idering of the Loving Birds.’

“Then I started counting with my fingers as I spoke. I said, ‘That’s right, the two moves you just used were evolved from the eighth move created by my Master-Wife: ‘Weaving Goddess Throwing the Shuttles.’ Why would a valiantly and hefty fellow like you imitate the manners of my affectedly sweet Master-Wife and throw the shuttle with the pretty hands from left to right, then right to left, like how the gorgeous looking Weaving Goddess would have when she is sitting by a weaving loom. Don’t you think that’s just hilarious…?’” Before he even finished, Yue Lingshan and the bunch of female apprentices all started giggling.

“That’s too mischievous!” Yue Buqun scolded, yet could not help but grin.

“Bah,” Madam Yue spat at Linghu Chong. “Why couldn’t you use some other materials for your nonsense, and had to get your Master-Wife involved? You really deserve a good beating.”

“Master-Wife, you don’t understand.” Linghu Chong grinned. “That Tian Boguang is rather conceited. When he heard that I was comparing him to a woman and that my Master-Wife created her own magical knife moves, he had to argue about it and definitely wouldn’t just kill me right away. Sure enough, he started to show me the moves of that set of knife chops one by one slowly. Each time when he was demonstrating one, he would ask, ‘Did your Master-Wife create this one?’

“I pretended to be very secretive about it and kept my silence while secretly memorizing his knife moves. I waited till he was done demonstrating all thirteen stances and then said, ‘This set of knife art of yours only has very slight deviations from the one created by my Master-Wife, but the majority of it is still the same. This is really odd? How did you steal it from our Huashan Sword School?’

“Tian Boguang said angrily, ‘You couldn’t fend off this set of knife art of mine. That’s why you simply made things up to stall time so you can investigate the moves of my knife art. Did you think I am stupid? You said your school has the same set of knife art, then please show them to me and help me broaden my horizon.’

“I said, ‘First of all, our school uses swords, not knives. Secondly, this set of ‘Jade Maiden’s Golden Needle Sword’ of my Master-Wife is only taught to female apprentices, not male apprentices. If we hefty guys had to use such sissy looking sword art, wouldn’t we become the laughing stocks of the entire Martial World?’

“Tian Boguang became even more angry. He yelled, ‘Whether I become the laughing stock or not, I am going to make you admit that the Huashan Sword School does not have this set of Kung Fu. Brother, I admire your courage, but you shouldn’t wag your tongue so freely and make fun of me.’”

“Who cares if such a shameless villain admires you or not? He deserves to be made fun of,” Yue Lingshan interrupted.

“But in that circumstance,” Linghu Chong said, “if I did not demonstrate this made-up set of ‘Jade Maiden’s Golden Needle Sword’ in front of him, I’d be dead by now. So with no other choices, I had to add some affectedly bashful moves at random based on his knife art and demonstrated the moves.”

“Did these affectedly bashful moves of yours look real?” Yue Lingshan giggled.

“I’ve seen you use your sword many times, so how could they not look real?” Linghu Chong grinned.

“Ah, you are making fun of me saying that I use my sword in an affectedly bashful way. I am not going to talk to you for three days!”

Madam Yue had been quiet for the time being, and finally she spoke out.

“Lingshan, give your sword to big apprentice brother.”

Yue Lingshan drew her long sword and handed it to Linghu Chong with the handle first.

“Mom wants to see the wicked look of yours with those affectedly bashful moves,” she said with a grin.

“Chong, don’t pay attention to Lingshan. How did you demonstrate the moves at that time?” Madam Yue asked.

Linghu Chong knew that Master-Wife meant to see Tian Boguang’s knife moves. He took the long sword and then bowed to the Master and Master-Wife.

“Master! Master-Wife! May I demonstrate Tian Boguang’s knife moves now?”

Yue Buqun nodded.

“Junior brother Lin,” Lu Dayou said to Lin Pingzhi, “this is a rule of our school. Every time before an apprentice performs moves in front of elders, he must first ask for permission.”

“I see. Thanks for telling me, sixth apprentice brother,” Lin Pingzhi said.

