Mysterious Martial Arts: The Record of the Swordsman

Chapter 173 The King and the Ancients

Jindaoluo Mansion occupies a vast area, and it is one of the largest houses in Guangzhou. Its black walls, black tiles, and cornices are in stark contrast to the surrounding gray and white walls, and right-angled flat-roofed tile houses. Stand firm.

The south-facing hall is facing the drying yard, which protects the living room of the back house. The north is high and the south is low, just like a carp exploring the water and directly fishing for the Nanjiang River. Into the cave by mistake.

"Wuyi faction...haven't heard of it..."

"This sect has never been heard of..."

"It's just..."

Discussions continued one after another, accompanied by the music of the Wuyi faction's advocacy and percussion, and the discussion continued until they were about to sit down.

Today, in order to accommodate the gathering of martial arts masters from all directions, the seats in the Luo Mansion were arranged and divided into three sides, which were distributed together in the shape of "pin", and surrounded by the golden basin sink in the middle as horns. For martial arts practitioners, they can choose their own position to sit in, avoiding the embarrassment of sitting at the same table or facing each other.

Jiang Wen hesitated for a while before standing in front of the word "pin", just in time to be caught up by a disciple of the Luo family panting, and said politely.

"This head, I don't know what martial arts your sect is good at, and which sect you are familiar with? I can also take you to sit down and have a talk with your fellow friends."

The other party saw that Jiang Wen was carrying a sword, his hands and feet did not appear to be thick-boned, and he was walking calmly and calmly, as if he was a virgin. He must have calluses hidden in his palms, and he might be a good soldier who came from somewhere.

More importantly, the popular range of martial arts or equipment in this era has a very important relationship with the region.For example, "Ming Hui Yao" records that people who learn martial arts in Eastern Guangdong mostly "learn long swords and short knives"; the hairy gourd soldiers from Songxi counties in Henan are "good at walking mountains, and practice short soldiers"; There are many archers in Xuzhou, who are "good at riding and shooting"; Jingxing's soldiers are "good at transporting stones, and can reach a hundred steps away", and are called "mantis hands"; people from Zhangzhou and Quanzhou, Fujian, are "Learning darts" is best at water warfare; the people of Yongchun, Quanzhou are "good at martial arts"; the natives of Yansui and Guyuan are "good at riding and shooting".

At this time, if you can ask what you are good at and understand the details, you will know where to sit.This method of merging similar items has always worked. People who are engaged in the same industry always have common topics. If you ask the other party’s sect and communication, you can also judge the source, and you can sit more comfortably with one piece.

Jiang Wen thought for a while, and then looked around at the martial arts people around. Seeing that he had earned enough of the gimmick, he stretched out his hand to the sky and stopped the sound of the troupe's hard accompaniment.

"This really stumps me..."

Jiang Wen held his chin in feigning embarrassment, "I have too many friends here, and I know everything about fists, feet and weapons. Where do you think is the right place to sit?"

The disciple of the Luo family almost choked and looked at Jiang Wen like a madman.At this time, the surrounding martial arts people all stared at them. As long as Jiang Wen himself was not embarrassed, others would be embarrassed, and the disciples of the Luo family could only bite the bullet and continue to ask.

"Uh, this head, do you know where your sect lives?"

Jiang Wen said slowly, "Fujian Wuyi Mountain."

Although the disciple of the Luo family didn't know what the other person was looking at, his brains were spinning quickly at this moment - hearing the name and seat of this sect, it must have something to do with the Taoist cave, so it should be placed where there are Taoist priests.

"Then why don't you just sit on the edge of Shangqing Temple..."

Before he could finish speaking, a boorish man emerged from the seat in the obliquely, and shouted angrily and eagerly: "What nonsense? The Wuyi faction is an old acquaintance of our Vajra Sect, how can we eat vegetarian food with this group of fakes?" on a par with?"

Jiang Wen took a closer look, and found that he was a round-faced northern man, wearing a short jacket even in the cold winter rain, his skin was tight and shiny, obviously he had years of hard work.

