A Prophet - Chapter 7 (Part 3)

Chapter 3 - The Fortune Teller's Confession

Time flies, and the passing years urge men toward old age. In the year 1988, I turned sixty, having lived through a full sixty-year sexagenary cycle. I always grew accustomed to brewing a pot of tea after a meal; as I sipped it, my thoughts would drift back to Grandfather and the countless days and nights spent by his side. When the night grew deep, my wife would drape a garment over my shoulders—a habit that had remained unchanged for decades.

I am grateful to the heavens for granting me such an exceptional wife. Throughout all these years, she has showered me with tender care and never abandoned me. She has always been so good to me, telling me that I had suffered enough hardship in the past and that marrying me was meant to bring me happiness. She said it, and she lived up to it.

One day, as I sat reading while wearing my reading glasses, my wife walked in from outside and handed me a book. "Old man, take a look at this. I can't help feeling that an article in here reads a great deal like the things you all used to do."

I took it and saw that it was a compilation of prisoner "Confessions" edited by a legal weekly publication. It recorded the prison-cell confessional monologues written by death-row inmates convicted of major crimes since the founding of New China. When a person is on the verge of death, their words are noble; when a bird is about to die, its cry is mournful. My wife directed me to turn to the third piece. I opened the book and began reading carefully, reading until my blood boiled and tears streamed down my face. The title of that article was "Between Good and Evil," and it went as follows:

●Between Good and Evil

When a person lives between heaven and earth, who does not wish to be a good person? Yet worldly affairs are treacherous and fate is fickle; once one steps onto a wicked path, there is never a chance to turn back!

I was born in the fourth month of the twenty-eighth year of Guangxu. My compound surname is Shangguan, and my loving mother bestowed upon me the given name Chengming, drawing from the Book of Rites teaching that "sincerity leads to clarity." Because my clan generational character belonged to the "Guan" series, my father gave me the childhood milk-name "Guansheng." In the sixth year of the Republic, my family suffered a sudden catastrophe; within a single month, seven of my family members perished entirely! From that moment on, I was left solitary and destitute, fleeing for my life across the rivers and lakes!

That very year, I gathered companions to form the "River and Lake Sect," and thanks to the undeserved favor of Master Zhang, I attained the supreme position of the "Wood and Catalpa Lotus." At first, I believed that by relying on my own strength I could reverse the lawless chaos of the "River and Lake Sect." Consequently, for decades, I bowed my head and devoted myself utterly to my duties. In all matters large and small concerning the branch, I took the Heavenly Dao as my sincere conviction, striving to uphold the tenets of exercising caution in execution, abstaining from lust, abstaining from theft, robbing the rich to aid the poor, and using evil to check evil.

Yet the "River and Lake Sect" was, after all, a mob of rabble! Sitting atop this branch was like sitting on a volcano! Driven by the demands of advantage and disadvantage, goodness and wickedness collapsed into disorder; many things far exceeded my ability to control! Worse still, I proved unable to even control myself, repeatedly slaughtering the innocent out of selfish motives! Who in this world has no parents, who has no children? Those innocents who met an untimely end carry grievances whose souls cannot find salvation, leaving them with no door to knock upon for deliverance. Every time I reflect upon it, I am overcome with bottomless guilt!

I once desired to unite the "River and Lake Sect," yet after exhausting every thought and calculation, I resorted to slaughter. When all four major branch holdings were gathered into my hands, I found myself plunged into utter bewilderment! Where was the "River and Lake Sect" heading? Where was I heading?

For thirty years, I wished to mete out justice on behalf of heaven, yet I lost all sense of righteousness myself—burning, killing, swindling, and plundering, stopping at no wickedness;

For thirty years, I wished to teach my branch brothers to transform from ghosts back into human beings, upholding benevolent thoughts and harboring humanity and righteousness, yet in the end, all I witnessed was chaotic warfare, brutal slaughter, and a scarred landscape of devastation;

For thirty years, I wished to use evil to check evil, punishing the wicked while exalting the good, yet the wicked grew even more wicked and the scams proved inexhaustible, while the good remained stubbornly unteachable despite prolonged instruction. How deeply I mourn their misfortune and lament their lack of spine!

I choose to die. With my own life, I shall wash away the sins of my lifetime and redeem the entire "River and Lake Sect" as well! My branch brothers may perhaps hate me, but eventually they will understand: fraudsters will forever remain without a future, and the method of using evil to check evil is equally impossible to sustain!

By the time I reached this point, I was already sobbing uncontrollably! Grandfather, I understand! I finally understand! I finally know why you refused to run, and I finally know why you forbade anyone else from fleeing—your intentions were so deeply profound!

...

By the time I reached this point, I was already sobbing uncontrollably! Grandfather, I understand! I finally understand! I finally know why you refused to run, and I finally know why you forbade anyone else from fleeing—your intentions were so deeply profound! The "Dao" you spent your entire life bitterly pursuing had finally been found in a prodigal returning home, casting aside evil to embrace goodness! With your life as the price, you redeemed us all! I had always assumed your greatest secret was your wife and child, but never did I expect this to be your final secret.

My wife walked over and pulled me into her embrace. I buried my face in her arms and wept bitterly, crying and crying like that without stopping.

After weeping for a long while, a sudden thought struck me: what were all those brothers and sisters doing these days, and how were they holding up? I had to organize a gathering, to track down those brothers and sisters of yesteryear, so I could let them know about this and see what each of them was doing now!

I mobilized all my connections and exhausted every channel to contact those brothers and sisters from the old days. Following the court's sentencing back then, a portion of the worst offenders—especially the foot soldiers who had blood on their hands, such as Grandfather, the head branch leader, and several branch leaders under Qin Baichuan—had been sentenced to death. Most of the others received prison terms, while a few novices who had barely participated in branch affairs were treated leniently by the government and released after a period of labor reform. Once they were released, those with local household registrations found work nearby, while those from elsewhere—such as the female foot soldiers from the southern Guangdong branch—returned to their hometowns, and those from Sichuan returned to Sichuan. With so many years having passed, the older foot soldiers had likely already passed away. Therefore, tracking these people down was no easy task.

After months of rushing about, I managed to locate over eighty people. Upon hearing about a reunion, everyone was deeply stirred, especially the brothers from the "Wood and Catalpa Lotus" branch. Hearing that Fourth Master, Fifth Master, and Sixth Master were spearheading it, they exclaimed excitedly, "We will definitely come!"

I specially arranged for a banquet hall at a hotel, and on that day, I waited by the entrance to the lobby from early in the morning. Having not seen one another in decades, many people were completely unrecognizable.

To my utter astonishment, the very first person to arrive was a female foot soldier from the old "Crossing Begonia" branch. Looking to be around sixty years old, as she walked toward the hotel entrance carrying a suitcase, I already sensed she must be one of our branch sisters, yet I could not place who she was.

As I stood there in a daze, she walked over with a smile. "Could you be Fifth Master?"

That title of "Fifth Master" sent a jolt through my entire body. I asked, "And you are?"

She removed her glasses and said, "I am Liu Yumei, who served under Yan Niang! We met in Sichuan in 1949!"

Sudden realization flashed through my mind. Back in 1949 at Qin Baichuan's stronghold, just as Commander Liu was about to blast Grandfather away, Jiang Feiyan had arrived, and shortly after, two female foot soldiers had marched in escorting the two fellows who had dug up graves. Those two female foot soldiers were named Liu Yumei and Liu Hongmei; they were twin sisters and Jiang Feiyan's personal maidservants.

I hurriedly said, "Oh, little sister Yumei, please come right in, please come in!"

More than eighty people arrived one after another, all affectionately addressing me as "Fifth Master," filling my heart with a warmth that carried a bittersweet ache.

Before the meal began, everyone requested that I say a few words. I stepped up onto the stage and looked out across those faces that were simultaneously familiar and strange. Scenes from the past rushed over me in a flood, and before I could even open my mouth, my tears fell first...

Grandfather's wish had been fulfilled. Through government re-education, the brothers had all stepped onto righteous paths. Some had entered textile mills, some entered post offices, some joined machinery plants, some went into commerce to run small businesses, some studied traditional Chinese medicine and became physicians, some became teachers, and a few individuals—including myself—due to a special fondness for the Book of Changes, took up serious and earnest study.

During the banquet, a foot soldier asked me, "Fifth Master, what are your thoughts after studying the true Book of Changes?"

I replied, "The true Book of Changes is a supreme book of ultimate goodness. Image, number, principle, divination; purity, cleanliness, refinement, and subtlety—heaven and man in oneness, heaven and earth in harmony. Without understanding the Yi, one cannot qualify as a gentleman."

Another foot soldier stood up and asked me, "Fifth Master, what on earth is the Book of Changes?"

Hearing this, I felt a sensation that was both darkly humorous and desolate. To think that we, fortune tellers of the "River and Lake Sect," had spent an entire lifetime swindling people under the banner of the Book of Changes while remaining utterly oblivious to what it actually was—this was the terrifying part of our profession, and even more so, its most pathetic tragedy.

With a long sigh, I explained, "The word 'Zhou' in the Book of Changes has two explanations. One theory holds that 'King Wen was imprisoned and deduced the Book of Changes,' and since the sixty-four hexagrams were born during the Zhou dynasty, it is called the Zhou Yi. Another theory holds that the word Zhou signifies endless circulation and repetition, representing the operational laws of all things in heaven and earth. As for the character 'Yi,' it is a pictographic character with the character for 'sun' on top and the character for 'moon' on the bottom, indicating that the Yi studies the interactive relationship between the sun, moon, stars, and the earth. Thus, the Yi explores universal truths. The original text of the Book of Changes contains only the sixty-four hexagrams along with the judgements and line statements, but the Book of Changes we see today is divided into two parts: one part is the original text, and the other consists of the commentaries added by Confucius, totaling ten commentaries known to later generations as the 'Ten Wings,' meaning that Confucius added ten wings to the Book of Changes so that it could spread its wings and soar high. In truth, Confucius commenting on the Book of Changes was half a blessing and half a curse. Back then, when Emperor Qin Shi Huang burned books and buried scholars, it was precisely because Confucius had written commentaries on it that the Book of Changes was nearly burned by Qin Shi Huang as a Confucian classic, and it only narrowly escaped thanks to Prime Minister Li Si risking his life to remonstrate, arguing that the Book of Changes was merely a book of divination and had nothing to do with Confucius. At the same time, precisely because Confucius commented upon it, the Book of Changes was elevated from a pure manual of divination to the lofty status of a philosophical classic. In subsequent dynasties Confucianism flourished, and the Book of Changes soared in value to rank among the Five Classics. By the Qianlong era, when the Qing government compiled the Siku Quanshu, the Book of Changes leaped even higher to become the foremost of all classics!"

That foot soldier pressed on, "Then what is the exact relationship between the Book of Changes, the Eight Trigrams, and the sixty-four hexagrams?"

I chuckled softly. Finally, a worthwhile question had been asked. "The sixty-four hexagrams in the Book of Changes all discuss the Dao of yin and yang. From the boundless non-ultimate comes the supreme ultimate; the supreme ultimate generates the two modes; the two modes generate the four symbols; the four symbols generate the eight trigrams; and the eight trigrams intersect to form the sixty-four hexagrams. What is the non-ultimate? The limit is a boundary, so the non-ultimate means having no limit, having neither beginning nor end, existing in a state of primal chaos. Within this state of the non-ultimate, the supreme ultimate is conceived. The supreme ultimate is the inception of all things; when Pangu cleaved heaven and earth apart and heaven and earth came into existence, the supreme ultimate appeared. The supreme ultimate generates the two modes, which are yin and yang—representing the duality of all things. Heaven is yang while earth is yin; men are yang while women are yin; daylight is yang while nighttime is yin. The two modes generate the four symbols, which refer to lesser yin, greater yin, lesser yang, and greater yang. They describe the changing patterns of yin and yang, much like a person growing from childhood to adulthood and from adulthood to old age, reflecting the developmental state of things growing from weak to strong, strong to weak, and cycling endlessly round and round. Look at the Taiji yin-yang fish diagram; it depicts the waxing and waning of yin and yang. The four symbols generate the eight trigrams, where yin and yang are further refined during their waxing and waning process, dividing into eight trigrams: Qian, Kun, Zhen, Dui, Li, Kan, Xun, and Gen. Qian represents heaven, Kun represents earth, Zhen represents thunder, Dui represents marsh, Li represents fire, Kan represents water, Xun represents wind, and Gen represents mountain. With this, the basic natural phenomena of the earth are completely encompassed. The eight trigrams pair up with one another to form the sixty-four hexagrams, and from this point onward, all things in heaven and earth are covered without exception..."

