The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 3 – Part 3

“Let’s make a rule,” Huang Rong said to her husband. “You may not teach Guoer, and I may not teach the other three. And the four children mustn’t teach one another either, or their skills will get muddled, and that would do them more harm than good.” “Of course,” said Guo Jing. “Guoer, come with me,” said Huang Rong. Yang Guo loathed Guo Fu and the Wu brothers, and this meant he would not have to learn alongside them, which suited him perfectly. He followed her into the inner hall.

Huang Rong took him into the study, lifted a book down from the shelf and said, “Your shifu has seven shifus, known as the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan. His Eldest shifu is Grandpa Ke, and his Second shifu is Zhu Cong, the Skilful Hand Scholar.¹ I’ll begin by teaching you the skills of your Second Grand Shifu Zhu.” She opened the book and read aloud, “The Master said, ‘To learn, and to practise constantly what one has learned: is that not a pleasure? To have friends come from afar: is that not a joy?’”² The book was the Analects.³ Yang Guo thought it strange but dared not ask questions, and could only recite after her and learn his characters.

For days on end Huang Rong did nothing but teach him to read, and she never once mentioned martial skill. One day, when his reading was done, Yang Guo went wandering alone in the hills. He thought of Ouyang Feng and wondered where he might be now, and he missed him badly. He stood on his head and began to spin, the way he had seen Ouyang Feng do it. When he had spun for a while, he followed the formulas Ouyang Feng had given him and drove his qi backwards through his meridians. The longer he spun, the more smoothly it flowed. He flipped over onto his feet, gave a croak and slapped out with both palms, and at once a delicious ease ran through his whole body, wonderful beyond words. In an instant he was pouring with sweat. He had no idea that this one round of practice had already advanced his neili.⁴ Ouyang Feng’s martial skill was a school of its own and a supremely formidable art, and Yang Guo was extraordinarily quick to grasp things. He had learned only a little that day, in a great hurry, but practising like this, his neili still made progress.

From then on he studied the classics with Huang Rong every day, and in the mornings and evenings, when he had time to himself, he went off to some quiet spot in the hills to practise. It was not that he had set his heart on martial skill, or meant to make himself a fighter of astonishing prowess. It was only that every time he practised, his whole body felt indescribably good, and before long he could not be easy without it.

He practised in secret, and Guo Jing and Huang Rong knew nothing of it. Huang Rong taught him to read, and in less than three months she had taken him through the whole of the Analects. She herself had long since tired of books, but she thought, This boy seems no less clever than I am. If he turns out like his father and learns martial skill, he could do great harm one day. Better to let him study letters alone. Learning the teachings of the sages will do good to him and to everyone else. So she held her patience and went on teaching him, and when the Analects was finished she started him on the Mencius.⁵ Yang Guo learned by heart with great speed, but he often disagreed with what the books taught and kept raising objections. Huang Rong often thought, Some of this child’s ideas about the sages’ books are very like my father’s. If Father were teaching him, the two of them would surely get on famously.

Months went by. Huang Rong never mentioned martial skill, and Yang Guo never asked. Since the day of the fight with Guo Fu and the Wu brothers he no longer played with the three of them, and alone, he grew more and more withdrawn. He knew that although Guo Jing had taken him as a disciple, he would never teach him martial skill. He was no match for the Wu brothers even now. Once Guo Jing had been teaching them for a year or six months, the next fight was bound to end with him dead at their hands. So he made up his mind: at the first chance he would slip aboard a boat and find some way off Peach Blossom Island.

That afternoon Yang Guo read a few passages of the Mencius with Huang Rong, took his leave of the study and wandered along the shore. He gazed out at the white waves rolling over the sea and wondered when he would ever get out of this plight. Gulls came and went over the water, and he envied them their freedom. He was lost in this longing when he heard a whooshing of wind from beyond the peach grove. His curiosity was roused, and he crept round behind the trees to look. It was Guo Jing in a clearing among the trees, teaching the Wu brothers fist and foot work. The move was a grappling hold called Prop the Beam, Swap the Pillar.⁶ Guo Jing explained as he went, sketched the moves with hands and feet and had the Wu brothers copy him. Yang Guo watched it only once and had grasped the heart of the move at once, but the Wu brothers tried and tried and never got the hang of it. Guo Jing was slow-witted by nature and knew all too well what it was to struggle, so he never lost patience, only showed them again and again.

Yang Guo sighed to himself and thought, If Uncle Guo would only teach me, I’d never be as stupid as they are. Glumly he went back to his room and slept. After supper he read his book through a few times, but he was bored to death, so he went down to the beach again and tried the fist and foot work Guo Jing had been teaching. But after going through the one move a few times, he was sick of it. Suddenly he thought, If I went and learned martial skill on the sly, I’d be far better than the Wu brothers, and then I wouldn’t have to be afraid of them beating me to death. The pleasure of that lasted a moment, then his pride rose up. If Uncle Guo won’t teach me, why should I steal his skills? Hmph. Even if he came now and begged me to learn, I wouldn’t. The worst that can happen is they beat me to death, and what of it? At the thought his pride swelled, and yet he felt wretched too. He sat quietly against a rock, and amid the sound of the waves he drowsed off into sleep.

