by Jin Yong
Under normal circumstances Guo Jing would prefer spending the night in the forest, he also hated to deliberately disturb unwelcoming host; but for now Huang Rong’s well-being was more important to him. However, in front of him was a wide marsh, which he did not know how to cross; therefore, with a low voice he discussed this thing over with Huang Rong.
Huang Rong thought for a moment then said, “These huts are built in the middle of a pond of mud. Take a look clearly and tell me whether the shapes of those huts are one square and the other round.”
Guo Jing opened up his eye wide for a moment then he exclaimed, “That’s right! Rong’er, you know everything.”
“Go to the back of that round hut, from there walk straight to the light three steps, then turn diagonally to the left four steps, then straight three steps and diagonally to the right four steps. By carefully walking straight and diagonally like this, you won’t make a wrong step,” Huang Rong said.
Guo Jing followed her instruction to the letter; and sure enough, every time he stepped his foot down, he would step on a submerged wooden stake. Only those wooden stakes were not firm, some of them wobbled and some were planted on an angle; if his lightness kungfu was not good, they
would fall into the marsh. He focused all his attention to walk three steps diagonally and four steps straight; and after walking a total of 119 steps they arrived at the front of the square hut.
The hut was actually without a door. Huang Rong whispered, “From here you jump forward, make sure you land on the left side.”
Carrying Huang Rong on his back Guo Jing jumped forward and landed on the left side, he could not help but feel amazed, “Everything is exactly as Rong’er has anticipated.”
There was a courtyard inside the wall, which was divided into two parts: on the left was solid ground, while on the right was a pond. Guo Jing crossed the courtyard and entered the main hall. Outside the hall was a moon gate without any door on it. “Go straight ahead,” Huang Rong said, “There is nothing strange from here on.”
Guo Jing nodded. With a loud and clear voice he said, “The passing visitors took the liberty to enter the house; I beg the esteemed host to forgive our boldness.” He waited for a moment then proceeded to enter the hall.
Inside the hall there was a long table; on it were seven oil lamps, arranged in the Big Dipper formation. On the ground squatted a grey-haired lady, her clothes were made from coarse fabric. Her attention was focused on the countless bamboo strip scattered on the ground; so deep was her concentration that even when she heard people came in, she did not raise her head to look.
Guo Jing gently lowered Huang Rong on a chair. Under the lamp light they saw that lady’s countenance to be thin and pallid, as if she did not have any blood; they felt compassionate toward her. Guo Jing was about to open his mouth asking for some water but seeing that lady so engrossed in whatever she was doing, he was afraid to interrupt her train of thought; hence he refrained from making any noise.
After sitting down for a moment, Huang Rong’s spirit was slightly revived. She saw the bamboo strips on the ground to be approximately four ‘cun’s [about 13 cm or 5inches] long and two ‘fen’s [about 7mm or ^ inch] wide; they were bamboo strips usually used for calculation. Again she looked closer, those computation were based on ‘shang, shi, fa, jie’ [business/commerce, reality, law, lending (money)] method of calculation with four decimal point. Right now she was calculating the square root of 55,225; with the ‘shang’ position had shown the result to be 230. But that lady was still struggling with the third digit.
Huang Rong quipped, “Five! Two hundred and thirty five!”
That old lady was startled, she raised her head, her eyes were gleaming, looking at Huang Rong with a penetrating gaze, and then immediately lowered her head to continue her calculation. When she raised her head, Guo and Huang, two people saw her face; it was simple and beautiful. They believed she was not even forty years of age yet. Perhaps the hair on her temples had turned grey because she had too much in her mind.
After computing for while, the lady figured out the answer was indeed ‘five’; she raised her head to look at Huang Rong again. She looked confounded, but also angry, as if she was going to say, “You are but a young girl; you have made a lucky guess, what’s so strange about that? Just don’t mess with my business here.” She wrote down ‘235’ five characters [er bai san shi wu] on a piece of paper, then proceed to the next problem.
858 Eagle Shooting Hero
This time she was looking for the cube root of 34,012,224. She started by putting down the ‘shang’ and ‘shi’ and ‘fang’ [square], followed by ‘lian’ [inexpensive], ‘yu’ [corner] and ‘xia’ [lower], six strips; and found the first digit to be ‘three’.
