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A Prophet - Chapter 14 (Part 8)

Chapter 8 - The Authenticity of "Plum Blossom Easy Numbers" 

The sixth to take the stage was none of the other than Ding Zixia of the Manchu "Zixia Hall."

Ding Zixia was quite tall, with phoenix eyes, a high-bridged nose, a gaze like a torch, and vermillion lips with jade-white teeth—she was the quintessential beauty of the Northeast. Her "Zixia Hall" had been established after the September 18th Incident and was a superstitious faction propped up single-handedly by traitors and the Japanese.

During the era of Zhang Zuolin, the "Blood-Crested Bird Tragedies" that frequently occurred across the Three Northeast Provinces were manufactured by this very gang. The "Blood-Crested Birds" specialized in eating the intestines of young children. Some commoners would go out to work in the fields, locking their young children inside their homes; upon returning, they would discover that the child was gone. After mobilizing fellow villagers to search high and low, they would ultimately find the child's corpse in areas where the crested birds gathered, with its belly already sliced open and its intestines eaten clean. The immortal maidens of the "Zixia Hall" seized the opportunity to propagate the theory of "Immature Youths Ascending to Heaven," taking advantage of the chaos to eliminate disasters and amass wealth.

Grandpa Zu held an intense, ingrained abhorrence for this "Zixia Hall" and had long since discussed with Zeng Jingwu whether they could dispatch a few assassins to carve Ding Zixia up. Alas, Ding Zixia's movements were shrouded in secrecy, and she was surrounded by numerous guards, making her difficult to strike down on short notice. Meeting her here today caused a nameless fire to surge fiercely within Grandpa Zu.

"Please, masters, enlighten me!" Ding Zixia said.

"Grand Immortal Ding often claims she can see heavenly immortals descending to the mortal realm, frequently performing rituals to gather immortals, and her predictions are proven true time and again. Today, with a host of eminent friends gathered here, Grand Immortal Ding might as well gather the immortals once for us all to open our eyes and broaden our horizons! Grand Immortal Ding better not say that the immortals are not at home today!" Long Yufeng, who had just stepped down from the stage, fired the opening shot.

Ding Zixia gave a cold smile. "How hard can that be? Actually, right now the Mysterious Maiden of Nine Heavens and the Queen Mother of the West are right beside me, but mortal fools cannot see them!"

"Dare I ask, Immortal Ding, what the Mysterious Maiden and the Queen Mother are doing right by your side?"

Ding Zixia looked at Grandpa Zu and said, "Naturally, they are protecting Her Imperial Majesty!"

Before her voice had even faded, a flying nail struck out with a swish, possessing formidable momentum and speed like lightning. In an instant, it knocked apart the hair bun on top of Ding Zixia's head, frightening her so badly that her soul temporarily scattered and her face turned pale white.

"It appears the Mysterious Maiden and the Queen Mother are not by your side!" Grandpa Zu gave a cold laugh.

Several Japanese guards rushed forward with a whoosh to surround Grandpa Zu, terrified that he might hurl another dart and kill the Japanese masters sitting in the audience.

Clap—clap—clap! At the sound of three claps, Yoshiko Nishida stood up, taking the lead in applauding Grandpa Zu. The crowd froze for a moment, and then thunderous applause erupted.

With a wave of the Japanese judges' hands, the Japanese guards retreated.

Ding Zixia walked down the stage looking panic-stricken and disheveled.

"Do not run amok, Jiang Xiang Faction!" A figure leaped up from the audience. Following the sound, the crowd saw it was Jiang Tiancheng of the Manchu "Shuntian Cult." Originally, he was scheduled to be the next one on stage, but he could no longer contain his fury; without waiting for an announcement, he vaulted straight up. This was because Ding Zixia, who belonged to the same Manchurian faction, had been humiliated by Grandpa Zu from the Jianghuai region.

"Heh." Grandpa Zu smiled with steady composure, though in his heart he thought: Based purely on this display of yours, you are destined to lose today!

