by Jin Yong
Song YuanQiao says, "Don’t be rude to our guests. You’re tired too. How about taking a rest!” Being the first brother, Song YuanQiao wields great amount of power within Wu Dang. All other brothers defers to him. So when Song YuanQiao told Zhang CuiShan to rest, Zhang CuiShan could only close his mouth. But still fearing for Yu DaiYan’s life, he did not go back to his room.
Song YuanQiao then says, "Second brother, hurry up and gather your stuff with seventh brother. You’ll leave tonight since this is urgent.” Yu LianZhou and Muo ShengGu quickly complied. Du DaJin, feeling warmth in his heart due to Wu Dang’s kindness, says to Zhang SanFeng,
"Venerable Zhang. Thank you for your help. We won’t bother you any longer. Goodbye.”
Song YuanQiao says, "Wait. Since you are already here, how about staying for the night. We also have some things we need to clear up.” Although his voice is calm, it carries a very serious and ordering tone, prompting Du DaJin to agree.
Yu LianZhou and Muo ShengGu then said goodbye to everyone, taking extra long with Yu DaiYan, knowing this might be the last time they would ever see him.
The hall suddenly became silent, with only Zhang SanFeng’s methodic breathing providing any noise. After about an hour, Yu DaiYan suddenly yells loudly, shaking everyone in the room. Du DaJin sneaked a peek at Yu DaiYan, wondering whether this is a good or a bad scream.
Zhang SanFeng says, "SongXi, LiTing, take your third brother back to his room.” Zhang SongXi and Yin LiTing promptly follow his order. When they came back out again, Yin LiTing asks, "Is he going to recover?” Zhang SanFeng takes a deep breath, and then says, "It will take a month before I can tell if he lives or dies. Even if he survives, he’ll never. never be able to move again. His life is.” And proceeds to shake his head. Yin LiTing suddenly starts to cry, while Zhang CuiShan quickly gets to slap Du DaJin. This move came quick as lightning, and Du DaJin could not block in time before the palm slapped his cheek. As Zhang CuiShan tries to slap him again, Zhang SongXi quickly comes over and pushes the palm out of the way.
When Du DaJin backs off, something heavy drops out of his robe, falling onto the floor. It’s a gold nugget. Zhang CuiShan says, "Humph, you greedy bastard. Giving away my third brother just for some gold.” Before he finished, he suddenly sees the fingerprints on the nugget, and asks, "Big brother, this. this is Shaolin’s Golden Steel Finger.” Song YuanQiao looks at it, and then gives it to Zhang SanFeng. Zhang SanFeng looks at it for a while, and then looks at Song YuanQiao for a moment silently.
Zhang CuiShan yells, "Master, this is Shaolin’s Golden Steel Finger. No other kung fu in the world
can possibly do this, right?” At this moment, Zhang SanFeng suddenly remembers his childhood days with Jue Yuan, matching palms with He ZuDao, and chased out of Shaolin onto Wu Dang Mountain. He realizes that Zhang CuiShan is correct, that this is indeed Golden Steel Finger. No other Finger techniques can match this in terms of power. Although his own inner power is very high, he has never learnt such Hard techniques. As for other sects’ Hard techniques, none can accomplish this. But should he confirm Zhang CuiShan’s guess, his disciples would want revenge. That would be very undesirable.
Zhang CuiShan can see that he’s correct from his master’s look, and asks, "Is it possible that some extremely intelligent person invented a finger technique that can do this?” Zhang SanFeng says, "That’s impossible. It took Shaolin hundreds of years to perfect this. I don’t think anyone can invent it by himself.” Song YuanQiao says, "In that case, we can confirm that third brother’s joints were destroyed by Shaolin’s Golden Steel Finger.”
When Du DaJin hears that they think it’s Shaolin who injured Yu DaiYan, he quickly gets up, wanting to say something, but did not say it. After a while, he says, "No. It can’t be Shaolin. I’ve been studying there for over ten years, yet have never seen those six people.” Song YuanQiao looks at him, and says, "Sixth brother, why don’t you show our guest to his room. Get him some dinner. I’m sure he’s hungry.” Yin LiTing goes over to Du DaJin to send him out. Although Du DaJin wants to speak some more, he finally decides against it, and followed Yin LiTing.
