A Prophet - Chapter 13 (Part 6)
Chapter 6 - Reading the Physiognomy of Feng Yuxiang
Mei Xuanzi's reappearance in the public eye came in 1924 during the Second Zhili-Fengtian War, when he established the "Plum Blossom Society" in Shanghai.
He had once told his senior and junior martial brothers: "You remain in the Daoist temple to cultivate your purity and guard the memorial tablet of our Master, while I toss myself about in the outside world for a few more years. The paths we walk are different, but rest assured, I will never do anything against my conscience again!"
Mei Xuanzi had witnessed the decline of Great China. Ever since the Opium Wars, foreign powers had invaded, national territory had been lost, and faith was decaying along with it. He wanted to use his own meager strength to revitalize Daoist culture once more. Only when he actually tried to implement this did he discover it was not so easy: when he spoke to others about Daoist learning, they spoke to him about Western learning; when he spoke of internal alchemy, they spoke of artillery shells; when he spoke of self-cultivation, they spoke of freedom; when he spoke of asceticism, they spoke of romance; when he spoke of the Primeval Lord of Heaven, they spoke of Jesus Christ... Only then did he understand that the foundations of traditional Chinese scholarship had already been shaken. Amidst the violent clashes of the foreign powers' gunboats and cannons, religious ideology was also slowly infiltrating; the anesthesia of thought was the most terrifying thing of all. He began pondering what method he could use to make his countrymen believe in him.
Right around that time, he met Gai Feixian, a renowned spirit medium from Anhui. Gai Feixian's real name was Gai Xia. When she was young, she frequently experienced "spirit intrusion"—meaning she was possessed by unclean entities, such as the souls of the deceased, rural foxes, or vicious ghosts who had died of grievances. Later, as she grew up, she often claimed she could see things attached to other people. One evening at dusk, as their neighbor Old Man Wang was returning from tending his ox, she pointed at the old man's back and said, "There is a horse's head on your back, and a cow's head as well." Everyone knew these were the Ox-Head and Horse-Face guardians of the underworld; once such a bizarre phenomenon appeared on a person's back, death was not far off. Sure enough, the very next day, wailing for the dead echoed from the neighboring house just across the wall, and the old man had passed away to the netherworld.
People discussed it far and wide, declaring the affair utterly uncanny! Gradually, people began coming to visit Gai Xia, and her fame grew ever greater. She frequently exorcised ghosts and healed illnesses for people, eventually earning the honorable title of "Gai Feixian."
Mei Xuanzi experienced a sudden epiphany: the power of superstition was truly this formidable. Consequently, he racked his brains to get close to Gai Feixian, showering her with constant displays of affection until he won her favor. The two of them found complete harmony in sentiment and ideological alignment, ultimately tying the knot in marriage and jointly founding the "Plum Blossom Society."
Just like the "Jiangxiang School" robbing the rich to aid the poor, the true purpose of the "Plum Blossom Society" was not to swindle money, but to drive out foreign religions and restore traditional Chinese learning. Therefore, when meeting Master Zu at the Xiyalaou Restaurant, Mei Xuanzi could voice the sigh, "Cultivate one's body to radiate goodness, continue the teachings of the sages to open up the future," and could earnestly tell Master Zu: "In the twelve years since the 'Plum Blossom Society' was established, every single account has been kept with absolute clarity. Aside from maintaining the normal expenses of our chapter, all income is stored under the ledger..."
For years, Mei Xuanzi had been searching for a larger patron to help promote national learning, but the warlords were preoccupied with infighting, the authorities were hopelessly benighted, and the "sectarian sects" were all carving out their own independent domains. He felt that accomplishing anything was truly difficult. Right at this critical juncture, the Japanese sought him out. Upon hearing this, he thought the opportunity to "borrow strength to strike a blow" had arrived. It was a god-given opportunity; he would utilize the Japanese influence to chase foreign religions out of national territory, and when the moment was ripe, he would pull the firewood from beneath the cauldron and capsize the Japanese ships as well.
