The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 38 – Part 6

Just then, faint notes of qin and xiao in harmony drifted up from the mountain's waist. Zhang Wuji's heart lifted at the sound. The jade qin rang out in a clear succession of strokes, and four white-robed maidens glided up the peak, each cradling a short qin. The xiao followed, rising and falling in melody, and four black-robed maidens ascended with long xiao held before them. Black and white alternating, the eight maidens took up eight compass points. Qin and xiao sounded together, the music soft and elegant. A beauty draped in pale yellow gauze mounted the peak in time to the melody. It was the very woman Zhang Wuji had met that day at the Beggars' Guild in Lulu.

The Beggars’ Guild’s child zhangmen,¹ Shi Hongshi,² saw her and ran over, throwing herself into her arms. She cried, “Yang jiejie,³ Yang jiejie! Our elders and our Guild Chief have all been harmed!” Her finger pointed at Zhou Zhiruo. “It was her. The Emei Order and the Shaolin Order combined to do it.”

The yellow-gowned maiden nodded. “I know all of it. Humph! The Nine Yin White Bone Claw⁴ and the White Serpent Whip⁵ are not necessarily the mightiest martial arts under heaven.”

She had mounted the peak with such presence, and her own beauty was so striking and ethereal, that every eye was upon her. Those two sentences rang out clear enough to reach every ear present. The assembled heroes felt a chill. The older ones among them thought, That claw technique of the Emei Order, could it be the deadly art that bore the name of the Nine Yin White Bone Claw, famous throughout the jianghu⁶ a century ago? And the whip she wields is truly the White Serpent Whip? They had heard the names before and knew them to be arts drawn from the Nine Yin Manual,⁷ but so vicious in nature that they had long since fallen out of circulation. Not one of them had ever seen them used.

The Yellow Dress Maiden took Shi Hongshi by the hand and walked into the crowd of Beggars’ Guild members. She seated herself upon a mountain rock.

Zhou Zhiruo’s expression shifted slightly. She gave a snort and said, “Let us begin!” Her long whip lashed out, coiling towards Dunan’s black whip. Borrowing its momentum, she swept down between the three grey pines.

Her very first strike drove straight at the centre of the formation, vicious and swift. The audacity of it exceeded what even a seasoned veteran of the jianghu would dare. The heroes watched her suspended in mid-air, plunging down like an azure crane in a soaring dive, her movement exquisite beyond compare. Her right hand’s soft whip tangled with Dunan’s black whip. She borrowed its force and rendered the monk’s weapon useless for the moment. Du’e and Dujie raised their whips in unison, striking in from left and right.

Zhang Wuji charged straight forward. His foot caught, and he tumbled headlong in a somersault. The heroes cried out in surprise, assuming his wounds had made him lose his footing. But the manoeuvre Zhang Wuji had just executed was one of the ancient Persian martial arts inscribed upon the Holy Fire Tablets.⁸ His movement was grotesque in the extreme. He seemed to be falling forward, yet both Holy Fire Tablets were already streaking towards Dunan’s chest. At that moment Dunan’s black whip remained entwined with Zhou Zhiruo’s, unable to recoil for defence. Du’e and Dujie saw the danger at once and abandoned their attack on Zhou Zhiruo, both whips lashing towards Zhang Wuji. The two black cords moved with serpent swiftness and oxen force, a pair of dark dragons closing in. It seemed Zhang Wuji could not possibly evade them. Instead, he rolled upon the ground in a most undignified fashion, flinging himself clumsily towards Du’e. Du’e’s left hand stabbed down towards his shoulder. Zhang Wuji’s left palm met the strike with the power of the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth⁹ and deflected it. His body swayed, and his shoulder was already crashing towards Dujie.

His intention this day was to let Zhou Zhiruo claim the glory. He wished the honour of defeating the three eminent Shaolin monks to rest entirely upon the Emei Order’s zhangmen. He wanted only to rescue Xie Xun. And so he employed nothing but the ancient Persian martial arts, rolling east and tumbling west, as ugly to behold as any spectacle could be, as wretched as any fighter could appear. Among the onlooking heroes there was no lack of men of keen discernment, but this ancient Persian art was so utterly strange that no one in the Central Plains had ever encountered its like. Moreover, the whole assembly had seen Zhang Wuji grievously wounded the day before. In those opening exchanges, therefore, none detected the artifice. The enemies of the Ming Order were quietly delighted. Its friends were deeply anxious, fearing he would meet his end here today.

After several dozen exchanges, Zhou Zhiruo’s form rose and sank, drifting this way and that without pattern, while Zhang Wuji appeared ever less able to defend himself. He floundered in a panic that would have shamed a raw recruit to the martial arts. Yet no matter how desperate the moment, he always contrived to dodge the killing stroke by a hair’s breadth. The keener minds among the onlookers began to suspect something was afoot. They guessed he was employing some art akin to Drunken Eight Immortals, a technique that appeared to stumble in chaos yet concealed marvellous transformations within, far harder to master than any orthodox method.

