The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 4 – Part 3

Guo Jing briefly recounted Yang Guo’s background and explained that he had brought him to join the Quanzhen Order. Qiu Chuji said, “Jing’er, your martial arts have long surpassed ours. Why not teach him yourself?” Guo Jing replied, “I will explain that in due time. Today, in coming up the mountain, I offended many fellow Taoists and am deeply uneasy. I offer my apologies to all the venerable masters and beg your forgiveness.” He described how the Taoists had mistaken him for an enemy and the successive exchanges that had followed. Ma Yu said, “Had you not arrived in time to help, the Quanzhen Order would have suffered utter defeat. We are all family here. Let there be no more talk of apologies or thanks.”

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Qiu Chuji’s sword-like brows had long been raised. As soon as the zhangmen finished speaking, he said, “Zhi Jing was in charge of the outer formation and could not tell friend from foe. Utterly useless. I was wondering how such a strong formation outside could have let the enemy burst through so quickly and catch us off guard. Hmph, so he redeployed the Big Dipper Grand Formation to block you.” His beard and brows bristled with fury. He immediately summoned two disciples and questioned them about why they had mistaken Guo Jing for an enemy.

The two disciples looked terrified. The elder one said, “Feng shidi¹ and Wei shidi, stationed at the foot of the mountain, sent word that this… this Hero Guo had struck the stone tablet at Puguang Monastery. We assumed he must… must be with the enemy.”

Only then did Guo Jing understand. He had never imagined that all the misunderstandings had stemmed from this. He said, “Then the fellow Taoists cannot be blamed. At Puguang Monastery below the mountain, I inadvertently struck the tablet bearing the venerable masters’ poem with a heavy palm. That must have caused the misunderstanding.” Qiu Chuji said, “So that’s it. What a coincidence. We had learned in advance that the evil heretics attacking Chongyang Palace today would use striking the stone tablet as their signal.” Guo Jing asked, “Who exactly are these people, to dare such boldness?”

Qiu Chuji sighed. “It’s a long story. Jing’er, let me show you something.” He nodded to Ma Yu and Wang Chuyi, then turned and walked towards the rear of the mountain. Guo Jing said to Yang Guo, “Guoer, stay here with the grandmasters. Don’t wander off.” He followed Qiu Chuji, watching him stride towards the mountain behind the temple with steps as nimble as a young man’s.

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The two men reached the summit. Qiu Chuji walked behind a great boulder and said, “There are characters carved here.”

By now the sky was dark, and behind the boulder it was pitch black. Guo Jing reached behind the stone and indeed felt carved characters. Tracing them one by one, he found it was a poem:

Zifang² resolved to destroy Qin, once offered a shoe beneath a bridge. He aided Han in its glorious rise, a pillar holding up the sky, Then wandered with Master Red Pine,³ his deeds done, he brushed his robes and left. Extraordinary men and extraordinary books, Heaven does not lightly bestow.

Chongyang⁴ raised Quanzhen, gazing high with sweeping strides, A heroic figure, seizing the moment to carve out his domain. His reckless deeds he recognised as wrong, and withdrew his heart to the Tomb of the Living Dead. It is said that when he first entered the Way, two immortals met at this very place. Now beneath Zhongnan,⁵ halls and towers rise through mist and cloud.

As he traced the characters, running his finger along the carved strokes, he suddenly realised with a start that the grooves matched his finger perfectly, as though the characters had been written with a finger on stone. He blurted out, “Written with a finger?”

Qiu Chuji said, “It sounds unbelievable, but it was indeed written with a finger!” Guo Jing said in wonder, “Could there truly be immortals in this world?” Qiu Chuji replied, “This poem was written by two people, both extraordinary figures of the wulin.⁶ The one who wrote the first eight lines had an even more remarkable background: supremely gifted in both pen and sword, transcendent and peerless. Though not an immortal, he was a talent rarely seen in a hundred years.” Guo Jing was filled with admiration. “Who was this senior? Could the venerable master introduce me, so that I might pay my respects?” Qiu Chuji said, “I have never met him either. Sit down, and I will tell you the origins of today’s events.”

Guo Jing sat on the boulder as instructed, watching the firelight on the mountainside gradually fade. He suddenly said, “It’s a pity Ronger⁷ didn’t come with me this time. Otherwise, we could listen to Master Qiu’s wondrous tales together. Wouldn’t that be fine?”

Qiu Chuji asked, “Do you understand the meaning of this poem?” Though Guo Jing was now middle-aged, Qiu Chuji still spoke to him in the same tone he had used when Guo Jing was a boy over ten years ago. Guo Jing felt this was only natural and replied, “The first eight lines seem to be about Zhang Liang. Ronger once told me that story, so I understand it. It says he retrieved a shoe for an old man beneath a bridge, and the man deemed him teachable and passed on an extraordinary book. Later, Zhang Liang helped Emperor Gaozu of Han found the dynasty and was counted among the Three Heroes of Han’s rise. In the end, he retired after achieving his deeds and lived in seclusion, following Master Red Pine. The later lines speak of Grandmaster Chongyang’s deeds, which I don’t fully understand.” Qiu Chuji asked, “Do you know what kind of man Grandmaster Chongyang was?”