Mei Xuanzi told Master Zu every word of what was in his heart. Upon hearing this, Master Zu nodded silently, sighing with deep emotion. Then, lowering his voice, he said to Mei Xuanzi: "The superior man is not vexed that others do not know him. Master Mei has long carried undeserved abuse, and it has indeed been hard upon you. Now, Master Mei, listen to me..."
Mei Xuanzi bowed his head to listen intently, and the two grand masters conversed from the heart. Former mortal enemies were talking with such mutual affinity; before a national crisis, a smile wiped away all past grievances!
Later, the two formulated a detailed plan for the steps ahead, talking right until dawn without exhausting their words. Around noon, the two of them knelt side by side before the memorial tablet of Elder Master Fuzu, burned incense and took vows, performed the eight bows and kowtows, and became sworn brothers of the golden orchid!
Having formed an alliance with Mei Xuanzi, Master Zu felt vastly more secure in his heart, yet he still felt something was missing. Three days later, Master Zu held a secret meeting with Zeng Jingwu, laying out his entire plan and asking him to relay it to Nine-Ge. In truth, Zeng Jingwu had recently been looking for an opportunity to speak with Master Zu as well; had Master Zu truly turned traitor, Zeng Jingwu would have killed him with his own hands.
Upon learning of Master Zu's true intentions, Zeng Jingwu said with deep concern: "Master Zu must exercise extreme caution; the Japanese are not easy to deal with."
Master Zu nodded and said: "There is still one more matter I must trouble Instructor Zeng with."
"Please speak, Master Zu!"
"Help me find someone..."
A week later, through the clues provided by Zeng Jingwu, Master Zu located Peng Hanfeng, the renowned physiognomist living in seclusion in Anhui.
Physiognomist Peng was a celebrated numerology figure of the Republican era with profound expertise in physiognomistic arts, widely known as the "Divine Physiognomist of a Generation" and "Iron-Mouth Direct Verdict." The reason Physiognomist Peng possessed such formidable capabilities was not only due to his exceptional natural talent and diligent studiousness, but also because fate had granted him a fragment of the Dunhuang Mogao Caves' physiognomistic scrolls.
The worldwide renown of Dunhuangology all stemmed from that inadvertently rediscovered Scripture Cave, along with those Dunhuang fragments that remained after the foreign powers carved them up.
On June 22, 1900 (the 26th day of the fifth month in the 26th year of the Guangxu reign), Daoist priest Wang Yuanlu, who was guarding the Dunhuang Mogao Caves, was clearing silt from the passageway of Dunhuang Cave 16 when he unexpectedly discovered a hollow sound coming from the right stone wall. Believing the wall was hollow, Daoist Wang smashed the murals open. With that single strike, something momentous occurred—he unearthed the world-shaking "Dunhuang Scripture Cave"! Buddhist scriptures, Daoist scriptures, and numerology classics accumulated over thousands of years were suddenly laid bare before his eyes! Among them were ancient transmitted classics of physiognomy. Tragically, these scrolls failed to attract the attention of the Qing government; the turbulent and dying dynasty was too overwhelmed to care about such items at all. Immediately, foreign powers swarmed in, and the Dunhuang scrolls were carved up and completely depleted by the Japanese, Americans, Russians, and Germans, leaving precious little for the Chinese. The generation's grand master of Chinese studies, Mr. Ji Xianlin, once lamented: "Dunhuang is in China, but Dunhuangology is in the world."
Afterward, in pursuit of the learning of Dunhuang, Physiognomist Peng traveled a thousand miles to Longnan, exploring the scripture caves and visiting recluses, ultimately obtaining twelve volumes of the Dunhuang physiognomy fragments. He then went into seclusion for three years, studying painstakingly until he finally mastered the supreme art.