Next morning Yang Guo went neither to breakfast nor to the study. He fished a few big oysters out of the sea and roasted them over a fire, thinking, I won’t starve without your Guo family’s food. He eyed the big boat and the little skiff by the shore and pondered, I can’t sail the big boat, and the skiff won’t row far. How am I to get away? He fretted half the day without finding a way, then went behind a great rock, stood on his head and began to practise the neigong Ouyang Feng had taught him.

He was just at the point where his blood was racing and his whole body glowing with ease when, all at once, somebody shouted loudly behind him. Yang Guo was so startled that he toppled over, and his arms and legs went numb so that he could not get up again. It was Guo Fu and the Wu brothers, who happened to come by at that very moment. The spot behind the great rock was very secluded, and nobody ever went there, but the paths and trees of Peach Blossom Island were all laid out on the cycles of the Five Phases,⁷ each giving rise to and overcoming the next, so Guo Fu and the Wu brothers dared not roam about. They played only on the paths of the island they knew well, and so they had chanced upon him practising. Luckily, Yang Guo’s skill was still very slight. Otherwise their shouting all together would have thrown his meridians into disorder and left him paralysed on the spot.

Guo Fu clapped her hands and laughed. “What mischief are you up to here?” Yang Guo steadied himself against the rock and slowly hauled himself to his feet. He rolled his eyes at her, turned and walked off. “Hey,” called Wu Xiuwen, “Guo shimei is asking you something. How can you be so rude as to ignore her?” “Is it any business of yours?” said Yang Guo coldly. Wu Dunru was furious. “We’ll go and play by ourselves. Don’t stir up a mad dog.” “That’s right,” said Yang Guo. “A mad dog bites anyone it sees. Here I was, minding my own business, and three mad dogs come barking and yapping at me.” “Three mad dogs, you say?” Wu Dunru said angrily. “Are you cursing us?” Yang Guo laughed. “I’m only cursing dogs, not people.”

Wu Dunru could not contain his fury. He lunged at Yang Guo, fists flying, and Yang Guo dodged aside. Wu Xiuwen remembered that their shifu had warned them shixiongs and shidis must never fight, and that if this blew up they would be scolded, so he caught his brother’s arm. With a broad smile he said to Yang Guo, “Big Brother Yang, you’re learning martial skill from shiniang,⁸ and the three of us are learning from shifu. After all these months, who knows who has come on faster? Let’s try a few moves and see. Do you dare?”

Yang Guo was bitter at heart. He had been about to say, “I haven’t your luck. Shiniang has never taught me any martial skill.” But when he heard Wu Xiuwen say “Do you dare?” in a voice so full of contempt, he swallowed the defeated words. He only snorted and looked at him coldly out of the corner of his eye. “When shixiongs and shidis test their skill,” said Wu Xiuwen, “whoever wins and whoever loses, nobody tells shifu or shiniang. Even if we break our heads open, we’ll say we fell. Whoever loses and goes complaining to the grown-ups is a mongrel bastard and a turtle’s egg. Big Brother Yang, do you dare?”

He had barely said “do you dare” for the second time when everything went black: Yang Guo’s fist had landed hard on his left eye. Wu Xiuwen staggered and almost fell. “Hitting a man when he’s not looking. Have you no shame?” Wu Dunru shouted, and he aimed one of the punches Guo Jing had taught him at Yang Guo’s waist. Yang Guo did not know how to dodge and took it full. Then he saw Wu Dunru’s foot come flying at him, and in a flash he remembered the move Guo Jing had taught the Wu brothers the day before. He sank a little on his right leg and lifted Wu Dunru’s kicking right calf on his left hand. It was exactly Prop the Beam, Swap the Pillar, one of the grappling holds Quan Jinfa,⁹ the Hidden Xia of the Marketplace,¹⁰ excelled at. It was no very profound skill, but in a real fight it was most useful. Guo Jing had made the two brothers practise it over and over the day before, and they had learned it, but when it came to using it in earnest they were nowhere near as nimble and deft as Yang Guo, who had watched it on the sly for only a moment. Lifted with such force, Wu Dunru went flying a long way.

