"Scripture of Southern Florescence"

"Could the roof be leaking?" Huang Xiao's heart tightened. With the wind and rain raging outside, and the scripture room having gone so long without repairs, he thought it was quite possible.

Huang Xiao hurriedly picked up the candle and ran upstairs. He raised it toward the roof and, by its somewhat dim light, found that things were not as he had imagined. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.

"Cough, cough, cough..." His arrival had stirred up the dust filling the room, making him cough.

"So it was this bookshelf falling apart," Huang Xiao said, looking at the broken wooden slats and planks scattered across the floor ahead.

It looks like I'll have to tidy this place up tomorrow after all, Huang Xiao thought.

Previously, Huang Xiao had only cleaned and organized the floor below; he had never come upstairs. Mainly, Xuanzhenzi had said that the upper floor had been abandoned for years, with nothing left but a few dilapidated bookshelves, so there was no need to clean it.

He had originally intended to clean it when he had time, but afterward, whenever he came to the scripture room, he focused almost all his attention on the scriptures and forgot about it.

"Never mind. A chosen day is no better than the day you happen upon-I'll clean it now!" Huang Xiao said after some thought.

"These bookshelves really have been here for years. Just look at how worm-eaten they are. They've held out long enough if they're only falling apart now," Huang Xiao said, examining the scattered wood.

"No, the other bookshelves probably aren't sturdy anymore either. I might as well take them apart too, so they don't collapse with a clatter some other day and cause trouble. Once they're dismantled, I can use them as firewood for cooking."

Huang Xiao carefully dismantled the remaining old bookshelves one by one, avoiding any large movements that would stir up another roomful of dust.

Thump! Huang Xiao looked down and discovered that a book had fallen onto the floor.

"I didn't expect there to be a book wedged in this old bookshelf. Let's see what it is." Somewhat curious, Huang Xiao picked up the book and returned to the candle.

"Scripture of Southern Florescence!" Huang Xiao read the title on the cover aloud. The cover had already yellowed. Although the lack of anyone tending to the place would have made the books more prone to damage, it at least indicated that this book was quite old.

"It looks like another Daoist scripture. All right, let's see what it says. But it's so thin-it probably isn't an important Daoist classic, is it?" Huang Xiao said, examining the Scripture of Southern Florescence in his hand.

He then turned the Scripture of Southern Florescence over to look at its back, but gave a startled murmur when he discovered that it was an incomplete copy.

Still, he did not take it to heart. Who knew how many years this book had been left here? Clearly, it was not an important scripture. If it had been, the Green Ox Temple would long since have searched the entire scripture room. The room was only so big, and the Scripture of Southern Florescence had been on a bookshelf; it would have been found long ago.

Opening the book, Chen Feng read the words aloud: "Take the root as the essence and material things as the coarse; regard accumulation as insufficiency, dwell alone in tranquility, and spiritual illumination abides... Establish it upon constant nonbeing and being, preside over it with the Great One, take softness, weakness, humility, and lowliness as its outward expression, and emptiness that does not destroy the myriad things as its substance. This is the purport of the Daoist Canon, king of all scriptures. The principles of the Dao have two aspects: nonbeing and being. In constant nonbeing, the Dao has neither name nor form, precedes heaven, earth, ghosts, and spirits, and is the beginning of heaven, earth, and the myriad things. In constant being, the Dao gives birth to heaven, earth, and the myriad things, and possesses inexhaustible uses. The mysteries of the Dao are difficult even for sages to fathom. Thus, the Scripture of Southern Florescence was specially written as the overarching outline of the Daoist Canon!"

"This Daoist Canon?" Huang Xiao frowned, astonishment filling his heart. He had encountered quite a few Daoist classics and scriptures during this time, but he had never heard of any scripture that could be called the king of all scriptures. Wasn't that far too grand a claim?

If this was true, and the Scripture of Southern Florescence was its overarching outline, its value was easy to imagine. Why, then, had the Green Ox Temple not preserved it properly?

Huang Xiao was deeply puzzled, but puzzled or not, he still turned the pages and continued reading.

