Venerable Lingzhi

Venerable Lingzhi

Contents

Venerable Lingzhi (simplified: 灵智上人, traditional: 靈智上人, pinyin: Língzhì Shàngrén, jyutping: ling4 zi3 soeng6 jan4), known as the Five-Finger Secret Blade (五指秘刀), was a monk of the Mudra Order (手印宗) of Qinghai who served Wanyan Honglie. A huge, fat man in a scarlet kasaya, he fought with a pair of copper cymbals and a poisoned palm.

Biography

At the Zhao palace

Lingzhi was one of the masters, rarely seen in the Central Plains, whom Wanyan Honglie gathered in Zhongdu, alongside Liang Ziweng, Peng Lianhu, Sha Tongtian and Ouyang Ke. At a banquet in the Zhao palace attended by Wang Chuyi, he demonstrated his neigong by keeping his hands in a gold washbasin until the water steamed and bubbled. As Wang Chuyi left with Guo Jing, Lingzhi pressed his palms together in a bow and then struck at him; they exchanged palm blows and Lingzhi, injured by Wang Chuyi’s force, coughed up blood when his anger rose. Wang Chuyi was poisoned in turn, declaring that he had seen many practitioners of the Poisonous Sand Palm but none so deadly, and the Zhao palace bought up the medicines he needed throughout the city.

While still gravely wounded, Lingzhi faced Huang Rong when she broke into the palace. He hurled his razor-edged cymbals at her and struck at her with his Five-Finger Secret Blade, but his palm was pierced in a dozen places by her Soft Hedgehog Armour.

The voyage south

Lingzhi sailed south with Wanyan Honglie’s party on its mission to steal Wumu’s Art of War. Resenting Ouyang Feng’s arrogance, whose name he did not know from his years on the Qinghai borderlands, he provoked him, and Ouyang Feng seized him by the fold of fat at the back of his neck and held him upside down. Ouyang Feng then tossed him across the deck to Zhou Botong, who flung him on towards Wanyan Honglie; when Sha Tongtian caught him by the neck, the enraged Lingzhi struck him with a palm and both men went down. When Huang Yaoshi boarded asking after his daughter, Lingzhi told him he had seen a girl’s body floating on the sea three days before. Huang Yaoshi, grief-stricken, seized him by the same fold of fat and drove his head through the deck up to his shoulders. The lie led Huang Yaoshi, believing Huang Rong dead, to turn his anger on the Six Eccentrics.

Lin’an and Niu Family Village

In the imperial palace at Lin’an, Lingzhi charged through the waterfall at Cuihan Hall, behind which Guo Jing and Huang Rong were hiding, and was driven out, losing his kasaya and cymbals; when he went back in to attack Guo Jing, Ouyang Feng flung him out once more. During the search of the palace for the book he returned with his hands chained behind his back, one of three retainers who claimed to have met ghosts and gods there. At Niu Family Village he and the rest of Wanyan Honglie’s party escaped from Huang Yaoshi only by crawling between his legs.

Later defeats

Later, Lingzhi was set to bet Zhou Botong that whoever moved first would lose, so that Zhou Botong would sit still while their allies went after Ke Zhen’e; Huang Rong discovered that his allies had sealed eight of his major acupoints so that he could not lose. At the Iron Spear Temple in Jiaxing, when Guo Jing broke through to reach Wanyan Honglie, Lingzhi blocked him with his cymbals; Guo Jing’s palm sent them flying and dislocated his wrist, so that his poisoned palm was useless, and one of the falling cymbals struck him on the head. He then tried to stamp on Ke Zhen’e as he rolled past. At Mount Hua, with Sha Tongtian, Peng Lianhu and Hou Tonghai, he barred Qiu Chuji’s path and attacked him with his cymbals, until Zhou Botong sealed the acupoints of all four.

Later life

According to The Return of the Condor Heroes, Zhou Botong handed the four over to Qiu Chuji and Wang Chuyi, who held them in Chongyang Palace on Zhongnan Mountain until they should reform. They tried to escape again and again; on the third attempt Lingzhi, Peng Lianhu and Hou Tonghai each killed several Quanzhen guards, and the Daoists broke a leg of each and blinded them. When the Mongols burned Chongyang Palace, the four, chained together and led by the sighted Sha Tongtian, escaped and hid in a remote village in Jiangnan.

Personality & traits

Lingzhi was proud and quick to anger, resentful of anyone who slighted him, and unscrupulous: he struck Wang Chuyi in the middle of a courteous farewell and lied to Huang Yaoshi that his daughter was dead.

Martial arts abilities

Lingzhi was a master of the Mudra Order, with strong palm power and a poisoned palm. Wang Chuyi identified his palm art as a form of Poisonous Sand Palm, and his signature strike was the Five-Finger Secret Blade (五指秘刀). He fought with a pair of steel cymbals plated in brass, their edges razor-sharp, which he could hurl at an opponent. The back of his neck was the weak point of his martial arts, which was why Ouyang Feng, Zhou Botong and Huang Yaoshi could each seize him there with ease.

Relationships

Behind the scenes

In the first edition, Lingzhi belonged to the Esoteric School of Tibet (西藏密宗) and practised the Great Seal (大手印), and he was introduced by the epithet “Great Seal” (大手印灵智上人). The third edition makes him a monk of the Mudra Order of Qinghai and gives his palm art as the Five-Finger Secret Blade; The Return of the Condor Heroes still calls him “Great Seal” Lingzhi.

See also

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