The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 14 – Part 5

They travelled over one shichen¹ and reached Shahe Shop,² where the four took rooms at an inn. Zhang Wuji wrote out a prescription, and Su Xizhi ordered the serving boy to fetch the herbs. That year western Henan³ had been spared the natural disasters that afflicted other regions. Though the Mongol officials were as brutal and rapacious there as anywhere else, the common folk at least had rice to eat, and the shops of Shahe Shop town stood open as usual. The serving boy returned with the medicine. Zhang Wuji brewed it and fed it to Su Xizhi and Zhan Chun.⁴

The four stayed at the inn three days. Each day Zhang Wuji altered the prescription, applying salves without and brewing draughts within. By the fourth day every trace of the virulent poison in Su Xizhi and Zhan Chun’s bodies had been driven out. The two were naturally overcome with gratitude, and asked where Zhang Wuji and Yang Buhui were bound. Zhang Wuji gave the name of Kunlun Mountain⁵ and Sitting and Forgetting Peak.⁶

Zhan Chun said, “Brother Su,⁷ this young brother here has saved both our lives. But my five shixiong⁸ are still searching everywhere for you, and the matter is not yet settled. Won’t you come with me to Kunlun Mountain?”

Su Xizhi started. “To Kunlun Mountain?”

“Yes. I’ll take you to see my shifu⁹ and explain that you truly did not learn so much as a single move of the Kunlun Two Powers Swordplay.¹⁰ If my shifu does not forgive you, you will face disaster without end.”

Su Xizhi was angered. “Your Kunlun School¹¹ bullies people beyond reason. I so much as glanced at your swordwork and nearly ended up in the Ghost Gate for it. Can’t you just let it go?”

Zhan Chun said softly, “Brother Su, think how difficult this is for me. If I tell my shifu you truly did not learn the swordplay, that is no great matter. But suppose my five shixiong lay hands on you again, how could I live with myself?”

They had passed through life and death together over these days, and something had grown between them. Hearing her gentle, tender words, the anger in Su Xizhi’s chest dissolved at once. He thought further, The Kunlun School is vast and powerful. If they haunt me like restless ghosts, in the end I shall only lose my life to them anyway. Seeing him hesitate, Zhan Chun added, “Come with me first. Whatever important business you have, after we return from Kunlun Mountain I will go with you to see it done. How would that be?”

Su Xizhi said gladly, “Very well, so be it. Only, will your shifu be willing to believe it?”

“My shifu has always been fond of me. If I beg hard enough, I daresay he will not make things difficult for you. Once this matter is settled, I should also like to see your young master and young miss, so that neither child suffers at their sister-in-law’s hands.”

Hearing her speak thus, clearly implying she would pledge herself to him, Su Xizhi was overjoyed. He said to Zhang Wuji, “Little brother, we are all going to Kunlun Mountain. Let us travel together. The road is easier with company.”

Zhan Chun said, “The Kunlun range stretches thousands of li.¹² There is no telling how many peaks it holds, and who knows where Sitting and Forgetting Peak may lie. But the Kunlun School ought to be able to find one mountain in its own backyard.”

The next day Su Xizhi hired a large cart for Zhang Wuji and Yang Buhui to ride in, while he and Zhan Chun travelled on horseback. At the next sizeable town Zhan Chun bought several suits of clothes for the two children, and when they had washed and changed they looked quite transformed. Su Xizhi and Zhan Chun saw how handsome the boy was and how pretty the girl, and cried out in admiration.

Not until this moment were the two children freed from the misery of walking the long road. With better food, their bodies began to fill out.

The further west they went, the colder the weather grew each day. With Su Xizhi and Zhan Chun looking after them along the way, the journey passed without incident. Once they entered the Western Regions,¹³ where the Kunlun School’s power held sway, there was not the slightest hindrance. But the yellow sand scourged their faces and the wind bit through to the bone, and that was hard enough to endure.

Before long they reached Three Saints Hollow¹⁴ on Kunlun Mountain. Everywhere green grass spread like brocade, and fruit trees stood heavy with fragrant blossom. Su Xizhi and Zhang Wuji had never imagined that amid such desolate cold there could lie so fine a place, and both were greatly cheered. The hollow was ringed on every side by towering peaks that broke the force of the cold wind. Ever since Adept Lingbao,¹⁵ the shixiong of He Zudao¹⁶ known as one of the Three Saints of Kunlun, the successive zhangmen¹⁷ of the Kunlun School had spent decades of painstaking labour improving the hollow. They had sent disciples as far east as Jiangnan¹⁸ and as far west as Tianzhu,¹⁹ transplanting exotic flowers and rare trees to plant about the place.

Zhan Chun led the three of them to the Iron Zither Lodge,²⁰ the dwelling of He Taichong the Master of the Iron Zither.²¹ Inside the gate she saw all her shixiong and shimei²² worn with deep worry. They nodded faintly at her and said no more. Zhan Chun’s heart grew uneasy. She did not know what had happened, and pulled aside one of her shimei to ask, “Is my shifu at home?”

