Wand SMoke:
The Seven Scholars

The Measureless Path

by MarQuese Liddle

There was soon to be a match between pirate’s Sìhng Lùhng and Jūn-Făn to settle at long last which was stronger and therefore deserved more of the crew’s loot. However, there arose quite the complication between them. Though each pirate agreed that a boxing match should settle the conflict, they could not come to terms as to the time or the location.

Sìhng Lùhng, always the improvisor, argued they should fight their duel at night and below deck. “There is where a man really shows his style, in the dark and among the unpredictable dangers lurking behind cargo, coils of rope, and doors to midship cabins.”

Jūn-Făn thought otherwise. “A true fight,” he said, “is a free expression under an open sky. Only on deck in the broad daylight can two men really measure against one another, absent the caprices of chance.”

In the end, no compromise could be arrived at, and so it was up to the Captain, Fènghuáng, to decide. The captain, however, was too preoccupied playing Chaturanga with Rinzai, and so he gave the task to Ryōshin, his pet macaque.

Caring nothing for the pretenses or designs of men, Ryōshin took it upon himself to settle the matter. Come the following morning, just as the sun peeked above the sea, the monkey ambushed Sìhng Lùhng on an open stretch of the deck of the terror galley. Yet drunk from his prior evening’s reveling, the normally tough and innovative pirate was easily defeated.

Before the sun had fully risen, talk spread across the galley and reached Jūn-Făn, who assumed Fènghuáng sent his pet to punish the shipmates for fighting amongst themselves again. And so, to avoid the same crushing defeat, Jūn-Făn hid below deck disguised as an oarsman. There, he rowed and rowed till even his bones ached from exertion.

But when night fell, and it was time for a change of shifts, Jūn-Făn did not escape Ryōshin waiting for him.

The following morning, Captain Fènghuáng summoned both beaten pirates to his cabin. He was yet engrossed in his game with Rinzai, and so the pair was made to wait until the captain and monk were finished. It took hours, but eventually Fènghuáng’s forces succumbed. Then, as if waiting for this moment, Ryōshin burst in from behind the beaten pirates, causing them to flinch. But the macaque did not attack. He merely dashed onto his master’s back and began picking lice from under his hat.

Fènghuáng smiled at that, at Rinzai, the Chaturanga board, and then at Sìhng Lùhng and Jūn-Făn before banishing the two men from his cabin.