The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 24 – Part 8

Zhang Sanfeng understood at once. Years ago, when Yu Daiyan had been wounded by the Great Vajra Finger,¹ the Wudang Order had sent men to demand answers from Shaolin, but the Shaolin abbot had denied all knowledge of it. Their suspicions had turned to the Western Regions Shaolin, yet after years of enquiry they had learned that the Western Regions Shaolin had long since declined, their remaining disciples devoted to Buddhist scholarship rather than martial arts. Now, hearing Asan sneer, 'What sort of nothing is Kuhuie?' he understood at once that if the fellow were truly a disciple of the Western Regions Shaolin, he would never insult the very master who had founded their line. Zhang Sanfeng spoke in a clear voice, “No wonder, no wonder! You are a disciple of the Fire-Wood Dhūta.² You have inherited not only his martial arts but every ounce of his vicious, venomous nature. That Kongxiang fellow is your shidi, isn't he?”

Asan replied, “Quite right! He is my shidi, though his dharma name is not Kongxiang but Gangxiang.³ Zhang Sanfeng the Perfected One,⁴ how does our Vajra School’s⁵ Vajra Prajna Palm⁶ compare with your Wudang Order’s palm techniques?”

Yu Daiyan’s voice cut sharp, “A thousand times worse! His head took a palm-strike from my shifu and his brains burst from his skull. A coward’s ambush, playing at the door of experts. He deserved to die!” Asan roared and lunged forward.

Zhang Wuji met him with a single movement of Taiji Fist, ‘As If Sealing, As If Closing’, and held him at bay. “Asan, hand over the Black Jade Bone-Rejoining Paste.⁷ As he spoke, he held out his right palm. Asan was thunderstruck. “That medicine is the closest secret of our school. Even our ordinary disciples do not know its name. How has this little Daoist priest heard of it?”

He had no way of knowing that in Hu Qingniu,⁸ the Butterfly Valley Immortal Physician’s Medical Classic,⁹ there was a passage describing a school of external martial arts from the Western Regions, suspected to be a Shaolin offshoot, whose techniques were peculiarly grotesque. They shattered men’s limbs and bones beyond any ordinary cure. Only the school’s own secret medicine, the Black Jade Bone-Rejoining Paste, could mend them. Yet how that medicine was compounded was never revealed in the text. Zhang Wuji, recalling this passage, had spoken the name on the spur of the moment, intending nothing more than a bluff. The instant he saw Asan’s expression change, he knew his guess had struck true. “Hand it over,” he said sharply. He thought of his parents’ death, of the ruin visited upon his shibo Yu and his shishu Yin, and felt a rage so fierce he wished to strike the man dead on the spot. He had no desire to waste another word on him.

Asan had just exchanged blows with him and, though he had suffered a small setback, had observed that when he unleashed the Great Vajra Finger the boy’s only recourse was to dodge and evade, with no strength to strike back. If he were careful of those queer, dragging and leading handling methods, he would surely win a prolonged exchange. He stepped forward and barked, “Little brat, kneel and kowtow three times, times that ring, and I’ll spare you. Otherwise this man surnamed Yu is your example.”

Zhang Wuji was determined to obtain the Black Jade Bone-Rejoining Paste from him, but how to deal with the Vajra Finger he had no ready plan. The Great Shift of Heaven and Earth¹⁰ could harm the man, but it could not force him to surrender the medicine. He was still deliberating when Zhang Sanfeng said, “Child, come here.”

“Yes, Tàishīfù.¹¹” Zhang Wuji walked to his side.

Zhang Sanfeng said, “Use intent, not strength. Let the Taiji turn in circles without break. When the moment and advantage are yours, your opponent’s root will snap of its own accord. Every movement, every posture, must follow the last in unbroken sequence, like the Yangtze in flood, rolling, onrushing, never ceasing.” He had watched Zhang Wuji’s movements under pressure and saw that he had already grasped much of the Taiji essence. The difficulty was that his existing martial skill was so forceful, each posture so edged and angular, each strike so plainly hard, that he had not yet felt the meaning of “circular and unbroken” that lay at the heart of the Taiji Fist.