Huang Rong softly said, “Three hundred and twenty four.”
That lady uttered an ‘Hmm’ sound, how could she believe her? She continued calculating for a long time, and after a time needed to drink a cup of tea later, the result came out, it was indeed ‘324’.
That lady straightened up her back and stood up; it appeared that her forehead was full of wrinkles, but her cheeks were full, her face looked round. The upper half of her face look old, the lower half looked young, looked like both parts differed by as much as twenty years. Her eyes stared at Huang Rong, suddenly she pointed toward the inner room and said, “Come with me.” She took an oil lamp and walked in.
Guo Jing propped Huang Rong up and followed her inside. The inner room’s wall was round; the floor was covered with fine sand. On the sand were written many weird symbols, vertical and horizontal lines and circles; also some characters such as ‘tai’ [great], ‘tian yuan’ [first/primary sky], ‘di yuan’ [first/primary earth], ‘ren yuan’ [first/primary human], and ‘wu yuan’ [first/primary object].
Guo Jing had no idea what they were; he was afraid to mess these symbols up, so he stopped at the door and did not dare to step into the room.
Since her childhood Huang Rong had been trained by her father in all kinds of mathematics. She looked at the symbols on the ground and immediately recognized it was an advance technique in mathematics called the ‘tian yuan zhi shu’ [sky primary technique]. Even though it looked complicated, it should not be too difficult to solve as long as one understood the principle.
[Author’s note: It very much resembles the modern day algebra. Our country since the ancient times had developed this calculation technique, with ‘tian’, ‘di’, ‘ren’ and ‘wu’ as four unknown variables; much like the X, Y, X and W variables in western algebra]
Huang Rong pulled the bamboo stick from her waist; leaning on Guo Jing she started writing on the sand. In a short while all seven, eight mathematics problems on the sand were solved. That lady had painstakingly tried to solve those problems in months; seeing the solutions, she could not help but feeling deeply confounded. She was silent for half a day then suddenly asked, “Who are you?”
Huang Rong showed a faint smile and replied, “What’s so special about ‘tian yuan si [four] yuan zhi shu’? The mathematics book has nineteen primaries, after the ‘ren’ there are ‘xian’ [immortal], ‘ming’ [bright], ‘xiao’ [firmament], ‘han’ [from Han dynasty], ‘lei’ [rampart], ‘ceng’ [layer], ‘gao’ [high], ‘shang’ [top/above], and ‘tian’ [sky]. Before the ‘ren’ are ‘di’ [earth/ground], ‘xia’ [below/under], ‘di’ [low], ‘jian’ [subtract], ‘luo’ [drop], ‘shi’ [die], ‘quan’ [fountain], ‘an’ [hidden/secret], and ‘gui’ [sly/crafty]. Once you mastered the nineteenth primary, all problems will look easy!”
That lady looked dejected, her body trembled; she dropped to the ground, holding her head in her hands as she was lost, deep in thought. A moment later she raised her head and with a delighted face asked, “Your mathematics skill is a hundred times better than mine, but let me ask you this: you have a three by three array of number one thru nine, no matter how you add it up, vertically, horizontally or diagonally, the sum of any three numbers has to be fifteen. How do you arrang
e it?”
Huang Rong thought, “My father established the Peach Blossom Island based on the five ways variation; what’s so mysterious about it? The ‘jiu gong’ [nine palace or halls] is the foundation of the Peach Blossom Island diagram; how could I not know about it?” Therefore, with a calm voice she recited, “The ‘jiu gong’ diagram is constructed like the pattern on the turtle shell [Translator’s note: do a google search with keyword ‘Lo Shu Square’]; four and two are the shoulders, eight and six are the feet. Three on the left and seven on the right; put on nine and tread on one, while five occupies the center.” While reciting this she made a diagram of the ‘jiu gong’ on the sand.
That lady’s countenance turned ashen, she sighed, “I thought I developed this secret formula. Turned out there is a song about it handed down for generations.”
