混沌
Hun Dun
Chapter 1
“Before there was the world there was chaos which was called Hun Dun. Hun Dun took the shape of a divine egg. Within the egg a being slept for 18,000 years who was called Pangu. When Pangu awoke from his slumber he saw Hun Dun surrounding him. With a great swipe from his hand he separated the chaos, creating the sky and the earth. But the sky and the earth were still close together, and for fear that they would again become one he placed his feet firmly on the ground, and his hand strongly in the sky and pushed them apart. For thousands of years he stood this way and as he stood he grew, lifting the heavens from the earth. After 18,000 more years the sky and the earth were far enough apart that Pangu felt they would never again be rejoined, and having accomplished this he died.
As his body fell to the earth His breath became the wind, his voice the thunder, his left eye the sun and his right eye the moon. His body became the mountains. his blood formed rivers, his muscles the fertile lands. His facial hair became the stars and milky way, his fur the bushes and forests. His sweat fell as rain; and the fleas on his fur became all the animals of the world, including man…”
一
In the darkness of night was a woman. She laid against an old farm house that sat at the edge of a great city on the boundary between suburb and farm land. The rice fields were filled with water, undisturbed by the woman's screaming. She was ugly and dirty. She wore only filthy grey rags that were torn so they barely covered her frail body. Her hair was black and matted, her face was swollen and cut. She lay screaming for her life as three men stood over her.
Three farm workers, too ugly to ever have wives, too poor to visit the whore houses, had found an easier way to quench an inner fire that had grown each day while breaking their backs for a land owner who paid them too little.
They stood tall and sneered, their faces evil but their hearts beating with fear. Pounding with excitement and regret before even having touched her. Their hands shook, their voices slurred like they were drunk, but they had no money for wine. The rain was pouring down like a waterfall washing away all sin and sound, each drop adding to a chorus of dull thuds on dirt, musical notes on the tile roof, and the quiet pings on a sword held still behind the darkly gathered farm laborers.
An old blade, covered in red rust, It’s tip had broken off and the full length of its sharpened edge was serrated from hundreds of chinks where metal had hit metal. The iron hand guard was fixed over a wooden handle. The cool hand that gripped it was strong and calloused.
Stillness pervaded the scene, only the rain moved. Suddenly one man lunged forward, and the two others followed him. Diving like tigers at rats, they never looked behind them, only seeing their prey. But as they moved the sword moved with them. It made a new note as it sliced through the air, singing in the wind.
A sword moving
three men fall with the rain.
All sound swallowed by water.
二
The woman went silent, not sure if she should still be afraid. The man who now stood over her was covered in scars. His hair stood wild against the pouring sky, his eyes blazing down at her with pure distain. Cloth and leather was bound around his arms and legs while armor of interconnected metal plates, like the skin of a snake, protected his body.
The sword he held slightly out from his body, letting the rain pour down it's groove like a red river. Slipping the cleaned blade back into it’s sheath he turned and walked back to the road picking up the bags he had dropped there, heading in the direction of the city gates.
As he walked away the girl stood, following him to the road.
She looked in the direction that would take her away, the direction of hope, the direction of liberation. Then in the direction of the city and her nightmares, everything she wished to run from but now also her scarred hero. She hung her head and watched the water flow down her hanging hair and fall at her feet, then finally she looked up once more, turned towards the city and followed.
三
The scarred man could hear her steps as the rain stopped, but continued walking through the gates where watchmen had been lulled to sleep by the downpour. The streets were empty as the clouds broke. The full moon casting long shadows.
Finally stopping in front of an old inn, he looked back at the girl. The moon lit her like a beacon. She had stopped when he did and now held her wet rags around her as if to protect herself. Her face was bleeding, new cuts, and black eyes over a body formed by a life time of cruelty. She stood like an ancient ghost that haunted young men.
As the scarred man turned away again his armor knocked against his sword making the only sound in the world. He walked around to the dark ally that lay beside the inn. He sat against the wall and reached into his bag pulling out a dry wool blanket.
The girl looked back at the gate through which she had escaped earlier that night. Before it had seemed like a miracle, an escape from hell, but now it looked like a hungry mouth waiting to swallow her and suck her down, which is where mouths always led.
She turned back, and walked towards the inn. Where the man had turned left, she turned right, into an alley across the road from him, she could see him from here, she felt safe being in his sight. The girl lay down and closed her eyes, Pulling her rags tight against her body battling the cold, finally she fell into uneasy dreams, finding no rest.