Zhang Wuji’s understanding of the martial arts ran deep. At the crucial points a single hint was enough. Hearing his tàishīfù’s words, understanding came at once. In his mind’s eye he pictured the Taiji diagram, turning without end, yin and yang in ceaseless transformation.

Asan sneered, “Learning your martial arts in the middle of a fight, a little late, isn’t it?”

Zhang Wuji’s brows rose. “Just in time, in fact, in time to give you a trial.” He turned, his right hand describing a circle forward towards Asan’s face, pressing in, precisely the Taiji movement “High Probe Horse.” Asan’s right hand snapped together, fingers fused into a knife-edge, and chopped down. Zhang Wuji answered with “Twin Winds Pierce the Ears,” turning defence into attack, both hands pressing forward in a circular motion. In that shift of technique he had already taken to heart the four characters his tàishīfù had taught him, ‘circular and unbroken’. One circle followed another, left and right, large circles and small, level circles and upright, straight circles and slanting, circle upon circle of Taiji, until Asan was staggering and stumbling, his footing gone, his body no longer his own, as though he had stumbled blind-drunk.

Suddenly Asan’s five fingers thrust out with savage force. Zhang Wuji deployed “Cloud Hands”¹², left hand high, right hand low, and a single circle caught and locked the man’s arm. He unleashed the hard force of the Nine Yang Divine Skill,¹³ and with a sharp crack Asan’s right arm broke at both upper and forearm bones. The Nine Yang Divine Skill holds both yin and yang, hardness and softness in tandem. Its force was terrible. Asan’s arm-bones shattered at once into six or seven pieces, the fragments splintering beyond recognition. Such power was far beyond what the Taiji Fist, whose essence is softness, could deliver.

Zhang Wuji hated the man’s viciousness. His “Cloud Hands” went on without pause, like white clouds drifting across the sky. One circle had not finished before the next was born. Another crack. Asan’s left arm broke. Then crack, crack, crack. His left leg and right leg were twisted and broken in turn. In all his life Zhang Wuji had never struck so hard at an opponent. But this was the man who had killed his parents, who had crippled his third shibo and his sixth shishu. Had it not been for the need to wring the Black Jade Bone-Rejoining Paste from him, he would have taken the man’s life there and then.

Asan gave a muffled groan and crumpled to the ground. One of Zhao Min’s men darted forward, gathered him up, and carried him back.

The onlookers, beholding such supernatural skill, were stricken silent. Even the Ming Order’s masters forgot to cry out in praise.

The bald-headed A Er¹⁴ glided out and struck with his right palm straight at Zhang Wuji’s chest. Before the palm’s point had covered half its distance, Zhang Wuji already felt his breath constricting. He answered with “Slanting Flight Stance,” drawing the palm-force aside. The bald old man made no sound. His stance was rooted and steady, as though nailed to the ground. He concentrated utterly, throwing palm-strike after palm-strike, his neili¹⁵ vast and deep.

Zhang Wuji saw that his palm-technique was of the same school as Asan’s. By his years he must be Asan’s shixiong. His movements were less quick than Asan’s but far steadier. Zhang Wuji set the Taiji Fist’s sticking, leading, pressing and pushing techniques to work, seeking to drag the old man off-balance. Instead, the fellow’s neili was so powerful that Zhang Wuji, sticking, found himself dragged a step forward. His pride flared. Let me match force against force with you, and see whether your Western Regions Shaolin neigong or my Nine Yang Divine Skill is the mightier. He saw the palm coming and met it with a palm of his own. Hard against hard, no trickery, no finesse. The two palms crashed together with a great boom, and both men swayed.