Before the Central Plains War, General Feng Yuxiang personally invited Physiognomist Peng to read his fortune. Physiognomist Peng carefully scrutinized Feng Yuxiang's facial features and then uttered a single sentence: "Born amidst mountains of blades, dying inside seas of fire."
The first half, Feng Yuxiang could understand. Feng Yuxiang's ancestral home was in Anhui, and his birthplace was situated in a prosperous dragon vein. To the left of his ancestral residence stood a mountain named "Blade-Testing Mountain," legendary as the place where Guan Yu first tested his "Green Dragon Crescent Blade" during the Three Kingdoms period, hence the name Blade-Testing Mountain. As for "dying inside seas of fire," Feng Yuxiang racked his brains in vain to comprehend it.
Eighteen years later, history verified this prediction. When Feng Yuxiang was sailing from New York to Odessa aboard the steamship Victory, a fire broke out in the ship's film reels mid-voyage, and his entire family was buried in a sea of flames. The potency of Physiognomist Peng's skill was evident for all to see!
The reason Master Zu sought out Physiognomist Peng was to learn true physiognomy. For so many years, Master Zu had constantly pondered what method of fortune-telling was the simplest and most practical. The Eight Characters required a birth date, the Six Yao required copper coins, and Qimen required initiating an array. Only in physiognomy could one observe a person's facial features to instantly know misfortune or fortune, and listen to a person's voice to know auspiciousness or doom. If he could thoroughly master this method, it would be no different than adding wings to a tiger in this critical juncture.
The most profound aspect of physiognomy was its ability to read a person's facial "annual fortune." "Annual fortune" was a term in destiny study, referring to the individual years experienced by ordinary people. Time flowed like water—flowing years—hence the wonderful designation of annual fortune. From annual fortune to monthly fortune, and from monthly fortune down to every single day, one could judge a person's recent fortune and misfortune simply from the daily characteristics and facial complexion of their face. A skilled physiognomist could even accurately deduce minor matters, such as whether you had just engaged in sexual intercourse, simply from the complexion of your jianmen (temple/eytail regions). Master Zu wanted to use this method in the hope of accurately judging the success or failure of his opponents at critical moments, as well as his own success or failure.
To his surprise, upon meeting Physiognomist Peng, he suffered a profound disappointment. Physiognomist Peng dealt Master Zu a blow right over the head: "Fortune-telling and physiognomy are both heterodox paths. Not only do they delude the minds of the common people, but they lead practitioners themselves astray. Not a single person who dabbles in fortune-telling meets a good end. Jing Fang, the Han dynasty master of the Six Yao, spent his whole life calculating fortunes, only to be executed by the emperor, after which his corpse was cannibalized; Li Xuzhong, the founder of the Eight Characters, was praised by Han Yu for fortune-telling that 'never missed once,' yet he mistakenly swallowed mercury and died of poisoning; Liu Bowen of the Ming dynasty had the renown of 'knowing five hundred years into the past and five hundred years into the future,' but ultimately was poisoned to death by Hu Weiyong, while his two sons—one jumped down a well and the other hanged himself—extinguishing the incense of his family line forever; and there are countless other obscure fortune-tellers who either suffered uninterrupted misfortune throughout their lives or left behind descendants with physical or mental disabilities... I stopped reading faces for people long ago, and all the books on destiny and physiognomy I authored have already been burned!"
Every single one of these words struck straight at the core of Master Zu's heart. Master Zu was bewildered and asked cautiously, "Why?"
"It steals human intellect and deviates from the orthodox path," Physiognomist Peng said quietly.
"Please enlighten me, True Man!" Master Zu did not understand for a moment.
"From beginning to end, the I-Ching explains the principles of human conduct, emphasizing from start to finish an individual's personal self-cultivation. Only by conforming to the Heavenly Dao, introspecting upon oneself, and elevating one's virtue and conduct can one achieve the goal of courting good fortune and avoiding calamity. In other words, the only person who can change your destiny is yourself—this is a fundamental law of the I-Ching. Yet fortune-telling breaks this very law. It causes people to place their hopes in external objects, in fortune-tellers, in crooked and heterodox arts such as drawing talismans, chanting mantras, feng shui, and naming consultations, causing sentient beings to lose their spiritual nature and lose themselves. This is the theft of the soul; you tell me how grave a sin that is?" Physiognomist Peng explained.