Before the girl could answer, He Taichong’s furious bellow came rolling from the back hall. “Good-for-nothings, every last one of you! There is nothing I set you to do that you do not bungle. What use are you, you useless sack of disciples?” A table-shattering blow followed, loud enough to split the sky.

Zhan Chun whispered to Su Xizhi, “My shifu is in a rage. Let us not walk into it now. We can come again tomorrow.”

He Taichong cried out suddenly, “Is that you, Chun’er? What are you whispering and skulking about for? Where is that surnamed Su thief’s head?”

Zhan Chun’s face changed colour. She hurried into the inner hall, knelt and kowtowed. “This disciple greets her shifu.”

He Taichong said, “How went the errand I set you? Where is the surnamed Su thief?”

Zhan Chun said, “The surnamed Su is waiting outside, come to kowtow and beg shifu’s forgiveness. He says he did not know the rules and ought not to have watched shifu’s sword demonstration. But our school’s swordplay is so profound, so marvellous, that after seeing it he knew only that it was unmatched under heaven. Wherein lay its excellence, he could not grasp at all, not the faintest hint of it.” She had been with her shifu many years and knew how deeply he prized his martial arts. If Su Xizhi was made to lavish praise upon the school’s techniques, shifu’s spirits would rise and he might grant forgiveness.

Ordinarily He Taichong would have accepted the flattery with a gracious nod. But today his temper was beyond all bounds. He snorted. “Very well done. Lock that surnamed Su in the stone chamber on the back mountain. We shall deal with him in due course.”

Seeing him in the full flood of his anger, Zhan Chun dared not plead. She answered, “Yes,” then asked, “Are all the shimu²³ well? I shall go to the back and pay my respects.” He Taichong kept five wives and concubines. The one he cherished above all was the fifth. Hoping to win her shifu’s mercy for Su Xizhi, Zhan Chun meant to ask this Fifth Concubine to intercede on the young man’s behalf.

A look of anguish crossed He Taichong’s face. He sighed long. “Go and see Fifth Gu.²⁴ She is gravely ill. At least you came back in time to see her once more.”

Zhan Chun started. “Fifth Shimu is unwell? What ails her?”

He Taichong sighed again. “If only I knew what ailed her. I have had seven, eight of the most renowned physicians in the land to look at her. Not one can even name her illness. Her whole body was grotesquely swollen. A person once as lovely as flower and jade, and now she is swollen so…” He sighed and shook his head. “Enough. I have taken on so many disciples, and not one of them is any use. I sent them to Changbai Mountain²⁵ to find a thousand-year-old mountain ginseng. They have been gone near on two months, and not one has come back. I sent others to find snow lotus, shouwu, any life-saving remedy. Every one returned empty-handed.”

Zhan Chun thought to herself, From here to Changbai Mountain is a distance of ten thousand li. How can they return the moment they are sent? And even on Changbai, a thousand-year ginseng is not so easily found. As for snow lotus and shouwu, rare drugs that cheat death, a man might search his whole life and not find them. How can you demand them in a trice? She knew her shifu loved Fifth Gu as he loved his own life. Seeing her so desperately ill and beyond cure, he was certain to take his fury out on those about him.

He Taichong went on, “I probed her jingmai²⁶ with my neili²⁷ and found not the slightest irregularity. Hmph. If Fifth Gu does not survive, I shall kill every quack under heaven.”

Zhan Chun said, “This disciple would go and see her.”

“Very well. I will come with you.”

Master and disciple went together to Fifth Gu’s bedchamber. The moment Zhan Chun stepped through the door, a reek of bitter medicine struck her nostrils. She drew back the bed curtain. Fifth Gu’s face was swollen grotesque, like the face of Zhu Bajie himself.²⁸ The skin was stretched drum-tight and glistening, as though it might split and bleed at any instant. Her eyes had sunk so deep into the flesh they could barely open. Her breath came in great gasps, like a bellows being worked. This Fifth Gu had been a beauty, otherwise He Taichong would never have been so bewitched by her, and now illness had reduced her to this. Zhan Chun could not help a sigh.

He Taichong said, “Tell those quacks to come again.” The old serving woman in attendance answered and went out.

Before long the clank of iron chains sounded, and seven doctors were led in. Each man had an iron chain shackled to his ankle, and all seven were linked together. Their faces were haggard, their expressions wretched. These were the most celebrated physicians of Sichuan,²⁹ Yunnan³⁰ and Gansu,³¹ including one Tibetan doctor. He Taichong had sent his disciples to fetch them, half by invitation and half by force. The seven famous doctors held seven different views. Some said it was water swelling. Some said she was possessed by a fiend. Every prescription they had tried had failed, and Fifth Gu grew more swollen by the day. He Taichong, in his rage, had chained all seven of them. They had been famous doctors once; now he called them quacks, and declared that if Fifth Gu did not recover, every last one of them would be buried alive in the grave with her.

