Jin Yong, Gu Long, Liang Yusheng and many others have written about the turbulent and bizarre battles in the martial arts world. Many of the works of later generations, experienced readers, most of them can guess the general plot after reading the beginning. Drawing tiger dogs and dog tails continue the feeling of mink.
Therefore, a batch of new martial arts films represented by Su Zhaobin's "Sword Rain" and Hou Hsiao-hsien's "Assassin Nie Yinniang" no longer focus on the plot, but use the shell of martial arts to explore the eternal perplexing theme in people's hearts: life pursuit and meaning.
This question connects our past, present and future .
How do we deal with the pain and trauma we experience in the past? Why don't we like our current state of life? Will we get better in the future?
We can choose to avoid thinking about these questions, but it’s hard to avoid the pain that comes with it.
We may assign various labels to these symptoms of distress: inferiority complex, sensitivity, impulsiveness, depression, anxiety, panic, maladaptation…
It seems that after labeling, we can feel more at ease. However, many times we do not feel better even if we make such a "diagnosis", because the root cause of the problem is always there.
"How can we be happy?"
If you can't think of a satisfactory answer for a while, you can first take a look at the following story. Maybe its plot is not clever or novel, but it can give you some inspiration about this problem.
1. Zeng Jing: "Do I still deserve happiness?"
My name is Zeng Jing, and I am a civilian girl who sells cloth in the north of the city.
There is a snack shop next to my cloth stall. Cai Po, who runs the snack shop, is kind-hearted, but she is a little nagging, nosy, and always wants to help me as a matchmaker.
My appearance is ordinary, and there are faint traces of time on my face. Most of the single men in the city who are interested in me are ugly in appearance and wretched in temperament. I know that Grandma Cai is worried that I will not be able to rely on me for the rest of my life. In fact, I feel that I am a People live a peaceful life very well, they don’t need or want to depend on anyone at all.
Last month, a man named Jiang Asheng came to the city to run errands for others and deliver letters and packages. The price of his delivery is fair and sincere. Although there is not much business, he carefully delivers every transaction.
Once, Jiang Asheng was tired from running. He bought a bowl of mugwort tea from Cai Po's stall and took a sip. The sky suddenly changed, the wind was blowing, and there was a sound of thunder.
Seeing that it was going to rain, I hurriedly piled the cloth together and lifted the tarpaulin to cover it. But there are too many cloths, the booths are too long, and the tarpaulins are big and heavy.
In a hurry, Jiang Asheng put down the tea in his hand, rushed over to help me pick up the cloth that had fallen on the ground, and helped me spread the tarpaulin. I said thank you to him, he said you're welcome, nodding shyly and saying goodbye to me.
From then on, whenever the weather changed, it was windy and thunderous, and on the eve of the rain, he always appeared near the cloth booth by "accidental" to help me pack my things.
Grandma Cai told me that Jiang Asheng had been asking her about me recently, as if he was interested in me.
But I don't want others to disturb my life.
Before it was about to rain, I paid someone to hire Jiang Asheng to deliver a letter to a butcher. In the letter, I wrapped a silver ingot and asked him to punch Jiang Asheng three times as a warning.
The wind picked up, I started to clean up the stall, Cai Po jokingly said: Why did you clean up by yourself? Don't wait for him to help you?
I did something bad and felt a little guilty, so I just smiled and said: How is that possible?
Before he finished speaking, he saw that Jiang Asheng was rushing towards this direction in the direction pointed by Mrs. Cai, and when he came to him, he pretended to run past a little bit, and then turned back, while panting:
"Just passing by, I'll help you clean up."
Looking at Jiang Asheng's black and swollen eye sockets, my smile froze on my face.
Every time it rains, we pack up the cloth booth and go to the eaves together to take shelter from the rain. Every time our conversations are brief, my heart becomes softer and smiles more.
I think I changed my mind.
However, there are too many darkness and secrets hidden in my past, a beautiful and happy future, am I really worthy?
Whenever I am uncertain and confused, I always go to an old monk in the suburbs to chat.
I knelt before the Buddha and cried and asked:
"Please tell me, can I still have this blessing? Can my life be all over again? "
2. Drizzle: "Killing is the only thing I do"
My name is Drizzle, and I am a female killer who belongs to the mysterious organization Black Stone, which is linked to the rivers, lakes and the court.
The leader of the organization, the runner king, is my master. He created the status of the "Black Rock" Jianghu No. 1 Killer Organization.
