The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 35 – Part 8

The monk who supervised the Fragrant Accumulation Kitchen[^xiangjichu] had been troubled for days. With the Double Ninth Festival[^chongyang] drawing near and heroes gathering from every corner of the realm, the rice and tea, the endless meals, promised to be a fearsome undertaking. The monastery's prior had assigned extra hands to the kitchen to practise beforehand, but these monks were accustomed either to meditation and quiet cultivation or to drilling their martial arts. None would stoop to the crude drudgery of the kitchen. Those the prior had drafted went about their business with lofty airs, staring more than they worked. Tolerable enough for now, the supervisor thought, but once the guests arrived in force, it would be a disaster. Seeing Zhang Wuji honest and diligent, he devoted himself to keeping the young man on, urging him again and again to stay.

Zhang Wuji reasoned to himself, If I keep to the kitchen by day, I shan’t meet the monastery’s masters anyway. At night I can look for clues to my sworn father’s whereabouts, and that will be convenient enough. Even so, he affected hesitation, until the monk who had led him into the monastery joined in from the side, and only then did he relent. “Shifu,¹ best you pay me six qian² of silver a month. Five qian to my mother, and one qian for my wife to buy flowered cloth.”

The supervisor laughed. “A bargain, then. Six qian it is.”

Yi Sanniang³ gave a few more instructions, then took Du Baidang⁴ slowly down the mountain. Zhang Wuji hurried after them. “Mother, my wife begs you to keep an eye on things for her.”

“I understand,” Yi Sanniang replied. “Set your mind at ease.”

In the kitchen Zhang Wuji chopped firewood, hauled charcoal, stoked the flames and carried water, working until he was breathless. He made sure his face was blackened with charcoal when he lugged it, and his hair tousled into a wild mop. A glance in the water cistern showed a figure nobody would recognise. That night he slept among the other lay brothers in a small room beside the Fragrant Accumulation Kitchen. He knew Shaolin Monastery⁵ hid tigers and coiled dragons, that even among the menial monks there might be masters of extraordinary skill, and so he kept watch at every turn and dared not speak more than half a sentence.

Seven or eight days passed thus. Yi Sanniang brought Zhao Min to visit him twice. He worked tirelessly, every coarse labour from dawn to dusk, and the kitchen supervisor was delighted while the other lay brothers all grew friendly with him. He dared not ask outright, but kept his ears open, sifting the idle chatter for clues. Surely, he thought, someone must carry meals to his sworn father. Track the one who bore the food, and he would find where Xie Xun⁶ was held prisoner. Yet day after day passed without the faintest lead, not a whisper of news.

On the evening of the ninth day he was lying asleep past midnight when faint shouts and cries reached him from half a li⁷ away. He rose quietly, saw that none of the others had stirred, and unfolding his qinggong⁸ he followed the sound. It came from a grove of trees to the left of the monastery. He leapt into a tall tree, verified that no one lurked in the grass behind it, then crossed from trunk to trunk, closing the distance tree by tree.

By now steel clashed in the grove. Several fighters were locked in combat. Concealed behind his tree, Zhang Wuji saw flashes of steel running every which way and jian-shadows darting. Six men were divided into two sides. The three swordsmen were the Three Swords of Xiliang,⁹ deployed in the Five Elements’ False Three Talents Formation,¹⁰ their defence tight and well-ordered. Pressing them were three monks, each wielding a precept dao,¹¹ driving straight into the formation. Twenty or thirty exchanges passed before a dull thud sounded. Shao Yan,¹² of the Three Swords, took a blade-cut and fell to the ground. The False Three Talents Formation shattered, and the remaining two had even less chance against their opponents. A few more strokes, and a wretched cry rang out. Ma Fatong,¹³ the stocky one, had been hacked to death. The last man, his right arm wounded, fought on in desperation. A monk said in a low, stern voice, “Stop.” Three precept dao surrounded him in a ring, yet none pressed the attack.

An aged, harsh voice demanded, “Your Yuzhen Daoist Order¹⁴ of Xiliang and our Shaolin Order have never had quarrel or grievance. Why do you invade the monastery by night?”