四
Suddenly the young woman snapped her head up. The morning was breaking. Immediately she looked across the road but the man from the previous night was not their. The sun was just lighting the grey mist as she jumped up and ran out into the cobble stone street. There was nobody except one or two merchants preparing their carts for the day and suddenly she felt panic strike her chest like a fist.
She tore a piece of her already tattered rags to wrap around her face, and sprinted down the road. But as the sun grew higher the city came to life and soon desolate alleys had turned into a loud flood of people drowning her senses.
Franticly she looked for the large figure, the wild hair, and the strong arms that were her savior’s. But the man she had risked hell to know could not be found.
Morning turned to mid day and he was no where in sight. The girl was tiered. She had not eaten in days, had not slept but for the restless night before. She collapsed in the middle of the street exhausted amongst the crowd. Crawling at the level of knees she found her way to the steps of a tea house where she breathed deeply the hopeless air.
Only watching feet travel past she had no will to raise her head. She knew if she stayed here she would be found, everything in her body that had told her to run as fast and far as she could was silent now either dead, or too tiered to protest.
“Oh yes, well of course I recognized his skills right away, he was a genius from an early age, and I, being such an experienced teacher, saw it immediately.” The voice came from an old man. The girl looked up into his face. His wrinkled skin hung low over his eyes. His hair was grey and long, even his beard had turned almost completely white. As he passed he looked down at the trodden girl as she quickly hid her face.
“Come, buy me some food and we will talk more of Tian Yi!,” continued the man as he walked into the tea house with his very wealthy looking friend.
Now a second pair of shoes appeared walking up the stairs. These were old and worn. Holes where dirty toes poked through showing no socks. The legs were not covered and as they climbed the calves rippled with untold power. The girl looked up again as her heart beat fire throughout her body. It was her hero. He looked down at her with those same contemptuous eyes. Most of his face was covered now by a large straw cone hat like the farmers wore in the fields. He no longer wore the leather arm coverings or the metal armor. He wrapped his wool blanked around him like a beggar’s robe.
He walked into the tea house after the two wealthy men. The girl tried to follow them in, but upon seeing her ragged body and covered face the waiter quickly tried hurried both her and the scarred man out. But the man pulled some coins from his pocket and forced them into the waiters hand walking past. The girl however just looked dejected and went back out to the stairs, she had no money for tea.
She clung to the window for support as she watched the swordsman sit down at the table next to the wealthy men, his back facing them. The waiter immediately brought him a cup of tea and asked if he would like any food. The girl watched the mysterious man shake his head, then ducked as the waiter walked by the window muttering about cheapskates.
“Well you see I found Tian Yi in a gutter,” The old man was continuing his story now with tea and food to comfort him. He spoke loud as if he hoped everyone around him would hear. “He was a young boy, only 10 at the time, though that is older than most people must start if they wish to be true masters.” He sipped from his cup thoughtfully. “I was walking to the market one day, and I offered some spare change to a young beggar woman sitting in the street with her children. Her oldest son was playing with a stick, and by the way he held that stick I could see with my keen eyes that he would be the greatest fencer in history, provided he had my expert tutelage.” The old man beamed with pride. “So I took him as my student free of charge, of course it was a big burden for me at the time as I already had so many students to take care of, but I had to sacrifice for the good of my art.”
Now the wealthy man sitting with him piped in “ That is wonderful Master Chen, but if he was such a genius then surely he must have been able to grow his skill without your help, right?”
The old master quickly slurped down a large dumpling and wiped his mouth as he answered
“Even though a small seed might grow to be a massive pine tree, it still needs the right hand to nurture it, otherwise it will forever remain a seed. You see a true genius is born, that is true, but then don’t you agree only a genius can teach him? Of course by the time Tian Yi became my student I was already growing old, but if we had met as peers I assure you we would have been equally matched. ” He raised his cup slowly and drank his tea like an ancient wise man letting his words sink in.
The girl at the window could smell the kitchen. Steamed vegetables, dumplings, meats and soups, her legs grew week as the weight of her empty stomach grew ten fold .
“So then you cannot make my son a master if he is not already gifted?” the gentleman asked breaking the silence.
“Oh, well no matter what you must know that I am the best teacher in the world! I don’t know if your son will be the next Tian Yi, but I have a strong reputation. Any student who comes to me and can work hard will become one of the greatest masters anywhere. Of course the amount of time I spend giving him private lessons will depend on how financial secure I am. You see if I am always worrying about money I can’t focus as much on teaching, don‘t you agree?”