According to legends in the rivers and lakes, eight hundred years ago, there was an eminent monk Rama from Tianzhu who crossed the sea and came to the Central Plains to spread the Dharma. Whoever gets the corpse can practice peerless martial arts and dominate the martial arts.
The Wheel King went around to investigate the whereabouts of Rama's body, and when he heard that the upper part of the body was obtained by Zhang Haiduan, the first assistant of the dynasty, he sent the three masters of the organization to break into the Taishi Mansion at night.
I am the first apprentice of the Wheel-turning King, and I have been taught the "Water-Breaking Sword Technique" by him. I have the highest attainments in martial arts among the three, and I am also the one who took the lead in this operation.
I killed Zhang Haiduan, and a few other companions killed everyone else in Zhang's house.
In the chaos of the scuffle, I was suddenly very tired of everything in front of me, and under the impulse of a ghost, I took advantage of the chaos and fled with my body.
When I walked to the stone bridge on the outskirts of the city, Zhang Haiduan's son Zhang Renfeng caught up with me and blocked my way at the other end of the bridge.
"You killed my father!"
I put down Rama's body and, using the same sword technique, inserted a sharp blade into his chest, and he fell off the stone bridge on his back.
Yeah, kill your father, kill you, kill anyone, as if killing was the only thing I would do...
"It's still too late."
Lu Zhu, wearing a cassock and cultivating with hair, appeared behind me:
"But life is not necessarily happy, and death is not necessarily bitter, you are the drizzle, right?"
This is my first time seeing Lu Zhu.
In order to persuade me to give up Rama's body, he walked with me and fought with each other for three months, but I don't know when, we seem to have a nameless affection for each other.
One night, he suddenly told me: "In a few days, I will be officially ordained as a monk."
I was anxious: "Which temple dares to help you shave, I will kill all the young and old in the temple."
Lu Zhu insisted on getting this fate.
I got into a fight with him. Lu Zhu's martial arts was much higher than mine, but he deliberately missed the loophole. My sword was too late and pierced through his chest.
"The Zen machine has arrived."
He took off a string of beads from his neck and hung it on my sword:
"If you can put down the sword in your hand and leave this path, I would like to be the last person you kill."
While panicking, I instinctively wanted to withdraw the sword, but the sharp edge of the sword cut off the rope that connected the beads.
His painstaking efforts to enlighten me with life, how could I live up to him.
I sent the upper half of Bodhidharma's body to a temple in the suburbs of Beijing, and handed it over to Lu Zhu's master, the old monk Jian Chi.
Then, in order to avoid being hunted down, I found Li Guishou, a genius doctor who can help disguise people, and asked him to give me an ordinary face, a face that would allow me to live in seclusion in the capital and live an ordinary life.
I also gave myself an equally common new name: Zeng Jing
3. "Go ahead and see, can you get it?"
After listening to my question, the old monk tapped my back with a ruler, as if to wake me up:
"Go! The dead open the eyes of the living. The heart of the past is unattainable, the heart of the present is unattainable, the heart of the future is unattainable, the future has become the present, the present has become the past, go as you wish, and see, can you obtain it? "
I finally made up my mind.
It's going to rain again, and Jiang Asheng arrives as promised: "Just passing by, I'll help you clean up..."
I looked him in the eyes and asked:
"Why did you come to see me?"
He didn't know how to answer for a while: "I..."
I approached him and asked again: "Why did you come to me?"
He was forced by me to back up again and again, and I said, "Ask you one thing, you have to answer me before the rain stops, I only ask once..."
"...will you marry me?"
Jiang Asheng gasped, as if he couldn't believe what his ears heard.
I am married to Jiang Asheng.
He really is an excellent husband, considerate and gentle, know the cold and the heat, and live a life of firewood, rice, oil and salt. Although our income is not high and our life is tight, we are very happy.
Unfortunately, this happiness only lasted half a year.
4. The sins of the past, turned into evil spirits, suddenly crawled out of the grave
This month's expenses are overrun.
Ah Sheng took out the banknotes he had saved to subsidize, and we went to the bank to withdraw money together.
Unexpectedly, they turned out to be robbers. They want to make money, but also want to kill. In order to keep the current peaceful life, I can ignore what others do.
But they didn't want to stay alive. When they saw Butcher's knife heading towards Ah Sheng, all their patience was meaningless.
I promised Lu Zhu not to kill any more, just to make them incapacitated.
