The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 20 – Part 3

Zhang Wuji spread open two sheets of yellow paper and saw them covered in small, regular characters, sealed with a dozen vermilion stamps bearing the name Yang Dingtian, lending them added solemnity. The text read: “Successive leaders have transmitted the Three Great Commands and Five Minor Commands of the Holy Fire Tablets.¹ Yet as the years have passed, many among the faithful have neglected to observe the Eight Commands, great and small, so that our rules have fallen into disrepair. I, lacking in virtue, have been unable to rectify this, and am deeply ashamed before the Bright Lord² and the trust placed in me by successive leaders. Whoever in future days recovers the Holy Fire Tablets shall promulgate these Three Great Commands and Five Minor Commands throughout the Order. The restoration of our Middle Kingdom's Ming Order depends upon this. I now set forth the Eight Commands, great and small, handed down from our ancestors. Let those who shall lead the Ming Order in ages to come remember the Bright Lord's great virtue in protecting the world, the hardship with which our forebears built this enterprise, and strive to recover the Holy Fire Tablets, that our Order may flourish once more in the world.”

Zhang Wuji read through the detailed text of the Three Great Commands and Five Minor Commands, and mused, “Judging by Leader Yang’s final instructions, the Ming Order’s purpose is truly noble and upright. The great schools, limited by their factional prejudices, have ceaselessly troubled the Ming Order. They were in the wrong.”

Distracted for a moment by these Eight Commands, he turned the white silk over and continued reading Leader Yang’s testament. The letter went on: “I shall devote my remaining neili³ to sealing the stone door and remaining within with Cheng Kun. My wife may escape by following the Secret Passage Map. In this age, no second person possesses the skill of the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth,⁴ and so no second person can move the stone door at the Wuwang position. Should some future hero master the art, my bones and Cheng Kun’s will long be dust. Dingtian respectfully records this.”

At the end came a line in smaller characters:

“My name is Dingtian, yet I have achieved nothing in the world and rendered no service to the Order. I have wounded my wife’s heart and died with my regrets unspent. My idle words of reaching for the sky and standing atop the earth — how shameful, how laughable they are.”

Following the testament was a complete map of the secret passage, marking every branching tunnel and doorway.

Zhang Wuji was overjoyed. “Leader Yang had intended to seal Cheng Kun within the secret passage, both of them perishing together whilst allowing his wife to escape alone. He did not anticipate that his strength would fail him, that he would die too soon, letting that villain Cheng Kun roam free to this day. Nor did he foresee that his wife would take her own life to follow him in death. Fortunately we have this map. We can get out now.”

He located their position on the map and examined it further. At once it was as though a bucket of ice water had been poured over his head. The sole path of escape marked on the map was precisely the passage Yuanzhen had blocked with the great boulder. Though they now possessed the complete map, it availed them no more than if they had nothing at all.

Xiao Zhao said, “Young master, do not distress yourself yet. Perhaps there is another way out.” She took the map and studied it carefully, head bowed. The markings were plain enough — beyond this route, there was no other exit.

Seeing the disappointment in her face, Zhang Wuji forced a smile. “Leader Yang’s testament says that whoever masters the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth can move the stone door and escape. It seems only Mr Yang Xiao has ever practised even a fraction of it, and his skill was shallow. Even if he were here, it might not suffice. Moreover, we do not know where the Wuwang position lies. The map does not mark it. Where are we to look?”

Xiao Zhao said, “The Wuwang position? It is one of the sixty-four hexagram positions of Fu Xi. Qian ends at the midpoint of Wu and Kun at the midpoint of Zi;⁵ its yang lies in the south and its yin in the north. The Wuwang position lies between the Mingyi position and the Sui position.” As she spoke, she surveyed the stone chamber and walked to the northwest corner. “It should be here.”