The survivor of the Three Swords was Shao He.¹⁵ His face bitter, he said, “The three of us have already lost. We have only our own poor skill to blame. What more is there to ask?”

The aged voice gave a cold laugh. “You came for Xie Xun, then. Or perhaps you wanted the Dragon-Slaying Dao¹⁶ for yourselves. Hmmph. I never heard that Xie Xun had killed anyone from the Yuzhen Order, so I take it the dao is what you are after. And you thought such paltry skill would suffice to storm Shaolin Monastery? Shaolin has led the wulin¹⁷ for over a thousand years, yet it seems some people think us rather easier to deceive than we are.”

Shao He, catching the monk off his guard, drove his jian straight in with a slashing thrust. The monk sprang to evade it, but was a heartbeat too slow. The blade bit into his left shoulder. The two monks beside him brought their dao down together, and Shao He’s head and body were parted in an instant.

Without a word the three monks lifted the corpses of the Three Swords of Xiliang and walked swiftly back towards the monastery. Zhang Wuji was about to follow and see what they would do, when he caught the sound of soft breathing in the tall grass to his right and ahead. How fortunate I did not rush forward, he thought. There is an ambush here as well. He lay perfectly still. After a small fraction of a shichen¹⁸ he heard two soft claps from the grass, answered by another two from afar. Six monks rose from their hiding places in front, behind, left and right, some bearing Chan staves, some with dao or jian raised, and fanning out in a crescent they withdrew into the monastery.

Zhang Wuji waited until the six monks were out of earshot before slipping back to the little room. The lay brothers who shared it still slumbered on, none the wiser. He sighed to himself. Had I not seen it with my own eyes, how would I have believed that three heroes could die in a single moment? After witnessing the affair he understood that Shaolin Monastery’s defences were thorough beyond the ordinary, and he redoubled his caution.

Several more days passed, until it was the middle of the eighth month and the Double Ninth Festival drew closer with each passing hour. Working as a kitchen labourer will never tell me where my sworn father is kept, he thought. Tonight I must risk a search of the grounds. At the third watch he crept out and sprang onto the roof, sheltering behind the ridge. He had barely stilled his form when two figures glided from south to north, their monk’s robes puffing in the wind, their precept dao catching the moonlight. Patrol monks.

He let them pass, then edged forward several dozen feet. Footfalls sounded on the tiles and two more monks vaulted over. Monks came and went in ceaseless rotation, crossing one another’s paths like shuttles on a loom. The surveillance was so meticulous that even an imperial palace could scarce have equalled it. Seeing such order, Zhang Wuji knew that to press further would mean detection, and he was forced to retreat.

Three more days dragged by. Then one night a great rain began to fall. Zhang Wuji was overjoyed. Heaven is my ally! The downpour thickened until everything was pitch-dark. He darted forward towards the main hall, thinking, The Arhat Hall, the Damo Hall, the Prajna Court and the Abbot’s Quarters are Shaolin Monastery’s four vital centres. I will visit each in turn. But the monastery’s buildings were layered upon one another in bewildering profusion, and he could not tell Arhat Hall from Prajna Court. He stole from cover to cover, weaving his way until he reached a bamboo grove, beyond which a small room showed lamplight through its window. By now he was soaked to the skin. Raindrops the size of yellow beans struck his face and hands and bounced away. He crept to the window and heard a voice within. It was Abbot Kongwen,¹⁹ speaking.

“For this Golden-Haired Lion King, Shaolin Monastery has already taken twenty-three lives in a single month. The weight of killing is heavy, and surely not what the Buddha in his compassion intended. The Ming Order’s²⁰ Left Messenger Yang Xiao, Right Messenger Fan Yao, White-Browed Demon King Yin Tianzheng and Blue-Winged Bat King Wei Yixiao have each sent envoys to the monastery, begging us to release Xie Xun.”