I didn't want Ah Sheng to know about my past, so he tapped his acupuncture points and turned him to the other side so that he couldn't see what was going on in front of him.
Although I know it's futile to do this, he can't see but hear, I can't explain my past, and I don't want to lie to him.
When I got home, I steamed his favorite braised lion head, and while we waited, we sat facing each other, silent.
I remembered everything in the past, and all the sins I had committed turned into evil spirits, slowly crawling out of the grave in my heart.
Uneasy, fear gripped my throat, I was speechless and my heart was a mess.
The braised lion's head was cooked, and there was an appetizing aroma. Ah Sheng stood up and went to the kitchen to serve the dishes.
When I passed by, I couldn't help it: "Aren't you curious at all?"
He put his hand on my shoulder and showed the same sincere smile as before: "Even if you were a thief of Jiang Yang before, you are still my wife."
This hurdle in front of me seems to be able to pass.
In fact, it's not just Ah Sheng that I should be worried about. I made a move at the bank, but I didn't shut my mouth. Blackstone discovered my trace.
A code has been left at my house, and Blackstone will come to you tonight.
In order to protect my secret, in the evening, I lit the incense and fainted Ah Sheng.
He slept soundly in bed, peaceful and serene. I picked up his frayed boots and waited while mending them under the lamp.
The King of Wheels came, and with him came two former companions: Lei Bin, who used to use silver needles, and Link Rope, who was good at illusion.
After I left, the Wheel King found Ye Zhanqing, a female prisoner on death row, to fill my vacancy, and taught her the water-bending swordsmanship in the same way.
Ye Zhanqing is beautiful and charming, with a fierce personality, with a strong desire like a beast. On the wedding night, she found out that her husband had a physical defect and could not satisfy her, so she brutally murdered her husband's family.
The wheel-runner king liked her character, rescued her from prison and took her with him. The relationship between the two was ambiguous, like a father and daughter, a master and a disciple, and more like a lover.
Ye Zhanqing knew that I was also a descendant of the water-bending swordsmanship before, and also saw that the King of Wheels and his two colleagues attached great importance to me, so at first sight, he was full of hostility towards me.
The King of Wheels came straight to the point and explained his intentions:
He asked me to hand over the upper half of Rama's body that I took away, and then help him snatch the lower half that he owned from Zhang Dajing, the owner of Tongbao Bank. In short, the complete body of Rama can be exchanged for the lives of me and Ah Sheng.
For Ah Sheng, I can only promise.
Three days later, Lei Bin, Lian Sheng, and I were drinking in front of the restaurant high up on the street, while secretly monitoring and reporting the whereabouts of Zhang Dajing, the owner of the bank.
Liansheng said: Zhang Dajing is a paralyzed man who is rich and rivals the country.
Ye Zhanqing walked over with a smile and threw a cloth bag that looked like a human head on the table. She said to me proudly: "Why do you want to marry a poor man who can't even buy bean skins? A promising man, I let him off for you!"
It turned out that she followed Ah Sheng for three days and saw him passing by the Doupi stall. In order to save money, she could only swallow her saliva and walk away. She despised such a useless appearance.
This is a clumsy joke. In fact, there is a melon in the cloth bag. The juice seeps out of the cloth and flows all over the table. You can smell it from afar.
I ignored her, thinking about what Zhang Dajing said with a rope, a question arose in my heart:
What does a paralyzed billionaire want Rama's body to do? Could it be that he also wants to unify the rivers and lakes?
5. Jiang Asheng's Secret
On the way to Zhang’s house, I saw a beancurd hawker on the street who was about to close the stall, and I remembered what Ye Zhanqing said, Ah Sheng wanted to eat and resisted buying it in order to save money.
I bought one, put it in my arms, and if all goes well, I want to take it home for him to eat after the operation is over.
Lian Rope and I sneaked into Zhang Mansion, and accidentally heard the secret of Rama's body in the conversation between Zhang Dajing and others:
"Blindness can be restored, lost teeth can be regained, lost legs can be regrown..."
It turns out that there is another part of the legend of Jianghu: Rama's remains can be regenerated.
During a melee, Lian Rope and I snatched the lower half from Zhang Dajing's hand, and with the upper half that I brought, the Wheel King had obtained the complete body of Rama he had been looking for.
I hoped he would keep his word, but I forgot, maybe it was a fluke: no one ever leaves Blackrock alive.
The wheel-turning king's moves are fierce, all of which are going to kill me.
I was badly injured and narrowly escaped.