"The Daoist classics are divided into the Three Classics and Four Supplements. The Three Classics are the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning's Upper Clarity Scripture, the Supreme Lord of the Dao's Numinous Treasure Scripture, and the Supreme Lord Lao's Three Sovereigns Scripture. The scriptures and talismans of the three venerable ones are the guiding principles of the Dao, the mysterious source of the Great Void, and the foremost scriptures of the Supreme Sage."

So that's how it is, Huang Xiao thought. These Three Classics appeared to have been written by predecessors in the names of the Three Pure Ones. But since they bore the names of the three highest patriarchs of Daoism, calling these scriptures the guiding principles of the Dao, the mysterious source of the Great Void, and the foremost scriptures of the Supreme Sage was fitting enough.

"The Four Supplements are divided into the great mystery section, the great peace section, the great clarity section, and the orthodox unity section. Their corresponding classics are also called the Scripture of Great Mystery, the Scripture of Great Peace, the Great Clarity Scripture, and the Orthodox Unity Scripture. Of these, the Scripture of Great Mystery supplements the Upper Clarity Scripture, the Scripture of Great Peace supplements the Numinous Treasure Scripture, and the Great Clarity Scripture supplements the Three Sovereigns Scripture, while the Orthodox Unity Scripture runs throughout the Three Classics and the three greats."

The scriptures mentioned in the book left Huang Xiao rather bewildered. He had read quite a few scriptures during this time, yet he had never seen a single one of those listed here. Never mind seeing them-he had never even heard them mentioned.

Next, Huang Xiao found a list of some of the contents of the Scripture of Southern Florescence below. When he saw the title of the first piece, he cried out in surprise, "Inner Chapters: Free and Easy Wandering?"

He hurriedly read on. The contents listed were "Inner Chapters: Discussion on Making All Things Equal," "Inner Chapters: The Essentials of Nourishing Life," "Inner Chapters: The Human World," ... "Outer Chapters: Heaven and Earth," "Outer Chapters: The Way of Heaven," "Outer Chapters: The Revolution of Heaven," ... "Miscellaneous Chapters: Discourse on Swords," "Miscellaneous Chapters: Lie Yukou," and "Miscellaneous Chapters: Under Heaven."

Huang Xiao counted them carefully: seven inner chapters, fifteen outer chapters, and eleven miscellaneous chapters, making thirty-three in all.

After reading the list, Huang Xiao was dumbfounded. Yes, dumbfounded. He had never heard of the scriptures mentioned above, but he was very familiar with many of the pieces listed here, and could even recite them, though there were some he did not know very well. What he could be certain of, however, was that these thirty-three pieces should all have been writings recorded in the Daoist work Zhuangzi. How had the writings in Zhuangzi ended up in the Scripture of Southern Florescence? Had the two books been mixed up?

Right, the teachings of Laozi and Zhuangzi were representative of Daoist philosophy to begin with, and the doctrines of religious Daoism evolved from Daoist philosophy. That does make sense, Huang Xiao thought.

At this point, the Scripture of Southern Florescence, which had seemed so mysterious before, became somewhat more ordinary in Huang Xiao's mind. It was merely a collection of writings on Daoist philosophy, yet its opening had made everything sound so unfathomable that it had truly given him quite a shock.

Huang Xiao turned to the next page and said with a wry smile, "Just as I thought. It's no different from what I read before!"

On this page was the first piece, "Inner Chapters: Free and Easy Wandering": "In the Northern Darkness there is a fish named Kun. The size of Kun is unknown, stretching who knows how many thousands of li. It transforms into a bird named Peng. The length of Peng's back is unknown, stretching who knows how many thousands of li. When it rises and flies with all its might, its wings are like clouds hanging from the heavens. When the sea stirs, this bird will migrate to the Southern Darkness. The Southern Darkness is the Heavenly Lake..."

Huang Xiao had read Free and Easy Wandering before and could recite it word for word. He had initially wondered whether, even though it shared the same title, the contents here might differ somewhat. Only after reading it through did he discover that not a single word was different. At once, the original mystery surrounding the Scripture of Southern Florescence vanished like smoke and scattered clouds.