The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 22: All Heroes Submit, Three Oaths

The heroes pledge allegiance and agree three articles¹

Miejue Shitai,² master of the Emei Order, addressed her disciples: “That young man’s martial arts are exceedingly unusual, but the four fighters from the Kunlun and Huashan schools have already bound him hand and foot with their technique. The martial arts of the Central Plains are vast and profound, how could the heterodox methods of the Western Regions compare? The Two Instruments transform into the Four Symbols, the Four Symbols into the Eight Trigrams. The orthodox variations yield sixty-four moves, the unorthodox variations another sixty-four. Orthodox and unorthodox combined, sixty-four multiplied by sixty-four, produce four thousand and ninety-six transformations in all. Of all the martial arts under heaven, none can match this profusion of change.”

Ever since Zhang Wuji had entered the arena, Zhou Zhiruo had been watching with concern. She stood favoured among the Emei disciples and had already received her master’s esoteric teaching on the Yijing principles. Now she asked in a clear voice, “Shifu, although the orthodox and unorthodox Two Instruments techniques are numerous, they ultimately do not depart from the principle of the Great Ultimate transforming into the yin and yang Two Instruments. In this disciple’s observation, those four seniors’ moves are indeed exquisite, but their most devastating power seems to lie in the positioning of their footwork.” Her voice rang clear and bright, each word expelled slowly from the dantian.³

Zhang Wuji, even in the thick of desperate combat, heard these words with perfect clarity. A glance showed him that the speaker was none other than Zhou Zhiruo. His heart stirred. Why is she speaking so loudly? Could she be deliberately coaching me?

Miejue said, “Your eye is not bad. You can perceive the essence within those seniors’ martial arts.”

Zhou Zhiruo murmured to herself, “Yang divides into Lesser Yang, Great Yang. Yin divides into Lesser Yin, Great Yin. These are the Four Symbols. Great Yang corresponds to Qian and Dui, Lesser Yang to Xun and Kan, Lesser Yin to Li and Zhen, Great Yin to Gen and Kun. Qian faces south, Kun faces north, Li faces east, Kan faces west, Zhen to the northeast, Dui to the southeast, Xun to the southwest, Gen to the northwest. From Zhen to Qian is the forward sequence. From Xun to Kun is the reverse.” Then, raising her voice, “Shifu, just as you taught me: Heaven and Earth fix their positions, Mountain and Lake exchange their breath, Thunder and Wind press against each other, Water and Fire do not oppose one another. The eight trigrams are mutually interwoven. Tracing the past follows the forward sequence. Knowing the future follows the reverse.⁴ The Kunlun School’s Orthodox Two Instruments Swordplay follows the forward sequence from Zhen to Qian. The Huashan School’s Unorthodox Two Instruments blade technique follows the reverse sequence from Xun to Kun. Shifu, is that not so?”

Miejue, hearing her disciple lay it bare, was secretly delighted and nodded. “You child, my teaching has not been wasted on you.” She rarely praised anyone. These two sentences were the highest commendation she ever bestowed.

Yet in her pleasure, Miejue failed to notice that Zhou Zhiruo’s voice had been far too resonant. When two people speak face to face, why project one’s neili-filled voice so that it carries across the arena? Already, many onlookers had sensed something amiss. Seeing so many eyes turn toward her, Zhou Zhiruo simply affected an air of innocent delight, clapping her hands and crying, “Shifu, yes, yes! Our Emei Order’s Four Symbols Palm, round containing square, yin and yang completing each other, the round and moving belonging to Heaven, the square and still belonging to Earth, Heaven and Earth, yin and yang, round and square, movement and stillness, reducing complexity to simplicity, governing the many with the one, seems to surpass even this excessively elaborate Two Instruments technique by a small margin.”

Miejue had always considered her order’s Four Symbols Palm the foremost martial art under heaven. Zhou Zhiruo’s words flattered her lofty self-regard, and she allowed herself a faint smile. “In principle, yes. But it also depends on the practitioner’s cultivation and skill.”