After settling down Du DaJin, Yin LiTing goes back to Yu DaiYan’s room, and cried again as he saw Yu DaiYan’s pale, stiff face. When he came back out into the hall, he heard Zhang SanFeng say, "How venomous. SongXi. What do you suggest we do?”
Out of all his students, Zhang SongXi is the cleverest. He normally doesn’t speak his mind much, but he is very good at analyzing. After Zhang CuiShan came back carrying Yu DaiYan, he felt much sadness, but at the same time started to investigate into this matter. Now that he heard his master ask, he says, "I believe this has nothing to do with Shaolin, but rather the Dragon Saber.” Zhang CuiShan and Yin LiTing both let out an ‘Ah’, while Song YuanQiao says, "Fourth brother. I’m sure you’ve thought this out. Tell us your conclusion.” Zhang SongXi says, "With third brother’s mild temper, it’s extremely unlikely that he made any enemy for no reason. That bandit he was suppose to kill was an outlaw. There’s no reason why Shaolin would hurt him over that.” Zhang SanFeng nods. Zhang SongXi continues, "Other than his joints, third brother was also poisoned back at Lin An city. If we want to find out exactly what had happened, we must first go to Lin An to investigate.”
Zhang SanFeng nods again, says, "The poison he suffered is very unique. I still haven’t found the right antidote. There are several tiny holes in his right palm and leg. Does anyone know who uses this type of hidden weapon?” Song YuanQiao says, "This is strange. If this person is good enough so that he can hit third brother with hidden weapons, why would they need poison on it?”
They all begin to think over this matter. After a while, they still could not find an answer, until Zhang SongXi says, "That man with the birthmark could’ve easily killed third brother, but instead simply paralyzed him. This obviously meant that he wanted to get some information from third brother. In my opinion, this information must have something to do with the Dragon Saber. Remember what Du DaJin said, that one of those six people yelled, ‘Where’s the Dragon Saber?’” Yin LiTing says, " ‘Martial world’s most venerable, Prized saber dragon slaying, Controlling all under Heaven, None dares to not follow. Power of heaven not appear, who can possibly compete?’ This phrase has been around for a hundred years, could it be that there really is a Dragon Saber?”
Zhang SanFeng says, "Not even for a hundred years, at most seventy to eighty. It did not exist when I was young.”
Zhang CuiShan says, "Fourth brother’s right. We need to go down to the south to find the killer.”
Zhang SanFeng asks Song YuanQiao, "What’s your opinion?” For the past few years, Zhang SanFeng has been letting Song YuanQiao manage most issues within the Wu Dang sect. So he wants Song YuanQiao to make the decision. Song YuanQiao says, "Master. Not only is this about third brother’s revenge, but also the reputation of Wu Dang. If we don’t settle this in the right fashion, we might cause some big problems.”
Zhang SanFeng says, "Right! You and SongXi, LiTing will take my letter to Shaolin tomorrow and meet Abbot Kong Wen. Ask him how to handle the matter. Shaolin’s very strict. He will know how to take care of this properly.” Song YuanQiao, Zhang SongXi, and Yin LiTing nod together. Zhang SongXi thinks, "Sixth brother alone should be sufficient for this trip. There must be some other reason that master wants all three of us to go.” Zhang SanFeng confirms this by adding, "I am a escapist from Shaolin. After all these years, I guess they must respect the fact that I’m quite old, and never bothered to come to Wu Dang to capture me. But there is still some friction between us. Which is why I want three of you to go, to show more respect.”
Zhang SanFeng then turns to Zhang CuiShan and says, "CuiShan, you’ll go down south tomorrow, and meet up with your second and sixth brother. There, listen to second brother’s orders.” Zhang CuiShan nods. Zhang SanFeng then says, "Don’t worry about drinking any wine tonight. A month later, we’ll gather here again. If DaiYan won’t recover, we can at least say go
odbye to him.” When he said to this part, he sighed deeply with a gloomy expression. Yin LiTing continues to wipe his tears as he cries. Zhang SanFeng then says, "Let’s go to sleep.”
Song YuanQiao says, "Master, third brother has been righteous his whole life. The lord will surely bless him, and. and.” He couldn’t go on, knowing that more words would only sadden his master further. With tears coming out of his eyes, he follows his fellow brothers out, and back to his room.
End of Chapter 3.