Zhang Wuji’s spirits rose. “Truly?” He dashed into the passage where the weapons were stored, took up a great axe, and scraped away the sand and earth caked upon the stone wall. Sure enough, the outline of a door appeared. He thought, “Though I do not know the method of the Great Shift, my Nine Yang Divine Skill⁶ is complete. Its power need not be inferior to that art.” He gathered his qi in his dantian,⁷ drove force through both arms, set his feet in a bow stance, and slowly pushed.

He pushed for a long while, but the stone door remained utterly still. However he shifted his hands’ position, however he drove his zhenqi,⁸ until his arms ached and every bone in his body crackled, the door stayed as firmly lodged in the wall as though it had grown there. Not the breadth of a hair had it moved.

Xiao Zhao urged, “Zhang gongzi, do not trouble yourself further. Let me fetch the rest of the gunpowder.”

Zhang Wuji was delighted. “Good! I had quite forgotten the gunpowder.” They packed all the remaining half-barrel of powder into the stone chamber, lit the fuse, and after the explosion the door had blasted inward seven or eight feet. But no passage appeared. The door’s thickness exceeded its width.

Zhang Wuji felt considerable guilt. He took Xiao Zhao’s hand and said gently, “Xiao Zhao, it is my fault. I have caused you to be trapped here.”

Xiao Zhao gazed at him with her bright, clear eyes. “Zhang gongzi, you ought to blame me. If I had not brought you in here… then this would not have… would not have…” She raised her sleeve and wiped her tears. After a moment, she suddenly broke into a smile through her tears. “Since we cannot get out, worrying is no use. Let me sing you a little song. Would you like that?”

Zhang Wuji had truly no mood for any song, but he could not bear to cross her. He smiled. “Yes, do.”

Xiao Zhao sat beside him and began to sing:

Worldly affairs mirror the workings of nature. In life, what is precious is to live as one pleases. Think how the Creator brings forth rise and fall. Fortune hides within misfortune, Misfortune hides within fortune.

Hearing the words “Fortune hides within misfortune, misfortune hides within fortune,” Zhang Wuji thought, “My life’s encounters have been exactly so.” Her voice was soft and clear, flowing with effortless grace, and at once his burdens of sorrow grew lighter. He listened as she continued:

How can wealth and honour long endure? The sun at its zenith wanes. The moon at its full wanes. On earth, the southeast slopes low. In heaven, the northwest stands high. Even heaven and earth are not complete.

Zhang Wuji said, “Xiao Zhao, you sing beautifully. Did you compose this song yourself?”

Xiao Zhao laughed. “You are teasing me. How could it be beautiful? I heard someone sing it once and remembered the tune. I am far too stupid to compose songs.”

Zhang Wuji pondered the line “Even heaven and earth are not complete” and hummed along to her melody.

Xiao Zhao asked, “Do you truly enjoy listening, or are you pretending?”

Zhang Wuji laughed. “How can enjoying something be true or false? Of course it is true.”

“Very well, I shall sing you another verse.” The fingers of her left hand pressed lightly upon the stone as she sang:

Unfurrow your brow, Do not squabble over idle grievances. Today’s face ages beyond yesterday’s. From ancient times to the present, All must come to this — Wise or foolish, poor or rich, it matters not.

In the end, this body of ours Cannot escape that final day. One day’s enjoyment is one day’s gain. Of a hundred years’ span, Few reach seventy. The fleeting years rush on, The waters flow ceaselessly away.

The song’s meaning was forthright, the outlook of one who had weathered hardship and seen through worldly affairs. It ill matched Xiao Zhao’s flower-like youth — she must have heard it sung by another and remembered it. Though Zhang Wuji was young, he had endured ten years of hardship. Now trapped within the mountain’s heart, with no hope of survival, he savoured the lines “In the end, this body of ours cannot escape that final day” and felt his spirit hollowed out. That final day, of course, was the day of death. He had faced mortal peril many times before, but previously, whether he lived or died, he had involved no one else. This time he had dragged little Xiao Zhao to die beside him. Moreover, his cousin Zhu’er’s fate, the safety of Yang Xiao and Yang Buhui, his sworn father Xie Xun’s bitter feud with Yuanzhen, the strife between the Wudang Order, the Tianying Order and the Ming Order — all remained unresolved. He truly did not wish to die yet.

