White Horse Neighing in the West Wind – Chapter 19

Su Luke and Che’erku had long since felt their hackles rise at the perilous surroundings, but the two of them kept trading barbs without pause. Su Luke said, “Che’erku, you’re shaking all over. Having the wits scared out of you is no joke. You’d better just wait here for me. If we find treasure, I’ll be sure to give you a share.”

Che’erku said, “Playing the great hero now, but when the evil ghosts come, let’s see who runs first, you or your son?”

Su Luke said, “Right. My son and I will still have the strength to run from evil ghosts, unlike you, so scared you kneel on the ground and tremble.” The two went on and on, never straying from the subject of desert ghosts. A while later, darkness fell all around like ink.

Supu said, “Father, let’s camp here and go on tomorrow.” Before Su Luke could answer, Che’erku laughed, “Good idea, you two stay here, out of harm’s way. Aman, you come with your father. Camel, Sangser, we’re not afraid of ghosts. Let’s go!”

Su Luke spat on the ground with a “pah!” and strode off ahead. Li Wenxiu saw the two of them goading each other, neither willing to show weakness, and could only follow along behind. Aman, however, was so exhausted she could barely keep going.

Supu and Sangser gathered some dry branches and made torches. The seven pressed on through the forest, following the footprints. Walking in such a ghost-haunted place in the dead of night, everyone’s heart was in their mouth. The occasional cry of a night bird, or a lump of snow falling from a branch, was enough to startle them half to death. Strangely, there was actually a road through the forest, and though overgrown with tall grass, the traces of an ancient path were still faintly discernible.

The seven had been walking through the forest for a long while when Aman suddenly cried, “Aiyo, this is bad!”

Supu asked quickly, “What is it?”

Aman pointed at a silver bracelet glinting by the path ahead and said, “Look! That’s the bracelet I dropped earlier.” The bracelet lay two or three zhang ahead of the group. No one knew how it had suddenly come to be here. Aman said, “I dropped my bracelet and thought I’d look for it on the way back. How did it end up here?”

Che’erku said, “Look carefully. Is it really yours?”

Aman didn’t dare pick it up. Supu stepped forward, grabbed it, and without waiting for Aman to confirm, he had already recognised it. “Yes, it’s hers!” he said, handing it to her.

Aman didn’t dare take it. Her voice trembled, “You… throw it on the ground. I don’t want it anymore.”

Supu said, “Could it really be the evil ghosts playing tricks?” In the torchlight, all seven faces looked strange and eerie.

After a long pause, Li Wenxiu said, “It might be worse than evil ghosts. We’ve walked in a circle and come back to the same road. We’ve been here before.” In an instant, everyone remembered that famous legend: a traveller lost in the desert walks and walks, suddenly finds footprints, is overjoyed, follows them, never knowing they are his own footprints. He circles and circles on the old road, and walks until he dies.

No one wanted to believe Li Wenxiu’s words. But Aman had dropped her bracelet a long time ago, and after walking for ages they suddenly found it ahead of them on the path, so of course they had gone in a circle and returned to the same road. In the darkness, in their exhaustion, no one had noticed whether the footprints on the path were just two people’s or had been joined by seven pairs. Camel took a few steps forward, held the torch over the footprints in the snow, and cried, “So many footprints, and they’re our own!” His voice was full of fear.

The seven stared at one another. Su Luke and Che’erku could no longer brag or mock each other.

Li Wenxiu said, “We’ve been following the bandit and the other person’s tracks. If they’re going in circles too, then after a while they’ll come back here as well. Let’s camp here and see whether they come.” At this point, everyone agreed with her. They swept away the snow on the road, unrolled their blankets, and sat down. Camel and Sangser built a fire, and the seven sat in a circle. No one could sleep, and no one wanted to talk. They were waiting for Chen Dahai and the other person to come, but they were also afraid they actually would appear. If they had gone in a circle and come back to this same road, then their own fate might be the same.

They waited a long, long time. Then suddenly they heard footsteps.

The seven leapt to their feet at the sound, but the footsteps stopped just as suddenly. In that brief moment, all seven could hear their own hearts beating. Then the footsteps started again, growing fainter as they moved off to the northwest. Just then a gust of fierce wind swept up a great sheet of snow from the ground and drove it straight into the fire. The fire went out at once, and everything was pitch black.

There came a series of ringing sounds as Su Luke, Li Wenxiu and the rest, six of them, drew dao and jian. Aman gave a cry of alarm, “Ah!”, and threw herself into Supu’s arms. In the reflection of the snow, the edges of the dao and jian flashed and glittered. The footsteps grew more distant and finally faded away entirely.

Until dawn, nothing else stirred in the forest. When the first rays of morning sunlight filtered through the leaves, everyone’s spirits lifted, and they set out once more to find the path. After a while, Aman noticed some bushes on the left had been broken and cried, “Look here!”

Supu pushed aside the branches and saw two sets of footprints on the ground. He cheered, “They went this way!”

Aman said, “That bandit must have read the map wrong, gone in a circle, and then headed off from here again. He gave us a good fright all night for nothing.”