Chapter 4 - Among the Misfortune and Disorder, the Characters Showed the Way
(Translated by Meh)
Only to see him write those words over and over, in many different ways, his strokes became longer and longer, his arm movement slower and slower, until they began to move with great ease, as if he were practicing martial arts. Zhang CuiShan, fixated on his master’s movements, was amazed and joyous. His master had combined the twenty-four characters into a single, powerful martial arts style.
Filled with pain and frustration, with nowhere to vent, Zhang CuiShan tossed and turned on the bed for over two hours. He then quietly got up, and decided to beat up Du DaJin to vent his frustration. Afraid that his big brother and fourth brother may stop him, Zhang CuiShan stayed extra quiet as he walked through the hallway. As he entered the main hall, he saw a man with both hands behind his back, pacing back and forth continuously.
In the darkness, his eyes gazed upon a tall shadow figure, making heavy footsteps, and realized that it is the master. He stopped immediately, knowing his master would detect any further movement. Should the master then ask him why he is up, Zhang CuiShan would have to tell the truth.
Only to see Zhang SanFeng pace back and forth for a while, inspecting his surroundings, when suddenly he raised his right hand, and began to write characters in the air. Zhang SanFeng is as much a scholar as he is a martial arts master, and his students often sees him reciting poems and writing characters. So it’s not unusual for him to do such a thing. Zhang CuiShan looked at the strokes he made in the air, realized the characters were ‘Grief Disorder’. After repeatedly writing those two characters a few times, he followed up with the characters ‘Tea Poison’. Then it suddenly dawned up on him, "Master’s writing out the characters in the ‘Grief-Disorder Writing Style’.” Zhang CuiShan’s received the nickname of ‘Silver Hook and Iron Brush’, because he used a silver Tiger Hook with his left hand, and a Judge’s Iron Brush with his right. After getting this nickname, he realized that scholars might snicker at him being fake scholar, so he began to study literature just as hard as his kung fu. Zhang SanFeng was indeed writing in ‘Grief-Disorder Writing Style’ created by Wang XiZhi*. By now his master’s finger-brush did not lower back down or retract, did not return nor repeat, following exactly the intentions of the ‘Grief-Disorder Notice’.
*Wang XiZhi is perhaps the most famous calligrapher in Chinese history. He’s most famous for his cursive style of writing.
Zhang CuiShan had seen this style of writing two years ago. He remembered that its usage of the brush emphasized easy top-to-bottom strokes, words clear and strong but hard to pull up. Zhang CuiShan always preferred ‘Orchid Pavilion Poem Sequential Writing Style’, ‘Seventeen Writing Style’ and others that are more majestic and solemn in nature. At this moment, as he saw his master’s finger writes in the midair, "Tired of obeisance: Incredible grief and disorder, the ancestor’s graves one again tormented, difficult to bring back.” Each stroke filled with an air of gloom and grief. He saw just how Wang XiZhi must’ve felt when he created this ‘Grief-Disorder Writing Style’.
Wang XiZhi lived in the Eastern Jin* period. He was born to a prosperous family, but was not of Han origin. His family went southward to escape the chaos. During this chaotic time, his ancestor’s graves were robbed, which really saddened his heart, and quite evident in his ‘Misfortune-Disorder Writing Style’. Being a carefree youngster, how could Zhang CuiShan possibly understand the nature of this writing style? But his martial brother’s terrible injury finally allowed him to comprehend the depth of ‘Misfortune-Disorder Writing Style’.
*Eastern Jin is one of the countries that existed between the Three-Kingdoms era and China’s reunification under the Sui Dynasty.
Zhang SanFeng repeated those words several times, sighed deeply, walked to the center of the room, paused for a moment, and then started to write again. This time, his strokes again looked different. Zhang CuiShan followed Zhang SanFeng’s fingers, saw that the first character written was ‘Martial’, the second one ‘World’. In succession, Zhang SanFeng wrote out twenty-four characters total, exactly the phrase they discussed earlier, ‘Martial world’s most venerable, Prized saber dragon slaying, Controlling all under Heaven, None dares to not follow. Power of heaven not
appear, who can possibly compete?’ Zhang CuiShan thought his master wrote them to better comprehend the meanings behind these words, and deduce the cause of Yu DaiYan’s injury. But how did this event have to do with the Dragon Saber and Heaven Sword, the two supreme mythical weapons?
