Chapter 15 From great martial arts to great father-in-law

In the rivers and lakes, there is a sect with the wildest and wildest name, called "Sun Moon God Sect". But the irony is that the leader of this organization, Mr. Dongfang Invincible, has no such function at all.He had nothing to do with the insolent and rude verb of his Christian name. This apparently misnamed sect has at least thousands of believers, far surpassing Shaolin of Buddhism and Wudang of Taoism, and even more than Huashan, whose leader claims to be a Confucian scholar. How can a person like Mr. Dongfang who has no sound functions surpass Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism and attract many fans?To dissect this phenomenon, let's start with an era about 400 years ago.

The era of martial arts is an era of prosperous martial arts and a hundred flowers blooming.Most of the greatest martial arts at that time were collected in the three top-notch libraries: one called Huanshui Pavilion, opened by the Murong family; one called Langhuan Yudong, opened by the Xiaoyao Sect; It was opened by Shaolin Temple.The masters of the rivers and lakes racked their brains to read books in the library of the three bulls. The three libraries are opened, one is Confucianism, the other is Taoism, and the other is Buddhism.For a long time, the three temples complement each other, forming a martial arts world.

What I want to talk about is the Gusu Murong Family who opened the "Huan Shi Shui Pavilion".Their last leader, Murong Bo, traveled across the rivers and lakes with a distinct image of a Confucian scholar—"The man was about forty years old, with a handsome appearance, and he was wearing a scholar's scarf."He is a practitioner of Confucianism who is active in using the world, and aims to restore peace and restore the homeland. Even though the success rate is almost zero, he still knows that it cannot be done, even though he died. In the rivers and lakes at that time, as a Confucian scholar, his martial arts thought was the most unruly, and he advocated repaying grievances directly, and his core spirit was "return the other's way with the other's way".

In contrast, although the Xiaoyao sect of the Taoist lineage also has the ruthless plum-folding hand and the greedy and selfish Beiming magic skill, and the Shaolin Temple of the Buddhist school also has the "big Wei Tuo pestle", which is a brutal stunt that specializes in performing boulders smashing the chest, but It is not as extreme and extreme as the Murong family's "use your own way to kill you". However, in the movie, this literary and elegant Murong family made a big splash, acted as the eye of the storm in the martial arts world, and then fell irreparably.Whether it is Song, Liao, Xixia, Dali, Tubo, or even all the forces and existences in the rivers and lakes, they think they are too noisy and extreme.They are the target of public criticism, threats, troubles, and thorns.

In the long history of Jin Yong's martial arts, the collapse of a corner of Confucian warriors began with the decline of the Murong clan. This decline is irreversible.In the Southern Song Dynasty, Huang Yaoshi, who was born around 1170 A.D., became the last scholar in Jin Yong's Jianghu who reached the peak of martial arts.Let us remember the image of Huang Yaoshi - "wearing a blue straight dress and a square scarf, he is a scribe". This is the last great Confucian image in the history of martial arts, and it is the swan song of the disciples of Confucius and Mencius in the highest hall of the rivers and lakes.Those Confucian warriors after Huang Yaoshi, no matter Yang Xiao, Zhang Cuishan, Chen Jinnan, Chen Jialuo or Yu Yutong, no matter how clever they were, they were all second- and third-rate figures.

At the same time when the Confucian warriors were sinking, around 1160 AD, as a man named Huang Shang wrote a book called "Nine Yin Scriptures" based on "Wan Shou Dao Zang", Taoist warriors ushered in glory era. In the next hundred years or so, the "Nine Yin Scriptures" was raised to an extremely lofty position, and it was even called "the general outline of martial arts in the world". Huang Chang's successor, Wang Chongyang, continued the glory of Taoist warriors. His martial arts are called "Xuanmen authentic". , leaving an unattainable back in the "Trilogy of Shooting the Condors".

Even Huang Yaoshi, a Confucian scholar who has always been proud, had to express his admiration and admiration for the Taoist Wang Chongyang in poems: "Chongyang is full of truth, high-minded and still striding forward. Correcting the heroic posture, taking advantage of the time or separatist rule... Now it is finally going south, The halls and pavilions are full of smoke." Perhaps absorbing the lessons of the decline of Confucian warriors, the Taoist "Nine Yin Manual" is too gentle.As soon as it comes up, it makes clear the meaning - "the way of heaven, the excess is damaged and the deficiency is made up, so the emptiness wins the reality, and the deficiency wins the excess", which means that I will never eat too much, have no ambition, and will never be like the Murong family. Roughly soaring, you have to poke the oil pan when you stir-fry.

