Dougong The Journey to Chang An - Book I

By Richard Howe

The Song Dynasty ... an orphaned boy, raised by the great philosopher, Zhu Xi … seeks answers to the mystery of his life and the universe … and a young girl, rebelling at society’s restrictions, seeking the wisdoms of ancient healing. They find their answers and, through their experiences, become eternally entangled … for to them, eternity means no time.
Granny Panda once said, “Immortals are just ordinary people … who have done extra-ordinary things.”
With a small group of companions, they journey to Chang An, the ancient Tang capital. However, powerful forces are determined to stop them … all because of a new style tea?
There must be something more here … some hidden meanings.
For more on the author, visit: www.rhowe-haozi.com

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Paul Howe
• Release date: Mar 27, 2024
• ISBN: 9798987087718

Book preview

Author’s Preface to Book I

I am often asked how I got interested into Chinese history and culture. It started in 1997 when I first traveled to China. On that trip, I sensed inside that my destiny lay in China … I especially loved the history and culture … and for the next 25 years I was on a historical and cultural adventure.

I traveled all over China to over three hundred cities and twenty provinces. I drove, took planes, trains, and buses … and wherever I went, the places I always wanted to see were the famous sites …and the ancient temples. The temples were special places … culturally and spiritually.

In 2006, we moved into a new house in the Fujian mountains, near GuanZhaiShan, the Holy Hakka Mountain. At that time, I was between endeavors, and spent my days climbing the mountain. I would bring a folding chair, a small guzheng (stringed zither), a book on philosophies, hot water, tea, and a small camping tea set.

I would pluck a string and listen to the reverberations carry through the mountain … occasionally a bird would hear me and call out for its mate … one three-cadence bird call reminded me of the whippoorwill’s call from my childhood days in the woods of Maine.

Sometimes a Chinese local would chance across this ‘foreigner’ brewing tea, reading a book, or playing a few strings of stringless music to the local birds … and think … crazy foreigners.

GuanZhaiShan has two temples … the one at the top of the mountain is the Buddhist temple with a group of resident monks and the other one, at the base of the mountain is a monastery with resident nuns.

One day when I descended the mountain, I noticed that the lower temple, was being demolished. When I asked why … the man whispered ‘bad feng shui’ … so they tore it down and started to build a new temple again … all by hand … everything by hand.

After the old building was dispatched to temple purgatory, they dug some huge pits … which were later filled with equally huge blocks of local granite from nearby quarries. Then the timbers arrived … not boards and planks … big round trees.

I spent several days watching them split the large trees and hand make all the timbers into beams and planks … pieces of an amazing wooden puzzle that became the new temple. I bought a book on ancient temple architecture so that I could better follow their progress.

So, regarding my book titles … in Book I, the ‘Duogong’ are the intricate set of brackets which lift up the roof eaves … to allow light to enter and visually to make the heavy roofs appear floating. All these wood duogong brackets are held together with wooden pegs and support the massive roofs.

The ‘Zaojing’ of Book II is the inverted caisson ceiling which many call an ‘eternity well’ … and when you look up at the vortex of a ‘zaojing’ … you will understand.

Book III’s title, Jiancidiaosu, refers to the cut-porcelain figurines which grace the tops of many Fujian temples’ roof lines … usually dragons, birds, and animals.

The setting of the series of books is Song Dynasty China … but it could very easily have been Waldoboro, Maine, or Cortona, Italy … the setting … like the world … is just the background to life’s experiences.

I have read hundreds upon thousands of books … history and philosophical books and many more … I do not think the world needs more pundits or words of wisdom … just as the nighttime sky does not need more stars … what we need more is to understand how to connect the stars … to see the invisible constellations … to connect the words of wisdom to our life’s experiences … and then … hopefully we all can realize our destinies.

The scholar, whose writings I am most indebted to, was Joseph Campbell, who opened my eyes to the myths and legends of humanity.

Cheers,

Richard Howe

19 Oct 2022

Life …is only just a story …

The Tale of the Two Legendary Wuyi Immortals

As told by Granny Red Panda (Hong Xiongmao) …

many years in the future … during the Yuan Dynasty

In a large room in the Imperial compound in Peiping, there are several older women seated in front of their looms, all working diligently on weaving parts of a larger tapestries, which, when united, will form a large tapestry destined to cover a large wall in the Imperial palace of the Great Khan.

A white-haired elderly woman, dressed in a flowing white silk robe, trimmed with white ermine fur, is walking around to each skilled weaving woman, checking, and directing her in the details.

In her hair knot is a single elegant jade hairpin carved in the shape of a strange animal … (a squirrel?). Aside from that, the only other ornament on this elegant woman, is an amulet hanging around her neck on a beaded necklace of blue lapis lazuli stones. The amulet itself … that is, the side that people can see … is a round bright shiny mirror, which she polishes by habit from time to time …

No one can remember seeing the back side of the amulet … but that has not stopped the myriad speculations regarding it … a secret treasure map … a sacred totem … a lost love … and others … all of which are wrong.