Master Zu nodded vigorously, finding it profoundly convincing, and then pursued the question: "Does this mean that whether it is a grand master who truly understands destiny or a low-level hoodwink roaming the underworld, neither will meet a good end?"
"What is the difference between a grand master and a fraud?" Physiognomist Peng countered.
"One is real, the other is fake," Master Zu replied.
"Hahahaha." Physiognomist Peng burst into loud laughter. "Incorrect! A grand master and a fraud are separated merely by the distance of 'the fifty-step runner laughing at the hundred-step runner.' Their starting point is identical—making people entrust their destiny to fortune-telling while ignoring the importance of personal self-cultivation—and their objective is always money. They use honeyed words and glib talk, with their minds filled entirely with the glittering silver dollars inside their customers' pockets. It's merely that their performance skills vary in sophistication. One who hides it well and maintains a temporary poker face in the presence of money is a grand master; one who hides it poorly and whose eyes flash greedily at the sight of money is a fraud. But once you strip away the grand master's painted skin, you will find he is more greedy and treacherous than any fraud!"
An utter spiritual awakening! Master Zu experienced a total awakening! "What the True Man says is extremely right! Extremely right!"
Physiognomist Peng chuckled softly: "In my view, throughout past and present, there has only ever been one true grand master: Zhang Liang of the Han dynasty. He was the one who truly understood the profound essence of the I-Ching, which is why he never calculated fortunes for others. After assisting Liu Bang in founding the Han empire, he immediately made a rapid retreat at the crest of success. He is the only person who played with the Zhou Yi to a state of sublime mastery and died a natural death of old age. Zhuge Liang didn't make the cut; in his final years he went against the will of Heaven, exhausting the people and draining the treasury, ultimately dying a guest at Wuzhang Plains. Liu Bowen even less so; he suffered the catastrophe of having his family exterminated. Jing Fang, needless to say, died without an intact corpse. Shao Yong counts as half a grand master; in his early years he also attempted to alter the destiny of the common people through fortune-telling methods, but later found it unworkable, and ultimately stopped talking about it altogether. This is embodied to the utmost perfection in his masterpiece, Emperor of the Ultimate World-Ages. He wrote only about the origin of yin and yang and the social framework of natural evolution, without revealing a single shred of the calculation methods, precisely for fear that others would learn these methods and stray down misguided paths."
Master Zu nodded repeatedly: "Your teachings are profound, True Man!"
"Moreover, have you noticed an interesting phenomenon?" Physiognomist Peng raised an eyebrow.
"What phenomenon?" Master Zu was perplexed.
"People who love having their fortunes told end up with destinies that grow progressively worse. Those who seek wealth find their financial luck growing increasingly poor; those who seek marriage find their marital path increasingly troubled; those who seek health find their physical condition deteriorating; those who seek official advancement sooner or later lose their official hats..." Physiognomist Peng said with a smile.
"The more one calculates destiny, the thinner it becomes?" Master Zu gained a faint comprehension.
"Mhm." Physiognomist Peng nodded. "Can people who hand their fate over to others to manage ever turn out well?"
Master Zu nodded once more in realization, then hastily laid out his true intentions to Physiognomist Peng.
Upon hearing this, Physiognomist Peng nodded slightly: "You have come for the salvation of the country... If I were to drive you out of my doors, that would be unbenevolent and unrighteous... I shall pass on to you some of the mental formulas of the Five Elements; perhaps they will prove useful. As for how to use them, you must judge for yourself—handle it poorly and you'll forfeit your life!" Master Zu hurriedly leaned forward to listen.