The younger man laughed. “Do not worry Master Chen, you need not fish for money, if you teach my son I will pay handsomely.”
The two men talked for hours. The old man boasting about his skills as a teacher and as a sword master. The young man laughing and listening with excitement. As they talked, evening descended and finally the young man stood to leave.
“It has gotten late Master Chen, I must get back to the governor’s courts, there has been a big fuss over someone who has escaped from the dungeons.”
“Oh! I didn’t realize your duties involved the prisons as well! You must have been promoted!” The old master was trying to sound impressed.
“Oh no, Of course I’m still just the records keeper but the governor seems especially interested in this prisoner and wants all his most valued people to be on hand.” The young man beamed at his own importance for a moment.
The old master also stood now, cleaning the fallen pieces of food from his long tunic. The two men parted ways as they walked through the door going their separate directions. Very shortly after which the scarred man also emerged from the tea house and started down the road after the old man, with the girl behind them both.
The streets were emptying now as the sun went down, only beggars were moving about, looking for warm corners to spend the night in. The old master walked confidently. He seemed happy and content and hummed to himself as he strolled along. But as he was walking the scarred man was coming closer.
His feet stepped silently and quickly, his body moved like a viper, flowing like pure poison. The scarred man drew closer, reaching his hand out to grab the old master as the sun hide in fear.
Suddenly Master Chen flung his tunic up and spun around drawing his sword like a flower blooming in an instant. He swung at the ugly face of his pursuer with such speed and precision that it would have meant an instant death had the scarred man not also drawn his sword. The ringing sound of iron colliding echoed off the buildings.
The scarred man’s rusted old piece of metal spiraled quickly around Master Chen’s pristine weapon, the twisting power forcing the old man to lose his grip and his sword to twirl up into the air. But as the chipped point of the scarred man’s steel stabbed at the old man’s throat he dodged the blow and reached instantly up with his other hand to grab his gleaming blade from mid air before it flew out of reach.
Now the master drove his sword at the chest of the scarred man, but it was blocked, and before he could make another move, a hand had wrapped around his wrist like a wet cloth and twisted it so that the Old Master had to bend to one knee to prevent his arm from breaking.
The beautiful sword fell to the ground. Master Chen looked up at the man who now held his body ridged. “Tian Yi,” he whispered the name quietly with utter malice. His eyes burned with hatred.
The scarred man leaned his ugly head down now, coming close to his face whispering in a voice as steady as stone, “Hello… teacher.”
五
The three of them were now in a wide open building. There were swords and armor hung from the walls. The middle was empty, just a dirt floor where students trained.
Tian Yi had insisted that Master Chen bring them here, and together they had walked with the young woman at their tail. But when Tian Yi had entered, the old master had waited at the door and beckoned her in. Now she sat nervously at a worn wooden table, with the two men on either side of her.
None spoke, only communicating evil with their eyes. Both had one hand on the table clenched in a fist. Finally the old master got up and walked to a cabinet in the far corner.
“So Tian Yi, why have you returned to me after so many years?” Master Chen now spoke through clenched teeth. He turned from the cabinet with 2 cups in his hand, a large jar, and a bundle of clothes. Placing one cup in front of Tian Yi, and tossing the clothes to the girl, he took the other cup and poured some wine from the jar.
“I’ve come looking for information.” Tian Yi’s voice was smooth and calm, it betrayed his age which was much younger than he looked. “It seems there is still something that you can teach me, I never would have expected it” Tian Yi curled his hand around the cup but did not drink.
Chen sipped at his drink and listened with smoldering eyes.
“You are spreading lies about me. You have gotten rich off my name, telling people you discovered me in a gutter?” Tian Yi’s voice showed no sign of anger. “I came to you begging you to teach me, and you said you would never take a rat like me as a student, remember? you said your art was sacred, not to be dirtied by scum.”
The old master now turned to the girl. “He was certainly persistent. After I refused to teach him he took to attacking me every day as I walked into the main city. All he had was a stick but he would chase after me, charging down the street like a mad man.” The girl’s eyes flared as if she were about to smile. “At first it was no problem, I would give him a quick beating then be on my way. But he never stopped, and learned so quickly” the old man’s eyes sparkled now, reflecting the fond memories of a teacher for his finest student. “He never gave up, the beatings didn’t dissuade him at all, it was like he didn’t even feel them. I‘d never met a person in my life who was so lacking in fear.”
