into an iron mountain, and they could not drag them back even half an inch.

Yang Guo found it all very entertaining. He picked up the plate of beef from the table and sent it skimming flat towards the old man. “Help yourself!”

Footnotes

1. Kublai Khan’s sinicization. Historically, Kublai Khan (1215—1294) actively sought out Han Chinese advisors and adopted many Chinese administrative practices. His chief strategist Liu Bingzhong (子聪/刘秉忠) was a Han Chinese Buddhist monk who played a crucial role in designing the Yuan Dynasty’s capital at Dadu (present-day Beijing) and shaping its governance. Kublai’s embrace of Chinese culture and governance methods was instrumental to his success in conquering and ruling China. ↩

2. 潇湘子 – Xiāoxiāng Zǐ. Literally Master of the Xiao and Xiang rivers. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 麻光佐 – Má Guāngzuǒ. His name meaning “bright assistance”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 尹克西 – Yǐn Kèxī. His name meaning “overcome the west”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 内功 – nèigōng. Literally internal skill. Practice of developing neili through breathing, meditation and qi cultivation. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 缘法 – yuánfǎ. Buddhist concept referring to the karmic connections and conditions that bring beings and events together. ↩

7. 里 – lǐ. Traditional Chinese unit of distance, approximately 500 metres or a third of a mile. ↩