"Master Zhou, long time no see!"

It was none other than Zhou Long, the head of the Vajra Sect who followed Jiang Wen from Fujian to Guangdong, and the head of the Xinglong Escort Bureau. I don’t know if they sneaked in because of their bodyguard status, or where they got the invitation. , and happened to meet Jiang Wen and his party again at this time.

The martial arts practitioners on the field couldn't help being confused, how could this young master dressed as a Taoist in front of him have a good chat with a group of lay monks, but ignored the Taoist descending from the mountain who was close at hand.

Everyone knows that Shangqing Temple is the outer sect of Wudang Mountain. Most of them are disciples who violated the precepts and were dismissed or who were reluctant to leave home. The grievances between Shangqingguan and Shangqingguan in the north have been buried for a long time.

Speaking of this, we have to mention the past and present of the current Ming and Qing martial arts situation.

The torrential river rushes towards the sea, and the river has often diverted its course and flooded its banks in the past dynasties. Naturally, Wulin cannot be an old man with white beard and hair since its birth, and there are always changes in the past dynasties.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, martial arts were still inseparable from the government and the public. After all, the productive forces were not yet developed, and only the country of a thousand chariots could afford to support these warriors for killing in battle.

The martial arts at that time were mainly fist fighting and sword fighting, and the sword fighting was especially cruel. Once the neck was cut off, the liver and lung would be cut off.Zhuangzi strongly opposes this kind of sword fighting, thinking that it is "no different from cockfighting. Once life is dead, it is useless for state affairs." This is not the case in "Guanzi Seven Laws". There is a hero in the world.A gathering of heroes from all over the world, the scale is considerable.It is also known that the contestants move like birds, move like thunder and lightning, and send like wind and rain.

The movements of these masters are as swift and violent as thunder, lightning and storm, they are invincible, they do whatever they want, and their skills are astonishing. Therefore, even though the traces of Yue Nu's swordsmanship have disappeared for thousands of years, they can still attract countless martial arts people to gather in Wuyi Mountain.

And later, swordsmanship routines and pictographs were popular in martial arts in the Han Dynasty. In the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, the practice of long soldiers and short soldiers was passed down. There were records such as taking pictures, jumping swords, and throwing halberds. Skills such as jiaodai, hand fighting and jiaodai have been flourishing for a long time, and have evolved into many martial arts that are flourishing today.

In the final analysis, the way of martial arts is like the method of military strategists. There is no such thing as constant Taoism, soldiers, and water. The foundational heritage that has been handed down endlessly by various sects and sects in China has developed and grown in another form.

At this time, the limelight in the arena was not on Jiang Wen, but gathered in the two Shaolin and Wudang sects who were not present. Although they have not arrived, their shadows are everywhere in the world today.

It is precisely because of this that King Kong and Shangqing factions are certainly not great schools, and there are many masters who can beat them, but when the conflict between the two involves the centuries-old grievances between Shaolin and Wudang, many things have become unresolved. After thinking about it, the rest of the martial arts people also kept silent.

Where there are people in the rivers and lakes, there are grievances. If we really want to talk about it, Wudang and Shaolin are really Taishan Beidou, so everyone may shy away from it, but the grievances and grievances between Wudang and Shaolin are just a microcosm, and the entanglement behind them is beyond imagination. Even older than most sects in this river and lake——

In the extreme, it can even be traced back to the dispute between Buddhism and Taoism in the Central Plains for thousands of years. Although the two schools of Wudang and Shaolin have a long history, they are nothing more than a spray of water in the deep pool of today.

It can be recorded in history that from the Jin Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhism and Taoism had an indispensable influence on the development of martial arts in the Central Plains.

Today’s Shaolin, as the ancestral home of Zen, is of course based on Bodhidharma who faced the wall for nine years as the ancestor, and most of the martial arts developed by later generations are passed on in the name of him, but Shaolin Temple was actually founded by the eminent Indian monk Bhatuo, earlier than Bodhidharma’s eastward journey It has already been formed, and there are only a few yoga techniques for physical fitness that really originated from Bodhidharma.