Only to see him write those words over and over, in many different ways, his strokes became longer and longer, his arm movement slower and slower, until they began to move with great ease, as if he were practicing martial arts. Zhang CuiShan, fixated on his master’s movements, was amazed and joyous. His master had combined the twenty-four characters into a single, powerful martial arts style. Each character contained multiple moves, with even more variations. The characters ‘Dragon’ and ‘Compete’ contained numerous strokes, while the words ‘Saber’ and ‘Under’ have only a few, but the longer characters were not written in a hurry, nor the shorter characters crudely, the contracted strokes were just as striking, like a cankerworm unyielding, the vertical strokes were just as dangerous, like a cunning rabbit escaping, the dots were written with ease, yet powerful and sturdy, the long slants seemed like the blowing wind, the dancing snow, the thick and heavy parts seem like a tiger’s squat, an elephants footsteps*, only to see some strokes floating in midair, like the dancing of the snow, while others heavy as tiger’s roar, moving as an elephant. Zhang CuiShan’s eyes followed the movements thoroughly, and instinctively began to memorize them. These twenty-four characters contain two ‘Not’ and two ‘Heaven’. Yet each one is written in a unique manner.
*Note: These are descriptions of various basic strokes that typically make up Chinese characters. If you have some understanding of them, you might be able to picture what Jin Yong wanted the readers to see.
In the recent years, Zhang SanFeng rarely taught kung fu anymore. Song YuanQiao and Yu LianZhou taught his final two disciples, Muo ShengGu and Yin LiTing. So despite being the fifth disciple, Zhang CuiShan really is the last person Zhang SanFeng had ever taught kung fu firsthand. Before, Zhang CuiShan’s knowledge was limited, and rarely grasped the deep concepts behind much of the martial arts skills Zhang SanFeng demonstrated. But he had since come a long way with the experience of recent years, plus the fact that they shared the same feelings tonight, two hearts as one, meeting misfortune and felt anguish, encountering torment and whisked it away. Under these extraordinary circumstances, Zhang SanFeng changed these twenty-four characters into a type of martial arts. He obviously did not plan on it, just as it was pure coincidence that Zhang CuiShan would see him as this moment. The two of them, one watched while one practiced, immersed themselves into these words, forgetting the outside world.
Zhang SanFeng repeatedly wrote those words for over four hours, until the moon had risen to the top of the sky. Swoosh, the right palm came straight down, just like the sparkle of a star or a sword, thus completing the final stroke of the last character ‘compete’.
Zhang SanFeng then looked up into the sky, and said, "CuiShan, what do you think of my writing skills?”
Zhang CuiShan gasped in shock, as he did not expect his master to notice him without ever turning around. He promptly walked out of his hiding place, and said, "For your disciple to personally see master put on such
an amazing display, words cannot even begin to describe my feelings. I’ll go get the others so they can also learn it.”
Zhang SanFeng shook his head, said, "I got caught up in the moment, which is why it looked so good. If you want me to repeat it again, I doubt I can write nearly as well. Besides, the other students don’t know much about calligraphy. Even if they do see it, they would have a hard time comprehending.” As he spoke, he walked out of the main hall.
Zhang CuiShan did not dare sleep, for fear of forgetting these intricate techniques, and immediately sat down in a meditating position. Each stroke each drag, each move each variation, silently recorded into his memory. Sometimes, he’d write out a few characters from the excitement. Even Zhang CuiShan himself could not remember how long it took him, but he finally recorded those twenty-four characters, and two-hundred-fifteen variations-there are 215 strokes within those 24 characters- into his memory.
He stood up, practiced once, and felt his body light and calm as the cloud, incredibly refreshed. When finished, he looked up, blinked a bit, only to see the sun high up in the western sky. Zhang CuiShan gathered himself, not believing that it’s past noon already, but finally realized that he had been practicing for more than half a day.
Zhang CuiShan wiped off the sweat on his face, and walked over to Yu DaiYan’s room, only to see Zhang SanFeng healing Yu DaiYan with his inner power. Upon asking, Zhang CuiShan found out that Song YuanQiao, Zhang SongXi, and Yin LiTing had left in the morning. None of them said goodbye, as they didn’t want to interfere with his meditation. The Dragon Gate Escort Agency’s people also left. Although Zhang CuiShan’s clothes were now soaked in sweat, Zhang CuiShan was in too much of a hurry to change them. He quickly grabbed his weapons and his normal change of clothing, took out some travel money, and returned to Yu DaiYan’s room, said, "Master. Your disciple will be leaving.” Zhang SanFeng nodded, smiled slightly.