The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 20 – Part 2

Yang Guo raised his jian to block, and Qiu Qianchi called again, “Kick him in the back!” The two men stood face to face. There was no way on earth to kick him in the back. But by now Yang Guo had real faith in Qiu Qianchi and knew there must be some deeper purpose in what she said, so, come what may, he darted round towards his enemy’s back. Gongsun Zhi swung his dao and slashed behind him. “Thrust at his brow,” cried Qiu Qianchi. I’ve only just got behind him, thought Yang Guo, and now you want me to thrust at his brow. There was no time to think it over. He whipped round to the front again and was about to drive his jian at Gongsun Zhi’s brow when Qiu Qianchi called once more, “Slash his backside!”

Watching from the side, Lü’e found the palms of both hands wet with sweat. She frowned. Mother’s shouting all over the place like this. Isn’t she helping Father instead? She held her tongue, but Ma Guangzuo could not hold his. “Brother Yang,” he bellowed, “don’t fall for the old crone’s tricks. She wants to run you into the ground.”

Yang Guo had darted back and forth several times, and he was beginning to see dimly what Qiu Qianchi intended. When she called front, he made for the front. When she shouted back, he made for the back at once. Sure enough, after a few more turns an opening showed beneath Gongsun Zhi’s right ribs. Yang Guo’s long jian quivered, and with a hiss it pierced the clothing and sank more than an inch into the flesh. Blood spurted from Gongsun Zhi’s side.

There was a cry of “Ah!” from everyone, and they all rose to their feet. The State Preceptor and the others had understood. Qiu Qianchi had not been showing Yang Guo how to win. She had been teaching him how to find a chance of winning where none could be had. She was not pointing out flaws in Gongsun Zhi’s moves. She was making Yang Guo draw flaws out of moves that had none. A few rounds of her guidance, and Yang Guo had grasped the essence of this supreme martial principle. The onlookers were filled with admiration. If an opponent is truly a master, they thought, where are there flaws to find in his moves? Esteemed Senior Qiu’s teaching would serve a man for the rest of his life. And that boy Yang Guo grasped it in moments. Clever indeed.

But to force Gongsun Zhi to show an opening, a man needed not only greater martial skill but a thorough knowledge of every move he had, so as to foresee, a dozen moves ahead, exactly how he would answer each variation, and lead him step by step down the road to his mistake. That only Qiu Qianchi could do. Yang Guo understood the principle but had not the power to apply it himself. So he followed her instructions, and with his jian flashing he launched a furious assault on Gongsun Zhi, front and back, left and right. Twenty-odd moves later, Gongsun Zhi took another jian wound, in the leg.

The cut was not deep, but it opened a long gash, close on half a foot. Gongsun Zhi thought, I can’t hurt this Yang brat quickly, and if this goes on, with that old beggar hag telling him what to do, I’ll die under the little villain’s jian. There’s nothing else for it. No man is truly a man without venom! Years before, to save his own life, he had stabbed the woman he loved to death. Now, with things this desperate, he had no thought to spare even for Xiaolongnü. His black jian flickered and, swish, hacked like a dao at her shoulder.

Yang Guo started and swung his jian across to guard her, but then he heard Qiu Qianchi cry, “Thrust below his waist.” Yang Guo was taken aback. Aunt is under attack. How can I not save her? But every instruction Esteemed Senior Qiu gives has some deep purpose. This must be a clever stroke, besieging Wei to rescue Zhao.¹ The thought had scarcely formed when his long jian swung round and darted at Gongsun Zhi’s right waist. Then he heard Xiaolongnü cry out. Her right arm had been wounded, and with a clatter the Shunü Jian fell to the floor. Gongsun Zhi’s black jian swept slantwise and turned Yang Guo’s stroke aside.

Yang Guo was horrified. “Get back, quick,” he shouted. “I’ll take him on alone.” That rush of anxious feeling brought another stab of pain through his chest. Xiaolongnü was badly hurt, and she had no choice but to draw back and tear a strip from her gown to bind the wound. Yang Guo fought on with all his might, furious with Qiu Qianchi for her false guidance, and he shot her an angry glare.

Qiu Qianchi laughed coldly. “What are you blaming me for? I’m only helping you kill your enemy. Who said I’d help you save anyone? Hmph. What is that girl’s life or death to me? Better if she dies!” “You two, husband and wife, are a fine pair,” Yang Guo said furiously. “Not a scrap of heart between you!” Qiu Qianchi gave another cold laugh, but she did not grow angry. Her face perfectly composed, she sat watching the two men’s desperate fight.