Slowly she carefully inspects each weaving … not because it is a gift for the Great Khan … but because to this woman … it is a gift to herself to the memory of her two most dear people.

Then, without warning, the peacefulness is shattered as the doors burst open … and several young children, royally dressed, run in, and start rummaging around everything … and getting into mischief …. as pampered royal children are wont to do.

Then the silver haired elderly woman, slowly approaches the children with a frown on her face.

Freeze she commands … not loudly … that is not her nature … but with all those who know her, her freeze command is all that is needed to arrest time.

The children freeze in their tracks … and so do the weavers … and all slowly turn towards the elderly woman … the weavers smiling and enjoying the break in their work … the children frozen mid-movement in various poses … the closer ones notice the bright amulet around her neck … it is a clear bronze mirror on the side facing them … reflecting their frozen in time images …

What did I tell you before? … About coming in here? she questions them as she walks from one to the other… feigning anger as the weaver’s smile, enjoying the play unfolding before them … then, slowly, they begin weaving again.

In unison the children recite from memory,

Be quiet as a mouse and keep our hands in our pockets.

Good … now why have you come here? Does the Great Khan know you are here? she scans the unruly mob of tiger cubs like their god-like grandmother tiger.

Haha … he is busy with those foreigners from Weinisi (Venice) … Granny Panda … we want you to tell us a story …

What story?

Looking beyond the various weavers, they all point to the tapestries …

The story in the tapestries ...

But I have told you that story hundreds of times… have you forgotten so quickly?

No … but we like it when you tell it granny … you put blood in the dead chicken.

The other grannies quietly laugh … one of the other grannies says,

They are right … even we enjoy hearing the story … it seems to change a little every time you tell it… and it helps us visualize our weaving.

Well … ok but this is absolutely the last time I will tell this story…

The children and the weavers roll their eyes and smile knowingly.

She walks slowly over to one large tapestry … this will be the centerpiece of the much larger tapestry when they are all joined together … this is the beginning …

Let me see … where should I start …

The scenes on the tapestries show terraced mountains, farmers, battles, oceans, boats, distant cities, caravans … like the story of the world civilizations … but then if you look closely, you will see some of the same people in different scenes and the two most common are a young man and a young woman.

One of the little girls asks the granny, It is so big. How can you follow everything, granny?

Come closer and I will show you.

… they all move closer.

Do you see these gold threads … here … and here … and again here?

One of the princesses’ shouts, Yes!

Then the same girl asks, What are those gold threads, granny?

These are the essence of life … they run through these two heroes’ lives.

The Two Legendary Immortals? the girl asks in awed reverence.

Yes.

What is ‘essence’, Granny Panda? a child asks.

Essence is the cosmic thread which connects you with everyone … and everything … some people call it the thread of the universe … for the two heroes, it bound them together as they journeyed to find their destiny.

Do I have a gold thread, granny?

Of course, everyone has a gold thread … but they are all different … you just need to find yours and then … you need to follow it …

But how will I find it?

Your instinct will show it to you … it is inside everyone … when you empty your mind … it will come to you.

You mean like the cat monks?

The other ladies, the weavers, laugh at this description of the chanting of monks, which to the kids sounds like the purring of a cat.

No ... it is called meditating and it is easy … just like I taught you … sit comfortably, cross your legs, close your eyes, empty your mind and inhale in … and exhale out … focusing on just the breath… in … out … remember?

We remember … and then we will find the gold thread?

Yes … but … it may take time … just follow your own instincts.

Where will the gold thread lead me, granny?

The gold thread will lead you first to Tengri, the Sky god and the Mother Goddess of Nature … and they will open the doors to your destiny.

Is that what happened to Yufei and Yufeng?

Yes … yes … but now you are getting ahead … let’s start the story from the beginning … when Yufei and Yufeng were the same age as you … they lived in the mountains in the south of China … where the farmers grew the most wonderful tea … and silk … like these threads …

As she threads her story, the women continue to weave … interlacing one set of threads (the warp) at right angles through another set of threads (the weft). The framework of the loom (like the visible world) holds taut the lengthwise warp threads, while the crosswise weft thread is woven in … much like the rules and rituals act as the guardrails for social life.

***

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Since ancient times, people believed there was a mysterious force in the universe.

In the Tao de Qing, Laozi wrote … ‘from the One came the two …’

… and from the two came three and then many.

At first these spiritual mysteries were …

‘That which cannot be described in words…’

So … they used symbols,

then … later, they used images, metaphors, and Gods,

to point to the invisible forces … forces which affect everyone … and everything.