After taking the stage, Jiang Tiancheng pointed straight at Grandpa Zu. "If Grandpa Zu has any questions, feel free to ask!"

Seeing this lineup, the crowd realized that everyone else's opportunity to pose questions had effectively been cut off, and all gazes turned collectively toward Grandpa Zu.

Unflinching and immovable, Grandpa Zu nodded and said, "The 'Shuntian Cult' has dominated the Three Northeast Provinces for decades. Master Jiang has obtained the true transmissions of both Shao Yong's 'Plum Blossom Easy Numbers' and 'The Emperor's Ordering of the World,' mastering them thoroughly and elevating the principles and numbers of the Changes to the pinnacle of perfection. There is not a single person in the underworld who does not know of this, and this junior has long admired the senior's great name. Seeing you today, Master Jiang truly possesses the ethereal bones of an immortal and an extraordinary bearing!"

Jiang Tiancheng was nearly sixty years old, which was why Grandpa Zu referred to himself as a junior.

Jiang Tiancheng had originally taken the stage boiling with anger, but being flattered by Grandpa Zu, he suddenly felt somewhat embarrassed. "Grandpa Zu is being overly modest. The 'Jiang Xiang Faction' has roamed the underworld for hundreds of years, and the 'Wood-Child Lotus' paper-piercing technique stands alone as a unique school in the Jianghuai region. This old man is like a candle in the wind—truly, the younger generation is formidable."

"Master Jiang has studied the 'Plum Blossom Easy Numbers' for many years; how accurate do you feel this method is in responding to people and events?" Grandpa Zu was inquiring about the accuracy of the "Plum Blossom Easy Numbers."

"All ten thousand methods return to the ancestral source. Whether a method is accurate or not lies not in the technique itself, but in the person. As long as one's study reaches the requisite depth, any occult art can divine the heavens and earth. The 'Plum Blossom Easy Numbers' was created by the Song Dynasty Yijing master, Master Shao Kangjie, and became famous throughout the world due to the incident of 'Divining by Observing Plum Blossoms'! This method utilizes the mathematical principles of the Earlier Heaven Eight Trigrams, leveraging hexagram images such as inner hexagrams, outer hexagrams, and mutual hexagrams to incorporate sounds, directions, times, motion and stillness, geography, celestial timing, human figures, colors, flora, and fauna into the hexagrams. Everything in the world can be divined!"

Since ancient times, the "Plum Blossom Easy Numbers" has been passed down in the numerology circles as something miraculous. Legend has it that it was created by the Song Dynasty predictive master Shao Yong, and the reason it is called "Plum Blossom Easy Numbers" stems entirely from the aforementioned "Divining by Observing Plum Blossoms" incident recounted by Jiang Tiancheng.

Ancient books record: One day, Shao Kangjie and a friend were viewing plum blossoms in a garden when they suddenly saw two sparrows chirping and quarreling on a plum branch. Suddenly, one sparrow pounced and pecked the other, knocking it to the ground. Upon seeing this sight, Shao Kangjie immediately cast a hexagram and then told his friend, "Tomorrow evening, a woman will definitely come into the garden to pick and snap off a plum branch. The gardener will mistakenly think she is a thief and chase her, causing the woman to fall from the tree and break her thigh!" As it turned out, this exact event occurred the very next day, and the "Plum Blossom Easy Numbers" became renowned throughout the world from that moment on!

Suddenly, Grandpa Zu changed the subject. "I have something to say, though I do not know if I should speak it or not."

"Please speak!" Jiang Tiancheng said.

"In my view, the 'Plum Blossom Easy Numbers' is a forged work!"

An outburst of gasps swept through the audience! A forged work meant it was fake—meaning that entire history never existed and was fabricated by later generations.

Jiang Tiancheng was so furious that his beard shook violently. "The Plum Blossom Easy Numbers and The Emperor's Ordering of the World are Master Shao's two supreme arts during his lifetime. For Grandpa Zu to presumptuously declare them to be forgeries—is this not the height of absurd absurdity under heaven?"