When Ah Sheng saw me, he stood up in surprise. I barely stood against the door frame and told him to run away. After that, he couldn't hold it any longer and fainted.
Ah Sheng helped me to the bed, took off my shoes, tucked the quilt carefully, and found the bean curd I bought for him.
He was very happy, as if he was not afraid at all, just sat down at the table, picked up the bean curd and started eating slowly.
The people who were chasing me quickly arrived. It was Lei Bin and Ye Zhanqing. The King of Wheels took away the upper and lower remains and disappeared.
Seeing that Ah Sheng was not panic at all, instead he took the bench and sat down and started to pry the bricks on the ground.
Lei Bin and Ye Zhanqing both had some doubts and did not act immediately, wanting to see what tricks he played.
After prying the floor tiles, Ah Sheng took out a sword box from the ground, took out a rusty sword, dipped it in water, and began to sharpen the sword on the whetstone.
Lei Bin thought that Ah Sheng was just struggling to the death, delaying time, and taking my face into consideration, so he comforted him and said:
"I can save your life with two needles, it doesn't hurt at all."
Ah Sheng finished sharpening his sword, and smiled back to him and said:
"You haven't died, how do you know it doesn't hurt at all?"
Lei Bin didn't want to wait any longer, a needle flew away, Ah Sheng blocked it with his long sword, and picked up another sword in the sword box. The two swords, one long and one short, seemed familiar.
Lei Bin suddenly remembered: This is the "staggered sword" used by Zhang Renfeng, the son of the former first assistant Zhang Haiduan!
It turns out that Jiang Asheng is Zhang Renfeng after a makeover.
6. The Secret of the Wheel King
The Wheel King is not only rich, but also powerful. The lives and futures of all the officials in the imperial court are in his hands. However, he is willing to use all the money and power to accomplish what is hidden in his heart and what he desires most. wish:
become a real man.
The true identity of the wheel-turning king is a eunuch in the palace. He entered the palace clean at the age of 12, and has worked hard in the palace for 50 years. He is still a ninth-rank eunuch at the bottom.
He hates his status as a eunuch. He has a shrill voice, no beard, and is not a real man. In order to find a way to make up for it, he has practiced a peerless martial arts and created the Black Stone. He hopes that through these, he can get Rama's body. , make yourself whole again.
Ye Zhanqing admired his power and wealth, and longed to get closer to him, but several times of seduction failed, until the wheel-turning king got Rama's body. stand up.
Ye Zhanqing reached down and immediately discovered his secret.
The wheel-turning king explained in a panic that although he is now a eunuch, after practicing magic, he can make up for his shortcomings and become a real man.
She was shocked and angry: It turned out that she and several other people were desperately trying to grab the body for such a ridiculous reason.
Not only did she mock him mercilessly, but she wanted to take money and leave in front of him.
Ye Zhanqing died, and the Wheel King buried her alive under a stone bridge in the suburbs. He couldn't get her body like a man, so he took her life forever.
7. Can life really be restarted?
Zhang Renfeng changed his face, and he was also looking for Li Guishou. From him, he knew my whereabouts. After finding me, he inquired about my news and approached me on purpose to have a chance for revenge. He never did anything to me. In order to first lead out the organization behind me, and then kill me and Blackstone.
I found him at the Yunhe Temple of the old monk. Although he already knew my identity, he was still very excited when I admitted it.
With his sword on my neck, I asked him, "Have you ever been sincere to me?"
He replied, "No way, I'm all hypocritical for you."
My heart hurts so much, my eyes are red.
Seeing how sad I was, he seemed to be struggling to fight against himself. He grabbed my collar, as if trying to persuade himself to kill me:
"You kill me, I don't care, but you kill my father, I can't forgive you anyway"
His sword was against my face, shaking so badly, I didn't struggle, didn't feel scared, just looked at him and wanted to see him more.
Suddenly, he let go of me, walked over and turned his back to me, and said, "Go away, if my late father knew that I killed a weak woman, he would not be able to rest his eyes if he knew."
I've never been a weak woman, and his words meant that, no matter what started, our relationship was real.
I don't want to avoid it anymore.
I threw a sword at him and tried to kill him. After a few moves, he became ruthless. When the sword stabbed at me, I closed my eyes and wanted to use my death to end the fate, just like Lu Zhu do that.
He retracted the sword, but I moved faster and clicked on his acupuncture point all at once.
The last time I met a robber in the bank, I clicked your hole to protect my secret.