Everyone knew that these symbols were not real gods … just names …

for those mysterious invisible forces underlying this realm.

But then, after many epochs, they forgot this subtle difference.

***

The sole aim of every individual’s life energies,

is to touch the infinite – the very core of your making.

***

Prologue I:       The Early Years

It was the worst day of my life

The boy told the girl, years later, as they sat on Manting Peak,

looking out over nine-bend stream.

***

A fateful meeting …

Late 12th Century Song Dynasty China, Northwestern Fujian … the famous neo-Confucian scholar, Zhu Xi, is getting older and a little overweight, but he still walks like a man late for an appointment … dressed in his white ‘scholars’ tunic and purple trimmed robe, with his simple scholar’s top cap … he strides down the stone-cobbled street in Wuyi, a small tea producing village in the Fujian coastal mountains … near his beloved nine-bend stream. His has a face people remember easily, wide, small beard, wide-set eyes… and usually smiling … but not this day.

His mind is always lost in thoughts … usually about synthesizing the differences in the three great beliefs of China (Confucianism, Buddhism, & Taoism) into one coherent philosophy … but today his mind dwells on admonishing himself for forgetting to come earlier this way …

He was crazed … he did not even wait for me to agree …

He is followed by several adolescent students dressed in simple student tunics of light brown color, their hair knotted on top and tied by a tan ribbon. The students walk fast to keep up with the Master who strides quickly … until … he suddenly slows … and then stops … he crooks his head to one side … as if listening … to the last few drops of rain falling? No … he heard something … not a sound? … what was that?

The streets are narrow, only 2-3 people can pass at the same time. The stone cobblestones seem older than the earth, yet still serve their purpose, especially on rainy days … and the rain has been especially heavy this year. Water is still flowing down the cracks to the sides of the street … and down to an overflowing stream … and to the overflowing river … and finally … to the endless … eternal sea.

The buildings on either side are mostly light brown single-story stamped earthen structures … some with new fired bricks … some with plastered walls … some are wood structures … a few have an overhanging eave to protect the walls from the rain … most with last year’s red-corded eternity knots hanging on a peg … with wooden planks instead of doors to keep thieves and demons out. A few buildings even have a wooden second story and another few have a meter high wainscotting of bricks protecting the lower section from the rain. And at this early hour flickering candles can be seen inside … signaling that the villagers are beginning to stir for the start of their day.

As they walk, a student, asks the old man, "Master … why are we going this way to the granary?"

The old man ignores the question and walks a bit faster …

Doesn’t he know …the academy is for older students and scholars …

The students wonder if this has anything to do with the loud argument, they overheard coming from the master’s study late last night. An argument which ended with a door slamming and a shout piercing the darkness,

I didn’t kill her! … which carried over the nine bend waters and into the mountains and canyons …

They come around a corner … the old man again stops … the students stop; the old man crooks his head again … one way and then the other and straightens up as if listening again … to something … from beyond this realm …

The Taiji? … he wonders …

What is it, Master? the oldest student asks, looking up at him.

Nothing … did you … hear anything? the old man asks as he looks around.

No The young man shakes his head and looks at the others who are equally mystified; the street is empty, and all the doors are still closed this early on another soon-to-be-rainy day … up ahead there is a beggar boy draped in rags, squatting on the side of the street, just staring ahead and a food vendor getting his cart ready to start selling steaming buns.

Just the steam rising from the walls and stones …there’s little wind today … it feels like rain again.

The old man nods and ponders … something was there … in the ether …

They continue down the street. The old man walks more slowly now, more … aware ….

Zhu Xi, like Confucius, sought after the Truth … first gradually through studying the ancient teachings and then by investigating things to understand their true essence, and finally through life’s experiences. As the inscription on the rock whispered to travelers floating along nine-bend stream …

Gradually enter the beautiful scenery

The second way to the truth propounded by Zhu Xi … was quicker, almost instantaneous, through a sudden enlightenment (Dun-Wu). One day it just comes to you, you see the mystery plainly, it is so simple, and it has been there right before your eyes all the time … of course, 20-30 years of studious preparation helps.

Zhu Xi took umbrage at other’s methods, like the Chan/Zen method of using those senseless kaons, they show the embroidered ducks to others; yet do not show the gold embroidering needle.

On the side of the street, the boy, hair wet and covering his face, draped in torn rags, clutching a pair of worn-out hemp sandals … his mind as blank as the dark sky … his eyes open but seeing nothing … just an endless … emptiness …

His grandpa, the old warrior, had told him, "Just stare at a spot … any spot … and after a while, everything you think is real, will dissolve away … and then … even the emptiness will disappear … and then …. you are there."

He sees something … is it a circle? … no … it is not complete … what does it mean?