Huang Rong smiled, “Not only ‘jiu gong’, even four by four array, or five by five, down to the hundred by hundred array, are not too difficult,” she said, “Take four by four array for example; we have 16 numbers in four rows. First we determine the four corner pairs; one and sixteen made a pair, so are four and thirteen. Then we determine the four pairs inside; six and eleven make a pair, so are seven and ten. This way the sums of all horizontal, vertical, and diagonal rows are all 34.”
That lady made the diagram on the sand and sure enough, it was as Huang Rong had said. Huang Rong continued, “Each hall of that nine halls diagram can be transformed into ‘ba gua’ [eight-diagram]. Eight by nine equal to 72 numbers. These numbers: 1 to 72 loop around the ‘jiu gong’ like wreaths. Each loop consists of eight numbers; each four-loop forms another bigger loop, there are four corner loops altogether, which make the total number of loops to be 13. The sum of the numbers in each loop is 292. This diagram variation recorded in the Luo Shu [luo - name of a river, shu - book] is divinely wonderful; no wonder you are not aware of it.” While explaining it, Huang Rong also drew the 72 numbers of the eight diagrams of the nine halls on the sand.
The lady was dumbfounded, she faltered and asked, “Miss, who are you?” But before Huang Rong could answer her, she felt a shot of pain on her chest; her face paled, and anxiously she took a vial from her pocket and swallowed a green pill from the vial. After half a day her face relaxed, she sighed and said, “It’s finished, it’s finished!” Two drops of tears rolled down her cheeks.
Guo Jing and Huang Rong looked at each other; they thought this lady’s behavior was so weird.
That lady had not spoken anything when suddenly there was an intermittent call from the outside. It was the Iron Palm Clan pursuers. “Are they friends or enemies?” the lady asked.
“They are enemies pursuing us,” Guo Jing said.
“Iron Palm Clan?” the lady asked.
“Yes,” Guo Jing replied.
The lady inclined her ear to listen for a while and then said, “Qiu Bangzhu [Clan Leader Qiu] personally leads his clan to pursue. Who are you actually?” When asking this her voice was stern.
Guo Jing moved forward one step, stood up in front of Huang Rong, and with poise in his voice he said, “We are the Nine-fingered Divine Beggar Hong Bangzhu’s disciples. My martial sister is injured by the Iron Palm Clan’s Qiu Qianren. We took refuge here. If Senior has a close relation to the Iron Palm Clan and is unwilling to give us shelter; then we will take our leave.” Having said this he raised his cupped fist and then turned around to help Huang Rong stood up.
That lady smiled indifferently and said, “You are young, yet so mule-headed. You can survive but do you think your martial sister can? So you are Hong Qigong’s disciples, no wonder you have this kind of skill.”
She heard the shouts of Iron Palm Clan people were sometimes far and sometimes near, sometimes high and sometimes low; she sighed and said, “They can’t find the way, they can’t come in; just relax. Even if they manage to enter, you are my guests, how can Divine ... Divine ... Ying Gu let other people bully her esteemed guests?” She thought, “Originally I was called ‘shen suan zi’ [Divine Mathematician] Ying Gu; but this young miss’ mathematical skill is a hundred times better than mine. How could I call myself ‘shen suan zi’ anymore?” Therefore, she only said the first word ‘shen’ but could not bring herself to utter the next two characters.
Guo Jing bowed to express his gratitude. Ying Gu slipped the clothes from Huang Rong’s shoulder to see her injury. She creased her brows but did not say anything; she took the vial from her bosom and dissolved the green pill in a bowl of water.
Huang Rong took the bowl but she hesitated, they did not know whether the lady was a friend or a foe; how could she took her medicine?
Ying Gu saw her hesitation, she coldly said, “You are injured by Qiu Qianren’s Iron Palm; do you still think you can recover? If I want to harm you, do you think I need to bother myself? This medicine is a pain-reliever; you don’t want it? Fine!” She grabbed the bowl back and poured the content on the ground.
Seeing her rudeness toward Huang Rong, Guo Jing was unable to restrain his anger. “My martial sister is seriously injured; how can you be so mad at her?” he said, “Rong’er, let’s go.”
Ying Gu coldly smiled and said, “Ying Gu’s two small huts; do you think two juniors like you can easily come and easily go?” With two bamboo strips in her hands, she stood on the doorway, blocking the exit.