Under the guidance of this lukewarm thought, the Taoist warriors tried their best to sharpen the edges and corners of their martial arts in fear and fear, and carefully searched for great possibilities in "contentment" and "no desire". Taoist master Zhou Botong's martial art is called "Kongmingquan", known as "the softest in the world", which is already impotent; the later Taoist master Zhang Sanfeng invented the "Tai Chi" series of martial arts that is even more impotent than Kongmingquan .When his apprentice Yu Lianzhou accidentally created the fierce "Tiger Claw Extinct Hand", he was shocked and told his apprentice not to use it.

It's really not as good as one generation.At any rate, the Taoist warriors who developed the "Nine Yin White Bone Claws" felt that even the far gentler "Tiger Claws" were too sensitive and irritating. After the Taoist "Nine Yin Scriptures" were lost, the next one to rule the world was the Buddhist "Nine Yang Scriptures". On the road of "sluggishness", Buddhist warriors have gone further than Taoism—didn't you still covertly say that "emptiness is better than reality" and "insufficiency is better than more than enough"?How about I don't even want a fig leaf, just don't fight back when I'm beaten?

Thus, there is the famous saying in the "Nine Suns Manual", "He is strong and he is strong, and the breeze blows the hills; he is horizontal and he is horizontal, and the moon shines on the river". The most explicit sentence in the "Nine Suns Manual" is the sentence "He is self-ruthless, he is self-evil, and I am full of sincerity." Every time I read it, it always reminds me of the "golden gold" of the people of the Central Plains in the Northern Song Dynasty decades ago. Soldiers have maces, and we have heavenly spirit caps" - this bitter joke that once made the adherents cry, after some packaging, it has become an orthodox martial arts thought.

However, even if the sluggish retreat has reached this point, the evolution (or degeneration) of martial arts practitioners is not over yet.There is a kind of power in the dark, and I feel that the yang energy of the warriors is still a little heavier. Thus, on the Galapagos Islands in the evolution history of martial arts, through great natural selection, a more amazing warrior appeared.They stepped over the relics of manic Confucian warriors, humble Taoist warriors, and self-abuse Buddhist warriors, and ascended to the throne of the martial arts arena. Their names are eunuchs, not Zhang Yide, the Yan people, but castrated eunuch.In the history of Jin Yong's martial arts, a fourth sect besides Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism appeared-the eunuch.Swinging the sword from the palace is a vote of honor to join this sect. Opening the smelly book, I was surprised to see that after four hundred years, a group of father-in-laws became the supreme rulers of martial arts. The martial saints in the past history, from the sweeping monk to Dugu Qiubai, Huang Shang, and Zhang Sanfeng, no matter how they practiced abstinence, they were at least complete.Wang Chongyang was even able to "meet two immortals" with Lin Chaoying, and almost fell over. But in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the eunuchs were completely overwhelming.You can see that the representative of the highest achievements of Confucian warriors is Yue Buqun, whose combat effectiveness is only in his early seventies.In order to reach a new peak in martial arts, Teacher Yue gritted his teeth and swung his sword from the palace behind his wife's back. After handing in the certificate of nomination, he immediately transformed into a super Saiyan eunuch and defeated all the invincible opponents of the Five Mountains Sword School. Zuo Lengchan was once Master Yue's greatest enemy. Jin Yong said that he "although there is a word 'Zen' in his name, he is not a disciple of Buddhism, and his martial arts are close to Taoism."But regardless of whether Teacher Zuo is a Buddha or a Taoist, they are all outdated, and when he met Yue Buqun who joined the eunuch, he was immediately poked blind. As for the representatives of Buddhism and Taoism, monk Fangzheng and Taoist priest Chongxu, they can only dwell in Shaoshi Mountain and Wudang Mountain, so as to avoid encountering the oriental leader of eunuchism, so as not to ruin their fame for a lifetime.If you really want to meet the leader of the East, you will probably end up being bombed ten streets.There is also Teacher Yu Canghai, who is also considered an authentic Taoist master, when he meets Lin Pingzhi, a rookie from the eunuch sect, he has no power to fight back. There are no great martial arts in that Jianghu, only some great father-in-laws are left. We have to admit that eunuchs are indeed the perfect evolutionary form of warriors, which is more reassuring than Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.As we all know, no matter how docile a male animal is, it will inevitably bite. Only when the gelding dies will it lose its aggressiveness completely. I often think that if the Ming and Qing Dynasties still engage in Huashan Lunjian, it must be very exciting.How spectacular it would be for several great masters to finish their chattering and chatting, and then squat together and pee together!