He does not remember how long he has been here … or even where he is at this moment … he hasn’t used his eyes for a long time … a thought rises … am I blind … but wait … he senses something … movement … then he senses some other movements nearby ... he searches for what they are called … people?

The old scholar walks up and squats down in front of him. The boy senses the movement … what is that in front of my face …  the wind? … a hand? …. but he saw no wind … he saw no hand …

He could sense the others again … closer now …what do they want?

For what seemed like an eternity to the students … the old scholar, Zhu Xi, and the young boy, Xiang Yufei, stare into each other’s empty eyes … finally … the darkness breaks in the boy’s eyes, his pupils dilate, and he sees a dim light from candles flickering on the wet cobblestones … and then … an old man’s round face with a straggly beard … a kind face … someone I saw before.

Then the boy, who has only had rain baths for weeks, turns slowly to look down the street …. (Grandma? … Xiaobei?) … no one … he looks behind him at the closed wood plank door … nothing … just worn dark wood with last year’s Spring Festival eternity knot decoration hanging on an old red cord and torn pieces of red couplets flapping in the breeze on each side and another torn one above the doorway …

He stares at the eternity knot and then looks down at the rainwater running down the street … what does it mean? … grandpa would know … but grandma said he was crazy …

Who are you looking for? Master Zhu says in a warm voice.

"Wo de Weipo (My grandma) ... and Xiaobei, my dog." the boy rasps, his throat dry…

The old man reaches his hand out to one of the students, who hands him a water flask … he hands the boy the water. The boy drinks slowly. The water tastes good … spring water … then a memory rises like a submerged tea leaf into his consciousness … grandma only drank spring water from the mountains …

The old man stands to ease his old bones and motions with his hand for his student assistant to talk to the vendor.

The young man goes to the steaming buns vendor, How long has he been there? he asks.

The vendor, short and stocky, wearing an apron and a cloth rag for his topknot, just shrugs as he walks out from behind his stack of steaming buns …

Since yesterday … he just sits there … the old woman went to the market with the dog …. I have given him some bread, but he doesn’t eat.

Master Zhu squats back down and peers into Yufei ’s eyes. When he sees the pupils of the boy’s eyes returning more to normal, he speaks to him as he holds out his hand,

Come with me, let’s go find your grandma.

The other apparitions fade away … just this face… a face with … dark bottomless eyes too, like grandpa’s eyes. He slowly gets up, wondering and turning to look down the street … but which way to go?

There is a silent pause as the boy is standing …waiting for some other person to say something, but when no one speaks, the old man takes the boy’s hand and says, Let’s go, we are late for the granary.

With that, they walk down the street, Xiang Yufei, the barefoot dirty faced boy whose tattered clothes are falling apart as he walks … one hand holding a worn-out pair of hemp sandals … the other hand holding the elegantly dressed scholar, Zhu Xi … but now the old man is walking more slowly … looking at dark distant clouds … praying to his personal gods …

Guanyin …this boy has already had a lifetime of bad fortune …

he does not need any more of life’s lessons.

The oldest student comes aside of the Master and quietly asks, What did you see Master … in the boy’s eyes?

"I saw what the old man saw in Zhang Liang … a child worth instructing" (From an old Chinese story.)

"No, I mean … in his eyes?" the student asks.

The old man’s mind had already moved on … his mind far away.

Then he becomes alert again, replays the question and a single answer comes into his mind …

But it is impossible to describe in words that these students would understand, so he just says,

"… emptiness …"

They walk down the stone-cobbled street … along the way, merchants are removing their wood plank doorways … exposing their interior shops to hoped-for customers … and then they come to a large open plaza in the streets … in front of a large two-story stone-block warehouse building … the sign above the doorway just says, Granary. In the plaza, there is a large shade tree … and a round stone urn with a lotus floating inside with a parallel diagram of a zigzag carved on the side.

There are several villagers milling around under the tree, all dressed in the simple locally woven course cloth, some with bamboo rain hats, others with cloth headbands. A few other men, standing off by themselves, under an eave, have nicer clothes with topknot hats, and carry umbrellas …. but those are few in numbers.

Off to the other side, near a wall, there are four policemen in yamen official clothes, several of whom whisper to themselves when Master Zhu approaches. There is also a sedan chair off to the side with two more policemen leaning against it, waiting …

The local Magistrate, a tall thin faced man, standing before the doorway is dressed in his official’s robes and a top hat with horizontal flat wings extending out, tied by a black ribbon under his neck. The outer robe material is finer than others nearby … even finer than Zhu’s clothes … the colors richer, held by a wide waist sash … more to impress than for practical function, especially in rainy weather … but typical garments of officials of the Southern Song Dynasty who seek undeserved adulation.

He looks around, impatiently … a man who, even after a year posted in Wuyi, has yet to accept his posting in such a small out-of-the-way county as Wuyi Mountain.