Had this ancient Persian art been directed against any one of the three high monks alone, that monk would have been thrown into utter confusion, as wretched as Zhang Wuji had been when he first encountered the three Wind-Messengers of the Storm. But these three Shaolin high monks had sat in seated Chan meditation for decades, their minds as one. Where one monk’s technique exposed a gap, the other two filled it at once. Zhang Wuji’s grotesque movements, which would have bewildered any ordinary foe, each one appearing to go left while actually going right, seeming to advance when in truth he retreated, proved of no avail against three men whose whips moved as though guided by a single mind. After seventy or eighty exchanges, Zhang Wuji’s strange techniques still came thick and fast, yet he had not so much as grazed any of the three monks. As the fight neared a hundred moves, he felt the power upon the three black whips growing heavier, while his own movements grew sluggish and stiff, bereft of the fluid ease he had commanded at the outset.

He did not yet know that the martial arts he wielded had already begun to descend a fraction into demonic paths, while the three monks’ Diamond Subduing Circle¹⁰ was now deploying the wondrous Buddhist art of subduing demons with the power of the Dharma. The onlookers saw only that he fought with ever greater vigour. In truth the demons within his heart were growing. Had the fight continued another hundred moves, he would have fallen entirely under the dominion of the three monks’ supreme Buddhist martial arts, compelled to dance and rampage without cease. The three high monks would not have needed to lift a finger. He would have sealed his own doom. That the Ming Order was called the Demonic Cult by the world was not without reason. The founder of these ancient Persian arts, the Old Man of the Mountain,¹¹ was himself a great demon who slew without blinking. Ever since obtaining the Holy Fire Tablets, Zhang Wuji had practised their arts at first without noticing their effect. Now, suddenly confronted with formidable foes, he had unleashed every subtlety these arts contained. His spirit was gradually drawn under their influence, until all at once he threw back his head and laughed thrice: Ha! Ha! Ha! The sound was steeped with malice and cunning.

His three laughs had barely faded when the sound of chanting drifted from the dungeon beneath the three grey pines. It was the voice of his sworn father, Xie Xun. The aged voice intoned the Diamond Sutra¹² slowly: “At that time Subhuti,¹³ upon hearing this sutra, penetrated its meaning to the depths. Tears of grief and joy streamed down his face, and he said to the Buddha: How rare, World-Honoured One! The Buddha has spoken such a profound sutra. Since the days of my past, I have obtained the eye of wisdom, yet never have I heard a sutra such as this. World-Honoured One, if there be one who hears this sutra and, with faith pure and clear, gives rise to the reality of truth…”

Zhang Wuji fought and listened at once. From the moment Xie Xun’s chanting began, the force upon the three monks’ black whips drew back. He heard Xie Xun continue: “World-Honoured One, that I should hear such a sutra as this in the present age, believe and understand it, receive and uphold it, is not difficult. But if in ages yet to come, in the last five hundred years, there be living beings who hear this sutra and believe and understand it, receive and uphold it, then that person shall be the rarest of all. Why is this? That person is free from the mark of self, free from the mark of person, free from the mark of all living beings, free from the mark of a life span…”

Zhang Wuji heard these words and his thoughts stirred in tumult. He knew that ever since his sworn father had been imprisoned in the dungeon atop the peak, he had listened daily to the three Shaolin high monks chanting the sutra. The last time he could plainly have escaped, yet he had known himself burdened with grave sin and refused resolutely to leave. Could it be that, after months of hearing the Buddhist scriptures, he had at last attained a great and thorough awakening? The sutra spoke of living beings in the last five hundred years who would hear this teaching and believe. In his sworn father’s heart at this moment, those who came five hundred years later were Xie Xun himself and Zhang Wuji. But the meaning of the sutra was profound and subtle, and in the heat of combat he had no leisure to reflect at length. Still less did he know that the Subhuti in the sutra was the elder who had listened to Shakyamuni preach the Diamond Sutra in the kingdom of Shravasti in India. Of the sutra’s meaning he could grasp no more than a fraction.

He heard Xie Xun chant on: “The Buddha said to Subhuti: So it is, so it is! If there be one who hears this sutra and is neither startled, nor terrified, nor afraid, know that person to be most rare… When I was once cut limb from limb by the King of Kalinga, at that time I was free from the mark of self, free from the mark of person, free from the mark of all living beings, free from the mark of a life span. Why is this? If at that time, when my limbs were severed one by one, I had been possessed of the mark of self, the mark of person, the mark of all living beings, or the mark of a life span, I would have given rise to anger and hatred… A bodhisattva must depart from all marks.”

This passage of the sutra was plain in meaning. It declared plainly that all things in the world are illusory, and that one should harbour no attachment to one’s own body or life. Even should another carve and dismember one’s flesh, because one does not take it to be one’s own body, there can be no anger or resentment. My sworn father sits in a dungeon yet is at peace, he thought. Has he truly reached the state of being neither startled, nor terrified, nor afraid? Then another thought stirred: Is my sworn father telling me not to trouble myself on his account, not to exert myself to save him from danger?

