The treasure map (simplified: 藏宝之图, traditional: 藏寶之圖, pinyin: Cángbǎo zhī Tú, jyutping: cong4 bou2 zi1 tou4) was the drawing by which the Storming King Li Zicheng recorded where his treasure was hidden. It was handed down in the Miao family, and in Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain it lay concealed inside the phoenix-head pearl hairpin. The map showed the site but not the way in; that key was placed in Li Zicheng’s Treasured Dao.
Description
The map was drawn on paper as thin as a cicada’s wing. Although it was very old, it had been sealed inside the hairpin and was undamaged. It showed a single steep, towering peak, with nine characters beside it: 辽东乌兰山玉笔峰后, “behind Jade Brush Peak, Wulan Mountain, Liaodong”. The three old pines at the edge of the cliff on Jade Brush Peak were drawn clearly on it (ch. 8).
History
When Li Zicheng withdrew from Beijing and had his treasure hidden, he drew the site as a map and placed the key to reading it in his dao (ch. 5). After his defeat at Jiugong Mountain he gave the map and the dao to his bodyguard, the Flying Fox (飞天狐狸). Both passed to the Flying Fox’s three sworn brothers and then to his son, and over the following century the dao ended with the Tian family and the map with the Miao family, which handed it down from generation to generation. Neither family knew what the map and the dao could find together (ch. 5).
When Tian Guinong went to Beijing to offer the treasure to the emperor, he explained that there were two clues: the dao, which the Tianlong School held, and the map, handed down in the Miao family. With the map but not the dao, no one would know how to reach the treasure; with the dao but not the map, no one would know where it lay (ch. 7).
Tian Guinong seduced Nan Lan, the wife of Miao Renfeng, in order to get the map (ch. 10). She kept the hairpin that held it for years, and he never learned the map was in it. Having seen through him, she asked before her death that the hairpin be returned to the Miao family (ch. 7, 10). When Tian Guinong laid the hairpin before Miao Renfeng, Miao opened it in front of him, showed him the map and put it back, telling him that the map had been in his keeping all those years without his knowing it (ch. 7).
On Jade Brush Peak, Liu Yuanhe pulled the hairpin from Miao Ruolan’s hair and opened it the same way. The map showed that the treasure lay behind the very peak on which they stood (ch. 8). With the map, the dao and the carving on its scabbard, Baoshu led the party into the treasure cave (ch. 8).
See also
- Phoenix-head pearl hairpin, in which the map was hidden
- Li Zicheng’s Treasured Dao, the other key to the treasure
- Li Zicheng’s Treasure, whose site the map marked
- Miao family, which handed the map down
- Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain items