Zhuyang Ce

> Only by experiencing it themselves, could one truly understand how ingenious The Strategy of the Vermilion Yang really was. From the one, the whole could be divined. In The Strategy of the Vermilion Yangwas embodied the fruit of painstaking efforts of Tao Hongjing’s entire lifetime. It gathered together the martial arts and meditation ways [2] of all Three Schools, complementing and integrating them with each other, therefore was truly comprehensive and flawless. If it was possible to read through the remaining four books, not only was claiming the sovereignty of the martial artists only a matter of time, but even penetrating the ways of heavens and reaching the state of unity between Man and the Heavens would not be impossible anymore.
>
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## Names

### Name

朱阳策 *Zhūyáng Cè*

The ***Zhuyang Ce***, also known as *The Strategy of the Vermillion Yang*, is a martial arts tome written by Tao Hongjing. It contains the culmination of the everything that Tao Hongjing learned throughout his life, including the teachings of the Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian schools.

## History

Legend has it that fifty years ago, the grandmaster of that generation, Tao Hongjing, encountered an immortal on Mount Mao and was handed-down a book named The Key to Ascend the Truth. The book consisted of a total of four parts. Tao Hongjing reorganized three of them into another book and named it The Secret Key to Ascend the Truth.

For the small part that was left out, because the content was obscure, with most of it related to cultivation between Man and the Heavens, Tao Hongjing organized it into a separate book, mixing in the essence of the learnings and understandings of his lifetime–this was the well-renowned The Strategy of the Vermilion Yang.

Tao Hongjing delved deeply and studied the relationship between Man and the Heavens. Although a Taoist priest himself, he was a true expert in all of the Three Schools, and was also blessed with all of the learnings of the Immortal Master Danyang, Sun Youyue. Thus, as a man whose martial skills had attained the acme of perfection that even Qi Fengge would willingly acknowledge defeat against him, he was indeed the number one martial artist beyond dispute.

Since it had such an origin, The Strategy of the Vermilion Yang naturally became a treasured script that people fell over each other in their eagerness to read. It was said that if one could fully comprehend all of its five books, they would be able to see through the ultimate of martial artists since time immemorial and enter a whole new realm that even ascending to heavens [1] would no longer be impossibl

Unfortunately, after Tao Hongjing ascended to the land of the Immortals, the Shangqing Sect of Mount Mao suffered enormously due to its involvement in politics. With each of its disciples in their own differing standpoint, together with the civil disorder that would later seize the Liang Dynasty, the five books of The Strategy of the Vermilion Yang were scattered everywhere and were unable to be retrieved.

It was not until ten years later, when Qi Fengge admitted himself that his martial arts, besides the legacy of Mount Xuandu, also included the help from The Strategy of the Vermilion Yang, that the whereabouts of the scripts were finally discovered one after another. Rumors said that one book was the treasure of the country of Zhou, one book was owned by Tiantai Sect in Zhejiang, one book was kept in Mount Xuandu, while the locations of the other two remained a mystery over several decades and were still nowhere to be found till today.

## Books

Each of the five books of the *Zhuyang Ce* use one of the five elements to correspond to one of the five viscera in the human body.

* *Shi Shen* (识神; or *Knowledge of Mind*)
* *Gui Po* (鬼魄; or *Demonic Souls*)
* *You Hun* (游魂; or *Wandering Spirits*)
* *Zhuo Jing* (浊精; or *Turbid Energy*)
* *Wang Yi* (妄意; or *Free Will*)

## Opinion

 ⬖ Shen Qiao ⬗

Shen Qiao thought about it day and night, only to feel that Tao Hongjing was indeed a heavenly talent. What he wrote was so profound and abstruse that it was not something one could comprehend in a short amount of time. Since he was blind, he didn’t need to walk around during daytime, so he just pondered over it in his room by himself. In fact, he would be occasionally enlightened with ideas about this and that, which could count as entertainment out of the boring meditation.

 ⬖ The Three Schools ⬗

If The Strategy of the Vermillion Yang had the ability to rebuild one’s foundation and strengthen one’s muscles and bones, then, as a martial arts which had integrated the merits of the Three Schools, the Inner Qi it generated should also have the characteristics of each of the Three Schools.

***Daoism*** claimed that the greatest virtue was like water, in which to strive for is the same as to not strive for. This coincided with his sword arts style, and because of their common origin, he had no problem using it.

***Buddhism*** honored solemnity, which contained both the awe of its guardian deity’s terrifying gaze as well as the kindness one would find on Bodhisattvas. This was a rather abstruse depiction. The Strategy of the Vermillion Yang blended this concept into its inner qi. Its rigidity, together with the softness of Daoism, formed a harmonious balance of Yin and Yang. This made it possible for him to blend in a trace of indomitability into his flexible sword moves and also allowed him to switch his style freely between that of a gurgling stream and of a turbulent ocean.

***Confucianism,*** however, was more of a mixture. When Tao Hongjing wrote The Strategy of the Vermillion Yang, he took the benevolent and tolerant aspect of Confucianism and used it to integrate and adjust each school’s merits. When a practitioner exhausted their inner qi, their Dantian could produce more. Like spring coming upon a withered tree, such a steady flow of unlimited inner qi is capable of bringing one back to life.

## References

1. ↑ Novel, Chapter 3
2. ↑  Thousand Autumn Book Vol 1, Chapter 3: Gentle and amenable, beautiful and kind.
3. ↑ Novel, Chapter 11
4. ↑  Thousand Autumn Book Vol 1, Chapter 25: Ah-qiao, he’s insulting you.
5. ↑  Thousand Autumn Book Vol 1, Chapter 51: Are you happy that Yan Wushi’s time of death is close?