Linghu Chong yawned languidly with a slight smile on his face and then held up his arms sluggishly as if he was going to stretch himself, but suddenly, he snapped his right wrist speedily and chopped three chops continuously. The chops were almost as fast as flashes, and whistles from the sword slashes echoed. All the apprentices were shocked, and a few of the female apprentices uttered a cry of surprise almost in unison. Linghu Chong started to chop, slice, slash and stab the long sword in all directions. The moves appeared as if they were going in all directions randomly and disorderly, but in Yue Buqun and Madam Yue’s eyes, the dozens of moves were clear and distinct; every hack, thrust, slash or chop was vicious yet accurate. Only moments later, Linghu Chong had pulled the sword back and stood still to bow to the Master and Master-Wife.

Yue Lingshan was a bit disappointed. “That fast?” she said.

“It has to be that fast.” Madam Yue nodded. “Within those thirteen stances of fast knife chops, each stance has three or four moves of variation. Over forty moves had passed within such a short period of time. This is really an exceptional set of fast knife art.”

“When the chap Tian Boguang used it, he was way faster than what I’ve just demonstrated,” Linghu Chong added.

Madam Yue and Yu Buqun looked at each other, both couldn’t help but feeling some admiration and surprise inwardly.

“Big apprentice brother, how come you didn’t look anything close to affectedly bashful?” Yue Lingshan asked mockingly.

“For the last several weeks, I’ve been thinking about this set of fast knife chops all the time, so of course when I showed them I was able to do it a little bit faster. That day when I was showing them to Tian Boguang in the remote mountain area, I wasn’t doing it as fast. I had to intentionally make those moves similar to his moves yet different, as well as putting on an act with many postures of a lady, therefore it was even slower,” Linghu Chong explained with a smile.

“How did you put on the postures of a lady? Show me! Show me!” Yue Lingshan requested, her face split into a big grin.

Madam Yue turned to her side and drew a long sword from one of her female apprentices. “Use the fast knife chops!” She demanded.

“Yes,” Linghu Chong answered, and with a loud “Swoosh,” his long sword circled around Madam Yue’s body and the blade chopped toward her lower back.

“Mom, look out!” Yue Lingshan cried out in shock.

Madam Yue threw herself forward, completely ignoring Linghu Chong’s chop from her back, and her sword tip went straight toward Linghu Chong’s chest, also extremely fast and swift.

“Big apprentice brother, watch out!” Yue Lingshan uttered another cry.

Linghu Chong didn’t block either. “Master-Wife, he was way faster,” he said as he chopped backward with his sword.

Madam Yue attacked with another three thrusts, and Linghu Chong also returned the attacks with three chops. The two both fought with fast attacking moves, and none used any defending moves to block. Within a short moment, the two had exchanged over twenty moves.

Lin Pingzhi was dumbstruck. “Big apprentice brother speaks and acts like a lunatic, but his Kung Fu skills are excellent. I’ll have to train really hard, with no slack anytime whatsoever, so others won’t belittle me,” he told himself.

Right at the moment, with a quick thrust, Madam Yue’s sword tip had touched Linghu Chong’s throat. Not able to dodge that, Linghu Chong muttered, “He can block that.”

“Fine!” Madam Yue shouted. She waved her sword and a couple of moves later, her sword tip stopped next to Linghu Chong’s heart.

“He can block that,” Linghu Chong muttered the second time.

What he meant was that even though he wasn’t able to block it, Tian Boguang would have been able to block those two moves because his knife chops were a lot faster.

The two fought faster and faster, and soon, Linghu Chong didn’t even have any time to spill the words ‘he can block that.’ Whenever Madam Yue’s sword tip pointed next to his vital body parts, he simply shook his head to signal that the move would not have worked on Tian Boguang.

Madam Yue was really in the mood now; she was totally carried away. Suddenly with a loud and clear roar, she thrust the sword rapidly around Linghu Chong’s body, the sword tip flashed about as if it was everywhere; the silver reflection circled around and blurred the audiences’ eyes. Suddenly she pushed the sword straight toward Linghu Chong’s heart in the speed of light, with the strength of a thunder.

Linghu Chong was dumbfounded. “Master-Wife!” he cried.

By then the sword tip had already penetrated his robe. Madam Yue’s right hand still pushed forward until the hand guard of the long sword touched Linghu Chong’s chest. It seemed as though the sword had went through Linghu Chong’s body all the way till the end of the sword.

“Mom!” Yue Lingshan screamed. Then sounds of clatter and jingle echoed when pieces of inch-long steel fell down to the floor by Linghu Chong’s feet. Madam Yue smiled as she pulled her hand back. In her hand, all there was left of the long sword was only the sword handle.