I thought with money you can reach even the gods … … when I am back in the capital ...

Just then, he spots Zhu Xi coming and the disdain on his narrow face is hard to conceal …

These pompous scholars lording over others just because they have passed the stupid examinations and written useless books ...

After the traditional greetings and bows, the magistrate, nods to his nearby deputy, Lin Qian, a simpering sycophant, who speaks to the scholar in a whining voice, while holding out a ledger book.

Master Zhu, there appears to be a discrepancy … 20 bags of rice … are not accounted for… can you explain?

As he says this, some of the other policemen behind him smile.

Zhu, however, had already been alerted that someone broke in and stole twenty bags of rice the night before.

Feigning surprise, Master Zhu asks, Really? Let me see the tally.

The deputy hands the granary register to him…. smiling.

He looks it over carefully noting that it looks the same as yesterday and then smiles, Oh … I see, the manager failed to record the twenty bags I sent to Xian Tou village late yesterday.

The officials look at each other perplexed. Even the granary manager looks surprised at Zhu.

Master Zhu looks to his granary manager … and then brings out a receipt from his sleeve pocket.

Here is the receipt from the Xian Tou village leader with his chop. I did not receive it until late last night … we were just bringing it to you.

The granary manager takes the paper, looks at it, smiles, nods his head, and sighs a welcome relief.

But…that can’t be … we … one of the officials grabs the receipt and starts to protest until the magistrate, strikes him with his fan.

You fool, were you suspecting Master Zhu of mismanagement? Don’t you know how Master Zhu’s granary has helped all the villages survive through the drought early this year? the magistrate says, behind his false-friendly facial mask.

The deputy looks surprised at the rebuke … bows his head in submission, Yes, sir.

First the drought and now the endless rains … this place is cursed … the magistrate spits out … disgusted with how things are turning out … against his fondest desires and even more inept intrigues.

… when I am back in the capital …

I think it has been the same everywhere, Magistrate. Zhu says calmly.

Another policeman comes up and hands the magistrate a notice from the Prefect … he reads …

To All County Level Magistrates!

With the drought and the rains, our grain supplies are strained.

Please send an accounting of all available grain. Immediately.

The Prefect of Jian Ou

The Magistrate thinks … those fools … we could make triple by selling this grain on the black market!

He folds up the letter and hands it to Zhu, Here … take care of this.

Just then … a child’s loud sharp cry cuts through the still air, freezing everyone in place.

XIAOBEI!

Everyone looks down at the forgotten scruffy boy standing behind Master Zhu who is now pointing excitedly across the street at a dirty scraggly dog tied to a post.

First, he looks up at Master Zhu … then the boy breaks free from the old man and runs to the dog.

Zhu Xi looks at the boy, and then back at the officials,

Excuse me, that is … is there anything else?

Not waiting for an answer, Master Zhu follows the boy. The magistrate looks after him and then disgustedly motions to his men to get the sedan chair, he climbs quickly in the sedan chair as the rain resumes, and they carry him away … not quick enough though for his taste.

…Next time old fool … next time you will not be so lucky ...

As Zhu walks up, the boy is hugging the mud splattered dog … who is in a shared joyous rapture licking the boy’s face …

The old scholar looks around and spots a nearby granny selling vegetables. She has some green leafy vegetables laid out on flat bamboo baskets on a table with a canvas overhang protecting them from the rain.

Do you know anything about this dog? he asks the granny.

The old lady keeps her eyes down, and points behind her … thinking … do not provoke the evil spirits!

Zhu’s eldest student admonishes her, Didn’t you hear Master Zhu’s question? Please answer him if you know anything!

The woman keeps her eyes down but points again to the back of the shops in the alleyway. When they look back, they see white cloth streamers hanging around a large rolled-up bamboo mat (the pauper’s coffin).

"We did not know…  if the old warrior was coming …" she says quietly, eyes down … afraid to disturb the spirits of the dead.

Then the boy looks and sees the bamboo roll draped in white. Tears well up in his eyes but he does not make a sound … he just stares with that empty look again … like someone waking up in a small boat in an endless sea … not knowing how he got there or which way to row …

… is this the same dream … or another? … he wonders as he looks down and absentmindedly draws the incomplete circle he saw before in the dirt with his foot.

The old man kneels beside him, and turns the boy’s face away from the draped body with his hands so they face each other again and then he asks, Xiang Yufei … would you like to come and stay with me?

… he knows my name …

Through his welling tears Yufei nods and after a moment asks through a runny nose,

… and Xiaobei too?

The master smiles and nods Of course.

Rising, he proclaims to his followers, What a wonderful day! We have a new student! … and a dog!