There is no record of Ba Tuo practicing martial arts in historical records, but his disciples, Seng Chou and Hui Guang, knew some martial arts.According to the "Biography of the Eminent Monk": before the young Huiguang became a monk, he "kicked back and forth on the well fence in Tianjie, five hundred in a row." I'm afraid it will be difficult.

According to Zhang Chaoyueqian Zai of the Tang Dynasty: When Seng Chou was a young monk, he could "walk across the wall, fly hundreds of steps from west to east, and jump his head to the beam number four. His fists are victorious and brave, and animals are astounding." His ability to "walk across the wall" shows that he can lightly kung fu; At the beginning of the temple, there was a tradition of martial arts, and its function was far more than simply defending the Buddhist forest.

The practice of martial arts in Taoism is even more majestic. Ge Hong, a famous Taoist priest in the Jin Dynasty, was also proficient in martial arts.In "Baopuzi Preface to Outer Chapters", he wrote that he learned archery when he was a teenager, and later in the army, "he once shot and chased a horse with his hands, and he fell when he responded, killing two thieves and one horse".It shows the essence of his shooting skills.Ge Hong "has also learned from the sabre, the single sword and the double halberd. They all have formulas and key techniques, waiting to be taken in. There is a secret method, which is ingenious. If you use this way to confront those who don't know, you can be regarded as an all-in-one victory. There is no future. Later, I learned the seven-foot stick technique, so that I can enter the white sword and take the big halberd."It can be seen from this that Ge Hong is not only good at archery, but also good at knives, sticks, halberds and other martial arts.

This kind of military battle formation technique has spread to all the caves and blessed places, and there are naturally various effective martial arts circulating in the Taoist school, which is not inferior to the boxing and stick techniques in the Buddhist school.

The fighting between the two families continued from the temple to the rivers and lakes. The Wudang School only emerged in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and then there was the Song Dynasty. The representatives of Buddhism and Taoism were the grievances between the Qingcheng School and Daxiangguo Temple.Therefore, if people in the martial arts do not get involved with Buddhism and Taoism, that is the wisdom left by their ancestors. If ordinary people accidentally get involved, they will easily end up dead.

Then it developed to the Xianzong period of the Yuan Dynasty, and the Buddhist and Taoist debates presided over by the Great Khan Mengge were essentially a life-and-death struggle when the conflict between the two religions was fierce.

At that time, it was Quanzhen Taoist who was in charge of Taoism. At that time, the head teacher Li Zhichang was a real Taoist, and he was rumored to be able to walk through the void and enter and exit without boundaries. He was often accompanied by spirit snakes and cranes when he was young. mortal.

At that time, Shaolin joined forces with Mani religions to attack together. In order to maintain the orthodox legacy left by Changchun Daoist, Daoist Li Zhichang and Shaolin eminent monk Fuyu developed from arguing with each other to questioning and questioning, and even burning sutras and self-immolation. Among them, whose scriptures and body were burned in the fire, whoever is apocryphal scriptures and fake learning should be destroyed and prevented from being passed on to the world.

It is said that in the end the real Li Zhichang came out of the fire unharmed, as if he had won, but there was no news from the fire in Shaolin opposite.

But as the bonfire was dismantled, Elder Fuyu turned into a crystal-clear Buddha bone and colorful relics all over the ground, and when the fire was extinguished, he showed the image of the Buddha who was rid of greed, anger, ignorance and other afflictions. He actually defeated the Taoist sect by relying on supernatural powers.

Shaolin took the opportunity to play and burned the disturbing "Lao Tzu Hua Hu Jing" and the monstrous and grotesque "81 Hua Tu". In the end, only a few words and fragments of the two books were left in the form of murals, which were still buried in some Taoist temples in deep mountains and valleys.