Zhang Wuji, in his childhood, had heard his father speak of the Eight Trigrams and their positional logic, but his learning had been shallow. That was why, after reading Yang Dingtian’s testament in the secret tunnel, he had needed Xiao Zhao’s guidance to locate the Wuwang position.⁵ Now, hearing Zhou Zhiruo expound upon the forward and reverse sequences of the Four Symbols, he was startled. He studied the four opponents’ footwork and techniques and saw at once that indeed every change flowed from the Four Symbols and Eight Trigrams. No wonder his Great Shift of Heaven and Earth⁶ could find no purchase whatsoever. The most profound martial arts of the Western Regions, when pitted against the most esoteric learning of the Central Plains, proved in the end to rest upon shallower principles. The only reason Zhang Wuji had held out so long was that he had already brought the Western arts to their highest summit, while He Taichong and his wife and the two Huashan elders had yet to plumb the depths of Central Plains martial theory. In a flash, seven or eight ideas raced through his mind like lightning, each one a method by which he could have felled all four opponents with a casual gesture.

But then another thought struck him: If I use those methods now, Miejue Shitai will surely take it out on Miss Zhou. That old nun is ruthless. There is nothing she would not do. I cannot endanger Miss Zhou. He kept his techniques exactly as they were and concentrated on observing the four opponents’ moves. Now that he had grasped the governing principle of their martial arts, everything fell into order, no longer a tangled skein he could not unravel.

Zhou Zhiruo, seeing that his situation remained dire, grew secretly anxious. He is fully committed to fighting. He cannot absorb such subtle learning in a mere moment. She watched He Taichong and his wife press ever closer, Zhang Wuji seeming to struggle harder still, and called out in her clear voice, “Shifu, I suspect the Iron Zither Gentleman’s next move will be to seize the Guimei position. I wonder if I am correct?”⁷

Before Miejue could answer, Ban Shuxian’s willow-thin brows shot upright and she barked: “You little girl from Emei, what is this boy to you, that you keep coaching him? You traitor, our Kunlun School is not to be trifled with!”

Zhou Zhiruo, her secret laid bare, flushed crimson. Miejue snapped, “Zhiruo, ask no more. The Kunlun School is not to be trifled with. Did you not hear?” The tone of these two words plainly shielded her disciple.

Zhang Wuji was deeply moved with gratitude. He thought, If this tangle continues, Miss Zhou may devise yet another way to help me, and if the old nun sees through it, she will be in grave danger. So he laughed loudly and said, “I am Emei’s defeated foe. I was once captured by Miejue Shitai, and she graciously spared my life. Yet your Kunlun School could not catch me. Naturally the Emei Order is superior to Kunlun.” He stepped two paces to the left and swung his plum-branch toward the shorter elder’s back with a gust of force.

The angle and timing were exact. The shorter elder, compelled against his will, found his steel dao falling toward Ban Shuxian’s shoulder. Zhang Wuji was employing the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth, but by exploiting the Eight Trigrams’ positional logic, he had reversed the trajectory of the elder’s blow. Ban Shuxian hastily turned her jian to block, and with a whistle, the taller elder’s dao was already hacking toward her.

He Taichong lunged to protect his wife, raising his jian to deflect the taller elder’s curved blade. Zhang Wuji struck out with an open palm, drawing the shorter elder’s dao-point toward He Taichong’s belly. Ban Shuxian, furious, unleashed three slashing jian-strokes in rapid succession, shua, shua, shua, forcing the shorter elder into flustered defence. The shorter elder shouted, “Don’t fall for the boy’s tricks!” He Taichong understood at once, reversed his jian, and thrust at Zhang Wuji. But Zhang Wuji shifted the cosmic axis, and He Taichong’s blade veered mid-stroke with a tearing sound, piercing the taller elder’s left arm. The taller elder howled in agony and brought his dao crashing down on He Taichong’s head. The shorter elder swung to block it, bellowing: “Don’t go wild, Shidi.⁸ It’s that boy’s doing! Aiya…” For even as he spoke, Zhang Wuji had compelled Ban Shuxian’s jian to swerve and pierce the shorter elder’s back shoulder.

In the space of a heartbeat, both Huashan elders lay wounded, and the onlookers erupted in uproar. They saw Zhang Wuji’s plum-branch sway gently, his palm incline sideways, using the taller elder’s dao to attack Ban Shuxian’s left flank, using He Taichong’s jian to hack at the shorter elder’s back. A few more exchanges, and suddenly He Taichong and his wife crossed blades with each other, while the two Huashan elders clashed weapons and hacked at one another.

