Great Idiocy, already nine candles and two incense
sticks ahead, concentrated on protecting his own
candles, while extinguishing more of Chen's incense
sticks whenever the opportunity arose. In a short
while, he had snuffed out another fourteen, while
Chen, putting his all into the task, only managed to
extinguish two of the candles. Suddenly, he remembered
one of 'Buddha' Zhao's tricks and threw three chess
pieces at the side wall with great force. They
ricocheted off and two of them struck their targets.
Great Idiocy, who had thought the throw was a show of
childish petulance on Chen's part, let out a cry of
surprise.
Chen continued in this way, bouncing chess pieces off
the wall. Great Idiocy had no way of protecting the
candles, but he was already several dozen incense
sticks ahead, and without
taking any further notice of
his
opponent, he redoubled his efforts to knock out
the rest. As the last of the monk's candles went out,
the hall was plunged into darkness. Chen counted seven
incense sticks left on the monks side while his own
was still a mass of red dots, perhaps thirty or forty.
Just as he was coming to the conclusion that he had
lost, he heard Great Idiocy shout: "Master Chen, I've
used up all my projectiles. Let us stop for a moment
and get more from the altar table."
Chen felt in his bag and found he only had five or six
chess pieces left.
"You go first," the monk added. Chen walked over to
the altar table and with a flash of inspiration,
stretched out his arm and swept all of the projectiles
into his bag. He jumped back to his place and Great
Idiocy ran over to find the table top was empty. Chen
threw a shower of projectiles at the remaining fiery
spots, and in a moment had extinguished them all.
Great Idiocy let out a
hearty laugh. "I have to hand
it to you, Master Chen," he said. "That was more of a
battle of wits than a trial of strength. You win.
Please continue."
"I apologise," Chen replied. "I had already lost, and
only used such a trick because of the importance of
the matter. Please forgive me."
"The masters guarding the next two halls are my
martial uncles. Their kung fu is very good. You must
be careful."
Chen thanked him and went on to the next hall. This
hall was also
brightly lit with candles, but it was
much smaller than the previous three. Two rattan mats
lay on the floor in the centre of the hall, and the
senior monk Heavenly Mirror was seated on one of them.
As Chen entered, he monk stood up in greeting.
"Please sit down," he said, gesturing to the other
other mat. Chen wondered how he wanted to compete, but
took his seat in silence.
Heavenly Mirror was an extremely tall man and very
formidable to look at. Even seated on the mat, he was
not much shorter than an ordinary person. His cheeks
were two deep hollows, and there appeared to be no
flesh on his body at all.
"You have passed through three halls, which is greatly
to your credit," he said. "But you are still junior to
me, so I cannot compete with you on equal terms. Let
us do it this way: if you can go ten moves with me
without losing, I will let you go through."
Chens bowed to him. "Thank you for your kindness, Your
Reverence."
Heavenly Mirror grunted. "Now parry this!"
Chen felt a force striking towards his chest and
raised his hands to
counter it. Their palms met and
Chen was forced to make use of his full strength to
keep from falling
backwards. The shock of the impact
caused a dull ache to grow in his left arm.
"Now the second move!" Heavenly Mirror called. Chen
did not dare to
counter his hand directly again. He
leant to one side, then hit out at the monk's elbow.
Heavenly Mirror should have responded by withdrawing
his arm, but instead he swept it across in attack, and
Chen only just managed to parry it. A bell close to
the hall began to chime, and as it resounded, Chen had
an idea. He switched to the kung fu style he had
learned in the White Jade Peak, synchronising his
movements to the sound of the bell. Heavenly Mirror
gasped in surprise and fought back carefully.
When the bell ceased, Chen
withdrew his hands. "I
cannot continue," he said.
"All right. We have already exchanged more than forty
moves. Your kung fu is very good. Please pass."
Chen stood up, and was about to walk off when he
suddenly swayed and stumbled and
hurriedly leant
against the wall for support. Heavenly Mirror helped
him to sit down again.
"Rest here for a moment and catch your breath," he
said. "It won't affect matters."
Chen close his eyes and did as the monk said.
"Where did you learn that style of kung fu?" Heavenly
Mirror asked. Chen told him.
"I never guessed that the standard of kung fu would be
so high in the western border regions. If you had used
that style from the start you would not have hurt your
arm."
"Seeing as I am hurt, I am sure I will not be able to
make it through the last hall," Chen said. "What does
Your Reverence suggest I do?"
"If you can't make it through, turn back."