This time I clicked your acupuncture point to confess to you and face my past .
"I will give you an account of your hatred..."
I signaled my location to the wheel king.
I brought Ah Sheng down and helped him to pretend to be dead. He glared at me, watching me and the King of Wheels fighting to the death.
Wheel King said:
"Your life can be restarted, but mine can't? I just want to be a normal man, does that require too much?"
The King of Wheels taught me that there were huge loopholes in the water-bending swordsmanship. At this moment, he was trying to seize these loopholes and give me a fatal blow.
He didn't know that during the three months of entanglement with Lu Zhu, Lu Zhu had already seen my flaws, and before he died, he taught me the method of cracking.
The King of Wheels saw that my moves changed, unexpectedly, his movements were a little slower, and the water-bending swordsmanship was famous for being fast. At the moment when he was stunned, my sword fell on him like raindrops, drawing out multiple fatal wounds.
After confirming that the King of Wheels was dead, my spirit relaxed and I found myself exhausted.
Ah Sheng was lying not far away, staring at all this.
When I woke up again, Ah Sheng's acupoint time had passed, and he was holding me to go home.
Seeing me awake, he said softly, "Let's go, let's go home."
Did he forgive me?
I couldn't believe it, so I just said, "When you get home, write me a letter of divorce."
Ah Sheng smiled:
"What nonsense, the days to come are still long."
The story ends here.
The Wheel King, Zeng Jing, and Jiang Asheng are all people who are entangled in the pain of the past.
But they chose to respond differently.
The Wheel King looks strong, but he is actually very weak inside. This weakness stems from his refusal to accept his past and has been immersed in the false fantasy of changing the past.
The reality made him feel pain. He couldn't let go of his physical disability. He couldn't accept his eunuch status. A lot of money and boundless power couldn't make him feel satisfied. The only thing he wanted was to find a way to put the past. Completely overturned, making the physical disability disappear. Unfortunately, time cannot be reversed, and what has been lost cannot be regained, but he has wasted his life in futile efforts and struggles.
Zeng Jing once thought that avoiding hiding would free herself, but in the past, she would never give up chasing and killing us.
When we face pain, our instinctive response is to run away from danger.
Living a new life with a new face, with a new identity, seems like a good idea.
But the danger itself does not disappear, it always reappears in our lives inadvertently, reminding us of unsolved problems, and making us realize that the "new life" obtained by avoiding is just a lie.
It's like, sometimes we encounter unbearable things in reality, trying to "exile ourselves" through a trip to a foreign country, or live in another city, although our body is gone, the heart is hard really don't think about it;
Or, we encounter some problems and knots in our relationship, thinking that it will be okay to leave this person and change a partner, but if we recall carefully, we may find that one relationship after another seems to be all because of similarities. The reason is over.
At this time, we are like trapped beasts in the labyrinth. To be completely freed, we need to summon the courage to return to the place where the problem started, and face the past in a way that suits us, and then we may get a real "end" , achieve transcendence.
Jiang Asheng's revenge is unforgettable like the King of Wheels, but also to escape like Zeng Jing
He wanted to kill Drizzle, eliminate Heishi, and avenge his father, but his nature was a gentle, honest, sincere and kind person.
He clearly knew that Zeng Jing was the drizzle, but he deceived himself and pretended not to know. In the day-to-day getting along, the love between him and Zeng Jing had already subsided most of the hatred.
Between the past and the present, if he chooses the past, he can take revenge, but "Drizzle" is not only his enemy, even if he kills her, his father will not survive, and he will fall into the pain of killing his lover for the rest of his life. .
Therefore, he chose the present, let go of the darkness and pain of the past, and allowed himself to move towards a happy future.
In our life, if we want to get out of the vicious circle that repeatedly troubles us now, and get solid happiness in the future, the first thing we must have is the courage to face the past.
On Zeng Jing and Jiang Asheng's journey of redemption, what supports them in facing and getting out of the pain of the past is the solid and warm relationship between them.
Such healing relationships can be seen in high-quality intimate relationships, as well as in the relationship between the counselor and the client.
When there are always some obstacles in our life that cannot be bypassed, the real life seems to be full of painful, false, meaningless feelings, unable to face our past, and unable to see where the future is, rather than being alone , struggling in vain in the endless darkness, maybe what you need more is a beam of light, and a voice that is willing to accompany and guide you, leave the chaos, and move towards a clear future.
Text / Mangrove Editor Luo Qi
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