Wu Xiuwen was already furious at the punch to his eye, and when he saw his brother thrown as well, he flew at Yang Guo with a feint of his left fist. Yang Guo dodged left, not knowing that this was one of the simplest tricks in fist work, first false, then true. Wu Xiuwen’s right fist followed through for real, and with a thud it caught Yang Guo hard on the right cheekbone. Wu Dunru picked himself up and came in from the other side. The two brothers had a grounding in martial skill to begin with. Yang Guo had been no match for them before, and now, with several months of Guo Jing’s teaching on top of it, what chance did he have? They had not been at it long before he had taken seven or eight punches and kicks to his head, face, waist and back. Yang Guo hardened his heart, thinking, Even if you beat me to death, I won’t run. He flailed away straight up and down with his fists, with no kind of method at all.

Wu Xiuwen saw him gnashing his teeth and fighting like a madman, and he began to lose his nerve. They had the upper hand anyway, and he did not want to go on. “You’ve lost already,” he called. “We’ll let you off. No need to fight any more.” “Who wants you to let me off?” Yang Guo shouted, and charged at him, punching straight at his face. Wu Xiuwen knocked the blow aside with his left forearm, seized the front of Yang Guo’s shirt with his right hand and jerked him forward, and at that same moment Wu Dunru drove both fists down into the small of Yang Guo’s back. Yang Guo lost his balance and pitched forward. Wu Dunru pinned his head with both hands. “Do you give in?” “Give in to a mad dog like you?” Yang Guo raged. Wu Dunru, beside himself, ground Yang Guo’s face down into the sand. “If you won’t give in, I’ll smother you.”

Yang Guo’s eyes, mouth and nose were full of sand. He could not breathe, and a moment later his whole body felt as if it would burst. Wu Dunru bore down on his head with both hands, Wu Xiuwen sat on his neck, and struggle as he might, Yang Guo could not break free. Just as the suffocation became unbearable, the neili he had built up in these days of practising what Ouyang Feng had taught him suddenly surged. A hot current shot up from his dantian,¹¹ and somehow, all at once, his whole body brimmed with strength. He sprang up, and without even waiting to open his eyes, he thrust out both palms.

The blow took Wu Xiuwen square in the belly. He gave a great cry, flew backwards, landed flat on his back and at once passed out. The force of that palm was Ouyang Feng’s supreme art, the Toad Skill. Its power was not a twentieth of Ouyang Feng’s own, and Yang Guo did not know how to use it, but it had burst out of him of its own accord in his extremity, and even so it was more than Wu Xiuwen could withstand.

Wu Dunru dashed over and found his brother lying there without a flicker of movement, the whites of his eyes showing. He thought Yang Guo had killed him, and in his terror he screamed, “Shifu, shifu, my brother’s dead, my brother’s dead!” Shouting and weeping, he ran back to tell Guo Jing. Guo Fu was frightened and hurried after him.

Yang Guo spat the sand from his mouth and rubbed the grit from his eyes. He felt there was not a scrap of strength left in his body. Even to take a single step was terribly hard. He saw Wu Xiuwen lying motionless and heard Wu Dunru shouting, “My brother’s dead!” His mind was a blank. He did not know what had really happened, only that something had gone very badly wrong, and he had no strength to run away.

Footnotes

1. 妙手书生 – Miàoshǒu Shūshēng. Skilful Hand Scholar, the nickname of Zhu Cong, the second of the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan. ↩

2. 有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎 – Yǒu péng zì yuǎnfāng lái, bù yì lè hū. Famous line from the Analects of Confucius, expressing joy at a friend’s arrival from afar. ↩

3. 论语 – Lúnyǔ. Analects, one of the Four Books of Confucianism, recording the teachings and conversations of Confucius. It has been the foundational text of Chinese education for over two millennia. ↩

4. 内力 – nèilì. Literally internal force. Kinetic manifestation of cultivated qi; generates tangible effects such as deflecting weapons or scaling walls. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 孟子 – Mèngzǐ. Mencius, another of the Four Books, recording the teachings of the Confucian philosopher Mencius. Huang Rong’s choice to teach these texts reflects her hope that classical moral education might shape Yang Guo’s character. ↩

6. 托梁换柱 – Tuō Liáng Huàn Zhù. Literally propping up the beam to change the pillar, a grappling technique of Quan Jinfa of the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan. Name evokes the idiom of secretly substituting one thing for another. ↩

7. 五行 (Wǔxíng). “Five Elements” or “Five Phases”: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. They interact through cycles of mutual generation and mutual overcoming, forming the basis of Chinese cosmology, medicine, and strategic thought. ↩

8. 师娘 – shīniáng. The wife of one’s shifu. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 全金发 – Quán Jīnfā. One of the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan, known as the Hidden Xia of the Marketplace. Trader by profession, his fighting style incorporated practical, street-smart techniques. ↩

10. 闹市侠隐 – Nàoshì Xiáyǐn. Hidden Xia of the Marketplace, the nickname of Quan Jinfa, reflecting his background as a trader who concealed his martial arts skill in plain sight. ↩

11. 丹田 – dāntián. Literally elixir field. Primary energy centre below the navel, where qi is stored and cultivated. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