Only then did Master Zu discover that this Physiognomist Peng was not only supremely proficient in physiognomy, but also deeply versed in other branches of numerology. This was because all predictive arts are inseparable from the generation, restriction, overcoming, and transformation of the Five Elements, and the tools of deduction are universally the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. Once one method is mastered, all methods are mastered; the underlying principles are identical! The two men engaged in a candlelit conversation throughout the entire night without sleep! From facial reading to palmistry, from palmistry to the Eight Characters, from pitch-standard destiny derivation to Iron Board Numerology, and from Qimen Dunjia to Plum Blossom Easy Numerology, Physiognomist Peng selected the essential tenets to impart, and Master Zu committed them all meticulously to memory!
At the fifth watch of dawn, Master Zu still did not feel tired, but considering Physiognomist Peng's health, he suggested that the elder rest first.
After Physiognomist Peng went into the main bedroom to sleep, Master Zu softly closed the door behind him, stepped out alone into the wilderness, and sat cross-linked in meditation upon a large azure boulder. Inhaling a deep breath of fresh air, he reviewed everything Physiognomist Peng had imparted over the course of the night. Reaching moments of exhilarating realization, he could not help sighing with awe at the greatness and wonder of Chinese numerology!
As the sun climbed high, approaching the si hour (9 to 11 AM), Master Zu reckoned Physiognomist Peng must have woken up, so he returned to the elder's dwelling and gently tapped on the door upon entering the courtyard.
"True Man Peng?"
No one answered inside the room. Master Zu was burning with a thirst for knowledge, but then he recalled the classical allusion of "standing in the snow at Cheng's door"; since the old gentleman had not woken up yet, he would simply wait right here. Master Zu stood outside the door for a full two hours. Seeing that noon was approaching, he could not resist knocking once more.
Still no sound came from within. A wave of ominous foreboding rapidly flooded through Master Zu's entire body, and he violently pushed the door open.
"Ah!" Master Zu gasped in shock. The bed was completely empty—Physiognomist Peng was gone!
Master Zu was utterly baffled, and immediately used the art of Qimen Dunjia to divine on his hand, checking where Physiognomist Peng had gone. Ultimately, he cast one of the Nine Yang Escapes formations, showing the host falling upon the Rest Gate (Xiumen). Qimen Dunjia traditionally recognizes eight gates, divided into the Rest Gate, Life Gate, Injury Gate, Delusion Gate, Scenery Gate, Death Gate, Shock Gate, and Open Gate. Among these, the Rest, Life, Scenery, and Open are the four auspicious gates, while the remainder are the four ominous gates. Back in the day, the Wei general Cao Ren deployed the "Golden Lock Eight-Gates Formation" intending to lure Liu Bei into the Death Gate, only to have it seen through at a glance by Liu Bei's strategist Xu Shu. Later, Zhuge Kongliang further modified this method to create the "Eight-Array Diagram." In 222 AD, the Wu general Lu Xun used "fire to burn the contiguous camps" and heavily defeated Liu Bei, chasing him relentlessly and inadvertently stumbling into the Eight-Array Diagram deployed by Zhuge Liang; had Zhuge Liang's father-in-law not guided him out through the Life Gate, he would have perished trapped inside! Master Zu applied what he had learned flexibly. Raising an array upon his palm, he saw the host fall upon the Rest Gate, which indicated no threat to life, yet signified "distant travel." Had the True Man Peng departed of his own accord, or had some unexpected mishap occurred? Master Zu's cultivation was insufficient; for the moment, he could not analyze it...
Even as he hesitated, he discovered a parcel resting on the desk, with a sheet of Xuan paper attached to it. Characters were clearly written on the paper, and upon closer inspection, they were in Physiognomist Peng's own hand: "All numerology is illusory, the Great Dao resides within." Master Zu hesitated for a moment, then slowly opened the parcel. A book revealed itself, bearing four characters as its title: The Three Lessons of Liaofan.
A loud buzzing sounded inside Master Zu's head, and childhood memories instantly flooded his eyes...