Grandpa Zu spoke in an unhurried, methodical manner. "Shao Yong possessed great talent and extensively read classics and histories since childhood. The History of Song records that he was 'steadfast, arduous, and rigorous—not using a brazier in winter, not using a fan in summer, and going without lying on a sleeping mat for several years'; he 'received the River Chart, Luo Writing, and Fuxi's sixty-four hexagram diagrams'; and 'the books he authored are called The Emperor's Ordering of the World, Inner and Outer Chapters on Observing Things, and Woodcutter and Fisherman Dialogues, while his poetry is called Yichuan Collection of Striking the Earth.' When later dynasties continue the history of preceding dynasties, they are bound to be extremely rigorous, never speaking recklessly or making baseless claims. The cited examples and cases in the history are all verifiable. Yet the Biography of Shao Yong in the History of Song lists only four works for such a legendary figure: The Emperor's Ordering of the World, Inner and Outer Chapters on Observing Things, Woodcutter and Fisherman Dialogues, and Yichuan Collection of Striking the Earth. If the Plum Blossom Easy Numbers were truly one of Master Shao Kangjie's two supreme arts as Master Jiang claims, the compilers of the History of Song certainly would not have dared to omit it. From this, it is evident that the Plum Blossom Easy Numbers is indeed a work falsely attributed by later generations! This humble person is of meager talent and shallow learning, but not so ignorant as to fail to understand the classics and histories. I wonder between the two of us, exactly who is making an absurdity of the entire world!"

Just as Jiang Tiancheng was about to offer a defense, Grandpa Zu immediately spoke again. "Earlier, we examined the Plum Blossom Easy Numbers as a forgery from the perspective of classical histories; now, let us examine whether the Plum Blossom Easy Numbers is a forgery from the perspective of its content. Throughout the entire text of the Plum Blossom Easy Numbers, it seems to lecture on divination methods, yet it lacks any specific guiding principles for coordination, nor does it explain specific deduction methods and models. The entire text relies on mystical absurdities and ultimately replaces calculation methods with a poem. The poem reads: 'A single thing comes forth with a single body; within that body resides yet a single universe. If you know that all things are complete within me, why insist on establishing separate roots for the Three Powers? Heaven divides creation from a single center, while humans raise statecraft from their hearts. Immortals too have two ways of speaking; the Dao is not falsely transmitted, it rests solely in man.' Anyone with a modicum of cleverness will notice that this poem is extremely similar to Chanting on Observing Things from Shao Yong's Collection of Striking the Earth. Chanting on Observing Things reads: 'A single thing has always come forth with a single body; within that body resides yet a single universe. If you know that all things are complete within me, why insist on establishing separate roots for the Three Powers? Heaven divides body and function from a single center, while humans raise statecraft from their hearts. How can heaven and man have two meanings? The Dao is not falsely transmitted, it rests solely in man.' Everyone, please look—this is clearly plagiarizing Shao Yong's concepts and doctrines, merely for later generations to set up their own independent sects and court public favor through sensationalism! If Master Jiang continues to remain obstinately lost and unawakened, I fear he truly will become the laughingstock of the entire world!"

Grandpa Zu knew Jiang Tiancheng was treacherous, sly, and had pledged allegiance to enemies, which was why he showed him zero mercy. Whether due to Jiang Tiancheng's advanced age or because Grandpa Zu's words were too ruthless, Jiang Tiancheng turned completely crimson in the face, panting heavily. His disciples hurriedly shouted, "My master has asthma! Quickly get his medicine!"

And thus, Jiang Tiancheng was carried away by his disciples.

This marked the very first time doubts were cast upon the Plum Blossom Easy Numbers in the history of Yijing studies. Grandpa Zu's challenge was heard by the over two hundred people present, and this doubt was later carried out into the Jianghu underworld. It was not until after the founding of New China that scholars finally demonstrated that Grandpa Zu's challenge had been correct all along.

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