“Junior apprentice sister, your inner energy has really progressed, and you kept it well from me,” Yue Buqun said happily.

The two of them had studied under the same Master. They were used to the way they had called each other in their youth, so after they got married, they still called each other apprentice sister and brother.

“Senior apprentice brother is really flattering me. These were just insignificant skills. Nothing to be mentioned about!” Madam Yue said with a smile.

Staring at the pieces of broken sword, Linghu Chong gasped with astonishment. Master-Wife must have thrust the sword out with her whole might, otherwise, without the full strength of her inner energy, the sword thrust would not have had such extraordinary speed. As soon as the sword tip reached the skin, she immediately retracted the vigorous inner energy and changed the direction of the strength from horizontal to vertical, and the great shock from the inner energy strength broke the long sword into inch-long pieces. The superb inner energy manipulation had really reached the level of perfection. In great admiration, he said, “Even if Tian Boguang’s knife chops were faster, he still would not have escaped this thrust of yours, Master-Wife.”

Lin Pingzhi stared at the many holes all over Linghu Chong’s robe, which all came from Madam Yue’s sword thrusts, and almost couldn’t believe his own eyes. “There are actually sword arts this fantastic in the world. All I need is a portion of that and I’d have enough skills to avenge my parents.” He then thought, “The Qingcheng Sword School and Mu Gaofeng both coveted our family’s ‘Evil-Resisting Sword Manuscript,’ but when comparing our family’s Evil-Resisting Sword Art to the sword art of Master-Wife, they are as far apart as from heaven to earth!”

Madam Yue was quite contended. “Chong, since you say this move can kill Tian Boguang, if you train hard, I’ll teach it to you,” she said.

“Thanks to Master-Wife!” Linghu Chong replied.

“Mom, I want to learn it too,” Yue Lingshan demanded.

“Your inner energy is not there yet. You won’t be able to learn this move.” Madam Yue shook her head.

Very discontented, Yue Lingshan pouted her lips. “Big apprentice brother’s inner energy is not that much better than mine. Why can he learn it, but not me?” she complained.

Madam Yue did not answer and only smiled.

Yue Lingshan grabbed onto her father’s sleeve and begged, “Father, you teach me a Kung Fu that will counter that sword move, in case big apprentice brother picks on me after he learns that sword move.”

“This sword move of your mom’s is called ‘Unrivaled and Unmatched, The Thrust of Ning.’ Since it’s unrivaled, how could I have anything to counter it?” Yue Buqun shook his head and grinned.

“That’s nonsense. It’s alright that you flatter me, but once the name spreads out, fellow martial people will laugh their teeth off for sure.” Madam Yue smiled.

This sword move was really created out of a sudden inspiration of Madam Yue. It contained the Huashan inner energy style, the Huashan sword techniques, plus some of her clever inventions, so it was indeed a devastating move. But since it had just been created, there was no name for it. Yue Buqun had thought of naming it “The Unrivalled Thrust of Madam Yue,” but then he thought that his wife had always been valuing her own pride; even after they got married, she still liked when fellow martial people called her “Heroin Ning” instead of “Madam Yue.” Calling her “Heroin Ning” would be praising her own skills and behavior, and calling her “Madam Yue” would only make it sound like she was relying on her world-renowned husband.

Although Madam Yue called her husband’s words nonsense, she truly liked the name “Unrivaled and Unmatched, The Thrust of Ning,” and praised inwardly that her husband, as a scholar, had really thought of a wonderful name for her new move.

“Father, when are you going to create the ‘Incomparable and Unparalleled, The Ten Thrusts of Yue,’ and then teach them to your daughter, so I can challenge big apprentice brother?” Yue Lingshan asked.

“No, I cannot. Dad is not as smart as your mom. I don’t know how to create new moves!” Yue Buqun shook his head.

“It’s not that you don’t know. It’s just that you are afraid of your wife, and dared not to create any,” Yue Lingshan whispered at her father’s ear.

Yue Buqun burst into loud laughter. “Total nonsense,” he denied as he gave a gentle pinch to Yue Lingshan’s cheek.

“Lingshan, don’t get wild with your father. Denuo, go arrange the ritual so your apprentice brother Lin can pay his respects to the spirits of all the former grandmasters of our sword school,” Madam Yue instructed.

“Yes!” Lau Denuo answered and soon had everything ready.