The subsequent "world martial arts into Shaolin" made Buddhism and Taoism even more grievances, and Taoist martial arts almost could not leave traces.Fortunately, the road to the rise of the Wudang School was accompanied by the division of "inner boxing" and "outer boxing". With the stereotypes of martial arts, the "neijia boxing" with a brand-new attitude can gradually rival Shaolin.

At this time, the front of the struggle between Buddhism and Taoism finally turned to the rivers and lakes martial arts far away from the court, forming the current situation where the two factions of Wudang Shaolin are incompatible.

The pattern of martial arts in the Ming and Qing Dynasties cannot be separated from the disputes between Buddhism and Taoism, Wudang Shaolin, and even more inseparable from a figure in the history of the National People's Congress-Qi Jiguang.

Qi Jiguang, who fought against the Japanese in the southeast, once carefully studied the strengths and weaknesses of various martial arts, and studied the weaponry techniques that gradually declined after the Jin, Sui and Tang Dynasties. Reason no one remembers.

He wrote in "Ji Xiao's New Book: The Essentials of Boxing Classics": "Ancient and modern boxers, Song Taizu has 32 styles of Changquan, Liuhe Boxing, Monkey Boxing, and Shu Boxing. They have different names and positions, but they are basically the same. So far, the Wen family has 72 punches, 36 locks, 24 abandoned horses, eight dodges, and twelve shorts. , the eagle-claw king's grasp, Qiandu Zhang's tui, and Zhang Bojing's beating are all famous today."

In Qi Jiguang's description, he studied various martial arts, but he was not superstitious about the rhetoric of one school. He carefully wrote down "Lu Hong Baxia", "Mianzhang Duanta", "Li Bantian", The names of masters like "Eagle Claw King" know that the strength of martial arts does not depend on the moves. There has never been an invincible martial arts, only invincible warriors.

This double test of the spirit of seeking truth from facts and the Japanese invasion in the southeast deeply affected the structure of the martial arts in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. As a result, apart from Buddhism and Taoism, the two martial arts can be strictly guarded, and other sects and gangs stand like grass, but they have no idea of ​​cherishing themselves and holding on to the weak.

At this time, the people of the Vajra Sect were filled with righteous indignation, and the Taoist monks who had come down from Wudang Mountain were also glaring. The two sides were about to stage a martial arts show, but since today is the day when the old hero Luo washes his hands in the golden basin, the two sides exchanged two harsh words , In the end, he still didn't do it.

Following the pleasantries between Jiang Wen and Zhou Long, some martial arts practitioners in the field seemed to make bold guesses, and planned to put their thoughts into action.

"The Luo family is the owner today, why did they invite some unknown people?"

The one who made the joke was a disciple of the Qingqi Gang, probably out of resentment that the Wuyi faction made a high-profile appearance and stole their limelight, so he deliberately raised his voice a little bit higher.

Jiang Wen looked around and saw Luo Dongli, who he met in Zhangqiugang Village a few days ago, was trying to stop him in the crowd, but the tower-like leader of the Qingqi Gang, Yang, kept silent, letting the rain drip down his shirtless body .

That night, Jiang Wen and Luo Dongli had only met once, and they had never met the three apprentices. Obviously, they did not recognize Jiang Wen, and they were just acting with the idea of ​​calming things down. A handful of salt was sprinkled in the hot pot, and the flames suddenly rose three feet high.

"What? Am I wrong!"

He pushed away Luo Dongli and shoved the peacemaker back, "A little-known Taoist priest brought three children and an opera troupe to make a living, so why are you afraid of this?"

Sometimes knowing the rules of the world is not necessarily a matter of pedantry, and not knowing how to obey the wisdom of the predecessors is a kind of intolerable arrogance.The Qingqi Gang is notorious for not knowing the rules, which allowed them to rise up without rules for a while, and naturally it also made them suffer some backlash from not following the rules.

Their ignorance is reflected in the raised eyebrows of the Vajra Gate, and also reflected in the unexpectedness of the Shangqing Temple. They have nothing to do with them but have to plunge into this muddy water, and the martial arts people who like to watch the excitement secretly boiled again.