By now everyone could see that Zhang Wuji was somehow redirecting the four fighters’ weapons from within, though not a single person could fathom his method. Only Yang Xiao, who had studied the rudiments of the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth, caught a glimmer of what was happening, but even he could not bring himself to believe this youth could have mastered that divine art.

The arena presented a spectacle of husbands fighting wives and fellow-disciples hacking at one another, a thrilling, almost beautiful carnage. Ban Shuxian kept shouting directions, “Shift to Wuwang! Advance to Meng! Seize Mingyi!”⁹ But the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth enveloped them from every direction. No matter how they changed position, their jian and dao flew unerringly toward their own allies. The taller elder cried, “Shixiong,¹⁰ can you go easy?” The shorter elder replied, “I’m hacking at the brat, not at you!” The taller elder shouted, “Careful, Shixiong. My dao’s about to turn…” And sure enough, before the words had finished, his blade slanted sideways toward the shorter elder’s waist.

He Taichong said, “Wife, this little thief…” Clang! Ban Shuxian hurled her jian to the ground. The shorter elder thought it a good idea, if they fought bare-handed, the boy could surely not work his sorcery, and flung away his dao to throw a punch at Zhang Wuji’s chest. But with a whistling sound, He Taichong’s jian came flying straight at his face. The shorter elder, weaponless, ducked just in time. Ban Shuxian screamed: “Let go of your weapon!” He Taichong released his grip and hurled the jian far away.

The taller elder followed suit, releasing his dao to lunge at Zhang Wuji’s neck with a grappling hand. His fingers closed tight, and gripped something hard. His own dao. Zhang Wuji had snatched it from the air and pressed it back into his hand. The taller elder said, “I’m not using a weapon!” He hurled it away with all his might. Zhang Wuji sidestepped, caught it, and placed it in his hand again. Time and again the elder threw it down. Time and again it reappeared in his grip. He could not rid himself of the thing. In his alarm, the absurdity of it struck him, and he burst out laughing. “Damned brat, you’re genuinely demonic!”

By now the shorter elder and the He couple had abandoned weapons and were attacking Zhang Wuji with fist and palm techniques. The fist arts of Huashan and Kunlun were no whit inferior to their weapons. Every punch, every kick carried devastating force. But Zhang Wuji was as slippery as a swimming fish, dodging through gaps narrower than a hair’s breadth, and when he counter-attacked with a half-move, the three of them found it desperately hard to block.

Footnotes

1. 群雄归心约三章 – Qúnxióng guī xīn yuē sān zhāng. Chapter title. 约三章 echoes 约法三章, the three-article covenant Liu Bang made on entering the Qin capital. ↩

2. 灭绝师太 – Mièjué Shītài. Her dharma-name, meaning “Extinction” or “Annihilation”. Zhangmen of the Emei Order. 师太 (shītài) is an honorific for a senior Buddhist nun. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 丹田 – dāntián. Literally dantian. Energy centre located three finger-widths below the navel, where qi is cultivated and stored. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 八卦 – bāguà. Literally eight trigrams. The eight fundamental hexagrams of the Yijing (Classic of Changes), each composed of three broken or unbroken lines representing yin and yang. Arranged in the King Wen sequence, they define eight cardinal and intercardinal directions and underpin countless Chinese martial, medical, and cosmological systems. Passage invokes the Xugua (Sequence of the Trigrams) commentary. ↩

5. 无妄 – Wúwàng. The twenty-fifth hexagram of the Yijing, “Without Falsehood” or “Innocence”, associated with the northwest position in certain Bagua arrangements. ↩

6. 乾坤大挪移 – Qiánkūn Dà Nuóyí. Literally great shift of heaven and earth. The supreme secret art of the Ming Order, a cosmic force-redirection technique that manipulates qi through Bagua principles. At its highest levels, it allows the practitioner to reverse, redirect, or absorb an opponent’s force. ↩

7. 归妹 – Guīmèi. The fifty-fourth hexagram of the Yijing, “The Marrying Maiden”, associated with the east in the King Wen arrangement. In martial-arts context, it denotes a specific positional angle in Eight Trigrams footwork. ↩

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

9. Hexagram positions – Wuwang (无妄, Without Falsehood), Meng (蒙, Youthful Folly), and Mingyi (明夷, Darkening of the Light) are all hexagrams from the Yijing, here used as positional coordinates in the Eight Trigrams combat system. ↩

10. 师兄 – shīxiōng. Male senior. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Xiōng means older brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