The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre Chapter 11 Part 6

Monk Peng departs with Bai Guishou's body, and the travellers pass a Mongol checkpoint slaughtering men by surname. At last they reach Butterfly Valley, where Hu Qingniu refuses the Wudang boy…

Monk Peng¹ said to the five who lay gravely wounded on the ground, “I, Monk Peng, have no deep feud or great wrong with any of you, and by rights need not kill you, but the words this Ding woman spoke tonight, slandering Ji² nüxia, you have all heard them with your own ears, and were they to spread abroad on the jianghu, how then should Ji nüxia hold up her head? I cannot leave you alive. It is not by my own wish, so do not lay the blame on me.” So saying, one stroke to each, he ran through the two Kunlun³ Daoists, one Shaolin monk, and the two Haisha School⁴ fighters, killing them all. Then he drew the jian once across Ding Minjun’s⁵ shoulder as well.

Ding Minjun was frightened out of her wits, yet gravely wounded she could offer no resistance, and cursed, “Thieving baldpate, do not torment me piecemeal: run me through with one stroke and be done.” Monk Peng laughed, “An ugly hag like you, sallow-skinned and wide-mouthed, I dare not kill you. I only fear that once you enter the underworld, you would fright the thousand upon thousand of wicked ghosts there into fleeing up into the world of men, and fright besides the King of the Dead and his judges into vomiting and flux. Would that not throw all Hell into uproar?” With that he laughed three great laughs, cast down the long jian, took up Bai Guishou’s⁶ body, wept three great sobs, and strode off with his head high. Ding Minjun panted a long while, then, propping herself on her scabbard against the ground, hobbled and limped out of the wood.

This heart-stopping night-battle in the wood Chang Yuchun⁷ and Zhang Wuji⁸ had seen with their own eyes and heard with their own ears, from first to last. Only when Ding Minjun had gone did the two of them let out a breath.

Zhang Wuji said, “Big Brother Chang, Auntie Ji is my Sixth Uncle Yin’s wife-to-be. That Ding woman said she… said she had borne someone a child. Do you think it true or false?” Chang Yuchun said, “That Ding woman talks wild nonsense. Do not believe her.” Zhang Wuji said, “Right. Next time I shall tell Sixth Uncle Yin, and have him teach this Ding Minjun a good lesson, and so vent Auntie Ji’s grievance for her.” Chang Yuchun said hastily, “No, no! On no account must you mention this matter to your Sixth Uncle Yin. Do you understand? Once you mention it, that would be a disaster.” Wuji asked, puzzled, “Why?” Chang Yuchun said, “Such unpleasant words, do not speak them to anyone at all.” Zhang Wuji gave an “Mm,” and after a while asked, “Big Brother Chang, you fear it may be true, do you not?” Chang Yuchun sighed, “It is not that I myself fear it is true: I fear that others, hearing it, will take it for true.”

By daybreak Chang Yuchun rose, took Zhang Wuji on his back, and set off again at a good pace. Having rested the better part of the night, his spirits were restored, and his step was much lighter than before. After a few li⁹ they turned onto a high road. Chang Yuchun thought, My Shibo¹⁰ Hu lives in seclusion in Butterfly Valley,¹¹ in a wild and out-of-the-way spot. How have we come onto a high road? Can we have taken a wrong turn?

Just as he thought to find a villager and ask, he suddenly heard hoofbeats, and four Mongol soldiers came galloping up, brandishing their long dao¹² and shouting, “Move along, move along!” Riding up behind Chang Yuchun, they raised their blades in feinted hacks, driving him forward. Chang Yuchun groaned inwardly, “To think that today I have fallen into the tiger’s jaws once more, and shall forfeit Brother Zhang’s life into the bargain.” By now his martial arts were wholly gone. He could not have bested even an ordinary Yuan soldier, and could only drag himself forward step by step. On the high road common folk streamed along without a break, all driven by the Yuan soldiers like so many beasts. Chang Yuchun thought, It seems these Tartars¹³ are abusing the common people. They may not necessarily be after me.

He went along with the throng of common folk to a three-way fork in the road, where he saw a Mongol officer sitting on horseback at the head of sixty or seventy soldiers, each of the Yuan men holding a great dao in his hand. As the common folk passed before the officer’s horse, they knelt down one by one and kowtowed. A Han-Chinese interpreter demanded, “What is your surname?” When the man had answered, a Yuan soldier beside him would give him a kick on the backside or a slap on the face, and the commoner would hurry on. When one commoner, asked, answered that his surname was Zhang, the Yuan soldier at once seized him and bade him stand aside. Another commoner had in the basket on his arm a newly bought kitchen chopper, and the Yuan soldier seized him and set him aside as well.