The truth was that Xie Xun, imprisoned these months in the dungeon, listening day and night to the three monks’ recitation of the Diamond Sutra, had gained considerable insight into its meaning. When he now heard Zhang Wuji’s laughter turn strange and monstrous, as though a great demon within his heart were ascending and drawing him towards ruin, he immediately began to chant the Diamond Sutra, hoping to free him from the demon’s entanglement.

Zhang Wuji listened to Xie Xun’s chanting while his hands continued their techniques without pause. As the meaning of the sutra entered his mind, the demons within receded. The ancient Persian arts lost their coherence at once. With a sharp crack, Dujie’s black whip lashed towards his left shoulder. Zhang Wuji dropped his shoulder and evaded, and without willing it employed the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth, paired with the Nine Yang Divine Skill.¹⁴ At once the force of the incoming blow was dispersed. His mind turned: With these ancient Persian arts I shall find it hard indeed to win. He glanced sideways at Zhou Zhiruo and saw her parrying left and right, already showing signs of defeat. He thought, Things have come to such a pass that I cannot do two things at once. If I do not give my full strength and Zhiruo is defeated, then all hope of rescuing my sworn father is lost. He gave a clear whistle and drove both Holy Fire Tablets forward in a relentless assault.

Xie Xun’s chanting did not cease. But Zhang Wuji, concentrating upon the Great Shift, heard nothing of what he recited. He drew as much of the three monks’ black whip force as he could onto himself, so that Zhou Zhiruo might find a gap and break into the Circle.

When he exerted himself in full, the three monks felt the pressure upon their whips grow ever heavier, compelling each of them to channel his neili¹⁵ in resistance. The Diamond Subduing Circle took the Diamond Sutra as its highest teaching, and its ultimate aim was to reach the state of “free from the mark of self, free from the mark of person, free from the mark of all living beings, free from the mark of a life span”, regarding the distinction between self and other, the divide between life and death, as wholly illusory. Yet high as the three monks’ cultivation was, once they engaged in combat the desire to vanquish their foe could not be wholly set aside. Though they had already placed their own lives beyond reckoning, the division between self and other they could not extinguish, and so the Diamond Subduing Circle’s power had not yet reached its apex. Of the three, Du’e’s cultivation was deepest, and he knew well that the Four Marks must be shed. But whenever Dunan and Dujie’s spirit of rivalry and contention waxed strong, their impurity deepened and they took on the taint of worldly attachment. Du’e was obliged to lower the intensity of his own whip technique to match theirs.

The onlooking heroes saw that Zhang Wuji had changed his martial arts, that the struggle between the three grey pines was growing fiercer by the moment. A faint wreath of water vapour had begun to rise above the three monks’ heads, the sweat of their foreheads and crowns transformed to steam by the pressure of their neili. It was clear that all five combatants had arrived at the stage of competing through neili alone. Above Zhang Wuji’s head too a column of vapour appeared, but it rose straight and true, a thin and delicate thread climbing into the sky, gathering without dispersing. Plainly his neili ran deeper even than that of the three monks. The day before, every hero present had seen him grievously wounded. Who could have imagined that in a single night he had recovered entirely? The depth of his neili was enough to make one shudder at the thought.

Footnotes

1. 掌门 – zhǎngmén. Leader of a School or Order. ↩

2. 史红石 – Shǐ Hóngshí. The child zhangmen of the Beggars’ Guild, daughter of the late Guild Chief Shi Huolong. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 杨姊姊 – Yáng Jiějie. The form of address Shi Hongshi uses for the Yellow Dress Maiden. Jiejie means older sister, a respectful and affectionate term. ↩

4. 九阴白骨爪 – Jiǔyīn Báigǔ Zhǎo. Literally Nine Yin White Bone Claw. A lethal claw technique from the Nine Yin Manual, so called for the ghastly wounds it leaves. Its wicked cruelty made it notorious across the jianghu. ↩

5. 白蟒鞭 – Bái Mǎng Biān. Literally White Serpent Whip. A whip technique from the Nine Yin Manual, imitating the coiling strikes of a great white python. ↩

6. 江湖 – jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. The itinerant world beyond settled society and official reach. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 九阴真经 – Jiǔyīn Zhēnjīng. The Nine Yin Manual, a comprehensive martial encyclopedia focusing on yin-energy cultivation. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

9. 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. ↩

10. 金刚伏魔圈 – Jīngāng Fúmó Quān. The Diamond Subduing Circle, the formation maintained by the three Shaolin elders Du’e, Dunan and Dujie, whose three black whips interlock to trap any who enter. ↩

11. 山中老人 – Shānzhōng Lǎorén. The Old Man of the Mountain, founder of the ancient Persian martial arts recorded upon the Holy Fire Tablets. A figure of terrible repute. ↩

12. 金刚经 – Jīngāng Jīng. The Diamond Sutra, a foundational Mahayana Buddhist text on the nature of emptiness and the perfection of wisdom. ↩

13. 须菩提 – Xūpútí. Subhuti, one of the ten great disciples of the Buddha, foremost in understanding emptiness. ↩

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

15. 内力 – nèilì. Internal power. The kinetic manifestation of qi cultivated through neigong. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