Hearing this, Zhang Wuji felt a surge of gladness. My grandfather and Left Messenger Yang and the rest have received word and sent people here after all. Kongwen continued, “Our monastery has put them off, but will the Ming Order simply abandon the matter? Their Zhang Zhangmen’s martial arts have reached a pitch beyond the mortal, and yet he shows no sign of appearing. I fear there is some deeper scheme afoot. Kongzhi²¹ and I were saved by his hand, and we owe him a debt of gratitude. If he comes to ask in person, how shall we answer? The matter is truly difficult. Shidi, shizhi, what are your thoughts?”

A dry, aged voice coughed softly. Zhang Wuji’s heart lurched. He knew at once it was Cheng Kun, now called Yuanzhen.²² He had never spoken face to face with the man, but on Bright Peak he had heard him recount old events through the cloth of a sack and heard him shout through rock. The voice was as familiar as his own. In that instant Xiao Zhao’s face rose unbidden in his mind, and with it a wave of sweetness and a wave of ache.

Yuanzhen spoke. “Xie Xun is held under the guard of three Grand Shifus.²³ There can be no slip. This Heroes’ Assembly concerns the rise or fall, the honour or disgrace, of our Shaolin Order across centuries. The Ming Order’s petty favours and grudges need not trouble the abbot, shishu. Besides, the affair at Wan’an Temple was the demonic cult secretly colluding with the court to make trouble for the six great factions. Shishu is surely aware of that?”

Kongwen was startled. “How is it the Ming Order colluded with the court?”

Yuanzhen replied, “Zhang Zhangmen of the Ming Order was about to marry Miss Zhou, the head of the Emei Order. On the very day of the wedding, the Prince of Ruyang’s²⁴ county princess suddenly absconded with the surnamed Zhang. The affair was the talk of the jianghu.²⁵ Shishu must have heard of it.”

“I have,” Kongwen said. “I heard of the matter.”

Kongzhi mused, “So it seems Zhang Wuji and the county princess were indeed working in secret. The princess seized the leading figures of the six great factions, and then Zhang Wuji played the benefactor by rescuing them.”

“Nine times out of ten,” Yuanzhen said, “that is precisely how it happened.”

Kongwen demurred. “I found that Zhang Zhangmen a kind and righteous man. He does not seem the sort for such intrigue. We must not wrong an innocent.”

“Shishu sees with clarity, but as the saying goes, one may know a man’s face without knowing his heart. Xie Xun is Zhang Wuji’s sworn father and one of the demonic cult’s four Guardian Kings. The cult will stop at nothing to rescue him. At the Lion-Slaying Assembly²⁶ everything will be laid bare.”

The three then discussed how to receive the guests, how to repel any attempt to seize Xie Xun by force, and took stock of which fighters each faction could field. Yuanzhen pressed hard for the various factions to be set against one another. Once they had fought themselves to exhaustion, the Shaolin Order would emerge and reap the benefit Bian Zhuang had reaped from the tiger, subduing the factions and taking rightful charge of the Dragon-Slaying Dao, becoming supreme in the wulin. Xie Xun would be put to death to honour Kongjian’s²⁷ memory. Kongwen held to a cautious line. He was unwilling to take more lives than necessary and offend the jianghu’s righteous path, nor did he seem eager to slight the Ming Order.

Kongzhi appeared to sit between the two positions. “The first necessity, no matter how we circle the matter, is to force Xie Xun to reveal the Dragon-Slaying Dao’s whereabouts before the Double Ninth Festival. Otherwise this Lion-Slaying Assembly will end in silence and we shall have damaged the reputation of our own school instead.”

“Shixiong’s words are wise,” Kongwen said. “We must brandish the dao at the assembly and proclaim its authority. The Dragon-Slaying treasured dao, supreme in the wulin, is now in our school’s keeping. Our school walks the righteous path and shall issue commands throughout the realm, for the benefit of the nation and its people.”

“Well said,” Kongzhi replied. “Yuanzhen, find another way to persuade Xie Xun. If he hands over the treasured dao, we shall spare his life.”

“Yes. I shall follow shishu’s instructions.” Soft footfalls sounded as Yuanzhen walked out.