And that is how the old turtle met the young dragon … kind of a planned accidental meeting … or fate … as they would later tell it …

***

Prologue II: Current time (12 years later) Manting Mountain

It was the best day of my life…

Yufei told the girl next to him years later as they sat on the mountaintop … looking at the clouds drift by … sometimes caught for a moment by a peak … then drifting on, and down below them … the waters of nine bend stream flowing … carrying their words … down to meet the river in the town … on its journey to the endless sea …

Where did you stay ... at first? she asks, dressed casually in pants … looking more like a boy than a young woman.

At the old Academy in Wufu, behind the kitchen … in the woodshed … on a wooden bed with a bamboo mat … Gonggong brought me a quilt and a small pillow … actually a book … a rolled bamboo book.

Gonggong?

You know … the old caretaker …

He told me that if I couldn’t sleep … to read the pillow …

The girl smiles …

I read a lot of pillows that way …

Do you remember them all?

"That is the strange part … if I read a good book just once … I can remember it…. what about you?"

Like you … if the book interested me …

Like what?

Like about herbs and medicines … about tea … but not the traditional books that girls read … oh … and once, my uncle gave me a book on martial arts … I liked that one a lot.

What about your father and Lanting … I have seen a lot of books in your house …

My father doesn’t read much and Lanting reads mostly about traditional things … being a good mother and also a good business-woman … someday she will run the tea business for father.

Really? That is amazing!

Yeah … oh … this … Gonggong …. who is he … really?

Gonggong? caught off guard and wanting to dodge the question without lying to her…

Just the old caretaker you see sweeping the academy … he and Master Zhu are close ...  no one knows, or says, his real name … like it has been lost in time.

He is different though, he appears old and stooped, but he can stand upright when he is alone or with me. That is when he will take out a metal amulet from around his neck … on one side is the Tai Ji and BaGua … I have never seen the other side. But I think he does not look on the other side because it reminds him about something sad from his past …

Then he asks her, You have seen his hands?

She shakes her head. …

His hands suffered terrible burns many years ago … but no one has ever dared asked how … or why?

Has he told you?

No … well … kind of … then he changes the subject, I don’t know … those two have secrets from the past.

But you trust them both?

Yes …Master Zhu became a foster-father to me, and Gonggong became my foster-grandpa.

Were things better then … for you … after you came to the academy? she asks guardedly.

She reaches for his hand, It’s ok … if you don’t want to talk about it….

"No … I am ok … it’s just that back then I had … dreams …. and it is difficult sometimes to separate those dreams from what really happened … sometimes it’s like things have already happened before".

He looks out over the peaks rising above the clouds in the distance.

He stares at the clouds for a long time … as though listening … to their silent passing.

Sometimes … he told me …I would wake up screaming …

She looks at him … cautiously,

You had nightmares?

She hesitates before continuing further,

Then resolving some inner debate, she asks,

About what?

I do not remember … Gonggong would come rushing in and wake me up, but I couldn’t remember why I was screaming …  I could not remember anything.

The dreams vanished when I woke up …except that one time.

Near the old academy in Wufu is a large lotus pond … with hundreds of lotus flowers … do you know that place?

She nods, Yeah

Gonggong and I went there one day to pick lotus roots … I asked him if it was my fault what happened to my family …

He throws a rock over the edge.

"He told me it wasn’t … that I would understand it in time. That it was like the lotus … our eyes only see the flower on the surface … not the network of connected roots in the mud bottom … then he said something strange at the time … he said we need to use different eyes to see under the water … to see underneath this reality."

What did he mean?

I didn’t know … for a long time … but now I am starting to understand.

Were you blaming yourself because of what happened to your family?

"I don’t know … maybe … I did not know what happened to them … people wouldn’t talk about my mother and father … no one … and the old warrior was battling his own demons.

He shakes his head trying to get rid of a thought.

But that was when I became determined to understand why these things happened in my life … was there a meaning … or were the gods just playing with me?

She reaches for his hand …. but he pulls it away to grab another stone to throw …

My grannie …. she was just worn down by everything … especially grandpa.

Do you still have those dreams?

He shakes his head … she reaches for his hand again … this time he does not pull it away.

Maybe this is how fate works … like they say … after the dark clouds, the sun comes out.

He picks up a stick and draws an incomplete circle in the sand and stares at it …

I didn’t talk much … at first …

She asks, Why?

He retraces the incomplete circle in the dirt … pausing … she waits …

"Like I said before …words make things … less clear … and … I mean … how can you describe emptiness … in words? How can you describe pain? The words people use are … (staring at his circle) incomplete … just more dust clouding your mind."

She nods … trying to understand … when he talks this way … it usually takes a while for it to germinate inside her.

He looks at her and wonders,

What was your childhood like?

She laughs, I don’t even remember when I was the age you went through all those things …

My father worked in the terraces … my mom worked in the factory … and she did what mothers do … she stops quickly, realizing he would not know what mothers do …

I slept with granny and followed her into the mountains when she picked herbs.