Guo Jing paused, then answered, “Grandmaster Chongyang was your shifu, the founding patriarch of the Quanzhen Order. At the Huashan Sword Summit⁸ back then, his martial arts were number one under heaven.” Qiu Chuji said, “That’s right. But what about his youth?” Guo Jing shook his head. “I don’t know.” Qiu Chuji said, “‘A heroic figure, seizing the moment to carve out his domain.’ My honoured shifu was not born a Taoist. In his youth, he first studied literature, then trained in martial arts. He was a hero who roamed the jianghu. Furious at the Jin invaders who destroyed our fields and homes and slaughtered our people, he raised a great righteous army and fought against the Jin soldiers, seizing cities and territory, building a magnificent enterprise in the Central Plains. But in the end, the Jin forces were too strong. My shifu suffered defeat after defeat until his officers and soldiers were nearly all lost. Only then, in anger, did he leave the secular world. At that time, he called himself ‘the Living Dead’ and for several years dwelt in an ancient tomb on this very mountain, refusing to step beyond its door. His meaning was that though alive, he was as good as dead, unwilling to share the same sky as the Jin traitors. ‘Not sharing the same sky’, that was his sentiment.” Guo Jing said, “So that is how it was.”

Qiu Chuji continued, “Years later, my shifu’s old friends and former comrades came one after another to visit, urging him to leave the tomb and take up his cause once more. But my shifu’s heart had grown cold and weary, and he felt too ashamed to face his old companions of the jianghu. He steadfastly refused to emerge. It was not until eight years later, when a lifelong rival stood outside the tomb door and heaped abuse upon him, provoking him for seven days and seven nights, that my shifu could bear it no longer and came out to fight. But the man laughed and said, ‘Now that you’ve come out, there’s no need to go back in!’ My shifu suddenly understood: his enemy had acted out of goodwill, unable to bear seeing such a fine hero buried in a grave, and had used this scheme to provoke him out. After this turn of events, the two men turned from enemies to friends and roamed the jianghu together.”

Guo Jing, thinking of the heroic spirit of those predecessors, could not help but be lost in admiration. He asked, “Who was that senior? Surely not one of the four great masters: Eastern Heretic, Western Poison, Southern Emperor, or Northern Beggar?”⁹

Qiu Chuji said, “No. In terms of martial arts, this person surpassed even the four great masters. But because she was a woman, she never showed herself in public, so few outsiders knew of her, and her name remained obscure.” Guo Jing said, “Ah, so it was a woman.” Qiu Chuji sighed. “This senior actually held deep feelings for my shifu and wished to marry him. All those years of constant quarrelling and fighting. That was her way of drawing close to him. But she was proud and aloof and could never bring herself to confess her feelings first. Later, my shifu naturally understood, but he could never set aside the hatred between nations. He often said: while the Xiongnu¹⁰ remain unchecked, what use is a home? He feigned ignorance of her deep affection, pretending not to notice. The senior thought my shifu looked down on her, and her resentment grew boundless. The two, who had turned from enemies to friends, now turned from love to hatred and agreed to settle the matter by combat here on Mount Zhongnan.”

Footnotes

1. 师弟 – shīdì. Male junior. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Dì means younger brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 张良 – Zhāng Liáng. Courtesy name Zifang (c. 251–189 BCE), one of the Three Heroes of the early Han dynasty. Legend says he received a military treatise from an immortal after humbly retrieving the old man’s shoe from beneath a bridge. ↩

3. 赤松子 – Chìsōngzǐ. Master Red Pine, a legendary Daoist immortal. Zhang Liang was said to have followed him into reclusion after helping found the Han dynasty. ↩

4. 王重阳 – Wáng Chóngyáng. His name meaning “double yang”, the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 终南山 – Zhōngnán Shān. Sacred Daoist mountain housing both Quanzhen Order and Ancient Tomb School. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 武林 – wǔlín. Literally martial forest. Those who actually practise, teach or study martial arts. Wulin sits inside the jianghu and is narrower than it: every member of the wulin belongs to the jianghu, but a pedlar or physician of the jianghu who never trained is no part of the wulin. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 黄蓉 – Huáng Róng. Her name meaning “lotus” or “hibiscus”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 华山论剑 – Huàshān Lùnjiàn. Literally sword discussion at Huashan. Use of discussion is key as the participants were engaged in a martial arts exchange and a philosophical debate on mastery, rather than just a physical contest. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 四大宗师 – Sì Dà Zōngshī. Four Great Masters, the foremost martial artists of their generation after Wang Chongyang: the Eastern Heretic Huang Yaoshi, the Western Poison Ouyang Feng, the Southern Emperor Duan Zhixing, and the Northern Beggar Hong Qigong. ↩

10. 匈奴 – Xiōngnú. Confederation of nomadic peoples of the eastern Eurasian Steppe. Wang Chongyang’s words echo the Han general Huo Qubing, who famously refused to marry until the Xiongnu threat was eliminated. ↩