Da Tang Shuang Long Zhuan Volume 1 Chapter 6 part1

Book 1 Chapter 6 - Great Method of Nine Mysteries

Four big ships [the original refers to ancient leather-clad warships] raised their anchor and set sail upstream to the west. Song Shidao talked big, naturally his background was not simple at all.

The fact was that at that time in Jianghu, in term of outstanding reputation, nothing can surpass the four powerful clans. But speaking about popularity, out of four surnames, only the Song family fit the bill. The Songs held the most power in the south. The Clan Leader, ‘Heavenly Saber' Song Que held the title ‘Number One Saber Under the Heavens'.

When Yang Jian unified the world and established the Great Sui, because he was apprehensive of the Song Clan's power, he adopted a policy to appease them by granting Song Que the title of ‘Zhen Nan Gong' [duke who subdue/suppress the South]. Aware that the power of the Southern Dynasties [c. 420-589AD] was gone, Song Que pretended to bow before him to protect his clan. [Translator's note: as I mentioned before, the ‘world' here always refers to China. I know it's simpler just to say ‘China', but I want the reader to know the different words to describe China. ‘Tian Xia' (lit. under the sky) being one of those. Interestingly, the word ‘China' itself does not exist in Chinese text.]

Among the four Clans, the other three had some blood relationship with non-Han people; but not this one of the few greats extant. To maintain the prestige of the southern clan, they persevered with tradition, strictly prohibited their clansmen from intermarrying with anybody outside the Han ethnic group; hence they were known in Jianghu as a Han orthodox clan.

During the reign of Emperor Wen, i.e. Yang Jian, although Song Que's influence was widespread, he still did not dare to act blindly without thinking. He concealed his own strength and bid his time, concentrated fully in building his power in secret to avoid inviting calamity. When Yang Guang ascended the throne, there were internal strife and external threat everywhere, imperial court was corrupt, armed rebellion rose up from all around. The Song Clan increased its level of activity once more.

Song Que's younger brother, ‘Earthly Sword' Song Zhi, who was considered one of the top swordsmen, as well as top strategist in Jianghu, knew that Sui Dynasty's power was still considerably great; if they prematurely move their troops, they would immediately become the first target of Sui force. Hence he advised his older brother to postpone their rebellion against the Sui, but use their resources to accumulate wealth in all kinds of lucrative trading.

One of the most profitable businesses was transporting illegal salt from coastal regions inland via the Yangtze River. They obtained great profit this way. Song Shidao's four ships were precisely smuggling sea salt from the coast.

While the imperial court was corrupt, the Song family relied on their influence in the south to easily gain access thru all key places, and openly transport salt.

If there was any government official dared to investigate and arrest, they will be dealt with all kinds of method of intimidation. They even went as far as secret assassination to achieve their goal.

Even though there were rebel armies everywhere, as long as they see the Song family banner, nobody dared to offend them, for fear of making enemies of this powerful clan. Therefore, for the last few years, Song family's power grew in secret. So much so that they even finance several militia groups to weaken the Sui forces.

Song Que had four sons and two daughters. Song Shidao was the youngest of his sons, with specific duty to run the salt smuggling operation. His father doted on him very much.

His two daughters were Yuhua and Yuzhi; both had ‘bashful flower obstructing the moon' countenance. They were his fourth and sixth child, respectively. Three years ago Song Yuhua was given in marriage to Xie Wenlong, the son of Chengdu-based great hero Xie Hui of Sichuan.

Xie Hui's title was ‘Wulin Panguan' [the Magistrate of Wulin; Pan Guan was the mythological judge of the underworld], a top martial art experts whose fame was on par with Song Que and Song Zhi; the founder of ‘Du Zun Bao' [Bastion of Supremacy], one of the emerging new powerful surnames outside the original four powerful clans.

The Song-Xie marriage arrangement reeked with political as well as business deal smell; with these two great forces forming an alliance, Yang Guang would be more afraid to act rashly against them.

In this trip, the destination of these four ships was precisely Sichuan, delivering their cargo to ‘Du Zun Bao', which, in turn, would be distributed to the local salt merchants.

This moment, in a spacious room on the second deck of one of the huge ships, Kou Zhong, who was wearing a pair of boots presented by County Deputy Chen as a gift, was lying on the bed, holding the ‘Secret to Long Life' in his hands. He was deeply engrossed in studying one of the human diagrams in the book. Although there were chairs, Xu Ziling did not sit on one, he sat on the floor instead, hugging his knees, with his back against the cabin wall. He was in turmoil.

Why was it that when he saw the woman-in-white and Song Shidao talking, he grew so jealous? Although concerning man-woman relationship he was a bit curious, he had never had any excessive expectation or even delusion. There was an extremely big gap in all aspect between he and the woman-in-white. In term of age, she was at least seven, eight years older than he was. Could it be that Kou Zhong was right, that he really had a crush on her?

But thinking about it, it did not seem to be the case.

When he looked at the girls from Spring Breeze Courtyard, he did have impulses to embrace them, but toward the woman-in-white, he did not have that kind of idea. Even when he had a close contact with her, his heart were brimming with respect, there was only warm love, with no lust or desire between men and women.

He could not bear not to ask, "Zhong Shaoye! Do you think I really fall in love with … with that woman?” [Here the word is ‘nu ren', not ‘po niang' like before.]