Zhang Wuji’s heart swelled with joy, but he knew the three Shaolin monks’ martial arts were formidable. The least sound would alert them at once, and if all three attacked together he doubted he could prevail. At best he might escape with his own skin, but to rescue his sworn father would be a thousand times harder. He held his breath and did not stir.

He watched Yuanzhen’s lean figure walking north, an oil-paper umbrella in his hand, the hard rain drumming a patter on its surface. Zhang Wuji waited until the man was a hundred-odd feet away before moving softly into pursuit.

Footnotes

1. 师父 – shīfù. Teacher and lineage father. ↩

2. 钱 – qián. A unit of silver, one-tenth of a liang. ↩

3. 易三娘 – Yì Sānniáng. Yi Sanniang, Du Baidang’s wife, skilled with the chain spear. ↩

4. 杜百当 – Dù Bǎidāng. Du Baidang, a martial artist famed in northern Sichuan for his double hooks, now deafened by his own choice. ↩

5. 少林寺 – Shàolín Sì. Shaolin Monastery, the famed Buddhist monastery on Mount Song. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 谢逊 – Xiè Xùn. Xie Xun the Golden-Haired Lion King, one of the Four Guardian Kings of the Ming Order and Zhang Wuji’s sworn father. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 里 – lǐ. A Chinese unit of distance, approximately one-third of a mile or five hundred metres. ↩

8. 轻功 – qīnggōng. Lightness skill, the martial art of agility and weightlessness. ↩

9. 西凉 – Xīliáng. Western Liang, an ancient region corresponding to parts of modern Gansu. The Three Swords of Xiliang are swordsmen from the Yuzhen Daoist Order. ↩

10. 五行 – wǔxíng. The Five Elements (metal, wood, water, fire, earth), whose cycles of generation and conquest underpin many martial formations. ↩

11. 戒刀 – jièdāo. A monk’s precept dao, the blade carried by Buddhist monks as one of their permitted implements. ↩

12. 邵雁 – Shào Yàn. Shao Yan, the lean Daoist of the Three Swords of Xiliang. ↩

13. 马法通 – Mǎ Fǎtōng. Ma Fatong, one of the Three Swords of Xiliang from Yuzhen Daoist Order. ↩

14. 玉真观 – Yùzhēn Guàn. Yuzhen Daoist Order, a Daoist sect based in Xiliang. ↩

15. 邵鹤 – Shào Hè. Shao He, one of the Three Swords of Xiliang from Yuzhen Daoist Order. ↩

16. 屠龙刀 – Túlóng Dāo. Dragon-Slaying Dao. The legendary dao forged from Yang Guo’s Heavy Iron Sword, said to contain the secrets to supreme martial power. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 武林 – wǔlín. Literally ‘martial forest’. The community of martial artists and their affairs. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

18. 时辰 – shíchén. A two-hour period; the traditional Chinese day is divided into twelve shichen. ↩

19. 空闻 – Kōngwén. Abbot of Shaolin Monastery. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

20. 明教 – Míng Jiào. The Ming Order, a secretive martial faction. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

21. 空智 – Kōngzhì. A senior monk of Shaolin Monastery. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

22. 圆真 – Yuánzhēn. Cheng Kun’s monastic name after he entered Shaolin Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

23. 太师叔 – tàishīshū. Grand shishu, the shidi of one’s shifu’s shifu. Two rungs above one’s shibo or shishu. ↩

24. 汝阳王 – Rǔyáng Wáng. The Prince of Ruyang. Zhao Min’s father, a senior Mongol nobleman and commander in the Yuan court. ↩

25. 江湖 – jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. The itinerant world beyond settled society and official reach, holding not only martial artists but the trades that travel with them. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

26. 屠狮大会 – tú shī dà huì. Lion-Slaying Assembly. A martial gathering convened by Shaolin Monastery, ostensibly to deal with the captive Xie Xun. ↩

27. 空见 – Kōngjiàn. Kongjian, one of Shaolin Monastery’s Four Holy Monks, slain by Xie Xun’s Lion’s Roar. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