Seeing that things were amiss, Zhang Wuji whispered in Chang Yuchun’s ear, “Big Brother Chang, quick, pretend to fall: fall into the long grass, and take off the dao at your waist.” Chang Yuchun caught his meaning at once. He bent his knees and pitched into the long grass, slipped off his dao, and, groaning and whimpering, made a show of clambering up, then dragged himself step by step before the officer. The Han-Chinese interpreter cursed, “You thieving southern lout, no manners at all. Before His Honour, will you not kowtow at once?” Chang Yuchun, remembering how his late lord Zhou Ziwang¹⁴ and all his household had died wretchedly beneath the Mongol Tartars’ blades, would sooner die than kowtow to a Tartar now. A Yuan soldier, seeing his stubbornness, swept a leg across the back of his knees. Chang Yuchun, unable to keep his feet, pitched down onto his knees. The Han-Chinese interpreter barked, “What is your surname?” Before Chang Yuchun could answer, Zhang Wuji cut in, “Xie. He is my big brother.” The Yuan soldier gave Chang Yuchun a kick on the backside and barked, “Get lost!”

His breast full of wrath, Chang Yuchun clambered up and swore a solemn oath in his heart: “If in this life I do not drive the Tartars back beyond the northern deserts, then I, Chang Yuchun, am no man.” With Zhang Wuji on his back he hurried northward, but he had gone only a few dozen paces when suddenly a great clamour of screams and wailing rose behind them. The two turned their heads and saw that the ten and more commoners the Yuan soldiers had pulled aside now lay with heads parted from bodies, corpses strewn upon the ground.

For at that time the government was cruel and harsh, and many among the common people had risen in revolt. The Mongol ministers had it in mind to slaughter the Han-Chinese to the last man, yet could not kill them fast enough. And so the Grand Preceptor of the court, Bayan,¹⁵ handed down a savage decree, to put to death every Han-Chinese in the realm bearing the five surnames of Zhang, Wang, Liu, Li, and Zhao. For among the Han-Chinese the four surnames Zhang, Wang, Liu, and Li were the most numerous, while Zhao was the surname of the imperial house of the Song dynasty. Once people of these five surnames were wiped out, the Han-Chinese must needs be gravely weakened at the root. Afterward, since not a few of these five surnames had submitted to the Yuan and taken office under it, a Mongol minister counselled the emperor, and only then was this most cruel decree of slaughter revoked, but of the common folk of the five surnames who had died by it, the number was already beyond count.

Chang Yuchun quickened his pace and struck off into the wilds. Knowing that Hu Qingniu’s¹⁶ place of seclusion was near at hand, he searched for it slowly and patiently. It was by now late autumn, yet the air about Butterfly Valley was warm, and the hills and fields on every side were full of fresh flowers, but with the ghastly scene just past in their minds, what heart had the two of them to admire the view? After several turns they came face to face with a cliff-wall, and the way was at an end.

Just as they were at a loss, they saw several butterflies slip in through a row of flowering shrubs. Zhang Wuji said, “Since the place is called Butterfly Valley, let us follow the butterflies through and see.” Chang Yuchun said, “Good!” He squeezed in through the flowering shrubs after them. Past the shrubs, a little path opened before them. When Chang Yuchun had gone a stretch, he saw the butterflies growing ever more numerous, some dappled, some white, some black, some purple, fluttering in their dance. Nor did the butterflies fear men: flying near, they came to rest on the two travellers’ heads, shoulders, and hands. Knowing now that they had entered Butterfly Valley, the two were both heartened. Zhang Wuji said, “Let me walk slowly on my own!” Chang Yuchun set him down on the ground.

By a little past midday, they saw, beside a clear stream, seven or eight thatched huts, and all about the huts, front and back and to either side, were flower-plots planted with every kind of flower and herb. Chang Yuchun said, “We are here: these are the physic-gardens where my Shibo Hu grows his medicinal herbs.” He walked up to the huts and said, respectfully and in a clear voice, “Your junior Chang Yuchun begs to see Shibo Hu.” After a moment a page-boy came out of the hut and said, “Please come in.” Chang Yuchun took Zhang Wuji by the hand and went into the hut. There, at the side of the hall, stood a middle-aged man of clear spirit and fine-boned features, watching a page-boy fan the fire beneath a boiling medicine-pot, and the whole hall was filled with the smell of herbs.

Chang Yuchun knelt and kowtowed, saying, “Shibo Hu, I greet you.” Zhang Wuji thought, this must surely be the Butterfly Valley Healer, Hu Qingniu, and made his bow after him, saying, “Mister Hu.” Hu Qingniu nodded to Chang Yuchun and said, “The business of Zhou Ziwang, I know it all. That too was ordained by fate. The Tartars’ fortune, I suppose, is not yet run out, and the hour of our order’s rise to glory has not yet come.” He reached out and laid his fingers on the pulse at Chang Yuchun’s wrist, opened the clothing at his chest and looked, and said, “You have been struck by the foreign monks’ Heart-Severing Palm.¹⁷ In itself that is nothing much. Only, after being struck, you used too much force, and the cold poison has struck inward to the heart, so it will take rather more work to cure.” Pointing at Zhang Wuji, he asked, “Who is this child?”