Yang Guo stole a sidelong glance at Xiaolongnü. She was leaning against a chair, tearing strips from her gown to bind her wound, and it did not seem serious. His spirits rose, and suddenly his swordplay changed, from the Quanzhen Swordplay to the Jade Maiden Swordplay. Gongsun Zhi saw swordplay that had been steady and grave turn all at once light, nimble and graceful, as if another man had taken his place, and he was faintly surprised. The fellow’s full of tricks, he thought. What mischief is he up to now? But as he met the attacks, he felt the swordplay surge and recede with all the bearing of a true master, the very same style Xiaolongnü had just been using, and his suspicions vanished. He pressed in with golden dao and black jian together.

Ten-odd moves later, Yang Guo was losing ground again, driven back step after step by Gongsun Zhi. Qiu Qianchi called out instructions time after time, but Yang Guo, angry that she had deliberately let Xiaolongnü be hurt, acted as though he could not hear her. Who asked for your nagging? Then he remembered something. While he lay recovering in Cheng Ying’s² thatched cottage, there had been a book of four-character verse by his pillow, and with nothing to do in bed he had leafed through it, finding the lines free and graceful, a joy to read. Being a student of the martial arts, he linked everything to martial skill, so as he read he had pictured jian moves to go with the verses, meaning at the time to use them against Li Mochou,³ though in the end he never did. Now they came back to him. His jian flashed four times, swish, swish, swish, swish, and he chanted in a long, ringing voice:

“Our fine steeds well schooled, our bright robes aglow, Left hand grasps the mighty bow, right hand receives the arrow.”

His jian moved with the verse, sweeping and flowing with easy grace. Gongsun Zhi was taken aback. “What?” he said.

Yang Guo continued:

“Like wind that sweeps, like lightning’s flight, pursuing shadows, chasing light. Sweeping fierce across the plains, glancing back with proud disdain.”

The verse ran four characters to the line, and the jian moves came four to a set. At “Like wind that sweeps, like lightning’s flight” his jian flew with startling speed. At “Sweeping fierce across the plains, glancing back with proud disdain” the fury gave way to an easy grace. Gongsun Zhi had never seen this swordplay before. The chanting was pleasant to hear, and his attack slackened as he strained to catch the meaning of the verse, knowing that the jian moves matched the poem and that once he grasped its sense, he could break the swordplay.

Yang Guo continued chanting:

“Resting in the orchid fields, grazing steeds on Huashan’s height. Arrows loosed on level banks, fishing lines in rivers bright. Eyes follow the homing geese, hands strum the five-stringed lute.”

These lines he chanted with serene contentment, yet his swordplay opened and closed in great sweeps, austere, pure and grandly beautiful. The jian moves of the last two lines were the most elusive of all, seeming to go east and striking west, making for the high line and hitting low, two jian strokes in a single move, the true impossible to tell from the false.

Xiaolongnü had bound up her wound by now. She saw how beautifully Yang Guo was handling his jian, yet she had never heard him speak of this swordplay. “Guoer,” she asked, “what swordplay is this? Who taught it to you?” Yang Guo smiled. “I worked it out myself. What do you think, Aunt? A few days ago, when I was laid up with my wounds, there was a book of poems by the bed. I liked this one, so I learnt it by heart. At the Heroes’ Feast, Senior Zhu Ziliu⁴ turned calligraphy into martial skill, and I thought poetry could surely be turned into martial skill too.” Xiaolongnü said, “It’s very fine…”

Suddenly State Preceptor Jinlun called out in praise, “Brother Yang, your cleverness has my deepest admiration. The next lines, of course, are: ‘Bowing and looking up at ease, the heart roams the great mystery. I praise the old angler yonder, who has his fish and forgets the trap.’”

Gongsun Zhi’s mind stirred. This monk is giving me a hint. He had no time to wonder what the monk was after. He only thought, “Bowing and looking up” must mean a high stroke followed straight away by a low one. At once he swung the black jian to guard his upper body, while the golden dao hacked out swiftly along the middle line.

State Preceptor Jinlun was gifted in both letters and arms. Though he lived far off in Mongolia, there was no part of Han learning, the classics, the histories and the Hundred Schools, that he had not studied.⁵ Hearing the poem Yang Guo chanted, he knew the lines that came next and spoke them first, meaning to rid himself of Yang Guo by Gongsun Zhi’s hand. And this time Gongsun Zhi did seize the initiative: before Yang Guo’s jian move could come out, every way forward had been sealed, while the serrated golden dao came chopping at his vitals down the middle. Luckily Yang Guo, hearing the State Preceptor recite, had seen this coming too. He dropped his home-made four-character verse swordplay altogether, laid his long jian crosswise to guard his middle, and flicked the middle finger of his left hand against the back of the golden dao. It rang.