Zhang Sanfeng gave a soft cry of surprise. No good! he thought. This brute-force contest is won by the stronger. It runs counter to every principle of the Taiji Fist. The old bald man’s neili is thick as any I have seen in the wulin.¹⁶ I fear this one exchange will leave the child gravely hurt.

Just then the two men’s palms met a second time. Another boom. A Er staggered slightly and retreated a step, whilst Zhang Wuji stood firm, his spirit composed, his breath at ease.

The Nine Yang Divine Skill and the Shaolin Order’s neigong, carried to their highest reach, might be judged near-equal. But the founder of the Vajra School in the Western Regions, the Fire-Wood Dhūta, had stolen his arts from within Shaolin Monastery.¹⁷ Fist-techniques and weapons one may steal by the eye. The way of neigong, however, concerns the circulation of qi within the body. Even if one sat and watched from dawn to dusk as another meditated and trained, watched for ten years, eight years, how could one know how his inner breath was guided, how his celestial circuit¹⁸ was driven? External arts may be stolen. Neigong cannot. The Vajra School’s external arts were superb, not inferior to Shaolin’s own, but its neigong fell far short. This A Er was a prodigy of the Vajra School, endowed from birth with extraordinary strength, and by working from the external inwards he had somehow forged himself a profound neigong, far surpassing even the Fire-Wood Dhūta himself. His attainment might almost be called Heaven-bestowed. Under his palms, few men could survive three exchanges. Now this head-on contest of strength had driven him back a step, and he was seized at once by shock and fury. He drew a deep breath and thrust both palms forward together at Zhang Wuji.

Zhang Wuji called out, “Sixth Shishu,¹⁹ watch me avenge this wrong for you!” By now Yin Liting had arrived on Mount Wudang, carried in a soft litter by two Ming Order men, with Yang Buhui,²⁰ Xiaozhao²¹ and others at his side.

Zhang Wuji gave a sudden shout and hurled his right fist out. A great boom. The bald A Er staggered back three steps, eyes bulging, qi and blood churning in his chest. “Sixth Shishu,” Zhang Wuji called, “among the men who set on you, was this bald fellow one of them?”

Yin Liting replied, “Yes! He was the ringleader.”

The bald A Er’s joints were crackling through his whole body as he gathered his strength. Yu Daiyan knew that when that fierce neili was fully roused the palm-force to follow would be no small matter, impossible to withstand. “Cross the river uncompleted, strike in mid-current!”²² he called, urging Zhang Wuji not to wait for A Er to finish gathering his power but to attack at once and take him by surprise.

Zhang Wuji answered, “Right!” He stepped forward but did not strike. A Er’s arms surged out, driving a tremendous, mountain-overturning, sea-emptying force towards him. Zhang Wuji drew in a breath. The zhenqi²³ within him flowed and turned. His right palm lashed out, meeting, resisting, pressing, shoving, and sent the man’s own palm-force crashing back upon him. The two monstrous forces combined. A Er gave a great cry. His body flew like a boulder hurled from a catapult, smashing through a wall with a crashing sound and disappearing beyond.

In the crowd’s stupefied shock, a figure darted in through the hole in the wall, lifted A Er’s body and set it on the ground. The man was short and fat, round as a stone drum, absurd of aspect, yet quick as a weasel. Yan Yuan,²⁴ the Banner Master of the Ming Order’s Earth Banner Faction.²⁵ A Er’s arm-bones, his rib-cage, and his collar-bones had all been shattered by his own ferocious, mighty palm-force. Yan Yuan set the man down, bowed to Zhang Wuji, and wriggled back out through the hole in the wall, gone as swiftly as he had come, like a fat, fat mole.

Zhao Min had watched this little Daoist priest defeat two of her foremost masters in succession and had long been suspicious. Seeing Yan Yuan bow to him, her bright eyes darted, and she recognised him at once. Fool, fool! she cursed herself. I was so fixed on the notion that the brat was outside laying plans, I never imagined he would masquerade as a Daoist priest and make mischief in here, ruining everything I had arranged. She said in a thin, sweet voice, “Zhang Wuji, you little wretch, how can you stoop so low as to dress up as a Daoist boy? Full of ‘tàishīfù this’ and ‘tàishīfù that’, aren’t you ashamed?”