He rose and went again to push the stone door. Within him, qi flowed in ceaseless circulation, vast strength coiled like floodwater behind a dike, yet he could not release it.

Three times he tried and failed. Xiao Zhao had already cut her finger again and smeared blood upon the sheepskin. “Zhang gongzi, why not try practising the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth? Perhaps your wisdom surpasses others and you will master it at once.”

Zhang Wuji smiled. “Successive leaders of the Ming Order devoted their lives to it, and few succeeded. They were leaders — each must have been a genius. How could I master it in a single day?”

Xiao Zhao sang softly, “One day’s enjoyment is one day’s gain. Even one day of practice is worthwhile.”

Zhang Wuji smiled faintly, took the sheepskin and read aloud in a low voice. The text concerned methods of guiding qi and redirecting force through the acupoints. He tried following the instructions and found they came without effort at all. The sheepskin read: “The first layer of this heart-method may be mastered by one of keen understanding in seven years, by one of lesser wit in fourteen years.” He was greatly astonished. “What difficulty can there be? Why does it take seven years?”

He read on to the second layer. Following the method, his qi flowed through in moments, and he felt a thread of warmth issuing from each of his ten fingers. The text stated: “The second layer of the heart-method may be mastered by one of keen understanding in seven years, by one of lesser wit in fourteen years. Should twenty-one years of practice bring no further progress, the third layer must not be attempted, lest Qi Deviation⁹ follow, beyond remedy.”

He was both alarmed and delighted. He turned to the third layer. Here the characters had grown dim, and he was about to take his dagger and cut his own finger when Xiao Zhao forestalled him, smearing the sheepskin with her fingertip’s blood. Reading and practising together, he broke through the third and fourth layers as though splitting bamboo.

Xiao Zhao saw half his face flushed blood-red while the other half had turned a greenish blue. She felt a flicker of fear, but his bearing was full and his qi ample, his eyes bright with piercing light. She judged him safe. When he continued to the fifth layer, his face shifted between blue and red. When blue, his body trembled slightly as though plunged into ice. When red, sweat poured from his brow like rain.

Footnotes

1. 圣火令 – Shènghuǒ Lìng. The Holy Fire Tablets, twelve golden tablets of the Ming Order, symbols of authority. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 明尊 – Míng Zūn. The Bright Lord, the supreme deity of the Ming Order’s Manichaean faith. ↩

3. 内力 – nèilì. Kinetic force cultivated through neigong practice. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 乾坤大挪移 – Qiánkūn Dà Nuóyí. The Great Shift of Heaven and Earth, the supreme secret art of the Ming Order, capable of redirecting force and reversing qi flow. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 乾尽午中，坤尽子中 – qián jìn wǔ zhōng, kūn jìn zǐ zhōng. A line on the circular chart of Fu Xi’s sixty-four hexagrams. On that circle the Earthly Branches mark compass points, not hours: Wu is due south and Zi due north. The yang half of the circle culminates in the hexagram Qian in the south, the yin half in Kun in the north. Wuwang, Mingyi and Sui are hexagrams on the same circle. ↩

6. 九阳神功 – Jiǔyáng Shéngōng. The Nine Yang Divine Skill, a legendary internal cultivation method emphasising pure yang energy. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 丹田 – dāntián. The energy centre below the navel. ↩

8. 真气 – zhēnqì. Refined qi generated through internal cultivation. ↩

9. 走火入魔 – zǒuhuǒrùmó. Qi Deviation. A catastrophic disruption of neili, leading to madness or death. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