Guo Jing thought, “Talk is useless, must use force.” He called out, “Senior, forgive me for being rude.” He bent his knees a little bit; making a circle with his arms he launched the Proud Dragon Repents straight to the door. This stance was his fiercest one; he was afraid Ying Gu could not resist it, so he only used 30% of his strength. His intention was simply to clear the way; he did not want to harm anybody. As the gust of wind arrived at Ying Gu’s body, Guo Jing watched closely how Ying Gu would block this attack; whether he should increase his strength or retract it immediately. Who would have thought that Ying Gu only leaned her body slightly, her left palm made a diagonal moved to lightly push his arm and Guo Jing’s strength was diverted sideways.
Guo Jing did not expect her to posses such a high skill; he was pushed forward half a step from the momentum of his own force. Ying Gu was also surprised that with such strong attack Guo Jing was able to hold his stance firmly on the sand and did not fall down. From this one exchange, both were secretly admiring their opponent’s skill.
“Kid, have you learned your Shifu’s entire skill?” Ying Gu loudly called out. While shouting out she used her bamboo strip to hit the ‘qu ze’ [crooked marsh] acupoint on the bend of Guo Jing’s right arm. It was a vital acupoint, Guo Jing did not dare to neglect this attack. He counterattacked with another stance from the 18-Dragon Subduing Palms.
After exchanging several moves Guo Jing realized that Ying Gu’s martial art was purely ‘yin’ [negative, female] in character, from the ‘soft’ side. Obviously she did not have a single frontal strike, but each one of her moves contained a lethal counter-strike; if Guo Jing did not know mutual hands combat, he would have been injured early on.
The more he fought, the more he did not dare to underestimate her; gradually he increased the strength of his palms, but Ying Gu’s martial art was one of a kind; her stances appeared to be soft and powerless, yet it was like a mercury flowing swiftly, penetrating every hole, making her very nearly impossible to guard against.
Several moves later Guo Jing was compelled to withdraw two steps back. Suddenly he remembered Hong Qigong’s advice when he was sparring with Huang Rong’s ‘luo ying shen jian zhang’ [falling leaves divine sword palm technique]; that regardless of thousands of changes or tens of thousands variations the opponent used, he should ignore them all and keep fighting using the ’18-Dragon Subduing Palms’ to secure a victory.
Initially he thought he did not have any desire to fight; besides, the lady looked like a good and kind-hearted Senior. But without having any enmity or committing any wrongdoing she had prevented them from going out the gate. Guo Jing still did not want to be entangled or worse,
to injure her life; hence he only used 30% of his strength; who would have thought that this lady was very ferocious. If he was being negligent even so slightly, both of them would die in that place.
Guo Jing took a deep breath, raised up both of his elbows slightly, right hand forming a fist and left hand a palm, one struck vertically, the other pushed horizontally, one quick the other slow, both hands moved out. It was the sixteenth stance of the ’18-Dragon Subduing Palms’, the ‘lu shuang bing zhi’ [treading on frost to reach the ice], which was taught by Hong Qigong at the Liu ancestral hall in Baoying. Within this stance hard and soft complemented each other, upright and upside down completed each other; its advantage was unlimited.
Hong Qigong’s martial art was from the ‘hard’ and ‘yang’ [positive, male] side, but when the hardness reached its peak, by default there would be softness in the middle of hardness. The fundamental of this martial art can be found in the Book of Changes [‘I Ching’], where the older ‘yang’ gave birth to the younger ‘yin’. Hence, within the Proud Dragon Repents and the Treading on Frost to Reach the Ice the hard energy and soft power blended together and was impossible to distinguish.
“Ah!” Ying Gu softly exclaimed and hastily eluded; she managed to get away from Guo Jing’s right fist, but was hit by his left kick. She also could not avoid Guo Jing’s horizontal left palm, which pushed her right shoulder.
As his palm strength hit its target, Guo Jing was certain she would be pushed back against the wall. He was afraid the dirt wall of this thatched-roof hut would not be strong enough and collapse; but strangely as his palm was touching her shoulder he felt like her body was covered with a layer of exceptionally slippery thick lubricant that his palm slipped to her side. But her body was also shaking and the two pieces of bamboo strips in her hand fell to the ground.