Yue Buqun led the group into the Back Hall. Lin Pingzhi could see a banner board hanging high in the middle of the room, and the words “Inner Energy Drives the Sword” were inscribed onto the board. The hall was decorated in a very serious and solemn manner. Swords after swords hung by the two sidewalls. The sheaths were pitch black and the tassels all appeared to be ancient. Lin Pingzhi figured that those swords must have been the swords of all those former grandmasters of the Huashan Sword School. He thought to himself, “Huashan Sword School has such a great fame and reputation in the Martial World today. There must be heaps of evil villains who died from these grandmasters’ long swords.”

Yue Buqun knelt in front of the incense burner table and kowtowed four times.

“Apprentice Yue Buqun is taking Lin Pingzhi of Fuzhou as my apprentice today. All the ancestors’ spirits in Heaven, will you please bless Lin Pingzhi and watch out for him, have him study and train hard, preserve his purity, follow the school rules, and never harm the reputation of the Huashan Sword School?” he prayed.

Hearing these words from Yue Buqun, Lin Pingzhi knelt down behind him respectfully.

Yue Buqun stood up. “Lin Pingzhi,” he said coldly, “you are taken into our Huashan Sword School today. You must follow the school rules strictly. If you ever violate any of them, you will be punished based on the severity. If the violation were severe, you would be beheaded with no pardon. Our sword school has been in the Martial World for hundreds of years. Although we are capable of striving for supremacy with other schools using our Kung Fu skills, temporary victories are really not worth mentioning. The real important thing is that members of our school all greatly value the reputation of our school. You must remember that well.”

“Yes, Master. I will always keep your advice and instruction in my heart,” Lin Pingzhi promised.

“Linghu Chong, recite the school rules to Lin Pingzhi,” Yue Buqun ordered.

“Yes, Master!” Linghu Chong answered. “Apprentice brother Lin, listen carefully. Firstly, any deceiving behavior to the Master and any disrespectful behavior to the seniors is prohibited; secondly, bullying the weak and hurting the innocent is prohibited; thirdly, assailing of women with obscenities is prohibited; fourthly, jealousy and killing between school members are prohibited; fifthly, stealing and forsaking righteousness for the lust of gain is prohibited; sixthly, conceited and arrogant attitudes when dealing with fellow martial people are prohibited; seventhly, reckless collaboration with gangsters or evil and wicked is prohibited. These are the seven prohibitions of Huashan. All members of the Huashan Sword School have to follow them.”

“Yes. I promise to remember the seven Huashan prohibitions that big apprentice brother just informed me. I will follow all the rules and never dare to violate any of them,” Lin Pingzhi promised sincerely.

“Well, that’s it.” Yue Buqun smiled. “Our school is not like most other schools that have many rules and regulations. As long as you remember these seven prohibitions well and always remember to uphold humanity and righteousness above everything else, behaving like a true gentleman, you’ll keep the Master and the Master-Wife happy.”

“Yes, Master!” Lin Pingzhi answered. He kowtowed to the Master and the Master-Wife, then bowed to and saluted all apprentice brothers and sisters.

“Pingzhi, let’s first bury your parents to let you fulfill your duty as the son, then I will start teaching you the basic drills of our sword school,” Yue Buqun said.

Tears instantly filled Lin Pingzhi’s eyes. “Many thanks to Master and Master-Wife,” He said, kneeling down on the floor.

Yu Buqun propped him up. “In our school,” he said kindly, “everybody is like a member of a big family. When one has a matter to deal with, it becomes a matter for the entire group. You don’t have to be so courteous.”

Yue Buqun turned around and looked at Linghu Chong up and down. After quite a while he finally said, “Chong, this time after you left Mount Huashan, how many prohibitions have you violated?”

Linghu Chong’s heart skipped a beat. He knew that in normal days the Master was always kind and loving to all the apprentices, but if anyone violated school rules, he would be punishing the violator severely without any mercy. So he knelt down in front of the incense burner table.

“I have realized my mistake,” he said. “I did not listen to the advice from Master and Master-Wife. I violated the sixth prohibition of being conceited and arrogant when dealing with fellow martial people. I killed Luo Renjie of the Qingcheng Sword School on top of the Huiyan Wine House in the town of Hengshan.”

Yue Buqun let out a snort with a stern face.

“Father, it was Luo Renjie who had bullied big apprentice brother. At that time big apprentice brother just had a fierce fight with Tian Boguang and was severely injured. Luo Renjie took advantage of big apprentice brother. How could big apprentice brother just let himself get killed like that?” Yue Lingshan argued.