Footnotes

1. 大力金刚指 – Dàlì Jīngāng Zhǐ. Literally Great Vajra Finger. A Shaolin finger-technique of devastating hard force. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 火工头陀 – Huǒgōng Tóutuó. The Fire-Wood Dhūta. A Shaolin labourer who, over decades of menial service, secretly observed and learned the monks’ martial arts by watching, then fled and founded the Vajra School in the Western Regions. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 刚相 – Gāngxiàng. His true dharma name, of the Vajra School. He used the false name Kongxiang (空相 – Kōngxiàng) when approaching the Wudang Order in deception. ↩

4. 真人 – Zhēnrén. Literally “True Person.” An honorific title for a Daoist of the highest attainment, reserved for founding masters. ↩

5. 金刚门 – Jīngāng Mén. The Vajra School. A martial school founded in the Western Regions by the Fire-Wood Dhūta, who stole Shaolin’s external arts. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 金刚般若掌 – Jīngāng Bōrě Zhǎng. Literally Vajra Prajna Palm. The Vajra School’s signature palm technique. ↩

7. 黑玉断续膏 – Hēiyù Duànxù Gāo. Literally Black Jade Bone-Rejoining Paste. The Vajra School’s secret medicine for mending shattered bones, said to be beyond any other physician’s power to compound. ↩

8. 胡青牛 – Hú Qīngniú. Hu Qingniu, the Butterfly Valley Immortal Physician (蝶谷医仙). A Ming Order physician famed for his refusal to treat anyone outside the cult. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 医经 – Yījīng. The Medical Classic. Hu Qingniu’s treatise on medicine and pathology. ↩

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

11. 太师父 – Tàishīfù. Grand Shifu. Two rungs above one’s own shifu in the lineage: here, Zhang Sanfeng to Zhang Wuji. ↩

12. 云手 – Yúnshǒu. Cloud Hands. A foundational Taiji movement in which the hands describe continuous circles, trapping and redirecting an opponent’s force. ↩

13. 九阳神功 – Jiǔyáng Shéngōng. The Nine Yang Divine Skill. A legendary neigong method emphasising pure yang energy. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 阿二 – Ā Èr. A Er, the second of the Vajra School’s three brothers. Bald-headed, possessed of great natural strength and a profound neigong cultivated from the external inwards. ↩

15. 内力 – Nèilì. Internal force. The kinetic manifestation of qi cultivated through neigong. ↩

16. 武林 – Wǔlín. The wulin. The martial forest; the collective community of martial artists. ↩

17. 少林寺 – Shàolín Sì. Shaolin Monastery. The great Buddhist martial monastery of Henan. ↩

18. 周天 – Zhōutiān. The celestial circuit. The complete circulation of neili through the body’s meridian system. ↩

19. 师叔 – Shīshū. Lineage uncle. The shidi of one’s shifu. ↩

20. 杨不悔 – Yáng Bùhuǐ. Yang Buhui. Daughter of Yang Xiao and Ji Xiaofu. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

21. 小昭 – Xiǎozhāo. Xiaozhao. A maid in Zhao Min’s service, in truth the daughter of Daiqisi and Han Qianye. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

22. 渡河未济，击其中流 – Dùhé wèi jì, jī qí zhōngliú. “Cross the river uncompleted, strike in mid-current.” A tactical maxim urging attack before the opponent has finished preparing. ↩

23. 真气 – Zhēnqì. True qi. Refined qi produced by internal cultivation. ↩

24. 颜垣 – Yán Yuán. Yan Yuan. The Banner Master of the Earth Banner Faction of the Ming Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

25. 厚土旗 – Hòutǔ Qí. The Earth Banner. One of the five banners of the Ming Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