Tian Yi broke in now, “Even then though you did not take me, even as I was learning to block your beatings, and started landing blows against your body, you still just called me a worthless beggar. If I had no money I was of no use to you, you who spoke of art but only truly cared for gold.” Tian Yi was gripping the cup tighter now, the only sign of emotion. “It was only when the towns people started complimenting you on how quickly I was learning, thinking I was your student, did you agree to take me. Only because you saw I could make you rich, which it seems I have.” Tian Yi reached out and pulled at a piece of the old man’s fine silks.
“You were the worst student I ever had,” Master Chen shot back as he pulled away from his former student. “You never called me master, only calling me by my personal name, Jian Feng! You did not respect me as a student should. You had no fear, that is the only reason you learned as fast as you did. You cut yourself, bruised yourself and earned countless blows from me, but you never grew an ounce of reserve, every time you attacked it was with utter conviction, it made you a magnificent swordsman, but a terror of a pupil.” The old man suddenly sounded week and pained. As he watched Tian Yi the hatred faded from his eyes and was replaced with sadness. “I had a whole world to teach you, you were the greatest swordsman I had ever seen, you could learn every move I had to teach in a moment, but you never learned…” his voice petered out as he looked down at the table. In his mind’s eye he watch as a past that should have been was swallowed by the past that was. “You could learn anything I put forth, but in the end, everything I tried to teach you was lost.”
Both men sat silent again. Master Chen sipping his drink, Tian Yi watching the old man‘s emotions flow through his eyes.
“Not far from this city,” Tian Yi began, “I met an old hermit living in the cave of a holy mountain. He had lived there for most of his life, meditating constantly. When he saw me he did not speak at first, only offering me boiled water and some rice.” Tian Yi’s voice had shifted to that of a story teller‘s, which flowed gently over the room. “As I ate he stared at me intently. When he finally spoke he told me I had a spirit like he had never seen before. He said he knew what I was looking for.” Master Chen was listening now with more interest. “He told me there was a mountain somewhere in the world, though he did not know where. He said this mountain was the tallest I would ever see. This was the only place in the world where the earth still touched the sky. He said this was the place I was looking for.”
Fire lit in the old teacher now. He tossed the jar of wine to the floor as he stood straight up from his chair, his eyes had again grown hot with rage. “You would search for such a cursed place?” he now pointed his boney finger in Tian Yi’s face. “You despicable person! you are the very epitome of evil! How many have you killed? How many families no longer have fathers? How many people no longer have friends?” Tears welled up in his eyes as he began to shout. “And now you seek the very essence of hell as your prize? I never should have taught you, I should have drawn my sword and killed you the first day I saw you! Fuck you and your whole existence, you will get nothing from me!”
Tian Yi stood slowly putting his hands on the table, leaning forward, speaking in a steady voice “The old hermit then told me that there was a man in this city who could tell me where to find that mountain. He said it was a man I had already met in my life, a person who had taught me, and that person, Jian Feng, is you.”
The old master collapsed into his chair with his arms limp in his lap and his back hunched. “Kill me, Tian Yi. You search for something no man was meant to behold, but you will find it, I am sure. And when that happens I would not like to be here to see what happens to this world. You are seeking the very end.” Chen’s voice was week, hopeless, as if he knew he faced flood.
Tian Yi stood up straight now and gripped the old clothes he was wearing ripping them open. His body was as mutilated as his face, but amongst the scars, old burns, and holes were tattooed two characters, Hun Dun.
“This is what I seek!” Tian Yi’s voice excited now for the first time. “Before the world was made there was Hun Dun! Chaos! I was a flee on the back of Pan Gu, I lived in that Chaos and thrived there, but one day that great monster awoke and destroyed my home, he separated Hun Dun into opposites, he churned the sky from the earth and grew between them so that I could never feel whole again! Fuck me? Well I say Fuck Him! This disgusting order that lets people like you live simple, mindless lives, this is the hell that I wish to escape! Hun Dun is my home, Chaos is what I seek!”
With this Tian Yi turned and stormed away from the table. He walked to the stairs that went up to the second level. “We will stay here tonight, you can think about this, and if you still refuse tomorrow I will leave. But I will not kill you, you deserve no hero’s death from me, if you wish to die, then do it yourself.” Then he pointed at the girl still sitting quietly at the table. “If you insist on being my ghost then you will stay with me tonight. We will leave in the morning.” The girl rose from her chair and followed him up the stairs.
As they came to the second floor Master Chen rose from his seat and walk into the night, slamming the door behind him.