The seven doctors had exhausted every art they possessed, yet Fifth Gu’s swelling worsened daily. Knowing their lives hung in the balance, at every consultation they argued themselves hoarse. Each blamed the other six, insisting that Fifth Gu’s condition was entirely their fault and had nothing to do with himself. This time they came in, felt her pulse, exchanged three or four words, and the quarrel began again. He Taichong, consumed by anxiety and fury, roared and cursed until the din of the seven was beaten into silence. Whether they were famous doctors or quacks remained an open question.

Zhan Chun had a thought. She said, “My shifu, I have brought a doctor from Henan. He is young, but his skill surpasses the lot of them.”

He Taichong was overjoyed. “Why did you not say so sooner? Quick, bring him in, bring him in!” He received every new famous doctor with the deepest courtesy at first. But once a famous doctor became a quack, courtesy was the last thing he showed.

Footnotes

1. 时辰 – shíchén. A unit of time; the day was divided into twelve shichen, each approximately two hours. ↩

2. 沙河店 – Shāhé Diàn. Literally Sandy River Shop. A small waystation town in western Henan province. ↩

3. 河南 – Hénán. A province of central China, south of the Yellow River. ↩

4. 詹春 – Zhān Chūn. A disciple of the Kunlun School. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 昆仑山 – Kūnlún Shān. The Kunlun Mountains, a vast mountain range in western China, held in mythology and martial legend as a place of immense power. ↩

6. 坐忘峰 – Zuòwàng Fēng. Literally Sitting and Forgetting Peak. A peak on Kunlun Mountain, the abode of He Taichong, the Master of the Iron Zither. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 苏习之 – Sū Xízhī. A wandering martial artist. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 师兄 – shīxiōng. Male senior fellow disciple. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Xiōng means older brother. ↩

9. 师父 – shīfù. Teacher and lineage father. Shī means teacher. Fù means father. ↩

10. 昆仑两仪剑 – Kūnlún Liǎngyí Jiàn. The Kunlun Two Powers Swordplay. A sword technique of the Kunlun School, based on the principles of the Two Powers (yin and yang). ↩

11. 昆仑派 – Kūnlún Pài. The Kunlun School, a martial school of the Western Regions. ↩

12. 里 – lǐ. A unit of distance, approximately one-third of a mile or 500 metres. ↩

13. 西域 – Xīyù. The Western Regions, the vast territory west of the Central Plains, encompassing the oases and deserts of what is now Xinjiang and beyond. ↩

14. 三圣坳 – Sānshèng Ào. Three Saints Hollow. A sheltered mountain basin on Kunlun Mountain, cultivated over generations by the Kunlun School. The Three Saints refer to He Zudao and his senior companions. ↩

15. 灵宝道人 – Língbǎo Dàorén. A Daoist of the Kunlun School, shixiong of He Zudao. One of the generation that laid the foundations of the school’s holdings at Three Saints Hollow. ↩

16. 何足道 – Hé Zúdào. Known as the Kunlun Three Saint. A legendary martial artist of the Kunlun School whose fame spread across the wulin. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 掌门 – zhǎngmén. The head of a martial school or sect. ↩

18. 江南 – Jiāngnán. Literally south of the river. The fertile region south of the lower Yangtze, renowned for its gardens and ornamental plants. ↩

19. 天竺 – Tiānzhú. The Chinese name for India, used from the Han dynasty onward. ↩

20. 铁琴居 – Tiěqín Jū. Iron Zither Lodge. The dwelling of He Taichong on Kunlun Mountain, named after his epithet. ↩

21. 铁琴先生 – Tiěqín Xiānshēng. The Master of the Iron Zither. The epithet of He Taichong, zhangmen of the Kunlun School. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

22. 师妹 – shīmèi. Female junior fellow disciple. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Mèi means younger sister. ↩

23. 师母 – shīmǔ. The shifu’s wife. Shī means teacher. Mǔ means mother. ↩

24. 五姑 – Wǔ Gū. The fifth and most beloved concubine of He Taichong. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

25. 长白山 – Chángbái Shān. Changbai Mountain, a volcanic range on the border of Manchuria and Korea, famed for its ginseng. ↩

26. 经脉 – jīngmài. The body’s system of meridian channels through which qi and blood flow. ↩

27. 内力 – nèilì. Internal force. The kinetic manifestation of qi cultivated through neigong. ↩

28. 猪八戒 – Zhū Bājiè. Zhu Bajie (Pigsy). A figure from the classic novel Journey to the West, a celestial marshal cursed into the form of a pig-faced monster, gluttonous and comically ugly. ↩

29. 四川 – Sìchuān. A province of southwestern China. ↩

30. 云南 – Yúnnán. A province of southwestern China, bordering Burma and Vietnam. ↩

31. 甘肃 – Gānsù. A province of northwestern China, the corridor to the Western Regions. ↩