"Don't disturb me!” Kou Zhong was impatient, "I am studying the world's most formidable martial art that is not martial art!”

The cabin was silent once again.

After half a day, Kou Zhong put down the ‘Secret to Long Life', propped his head up, and then he got up from the bed and came over to Xu Ziling. Copying him, he sat on the floor. Holding Xu Ziling's shoulders, he said, "I am sorry, I was in such a bad mood. I am afraid that even if Guigu Zi[1] is reborn, he wouldn't be able to make sense of this ghost book [play on words here: the ‘gui' of Guigu Zi literally means ‘ghost']. Hey! What did you just say?”

Seeing Xu Ziling was angry and did not want to talk, he hurriedly said, "I know, I remember now. Ha, a real man won't worry about not finding a wife. That wo … oh, that woman [he was going to say ‘po niang' then changed it to ‘nu ren'] does not deserve us, two brothers. That Song Pidao [‘pi' means fart] can easily beat us with his hand tied and using just half of his skill. We'd better retain our mind and strength to take a look at this secret manual, to eat, poop and sleep. Ha …”

Xu Ziling was still in distress, "But did I really fall in love with her?”

Kou Zhong racked his brain for a moment, and then calmly said, "The fact is, I was jealous as hell, same as you. But I don't think that I fall in love with her. Hey! My feeling toward her is a bit like my feeling toward Zhen Sao [see Chapter 2]; she really does not deserve to be that stinky Ol' Feng's concubine, but I can do nothing about it. Ah, right! I understand now. Xiao Ling, I think you regarded her as your Niang [mother, mommy]. Who would want his own Niang to remarry? Especially marrying that we-behind-the-ears whose talk is bigger than the sky, who only fit to be our servant, Chou Pidao [‘chou pi' - smelly fart/arrogant]. Ha! This name Chou Pidao is more apt than Yuwen Huagu [see Chapter 5].”

Xu Ziling kept a stout face, but in the next instant he burst into a wild laughter; so wild that tears were streaming out his eyes.

Suddenly the door was pushed open.

The two boys looked up in shock, and saw the woman-in-white came in with icy-cold countenance like a layer of frost. She closed the door, and then stared fiercely at the two boys.

Quite a while later, she walked over to the two boys, knocked the cabin wall they were leaning on, and said, "Don't forget who stays next door. Unless this wall is made of steel plate, each sentence of stinky words you speak will be transmitted into my ears.”

Kou Zhong struggled up and said, "We did not call you ‘po niang', why did you come to us to vent your anger?”

The woman-in-white dropped down on one knee and ferociously said, "What this woman or that woman [nu ren]? You two are dead little demons, stinky little demons!”

While speaking the last sentence, a fleeting smile escaped from the corners of her mouth. How could the two boys fail to see that she was not really angry? Xu Ziling was the first to speak up, "But we really don't know your name!”

The woman-in-white lowered her voice, "And did you tell me your names?”

Kou Zhong showed an ‘oh, so that's what it is' look on his face. He made the introduction, "Xiaodi's [little brother, referring to self] name is Kou on the top and Zhong on the bottom, and he is Xu Ziling. We are the Two Dragons of Yangzhou. May I ask Dashi's honorable surname and great given name? And what is your nickname? Which holy place did you come from? Are you married?”

‘Pfft!' the woman-in-white stifled a laughter muttered under her breath, "Dead little demon.” With that kind of unspeakably mesmerizing appearance, the two boys' eyeballs almost popped out.

Just as quickly the woman-in-white's frosty countenance returned as she frostily said, "Married or not married, it's none of your business. If you talk about me behnd my back, I will … I will …”

Showing concern, Kou Zhong asked, "What punishment this time? It would be best if you don't slap my mouth or scrape my eyelid; it won't look too good on me. Little demons should maintain their little demon's face!”

The woman-in-white knew she could not do anything against him; she angrily said, "I will make you regret it. During dinner, you must not babble nonsense. Understand?”

Giggling, Kou Zhong said, "We'd better call Dashi our Niang in the future, then whenever we are using your money, we won't have to feel embarrassed.”

A slight blush crept onto the woman-in-white's face like red clouds, making her beautiful face even more lovely and alluring, particularly her spirited but tender eyes that can hook any man's soul.

Kou Zhong signaled Xu Ziling with his eyes, the two of them called together, "Niang!”

Finally the woman-in-white could not take it anymore; she laughed and sat down. Gasping for breath, she said, "If I really have you, these two absolutely disgraceful, unfilial sons, I guarantee I will suffer headache and bowel disorders.”

Seeing she did not flatly refuse, but laughed so hard that her body shook instead, that she looked so charmingly happy, which he had never seen before, Kou Zhong became bolder and decided to strike while the iron was still hot, "My Niang, oh, my Niang, your child thinks that your martial art skill can be considered pretty good, after being injured by Yuwen Huagu, you took only several sichen to recover. You'd better teach us a couple of martial art techniques, let us master some unique family skills with which we can brightened our family's social status and thus will not cause you to lose any face.”

[1] Guigu Zi (literally 'The Sage of Ghost Valley'), or Mr. Guigu, is thought to be the writer/compiler of the 6,000-7,000 Chinese-character book discussing techniques of political lobbying based in Daoist thinking; between the late Warring States period and the end of the Han Dynasty (source: Wikipedia).

Chapter end