“This matter does not concern you. This really started because Chong kicked the two Qingcheng apprentices earlier. If it weren’t because of the grudge before, why would that Luo Renjie take advantage of Chong when everything is perfectly alright?” Yue Buqun reproved.

“When big apprentice kicked the Qingcheng apprentices, you had already given him thirty sticks of beating as punishment. That matter was over; you cannot count that one in again. Big apprentice brother is so badly injured, he can’t take any more beating now.” Yue Lingshan pleaded.

Yue Buqun gave a strict glare at his daughter. “We are talking about school prohibitions right now. You are an apprentice of the Huashan Sword School. Shut up and don’t interrupt me,” he yelled sharply.

Yue Lingshan rarely received any harsh words or stern looks from her father; feeling the grievance, her eyes reddened and she almost fell into a cry.

During normal days, even if Yue Buqun ignored his daughter, Madam Yue would have comforted her with kind words, but since Yue Buqun was judging school matters as the Head Master at the moment, it wouldn’t be appropriate for Madam Yue to help her daughter, so she had to pretend that she didn’t see or hear anything.

Yue Buqun continued with Linghu Chong, “When Luo Renjie took advantage of you and humiliated you, you would rather die than submit. That was something a true man would have done. But why did you offend the Heng-Shan Sword School in your words and said something like ‘Once seeing a nun, one loses all bets,’ and that even I was afraid of seeing nuns?”

Yue Lingshan burst into laughter. “Father!” she yelled.

Yue Buqun waved her off, but had dropped his stern look.

Linghu Chong explained, “I only wanted to get the apprentice sister of the Heng-Shan Sword School to leave at that time. I knew I was no match for Tian Boguang in a fight, and would have no way to rescue the apprentice sister of the Heng-Shan Sword School, but she valued the brotherhood of fellow martial people and didn’t want to leave first, so I had to make up some nonsense. That kind of nonsense is truly disrespectful to the Uncle-Masters of the Heng-Shan Sword School.”

“You wanted to get nephew apprentice Yilin to leave; the intention was good, but why can’t you say something else instead of such harmful words? It was all because you are used to being frivolous in normal days. By now, everybody in the Five Mountains Sword Alliance has heard about this incident. Others must be saying behind our backs that you are not a true gentleman, and blame me for not disciplining you properly,” Yue Buqun reproached.

“Yes, Master. I was wrong,” Linghu Chong admitted.

Yue Buqun continued. “When you were recovering in the ‘Jade House,’ we understand that you had no other options. But when you hid nephew apprentice Yilin and that little demon girl of the Demon Cult under the quilt, and claimed that it was a prostitute in the town of Hengshan, weren’t you risking too much? If they had actually found out about the truth, losing face and hurting the reputation of our Huashan Sword School would be secondary; wouldn’t you do a disservice to the entire Heng-Shan Sword School by ruining their hundreds of years of reputation?”

Cold sweat broke out on Linghu Chong’s back. “Later when I thought more about it, I was also breathless with anxiety. So Master, you have already known about it,” he said with a trembling voice.

“I only heard about how Qu Yang of Demon Cult sent you to the ‘Jade House’ to recover later,” Yue Buqun said, “but when you told those two girls to hide under the quilt, I was already outside of the window.”

“Fortunately, Master, you know that I am not a reckless loafer,” Linghu Chong said.

“If you had actually been sleeping with the prostitutes, I’d have chopped off the head on your neck a long time ago. How could I still let you live ‘til now?” Yue Buqun said in a chilling tone.

“Yes, Master!” Linghu Chong answered.

Yue Buqun’s face turned more and more serious. After quite a while he spoke again. “You already knew that the Qu-named girl was a member of the Demon Cult, why didn’t you kill her with a single sword blow? Although her grandfather had saved your life, it was obviously an evil plot the Demon Cult had put together using favor as bait to foment discord among our Five Mountains Sword Alliance. You are not stupid. You had to have figured that part out. There was actually a bigger conspiracy, and saving your life was only a small part of it. Even Liu Zhengfeng, such a smart and experienced senior master, fell into their trap, and ended up ruining his reputation and getting his entire family killed. You have seen such vicious and evil acts of the Demon Cult with your own eyes. But on our way from Hunan back to Mount Huashan, I didn’t hear a single word of condemnation to the Demon Cult out from your mouth. Chong, I think after he saved your life, you are getting really confused about the distinction between good and evil, honesty and treachery. This matter is the key matter that will affect the rest of your entire life. There’s no middle ground for you to muddle with.”

