Zhuo Tianxiong

Zhuo Tianxiong

Contents

Zhuo Tianxiong (simplified: 卓天雄, traditional: 卓天雄, pinyin: Zhuó Tiānxíong, jyutping: coek3 tin1 hung4) is an imperial guard of the Qing court, the leader of the Seven Greats of the Imperial Court and the shibo of Zhou Weixin. Sent by the Emperor to see the Mandarin Duck Blades safely to the capital, he trails the convoy disguised as an old blind man.

Biography

The blind man

Zhuo first appears at the Fen’an Inn in Guanshui as a blind old man two coins short for a room. He thanks Yuan Guannan, who argued for him, though it was Xiao Zhonghui who paid, and gives his name.1 The next day, he keeps pace with Zhou Weixin’s convoy on foot however fast it goes. When an escort throws a stone at him, he knocks it back into the man’s forehead, beats the escorts and guards who surround him, and opens his eyes: he is not blind at all.2

Taking the blades

Slipping away from the escorts, Zhuo hides under Zhou Weixin’s horse, seals Xiao Zhonghui’s acupoints as she tries to ride off with the blades, and takes them from her. He shears through the dao of Lin Yulong and Ren Feiyan with the long blade and seals their acupoints, then answers Zhou’s Sweeping Across an Army from the Eighteen Whips of Huyan with the same move, using the sheathed blade, and jolts the whip from his hand. He reveals himself as Zhou’s shibo, says the Emperor sent him, and admits he has followed the convoy since Xi’an. When Yuan Guannan strolls into the grove, Zhuo sees through his act and attacks him.3

Zhuo outfights Yuan and strikes his left leg with his iron staff, but loses his nerve when Yuan claims to be the nephew of the Five Poison Holy Maiden and threatens him with her Bone-Rotting Heart-Piercing Ointment. Yuan takes the blades from Zhou, smears ink on the back of Zhuo’s hand, and Zhuo flees in terror.4

The convoy and the convent

Zhuo scrubs his hand in a stream until the skin breaks before he realises he has been tricked. He tracks the fugitives to the Purple Bamboo Convent, threatens to burn it down if he cannot find them, and returns when his search fails. He seals the acupoints of the Lin couple as soon as their Wedded Blades Style falls apart, but Yuan Guannan and Xiao Zhonghui, using the style’s first twelve moves together, wound him in the shoulder and drive him over the wall.5

The Xiao mansion

Outside the Xiao mansion on Xiao Banhe’s birthday, Zhuo catches Xiao Zhonghui as she runs from the hall, and has Zhou take her short Yang blade.6 He reports to the county magistrate, then brings her into the birthday hall as a hostage and offers to trade her for the long Yuan blade. His handshake with Xiao Banhe ends even, and he recognises Xiao’s power as the Hunyuan Qi, which only the celibate can keep. When soldiers outside call for the rebel Xiao Yi, Zhuo understands that Xiao Banhe is the fugitive the Emperor has hunted for sixteen years. He fights Xiao to a standstill, but the Wedded Blades Style turns the fight. His steel whip knocks the tip off Xiao Zhonghui’s blade, but Yuan’s long blade cuts his lower leg to the bone, and he escapes over the roof.7

Limping past a muddy river, he is caught in a fishing net by the Four Xias of Taiyue, who are hunting toads. The genuine Yang blade is at his waist: the one that broke at the mansion was a fake he had switched for it.8

Martial arts abilities

Zhuo is known in the wulin for the Thirty Palms of Heaven Shaking, which only the Hunyuan Qi can match, and for the Eighteen Whips of Huyan.7 He commands the eighteenth whip move, which Zhou Weixin never learnt and which relies on neili alone.3 He uses his iron staff with the whip techniques, and turns aside both of the Lins’ dao with a move called Heaven’s Deception before sealing their acupoints with his fingers.5 His qinggong lets him keep pace with a galloping convoy on foot.2

Behind the scenes

Portrayals

  • 1982 film Lovers’ Blades — Wang Lung-wei

See also

Footnotes

  1. See Part 5. ↩

  2. See Part 6. ↩ ↩2

  3. See Part 7. ↩ ↩2

  4. See Part 8. ↩

  5. See Part 9. ↩ ↩2

  6. See Part 10. ↩

  7. See Part 11. ↩ ↩2

  8. See Part 12. ↩

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