Gongsun Zhi felt a jolt run up his arm, and the web between his thumb and forefinger tingled faintly. This brat has no end of strange skills, he thought, alarmed. Yang Guo’s flick was the Divine Finger Flick⁶ that Huang Yaoshi⁷ had passed on to him, but his attainment was not yet enough to win with it. Had Huang Yaoshi himself delivered that flick, the golden dao would have been torn from Gongsun Zhi’s hand. Still, that single flick was all he needed. Yang Guo’s long jian whirled as he switched to the Jade Flute Swordplay⁸ that Huang Yaoshi had taught him. The Jade Flute Swordplay and the finger flick both aimed chiefly at the enemy’s acupoints, jian and finger working together in subtle, profound concert, and though his skill was not yet ripe, his furious attack left Gongsun Zhi hard pressed to parry. Several times Gongsun Zhi tried to shear through his enemy’s weapon with the black jian, but Yang Guo’s Junzi Jian was a treasured jian too. The two jians met in showers of sparks, and neither could cut the other.

Now Qiu Qianchi was calling out again from the side. “His jian thrusts at your right waist, his dao chops at your neck!” “His jian slashes your right shoulder, his dao guards his left flank.” She was calling every one of Gongsun Zhi’s moves before he made it, and with that, Yang Guo could only win. Gongsun Zhi’s yin-yang twin-blade art was a family inheritance, but Qiu Qianchi had pruned away the dross, kept the best, made good what was missing and added new moves, overhauling it from end to end, so every move he used was already in her reckoning, and however he shifted and changed, she called it first. At the height of the fight she suddenly cried, “His dao and jian both go for your upper body.” The timing of that cry was judged with cruel precision: Gongsun Zhi’s dao and jian were already on their way and could not change course in mid-stroke, while Yang Guo had time to spare to meet them. Yang Guo ducked his head and darted in, his jian held crosswise to guard his back, and a finger of his left hand had already jabbed the Qihai acupoint,⁹ an inch and a half below his opponent’s navel. The finger had found its mark. Yang Guo’s heart leapt. Surely the enemy was badly hurt. But Gongsun Zhi lashed out with a flying kick straight at his jaw.

Yang Guo started and leapt several feet aside, and only then remembered that this man could seal his own acupoints.¹⁰ In the moment he stood pondering it, Gongsun Zhi’s dao and jian were on him again. He heard Qiu Qianchi cry, “His dao and jian cross. Right jian attacks left, left dao chops right.” Yang Guo had no time to think. He threw everything he had into his defence.

On sheer attainment, Yang Guo would have been beaten long before. He held out only because Qiu Qianchi warned him in advance, laying bare every deadly move Gongsun Zhi had. By now the two of them had rolled and tumbled through seven or eight hundred moves. The valley’s disciples watched with their hearts in their mouths, and even masters like Xiaoxiangzi were dazzled and spellbound. Amid the flash of dao and jian, Gongsun Zhi was panting open-mouthed and Yang Guo was soaked through with sweat, and neither of them now moved forward or back, dodged or darted, with the nimbleness of before.

Footnotes

1. 围魏救赵 – Wéi Wèi Jiù Zhào. “Besiege Wei to rescue Zhao.” A classical military stratagem credited to Sun Bin: rather than reinforce an ally under attack directly, strike at the enemy’s vulnerable point elsewhere and force him to withdraw. Here Yang Guo attacks Gongsun Zhi’s waist to force him to break off his assault on Xiaolongnü. ↩

2. 程英 – Chéng Yīng. Her name meaning “heroine” or “outstanding”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 李莫愁 – Lǐ Mòchóu. Her name meaning “do not sorrow”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 朱子柳 – Zhū Zǐliǔ. His name meaning “master willow”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 汉人经史百家之学 – Hànrén jīng shǐ bǎijiā zhī xué. The whole body of Han Chinese learning: the Confucian classics, the histories, and the works of the Hundred Schools of Thought. ↩

6. 弹指神通 – Tánzhǐ Shéntōng. Huang Yaoshi’s signature finger technique. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 黄药师 – Huáng Yàoshī. His name meaning “medicine master”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 玉箫剑法 – Yùxiāo Jiànfǎ. Huang Yaoshi’s sword technique, so named because he created it while playing the jade flute, merging music with swordsmanship. ↩

9. 气海穴 – Qìhǎi Xué. “Sea of Qi” acupoint, located approximately one and a half inches below the navel. Critical point in Daoist internal alchemy and martial arts; striking it can disrupt an opponent’s neili flow. ↩

10. 闭穴功 – Bì Xué Gōng. Acupoint-Sealing Skill. A Gongsun family secret art that renders the practitioner’s acupoints immune to enemy strikes. Requires strict vegetarianism; any contact with meat or blood shatters the skill instantly. ↩