At this time, the disciples of the Qingqi Gang obviously had the intention of provocation, but they didn't realize that the sect next to their seats had moved away a few steps calmly, watching these stunned youths foolishly getting involved in the grievances of Shaolin Wudang.

Jiang Wen smiled slightly, and slightly cupped his hands at the man: "I haven't asked the name of this hero, Gao, so what advice can I give you to this faction?"

The young disciple of the Qingqi Gang said unceremoniously: "My humble Wang Ti wants to learn the real tricks in his hands. After all, he is as good as Your Excellency in making tunes!"

All eyes were on Jiang Wen, but he said apologetically, "I'm not good at fighting, so I'd better let my disciples do things like this—Hong Wei, hurry up and learn some good tricks."

Seeing this, the disciples of the Luo family wanted to stop him. After all, his master wants to wash his hands in a golden basin today, so there is no reason for anyone to fight for strength here.

But just as he was about to go forward, he was quietly stopped by another companion. The two whispered a few words, then stared at Bei Xiang in a daze for a while, and then retreated into the crowd with a face full of horror.

"The master didn't dare to go up but let the apprentice come and get beaten, it's really ridiculous!"

Seeing that Jiang Wen looked around and said that he was afraid to fight, Wang Ti felt that the opponent was guilty, so he walked out of the position of the Qingqi Gang, clasped his fists with both hands, and expressed that he was ready to meet the challenge at any time.

Hearing the other party's words, Jiang Wen's face was calm, but his body felt refreshed like an electric shock - that's how the plot should go!He almost went up and patted the other person on the shoulder and said, "Happy, I just like your temper."

"Hong Wei, you must be careful not to get hurt. I am very worried about you as a teacher."

Jiang Wen looked at Hong Wending with a smile on his face, and Wending had already seen Master's intentions.What Jiang Wen said earlier about sealing the sword immediately and safeguarding honor is not important, what is important is that the Wuyi faction needs him to win beauty.

"Yes, Master!"

This is Hong Wending's first opportunity to attack with all his strength against an outsider since he eliminated the hidden danger of the secret Dragon Form Fist.

He separated his feet four and a half steps apart, raised his left hand slightly, and tucked his right fist under his ribs. When he breathed lightly, the inner breath in his dantian was blown like fine grass and died in the wind, and instantly transformed into strands of true energy as thin as cow hair. Walking along the meridian, a strange and novel experience arises spontaneously, as if the dust in the air is dancing, the light is dancing, and the aura shines directly into the heart from the roof, illuminating the scenery in front of you.

The scene in Hong Wending's eyes became slower and slower, and his own movements also suddenly froze, falling into continuous silence.

Wang Ti, a member of the Qingqi Gang, was tall and burly, and he obviously didn't care about this young man who didn't even reach his waist.

But Hong Wending was still immersed in the comprehension of the Heavenly Silkworm Kung Fu and Hong Family Boxing, as if he was intoxicated for a long time, and at this moment he just stared blankly, not even noticing a trace of murderous intent.

Seeing that Wang Ti was getting closer, Jiang Wen frowned slightly, and suddenly raised his hand towards the sky. The band behind him, which had been silent for a long time, once again played an impassioned melody. The alternation from slow to fast gave this sparsely populated sect some momentum.

Wang Ti was taken aback by the sound of the instrument, but at the moment of trance, a fist seemed to flash in front of his eyes, spanning the distance between the two in an instant, and imprinted on his chest.

Before the Qingqi gang could react, and the martial arts people didn't notice the change, they found that Wang Ti suddenly fell backwards, but the young people from the Wuyi faction kept pushing and shoving, and remained motionless again.

At this time, only Wang Ti, who was convulsed on the ground, could feel the power in his chest belatedly, like a tide rising continuously, covering his eyes, ears, mouth and nose until he suffocated like drowning, and finally his eyes went black, and he fell into a coma. past.

Jiang Wen looked at the frozen picture in front of him and remained silent, thinking about something very simple - after going around so many times, today's limelight still has to be given by our Wuyi faction.

(End of this chapter)