Chang Yuchun said, “Shibo, his name is Zhang Wuji. He is the child of Zhang the Fifth Xia of the Wudang Order.”¹⁸ Hu Qingniu was taken aback, and anger gathered in his face. “He is of the Wudang Order? What do you mean by bringing him here?” Chang Yuchun told him how he had shielded Zhou Ziwang’s son in his flight, how he had been hunted by the Mongol soldiers and saved by Zhang Sanfeng,¹⁹ and all the rest, and ended, “Saved in life by the boy’s grand shifu, your junior begs Shibo to make an exception, and save him.”

Hu Qingniu said coldly, “How generous of you, to make a gift of another’s favour. Hmph, it was you Zhang Sanfeng saved, not me. When have you ever seen me make an exception?” Chang Yuchun, kneeling on the ground, kowtowed again and again, and said, “Shibo, this Young Brother’s father would not sell out his friend, and chose gladly to cut his own throat, a resounding fine fellow.” Hu Qingniu sneered, “A fine fellow? How many fine fellows are there under heaven. Can I heal them all? Were he not of the Wudang Order, well and good, but being a man of a renowned and orthodox order, why come begging me, a demon and outsider?” Chang Yuchun said, “Brother Zhang’s mother was the daughter of the White-Browed Eagle King, Order Leader Yin.²⁰ Half of him may be counted a man of our own order.”

Footnotes

1. 彭莹玉 – Péng Yíngyù. “Monk Peng,” a monk of the Ming Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 纪晓芙 – Jì Xiǎofú. Her name meaning “Small and Graceful.” A disciple of the Emei Order; Yin Liting’s wife-to-be. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 昆仑派 – Kūnlún Pài. Kunlun School, a major martial arts school based in the Kunlun Mountains of the northwest. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 海沙派 – Hǎishā Pài. Haisha School, a Jiangnan faction involved in salt smuggling. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 丁敏君 – Dīng Mǐnjūn. Shijie of Ji Xiaofu in the Emei Order, styled the Poison-Handed Wuyan (毒手无盐); 无盐 alludes to the legendary Zhong Wuyan, an ugly but virtuous woman of antiquity. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 白龟寿 – Bái Guīshòu. His name meaning “White Tortoise Longevity.” Altar Master of the Xuanwu Altar of the Tianying Order, who died shielding Monk Peng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 常遇春 – Cháng Yùchūn. Fighter of the Ming Order who befriended Zhang Wuji; historically a founding general of the Ming dynasty. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 张无忌 – Zhāng Wújì. His name meaning “Without Envy” or “No Misgivings.” Son of Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu, and the protagonist of the tale. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 里 – lǐ. Traditional Chinese unit of distance, roughly equivalent to a third of a mile or half a kilometre. ↩

10. 师伯 – shībó. Senior lineage uncle. Shixiong or shijie of one’s shifu. Shī means teacher. Bó means father’s elder brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 蝴蝶谷 – Húdié Gǔ. Lit. “Butterfly Valley.” The secluded valley home of Hu Qingniu, on the shore of Nüshan Lake in northern Anhui. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 刀 – dāo. Curved, single-edged blade, retained in pinyin in prose. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 鞑子 – dázi. Derogatory term for the Mongols, akin to “Tartars.” ↩

14. 周子旺 – Zhōu Zǐwàng. Historical rebel leader who rose against the Yuan, proclaimed himself emperor, and was captured and beheaded; Chang Yuchun had served him. See Wikipedia. ↩

15. 巴延 – Bāyán. Bayan of the Merkid (d. 1340), a Mongol Grand Preceptor and chancellor of the Yuan court, historically reputed for a proposal to slaughter the Han-Chinese bearing the commonest surnames. See Wikipedia. ↩

16. 胡青牛 – Hú Qīngniú. His name meaning “Green Ox.” The Butterfly Valley Healer, a physician of the Ming Order, nicknamed “Sees Death, Offers No Aid” for refusing to treat any who are not of the order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 截心掌 – Jié Xīn Zhǎng. Literally heart-severing palm. Palm technique whose force strikes inward to the heart. ↩

18. 武当派 – Wǔdāng Pài. Wudang Order, the Daoist martial order founded by Zhang Sanfeng; 派 renders as “Order” for its religious character. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

19. 张三丰 – Zhāng Sānfēng. His name meaning “Three Peaks.” Legendary founder of the Wudang Order and creator of taijiquan; Zhang Wuji’s grand shifu. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

20. 教主 – jiàozhǔ. Head of an Order; rendered “Order Leader.” Here Yin Tianzheng, the White-Browed Eagle King of the Tianying Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