Linghu Chong couldn’t help but remember the night in the remote valley when he listened to the zither and flute music played by Qu Yang and Liu Zhengfeng. It didn’t seem like that Qu Yang had any evil thoughts and intentionally harmed Liu Zhengfeng at all.

Seeing the hesitation on Linghu Chong’s face, obviously suspicious about his words, Yue Buqun said, “Chong, this matter is related to the future of our Huashan Sword School. It is also related to your future success or failure of your entire life. You cannot hide anything from me. Let me ask you: when you meet a member of the Demon Cult later, are you going to be treating evil as your enemy and slay evil with no hesitation?”

Linghu Chong stared at his Master blankly; a thought kept flashing around in his mind: “Later when I meet with a member of the Demon Cult, should I simply draw my sword and kill him without checking if it’s right or wrong?” He really couldn’t decide for himself, so he didn’t know how to answer the Master’s question.

Yue Buqun stared at Linghu Chong for a long while but still did not get an answer out from him. He heaved a deep sigh.

“It would be useless to force an answer out of you. When you left Mount Huashan this time, you greatly damaged the reputation of our sword school. I hereby punish you to meditate facing the wall for an entire year, so you can think the matter through thoroughly.”

“Yes, Master! I accept my punishment.” Linghu Chong bowed down.

“Meditating facing a wall for an entire year? Then throughout the year, how many total hours does he have to meditate?” Yue Lingshan asked.

“What total hours? Everyday from morning to night, other than eating and sleeping, he will be meditating to go over his mistakes.”

“That’s terrible! Wouldn’t he be bored to death? Will he even be allowed to go to bathroom?” Yue Lingshan said in worry.

“Watch your manners, young lady!” Madam Yue reproved.

“What’s the big deal about meditating for a year?” Yue Buqun said. “Years ago when your grandmaster made some mistakes, he was punished to meditate facing a wall for three years and six months. During that entire period of time, he did not take one single step down the Jade Maiden Peak.”

Yue Lingshan stuck her tongue out in disbelief. “So meditating for an entire year is actually a light punishment? Big apprentice brother said the ‘Once seeing a nun, one loses all bets’ completely out of good intentions. He wasn’t really saying bad words!”

“Just because he had good intentions, I am only punishing him with one year of meditation. If he had any ill intentions, I’d have knocked off all his teeth and cut off his tongue,” Yue Buqun said.

“Lingshan, stop bothering your father,” Madam Yue said. “When your big apprentice brother starts meditating on top of the Jade Maiden Peak, you’d better not go up there to chat with him, otherwise, the good intention of your father would be ruined by you for sure.”

“Big apprentice brother is going to be a prisoner on top of the Jade Maiden Peak, and you still call that a good intention? If you don’t allow me to chat with him, then when big apprentice brother gets lonely, who’s going to cheer him up? And within the entire year, who’s going to practice sword arts with me?” Yue Lingshan whined.

“If you go chatting with him, then how will he be able to meditate and how can he think his mistakes through? All the many apprentice brothers and sisters can practice sword arts with you,” Madam Yue said.

Yue Lingshan leaned her head to the side and thought for a while. “Then what’s big apprentice brother going to eat? If he doesn’t come down the peak for an entire year, isn’t he going to be starved to death?” she asked.

“You don’t have to worry. We will have people bringing food up the mountain for him,” Madam Yue answered.

__________

[1] Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi are both famous philosophers in ancient China. Lao Zi started Taoism, and Zhuang Zi is a good scholar in Taoism.

[2] Sima Zhao was an emperor of Jin Dynasty in ancient China.

[3] The Four Books and the Five Classics are books from ancient China. They were used as standard textbooks for people to study with.

The Four Books are:

The Great Learning (Da-Xue)

The Doctrine of the Mean (Zhong-Yong)

The Analects of Confucius (Lun-Yu)

Mencius (Meng-Zi)

The Five Classics are:

The Book of Songs (Shi-Jing)

The Book of History (Shu-Jing)

The Book of Changes (Yi-Jing)

The Book of Rites (Li-Ji)

The Spring and Autumn Annals (Chun-Qiu)

[4] Xiucai: one who passed the imperial examination at the county level in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

[5] Zhuangyuan: title conferred on the one who came first in the highest imperial examination.