六
In the room at the top of the stairs there were many beds for students of the fencing school. Tian Yi took a mat next to the door, while the mysterious girl moved to the far end of the room. She lay down and almost instantly fell un conscious. Tian Yi, though, could not sleep.
As he looked up at the ceiling he thought about the girl. At first he had hated her, she had seemed so week, so frail. Tian Yi hated weakness. He hated people who would sacrifice their lives for a moral code, because life with out meaning to them was too frightening. He hated how she had screamed in the face of death, unable to fight. He killed those men because he loved to act, loved to see order destroyed. He had killed them because they had dared to believe in their own righteousness. It was from people like them that etiquette, laws, morals, all these things that Tian Yi hated, arose. He was destroying order, creating chaos.
For a moment he had stood over that frightened girl and wondered if her life was worth preserving. Would the world be better or worse if she were no longer in it. But she had stopped screaming. She had looked up at him and though his mind saw no reason to leave her alive, something stayed his hand which he couldn’t explain. This bothered him. He trusted in Chaos, trusted in a world with no rules. He loved most the times in battle when order disappeared. When Truth, as it had always been taught, dispersed and all the was left was a moment of pure motion, a sword moving. A person dieing.
But when he had stood over this girl and felt she must live, he felt a sense of duty. duty he thought to himself the safe haven of cowards.
He turned over on his side, trying to rest but his mind would not cease. He turned again and again, facing both walls and the ceiling, then laying on his stomach. When the moon had risen from the horizon to the very center of the sky and peeked in through the window Tian Yi heard the door open down stairs. He heard foot steps come up the stairs and heard the door to his room open.
“Come with me,” the old master whispered in the darkness “I have answers.”
七
They had left the school, then left the city, the girl still sleeping in her bed. They walked out into the farms, past the rice paddies.
They entered the dark forest following the old path way. The tall trees shut out the light completely. Cold mist and spider’s webs drifted through the ghostly trees as the two swordsmen felt their way along.
When they had walked for over an hour through wild silence Master Chen stuck his hand out to stop Tian Yi.
“We turn here” he whispered and left the path, moving into the brush. Tian Yi followed his old teacher up the hill they had been skirting. As they climbed eventually the earth flattened out, though they were not at the summit yet. They entered a small canyon with sharp cliffs on either side. The high rock walls continued to narrow as they walked until suddenly they parted into a massive natural amphitheater. The moon shone down illuminating everything, the trees, the still pool of water in the center, and the great stone walls that surrounded it all..
“I have a friend who would like to meet you.” The old master was now climbing up the cliff to an outcropping of rock. There was a large hollow log that had fallen into the water from the cliff top above. One end of the old timber lay somewhere deep in the pool, the other end leaned against the ledge that Chen now climbed toward. “You are not a person to show respect I know, but you should try to show some humility. My friend is very old and very wise, and could kill you in a second if he chose to” now standing atop the outcropping his words echoed around the stone walls like bats in the dark.
“But if you are careful, my friend can tell you everything you need to know.” The old master then smiled down at his former student, bending down to pick up a large mallet. “ I must say I’m excited to show you something I know you have never seen before.”
He raised the large mallet over his head and brought it down hard on the large hollow log. The sound echoed through the canyon, and shook the ground. The water rolled with the vibrations. The moment the mallet hit its mark the old master rose it again, and rang out another low note through the woods, then again, again, again he hit the old dead tree, till the water was foaming and pebbles danced across the ground. Each note began blurring together, so that a series of booms turned in to a deep monotonous hum. Tian Yi felt the sound resonate with every organ, muscle, and bone in his body.
Suddenly from the center of the boiling water rose a massive figure. Like a serpent it climbed slowly. Tian Yi looked up at his old teacher and saw he had stopped beating the log, now the humming was coming from the creature that grew from pond. But as he realized this the humming morphed into deep rolling laughter.
The scales that covered it’s entire body shimmered like gems and rubbed together making a sound like clams being stirred in a pot. The laughter grew louder and more defined as the massive beast lowered his head down to Tian Yi’s level, it’s eyes were the size of a foot soldier’s shield. From it’s nostrils blew water vapor like smoke as it continued it’s rumbling laugh.
Tian Yi stared into the giant piercing green eyes that circled his body, seeing him from all angels. The great beast finally coming to a stop in front of the warrior. As his head came close enough for Tian Yi to touch the shimmering blue scales the laughter faded away. There was silence. And then a voice like a geyser burst from deep within the monster’s belly.
“I am the great dragon that stood at Pangu‘s side when he made this world! Welcome!”
