Sun Buer

Sun Buer

Contents

Sun Buer (simplified: 孙不二, traditional: 孫不二, pinyin: Sūn Bù’èr, jyutping: syun1 bat1 ji6), known by her Daoist name Unbound Adept Qingjing (清净散人 — Qīngjìng Sǎnrén; also written 清静散人), was the seventh disciple of Wang Chongyang, the Central Divine of the Five Greats, and the only woman among the Seven Zis of Quanzhen. She had been the wife of Ma Yu, the eldest of the seven, before he left the world to become a Daoist. Her disciple was Cheng Yaojia.

Biography

Discipleship

Sun Buer was the last of Wang Chongyang’s seven disciples, after Ma Yu, Tan Chuduan, Liu Chuxuan, Qiu Chuji, Wang Chuyi and Hao Datong. She had married Ma Yu before he took up the Daoist life. She came to martial arts only in middle age, and her skill was less pure than that of fighters trained from childhood, such as Ouyang Ke.

When Wang Chongyang converted her, he painted a picture of a skull and gave it to her, to show that human life was brief, that everyone became a skull in the end, and that one should therefore cultivate the true and aspire to the great Dao. In memory of her shifu she embroidered the skull on her Daoist robe.

Han Xiaoying’s impersonation

In the Mongol steppes, when Ma Yu staged a bluff to frighten Mei Chaofeng off a cliff-top, Han Xiaoying of the Seven Eccentrics of Jiangnan played the part of Sun Buer, and Zhu Cong, playing Qiu Chuji, teased her that the Unbound Adept Qingjing was always soft-hearted. Mei Chaofeng asked to test her skill against “Unbound Adept Qingjing”, but after grappling with Guo Jing she no longer dared.

Cheng Yaojia

Sun Buer taught Cheng Yaojia, the pampered daughter of a very rich family in Baoying, who had learnt a whole body of martial arts from her without ever having left home. The Beggars’ Guild elder Li Sheng had once met Sun Buer and held her in high regard. Cheng Yaojia used the Quanzhen swordplay her shifu had taught her when she came to the aid of Lu Guanying at Niu Family Village, and named her teacher, “Sun the Perfected One of the Quanzhen Order”, to warn off his attacker. Yin Zhiping greeted her there as a fellow disciple of the next generation. When Lu Guanying asked the two of them to have their shifus mediate between Huang Yaoshi and the Six Eccentrics, Yin Zhiping told her to plead with Sun Buer while he spoke to Qiu Chuji.

Niu Family Village

When Yin Zhiping reported that Huang Yaoshi had knocked out half his teeth, the Seven Zis, all then near Lin’an, agreed to meet at Niu Family Village. Ma Yu, Qiu Chuji, Wang Chuyi, Sun Buer and Yin Zhiping went into the village first, while the other three waited outside. That night the seven sat in the inn and chanted a poem in turn, Sun Buer giving the line “Out of the gate with a laugh, by nothing hindered”.

When Mei Chaofeng arrived, the seven met her seated in the Big Dipper Formation. Sun Buer held the Yaoguang position at the end of the handle, beside Wang Chuyi (Yuheng) and Hao Datong (Kaiyang). Mei Chaofeng’s White Python Whip was aimed first at her chest, and she sat unmoved; it was then that Huang Rong, watching through a peephole, noticed the skull on her robe.

When Huang Yaoshi came, he slapped four of the Zis across the face, Sun Buer among them. In the fight that followed, Ouyang Feng struck Tan Chuduan from behind and killed him. Sun Buer held Tan Chuduan’s body and wept aloud, and with the others she wanted to fight Huang Yaoshi to the death; but with Tan dead the formation was broken, and the six withdrew to wait for another day.

Misty Rain Pavilion and the Iron Spear Temple

On the eve of the Mid-Autumn contest at Jiaxing, the six surviving Zis, with Ke Zhen’e and Yin Zhiping making up the numbers, fought Huang Yaoshi at the Misty Rain Pavilion. Sun Buer, Hao Datong, Ke Zhen’e and Yin Zhiping were the weaker members of the formation. Huang Yaoshi singled Sun Buer out, cutting at her with six palm strikes and then with Peach Blossom Island’s East Wind Supreme Art of palm and kick, and the others had to close round her to save her. Because Huang Yaoshi was holding back, she came to no harm. In the fight that followed against Qiu Qianren and Ouyang Feng at the Iron Spear Temple, half her Daoist robe was torn away.

Once it was clear that Ouyang Feng, not Huang Yaoshi, had killed Tan Chuduan, the Quanzhen Zis formally apologised to Huang Yaoshi.

Martial arts abilities

Big Dipper Formation

Sun Buer held the Yaoguang (摇光 — Yáoguāng) star in the Big Dipper Formation (天罡北斗阵 — Tiāngāng Běidǒu Zhèn), the last star of the handle.

Swordplay

She taught Cheng Yaojia orthodox Quanzhen swordplay, which Cheng used with skill against Hou Tonghai. In the Misty Rain Pavilion fight the Zis fought with long jian.

Relationships

Wang Chongyang

Sun Buer was Wang Chongyang’s seventh and last disciple. The skull embroidered on her robe was his gift, and she wore it in his memory.

Ma Yu

Sun Buer had been Ma Yu’s wife before he left the world. Within the Seven Zis she addressed the other men, including Hao Datong and Tan Chuduan, as shige.

Cheng Yaojia

Cheng Yaojia was her disciple, and the only one named.

Behind the scenes

The historical Sun Buer, like the other Seven Zis, was a real Quanzhen figure. In the 3rd edition’s appendix on the Quanzhen Order, Jin Yong quotes local records describing her as the youngest daughter of a family of Ninghai, married to Ma Danyang (Ma Yu), with whom she had three sons; when Ma Yu left his family for the Dao, Wang Chongyang converted her with a painting of a skull, and she left her sons to seek ordination. The novel draws on this for the skull on her robe. She is traditionally regarded as the founder of the Qingjing branch of Quanzhen Daoism, which the novel does not mention.

Portrayals

Sun Buer has appeared in television adaptations of Jin Yong’s novels:

The Legend of the Condor Heroes

The Return of the Condor Heroes

See also

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