What did you like to do best … back then?

I liked being with granny in the mountains … she taught me a lot… without me knowing it.

Then she laughs, "My mother said that we all come into this world with a purpose … and mine was to be different."

I never knew how to be the daughter my parents wanted or the traditional girl that society demanded. I always seemed to go against everyone’s wishes.

What do you mean?

I did not like the traditional girl’s things … sewing, cooking, homemaking … I learned to read and write and think for myself … but only if I liked the subject.

Did you have friends?

No … just granny and Lanting … even later when she and I went to the temple school … oh … and I was always close with my father.

Cautiously she asks, What about you? Did you feel lonely?

Sometimes, but granny was always there … she was the only one that really understood me …

My granny was the same … and then granny got a cat, and the cat was my best friend … haha

He nods … My dog too …

Your dog?

He’s gone now but he was my best friend … then he cranks his head to the side … like a dog.

She laughs … then she cranks her head to the side … like her cat.

Then he asks, Did you have dreams?

Once … that I can remember … I will tell you later … after it comes true …

But why are you interested in the mysteries like me?

I don’t know … granny brought me to see the mysteries of nature and told me the stories of the Mother Goddess and then fate brought me to you and … the two seemed connected … like the same song …

Their thoughts drift over the mountains and down the streams …

***

1      The Adolescent Years: 6 years earlier

The students at Zhu Xi’s Academy studied the Classics with Master Zhu … in preparation to take the imperial examinations when they are ready.

The examinations are open to anyone as the government sought to recruit capable officials from all levels of society. The examinations are … for the most part …objective and fair … in contrast to the Tang system, which was based on personal recommendation, which often recruited the most connected, but least qualified candidates. The current examinations offer a pathway to success for all young men … but it represents much more to them and their family … it is the penultimate of filial duty … the goal of those with aspirations of a better life … a meaningful life … not just for them … but for their family … and their descendants.

The examinations are held at various levels, starting with the prefectural examination (zhousi), then the larger metropolitan examination (shengshi), and lastly, the palace examination (dianshi).

Master Zhu’s private academy is one of the finest private academies in Fujian with an extensive library of the relevant books, texts, and commentaries. And due to Zhu Xi’s notoriety, many famous scholars often visit the academy and offer informal lectures.

The increased number of private academies in the Song Dynasty has made it possible for even the most disadvantaged … with hard work and study … to achieve high government positions … which is the shared goal of rich and poor.

The examinations covered the nine Confucian Classics as well as poetry and prose. To ensure fairness, the names of the candidates were blocked off, so that the scores were graded equally, without favoritism.

Many of Zhu’s students are from the local area, i.e., ‘day’ students, who stay at home in the evenings. Some, however, who come from a distance, live in the school dormitory, like Chen Anhua, who is from a prominent Quanzhou family … and a close friend of Xiang Yufei.

Master Zhu’s personal pursuit these past few years has been on synthesizing the great beliefs of ancient China – Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. He follows in a long tradition of neo-Confucianists … which started in the early days of the Northern Song Dynasty by a group of scholars to redefine and reinvigorate Confucianism which had waned over the years since the rise in Buddhism during the Tang Dynasty.

Master Zhu felt that only the Confucian teachings of virtue and benevolence, could save the empire against outside and inside forces which threatened the Imperial system and the Chinese way of life. In later years, his writings and curriculum would become the teaching standard for every subsequent dynasty.

Aside from the classics, the students also studied music, poetry, calligraphy, and the martial arts. And, with the spread of moveable-type printing, other subjects were added, e.g., mathematics, astronomy, medicine, calligraphy, painting, and military strategy.

The martial arts were taught and practiced in the practice area behind the academy.

There, the boys were taught how to use the 18 weapons of the martial arts (lance, mallet, long bow, crossbow, staff, jointed bludgeon, truncheon, sword, chain, hooks, hatchet, axe, trident, halberd, shield, staff, spear, and rake) … but most of the student exercises involved using the long staff (a hardwood staff about 2 meters high) … practicing against each other … in a less lethal but sometimes … still painful manner.

Chen Anhua, as the third son in a prominent Quanzhou family, is still learning to be his own person … he always thinks before talking and keeps his hands still by his side or clasped behind his back like the master. He is tall, strong, with a rectangular face. He is the top scholar and one of the best martial arts students.

He is one of the older students and even at this early age, he is reserved, cultured and humble … he works out with Yufei often … at first at Master Zhu’s urging, but later out of a growing friendship…

Whereas Chen Anhua is the top academic student in the academy, Xiang Yufei is the top in martial arts … Yufei is a little shorter than Anhua, built strong, with a square face and wide-set eyes, like a hunting animal … which helps him to see laterally better than others …

Although only an adolescent, Yufei senses his opponents attack before the opponent makes his move. This gives him an advantage in all the mock combats. Yufei trains often with Chen Anhua and secretly with Gonggong, the caretaker … and quickly becomes the best martial arts fighter at the academy.