"Ha-ha, who would have thought Fifth Master would turn out to be a true master of the Book of Changes!" A bright laugh interrupted my words as Liu Yumei walked over holding a wine glass.

Of everyone at this reunion, the one who surprised me the most was Liu Yumei of the "Crossing Begonia." After completing her prison sentence, she had emerged to work as a textile mill operative. Gifted with nimble hands and exceptional at her work, she was quickly promoted to team leader. Under her leadership, every single member of her team turned into a powerhouse, consistently exceeding their production quotas. Later on, she rose to workshop director and was even honored as one of New China's very first batches of "March 8th Red-Bannerholders." Following the reform and opening up, she resigned and plunged into the economic tide, starting a garment business in the south whose assets now exceeded several million. After acquiring wealth, she donated funds to build several Project Hope elementary schools and frequently provided financial aid to nursing homes. Passionate about charitable causes and the protection of women's rights, she was currently serving as the local director of the Women's Federation. I could not help marveling: foot soldiers were all clever individuals; as long as they applied their minds to a righteous path, whatever they did, they would do better than ordinary people.

Feeling that the time had come to share Grandfather's final prison-cell testament with everyone, I addressed the crowd, "A book was published recently. I wonder if any of you have read it?"

They asked, "What book?"

I took out the book, slowly stepped up onto the stage, feeling deeply stirred with my hands beginning to tremble. I took a deep breath, steadied myself, and began slowly reading Grandfather's prison-cell confession.

When I finished reading, complete silence fell over the room. I said, "This confessional monologue was tucked away inside the case files of Grandfather's prosecution back then. Recently, during the government's legal popularization education campaign, an editor at a legal weekly compiled it and published it as part of a book manuscript. My wife discovered it while browsing a bookstore."

Fourth Branch Leader slowly rose to his feet, tears streaming down his face as he raised his wine glass with a trembling hand and said, "Let us toast to Grandfather!"

Several of the women had already broken down in open sobs, and everyone raised their glasses together: "Eternal peace to Grandfather!"

This was the Grandfather whom everyone had followed for a lifetime—that figure who commanded both reverence and fear. In life, he had schemed to secure paths of wealth for everyone; in death, he had delivered everyone onto the path of righteousness.

Liu Yumei was already crying so hard she was choked with sobs. I walked over and handed her a handkerchief, and as she wiped away her tears, she said, "Fifth Master, you mentioning Grandfather has made me think of Yan Niang again."

At that time, I still did not know that Jiang飞燕 had passed away, so I asked, "Do you have any news of Yan Niang?"

Liu Yumei replied, "Late last year, when I went to Hong Kong to negotiate some business, I saw her featured in a newspaper."

I asked, "Is she doing well?"

Liu Yumei shed more tears. "She has passed away. She died this past March. According to the newspaper profile, she became a legislative council member over there and consistently advocated for the reunification of the two sides of the strait. She opposed Taiwan independence, declaring that the two shores of the strait share the same flesh and blood. Before she died, her greatest wish was to be able to return to the mainland for a visit—to see Guangdong, and to see the Jianghuai region."

Hearing those words, a pang of heartache pierced my chest; she had been thinking of Grandfather all the way to the end.

While in Taiwan, Jiang Feiyan had also composed a poem that was reprinted in that Hong Kong newspaper. Liu Yumei had clipped it out and cherished it ever since. Entitled "Yearning," it read as follows:

I do not know how much longer I must wait,

I do not know how much longer I have left to live.

I only hope the distance of the living can outlast the distance of waiting.

I do not know where people go after they die,

I do not know if we will change beyond recognition in the next life.

I only hope in the next life we will no longer merely gaze at each other from afar.

There is a profession known as the swindler,

There is an emotion known as yearning,

There is a loneliness known as Feiyan.

Jiang Feiyan thought of her Grandfather until the day she died. Throughout her life, she traversed the four seas like a soaring swallow, darting back and forth between the boundless azure of sea and sky. Vast though the sea and sky might be, she remained forever solitary and alone.

That afternoon, once the banquet concluded, a portion of the attendees prepared to return home while others lingered for a couple of days, and eventually everyone scattered to the four winds.

After everyone had departed, an empty hollowness settled deep into my heart: after parting today, heaven knows when we might meet again—perhaps in the next life.