Su Luke laughed loudly. “Yes! The cowards from Che’erku’s family were scared all night. The two brave warriors from Su Luke’s family were hoping the evil ghosts would show up, just so we could grab them by the ears and have a proper look.”

Che’erku did not even glance at him, as though he had not heard, then suddenly reached back and grabbed Su Luke’s ear. Su Luke gave a yell and, bang, landed a punch in the middle of his back. Che’erku staggered, but the hand gripping Su Luke’s ear did not let go, and he pulled hard enough to draw a stream of blood, and another tug and the ear would surely have torn off.

Li Wenxiu saw that both men were around forty years old, yet still squabbling like children, half in earnest, half in jest, truly absurd. Su Luke and Che’erku traded a few more blows before separating: one with a bruised nose, the other with a swollen eye.

The two quarrelled all the way as they went on. The path now wound up and down, treacherous going, sometimes rounding a mountain ridge, sometimes ducking into a cave. Without the footprints in the snow to guide them, they would never have found the way. Li Wenxiu thought to herself, “This labyrinth is truly well-hidden indeed. Without a map to guide us, how could anyone ever find it?”

By midday, everyone had been up all night and was utterly exhausted. Only Li Wenxiu, whose internal cultivation was now firmly rooted, still looked bright and alert. Supu said, “Father, Aman can’t walk any further. Let’s rest a while.” Before Su Luke could answer, Che’erku, walking at the very front, let out a great cry, “Ah!”

Su Luke rushed forward, pushed past a row of trees, and on the facing cliff saw two great iron doors set into the rock. The doors were mottled with rust, clearly very ancient.

***

The seven shouted in unison, “The Gaochang Labyrinth!” and ran towards it. Su Luke reached out and shoved at the iron doors with all his strength, but they didn’t budge. Che’erku said, “That villain has barred them from inside.”

Aman examined the doors closely for any mechanism, but the iron seemed as if it had grown naturally from the rock, and not the slightest seam was visible. She took hold of the door ring and turned it left, but it would not move. This labyrinth had been built who knew how many hundreds of years ago, and although the desert was very dry, the iron doors must surely have rusted. Even if there was a mechanism, it should be frozen solid. But when she tried turning right, it gave. She turned it several times, and Su Luke and Che’erku, who had been pushing with all their might, suddenly found the doors swinging inward, and caught off guard they both tumbled in. The two started, then scrambled to their feet laughing.

Inside the doors lay a long, dark corridor. Supu lit a torch, held it in one hand and his long dao in the other, and led the way. At the end of the corridor, three branching passages appeared. Inside the labyrinth, with no footprints in the snow to guide them, they couldn’t tell which way the two had gone. Everyone bent down and examined the ground carefully. Both the left and right passages bore faint traces of footprints.

Su Luke said, “Four of you take the left, three take the right, and we’ll meet back here afterwards.”

Li Wenxiu said, “That won’t do! This place is called a labyrinth, and there will surely be more forks ahead. We’d better stick together.”

Su Luke shook his head, “How big can a cave possibly be? You Han people are timid by nature, and there’s no helping it.” Even so, the seven all went together. Seeing that the right passage was wider, they all took it.

They had gone barely ten-odd zhang before Su Luke thought, “That Han person wasn’t wrong after all.” Another fork appeared ahead. The seven scrutinised the footprints carefully and pressed on. Sometimes both branches at a fork bore footprints, and they had to pick one at random. They walked for a good while, and there was no knowing how many forks the cave contained. At each one, Aman carved a mark on the wall with her dao so they could find their way back. Suddenly the space opened wide before them: a great empty chamber, and at the far end another pair of iron doors set into the living rock.

The seven crossed the open space and came to the doors. Su Luke reached for the ring again, but this door was only latched. The slightest touch and it swung open with a creak. They walked through into a great hall. On all four walls were statues of the Buddha, moulded from clay and carved from wood. The walls were painted with flying celestial maidens and horned, blue-faced, sharp-snouted demons and monsters, great dragons and enormous birds. From this hall a succession of rooms stretched on without end, most of them containing Buddha statues. Here and there on the walls were a few characters in Han script. Li Wenxiu could read them, “King of the Kingdom of Gaochang”, “Wen Tai”,¹ “Thirteenth Year of the Zhenguan Reign of the Great Tang”,² and so on.

In one hall, all the statues were of Han people. In the centre was an old man, and above him a plaque reading: “Seat of the Great Sage and Great Teacher, Confucius.” To left and right were dozens more, bearing the names “Yan Hui,” “Zi Lu,” “Zi Gong,” “Zeng Zi,” “Zi Zhang,” and others. The moment Su Luke saw so many Han statues his brow furrowed, and he turned and walked away.

Footnotes

1. 文泰 – Wéntài. Qu Wentai, last independent king of Gaochang, an oasis city-state on the Silk Road near modern Turpan. His resistance to Tang suzerainty brought the Tang army down on the kingdom. The source writes the royal surname 鞠; the histories more often write 麴. Chapter 25 gives the fuller account from the steles. ↩

2. 贞观十三年 – Zhēnguān shísān nián. The thirteenth year of the Zhenguan reign of Tang Taizong, 639 CE. Gaochang fell to Tang forces the following year. ↩