Some of the students resent the boy’s prowess and his apparent favorable treatment by Master Zhu and Gonggong, the old caretaker.

Even in the close school environment, envy is the religion of the mediocre … it comforts them, allowing them to justify their jealousies … until they believe these to be virtues … the net effect only drives these two, Chen Anhua and Xiang Yufei, closer together as friends.

One day … on the martial arts grounds, some students are mocking Gonggong, who is sweeping around the practice court. One of the students tries to trip the old man who pretends to almost fall … but is caught by Yufei who glares at the other boys who are laughing.

"You feel powerful against an old man? Is that virtue?" Yufei says using Master Zhu’s teachings to admonish them.

Three of them decide to confront Yufeng … the bravest boy in front asks, "What’s it to you … orphan boy?" (That was the boy’s first mistake.)

Although each one of the three is bigger than Yufei, they are individually wary of him. They know his fighting skills are better one-on-one, but they feel bolder with a three against one advantage. Yufei appears unfazed by their greater numbers and continues to confront them.

"What did you call me?" he snarls at the boy.

Gonggong, though, urges him to be calm, Don’t turn to anger … it only hurts yourself more than the others.

"When anger is there, you become identified with the anger."

Then pointing to a lotus flower in the pool, he says, It is far better to be identified with that lotus than the mud.

The boy respects Gonggong, who has been a grandfather for him these years at the academy. He listens … and ponders … across the surface of the words … but the deeper meaning still eludes him … in any event … he backs away from the confrontation.

Unfortunately, Yufei’s retreat only emboldens the others.

The boy in front asks, "Hey, orphan boy … how’s life in your dormitory?" (That was his second mistake).

Yufei looks at Gonggong, who realizes the three youths may need a lesson in benevolence, so he shrugs his shoulders and nods to Yufei … who grabs his staff and slowly walks up to the three.

Talking over his back to Gonggong he tells him, Maybe it is time for a lesson in virtue … a martial arts virtue lesson … what do you think?

Gonggong smiles, Well … maybe but don’t hurt them too much … Master Zhu will get angry at us again.

Yufei smiles at the boy in front who is taller than him and appears the strongest.

So how do you want to do this … just you and me or you three and me?

The other two boys smile and move up next to the lead boy … then they separate to surround Yufei.

Yufei smiles, Okay … the three of you ... then he waits.

The three are not sure about the fight sequence for a three-on-one attack and are frozen for a minute … hoping Yufei would attack the lead boy so they can attack him from the sides … but Yufei already sensed this.

Finally, the lead boy nods to the others to attack from the sides … to distract Yufei so he can strike him from the front … he holds back to watch the others … (This is his last mistake).

Yufei senses his hesitation and attacks the front boy swiftly with a blow to his legs before the others can even launch their attack … this causes them to hesitate, which Yufei again senses and attacks each of them individually with leg blows. They all go down… hard.

Enough! Gonggong shouts … "I think they have learned their lesson…remember boys, ‘fools talk … wise men listen’."

Yufei rests his staff and starts to walk off with Gonggong.

The boys stagger up … they know they have been defeated and they are smart enough to know it was their fault. The boys have been taught long and hard about what is right and wrong … and especially about virtue and benevolence … both important Confucian precepts. They can be boys but underneath they are all want-to-be scholars in the model of Confucian ideals.

The lead boy says, Yufei wait … we are sorry … to you and Gonggong … okay?

Yufei nods, It’s ok … even brothers fight at times … but in the end we are brothers… right?

They all smile, Brothers … yeah … and oh … ask Gonggong not to put hot chili peppers in our food … okay?

Later Yufei climbs a hill behind the academy to meditate … to clear his spirit of all negative energy.

When he comes back Gonggong asks him.

When you enter the void …What do you see?

Nothing

What do you think?

Nothing

Later when you come out, what do you think?

Nothing

But … Gonggong starts to ask.

Yufei turns to him, What?

Oh … nothing …

And they both laugh …

***

2      The Adolescent Years        Wang Factory

Wang Mingde, the tea merchant, has worked the tea fields all his life … as did his father and grandfather. Now he has his own plantation, and after marrying, Zhou Ruifang, the plantation is one of the biggest in the county.

The Wang compound is on a small rise of land … near, but not too close, to the river edge in Wuyi village … it is surrounded by a high wall for both privacy and security. Inside the front entrance gate is a plain but presentable courtyard leading to the main house … in the back, is the tea factory where there is another large working courtyard, a small relaxing garden off to the side around a tree, and the interior perimeter is lined