Chen's
martial training made it impossible for him to
accept defeat so easily. He stood up and bowed to
Heavenly Mirror, then
strodebravely towards the last
hall.
He was surprised to find it was in fact only a tiny
room in the centre of which sat the abbot of the
Shaolin Monastery, Heavenly Rainbow. Chen wondered how
he could possibly overcome the best kung fu
fighter in
the Shaolin Monastery if his junior, Heavenly Mirror,
was already so formidable.
The abbot bowed. "Please be seated," he said. A steady
stream of sandlewood-scented smoke rose from a small
incense stove on a table between them. On the wall
opposite Chen, was a painting of two monks which,
although executed with only a few brush-strokes, was
full of vitality.
Heavenly Rainbow meditated for a moment, then said:
"There was once a man who was very successful at
goat-herding. He became very rich, but he was by
nature very miserly...."
Hearing the abbot begin to tell a story, Chen was
greatly puzzled, but he concentrated on what the old
man was
saying: "An acquaintance of the goatherd knew
he was very stupid, and also that he badly wanted to
find a wife. So he cheated the goatherd,
saying: 'I
know a girl who is very beautiful. I can arrange for
her to marry you.' The goatherd was
delighted and gave
him a large amount of money. A year past, and the man
said to him: 'Your wife has given birth to your son.'
The goatherd hadn't even seen the woman, but hearing
he had a son, he was even more pleased and gave the
man another large sum of money. Later, the man came to
him again and said: 'Your son has died!' The goatherd
cried uncontrollably, heart-broken in the extreme."
Chen had a fairly good general education, and knew he
was quoting from the Hundred Parables Sutra of the
Mahayana school of Buddhism.
"In fact all
worldly matters are like this," the abbot
continued. "Power and riches are like the wife and
child of the goatherd: just fantasies. What is the
point of
wasting effort to obtain them when losing
them will only cause sorrow?"
"There was once a husband and wife who had three
cakes," Chen replied. "They ate one cake each, but
could not decide who should eat the third. Finally,
they agreed that
whoever talked first would lose the
chance to eat the cake."
Hearing Chen relate another story from the Hundred
Parables Sutra, Heavenly Rainbow nodded.
"The two stared at each other in silence. Soon after,
a thief entered and ransacked the house for the
couple's valuables, but because of their agreement,
the couple continued to stare at each other without
saying a word. Seeing them thus, the thief became even
more bold and
violated the wife in front of the
husband. The husband made no complaint at all about
what was
happening, but in the end, the wife could
stand it no longer and cried out. The thief grabbed up
the valuables and fled, while the husband clapped his
hands and shouted
triumphantly: 'You lose! The cake is
mine!'"
Heavenly Rainbow could not help but smile, even though
he knew the story well.
"He ignored great suffering for the sake of minor
personal satisfaction, allowing the thief to steal his
possessions and
violate his wife in order to satisfy
his appetite. According to Buddhist tenets, one should
try to help all living things and should not think
only of oneself."
Heavenly Rainbow sighed, and quoted from the Buddhist
scriptures: "There are no rules to
regulate behaviour,
there are no rules to which I am subject. Man is at a
standstill until acted upon by a force. Those with no
desires, will not be troubled by dreams and
fantasies."
"Life for most people is full of hardship," Chen
replied. "The monk Zhi Daolin once said: 'Emperors are
cruel and evil by nature. How can one stand idly by?'"
The abbot could see Chen's
determination to carry out
his duty and help ease the people's burden, and was
full of respect for him.
"Your enthusiasm is commendable, Master Chen," he
said. "I will set you one more question, and then you
can have your way."
Chen bowed his head in acknowledgement.
"An old woman was once lying under a tree, resting.
Suddenly, a huge bear appeared
wanting to eat her. She
jumped up and ran behind the tree to escape, and the
bear stretched its paws round either side of the tree
to grab her. Seizing the opportunity, the old woman
pressed its paws down onto the tree trunk. As a
result, the bear could not move, but the old woman did
not dare to let go either. Some time later, a man
passed by and the old woman appealed to him for help,
saying they could kill the bear together and share the
meat. The man believed her and took her place
holdingdown the bear's paws. The old woman then fled, leaving
the man in the same dilemma she had been in."
Chen knew the moral of the story: "Never regret
helping others, even if you suffer yourself as a
result," he replied.
Heavenly Rainbow lifted the the long-haired duster he
was
holding. "Please go through," he said.
Chen stood up and bowed before him. "Please forgive me
for trespassing on this sacred place," he said.
The abbot nodded. As he walked out of the room, Chen
heard the old man sigh.
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