Friday, October 23, 2015

Chen Province Magic Vs Raft Magic (辰州符斗排教)

This is a very interesting story said to be happened during the end of Qing Dynasty:

As the story goes from the mouth of grandson of the raft sorcerer:

There was an old man in Yichang (宜昌) who was an exponent in Chen Province Magic (辰州符). This old man normally sells his Chen Province Fu (辰州符) and at times, he also heals the sick. So the old man was quite famous at that time.

At that time, Yichang river mouth was the main path for transport of wood platoons. In old days, logs were transported by tying them together forming platoons and these platoons were thrown into river upstream so that the water may transport the logs to the downstream. There would be one or two raft gangs (排帮) on the platoon to manage one platoon. Naturally, these raft gangs were also exponents in sorcery.

One day, after a cup too many; this old man boasted in front of a group of young men that he can make these platoons stop moving in the middle of the river. Of course no one believed him, but the young men nonetheless dragged old man to the river bank and forced him to stop the platoons by whatever means.

I supposed the old man too wished to show off, so he asked someone to give him a few pieces of chopsticks. Old man stabbed the chopsticks into river bank and start chanting. Indeed, all of the platoons stopped moving as if blocked by an invisible force. The raft gangs on the platoons immediately start performing sorcery too to make their platoons move again. Strangely, whatever the raft people did, the platoons remained stagnant as rocks.

After a while, one of the raft sorcerers went into his tent on the platoon and pull out a chicken. This raft sorcerer chanted some mantra and then took a sip of rice wine and then blew the rice wine at the head of the chicken. Almost immediately, the Chen old man shouted in pain. It turned out that the old man was blinded at the moment the rice wine was blown at the chicken head.

The old man at once sat on the ground and asked someone to handle him some rice grains and after that, he chanted some mantra and then threw the rice into the air. Miraculously, the old man can see again.

People around the old man said the raft gangs were too wicked to perform black magic at him. Had it that the old man stop at that point, everything would end peacefully because he was the one who has started this commotion. But under the instigation of the crowd, the old man again asked someone to bring him a few pieces of chopsticks. This old sorcerer then arranged all of the chopsticks side by side. Once this is done, he started to chant mantra and slowly pick up one chopstick at a time.

Strange things started to happen to the platoons: the logs forming platoons started to scatter and dispersed in the water. Seeing this scene, the raft sorcerer to panic and he started to start another round of chanting. Instantly, all those logs begun to pile at river bank.

The raft sorcerer knew that he was the victim of other’s sorcery. So, he started his investigation and finally got the name and address of the culprit. Again, if this raft sorcerer stop at that point; everything would be fine. But he persisted on as he was indeed a cruel person by nature.

Once the raft sorcerer knew the old man’s address, he immediately went to the house of the old man. At the front door, the raft sorcerer took out a handful of sand and started to chant. After that, the sorcerer threw the sand at the old man’s front door and left.

In the evening, the old man’s household was besieged by strange red measles. Everyone in the house felt pain and itch all over their body. As soon as the old man returned home, he started to perform counter magic to save his family members. Sad to say, the old man was too late; he only managed to save the strong ones. The old man lost many of his love ones over night.

The old man was angry and sorrowful, he ran to the river bank to seek out the raft sorcerer. Without saying anything, he stroke at the raft sorcerer’s back. And the sorcerer returned the favour by giving the old man’s chest a hit of his palm.

After returning home, the old man died in a few days. An autopsy was carried out at his body and found a red mark resembles the shape of a plum flower. And further autopsy revealed that the old man’s heart was pierced by 5 pieces of needles! Everyone knew it was the working of the raft sorcerer’s ‘plum flower palm’ (梅花掌).

A few days later, another batch of wood platoons passed by the river but the sorcerer in charge was not the original sorcerer. People ask him the reason and this new sorcerer said that his predecessor had died in his hometown.

According to this new raft sorcerer, the previous sorcerer returned home and immediately sat into a big earth urn. He asked his wife to cover the urn top with a big rock and use fire to steam the urn. The raft sorcerer gave his wife instruction that the steaming process must carried out for 5 days. However, his wife felt curious and opened up the urn cover on the 4th day. Sad to say, once the cover was opened, the raft sorcerer immediately succumbed. It was visible at this back that 4 needles has cane out and a 5th needle head just emerged.

The moral of this story is that it is of no benefit to learn magic if one does not have proper mental cultivation. Apparently both of the sorcerers succumbed under ‘plum flower’; it also reminds us that there is no win-win situation in magic duel too. Even though I have the original manual of ‘plum flower palm’ ritual, I have not studied it. So I would not know if anyone can have the same accomplishment as well.

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