Chapter 19: The Great Song Tiangong Treasury

Gao Taotao was the Grand Empress Dowager, having held power for many years; from the time of Emperor Yingzong, she had participated in court affairs to one degree or another.

Therefore, when she looked at matters, she focused on the gains and losses, would never act on impulse, and certainly would not easily give an answer to anyone.

That is to say, if one asked bluntly about the Three Vaults, no matter how close the relationship, she could not directly speak the truth, because speaking it would bring harm greater than benefit.

Emperor Renzong issued the decree, Emperor Yingzong carried it out, destroying the three secret vaults that Emperor Taizong regarded as treasures—such a matter could under no circumstances be brought to light, let alone recorded in the histories.

Because in such a matter, one side labored to build, the other utterly destroyed—there had to be a right and a wrong; either Taizong was wrong, or Renzong and Yingzong were wrong.

If Taizong was not wrong, then Renzong and Yingzong were disloyal and unfilial.

If Renzong and Yingzong were not wrong, then Taizong was vicious and tyrannical—if he was not vicious and tyrannical, why would he set up a poison vault in the palace? Why build an armory vault?

So asking directly, Gao Taotao could not answer, and would not even admit the existence of the Three Vaults.

Zhao Ti had long considered this point, which was why he led her along step by step, using Emperor Shenzong's dream-telegram as a hook, unfolding the narrative little by little, then borrowing Li Xian's mouth to speak of the Three Vaults.

But with only this, Gao Taotao would at most admit the Three Vaults existed; if the goods truly had not all been destroyed, she still would not reveal it—after all, there was no need, it would only create complications and add trouble.

So Zhao Ti went on to speak of Li Xian's assassination—look, that Grand Empress Dowager of Western Xia, with her superb martial skill, for the sake of her own nation's people, actually broke through a camp of thousands of troops and horses by night, assassinated the commander, and withdrew unscathed, giving Gao Taotao a sharp jolt.

Then, between the lines, he hinted again that extraordinary martial skill could sometimes interfere with the course of war, even affect the rise and fall of a nation.

After all, there was the chance to carry out a "decapitation strike."

As the saying goes, shoot the horse before the rider, seize the king before the bandits!

Zhuan Zhu assassinated Liao of Wu, Yao Li assassinated Qing Ji, Nie Zheng assassinated Xia Li, Cao Mo held hostage Duke Huan of Qi, Jing Ke attempted to assassinate the King of Qin.

Even if it were coincidence, even if it were luck, it could indeed sometimes be done—one success was enough, and the consequences would be extremely grave.

So long as there was the slightest possibility, it was a matter of state, tolerating no carelessness or negligence.

And to defend against it, the prerequisite was having extraordinary martial skill.

Dali had the Tianlong Temple, the former Southern Tang had the Shanhai Monastery, Western Xia certainly had one as well, and in those years the Great Ancestor Emperor of Great Song also had very high martial skill.

As for Taizong, during the Yongxi Northern Campaign, if Taizong himself had no profound martial skill, relying only on the rickety mule cart Huyanzan had found, plus his close eunuch attendants, to have run nearly three hundred li in a single night and evaded several squads of Liao's elite cavalry—this hardly seems possible.

Now perhaps there were hidden experts in court, but within the imperial family itself there should be no one with formidable martial skill.

Zhao Ti kept narrating these points without stating them outright, letting Gao Taotao think and judge for herself—if the martial vault manuscripts had not all been destroyed back then, should she speak of them, should she produce them?

The result was just as he had expected: the Three Vaults truly had not all been destroyed. In fact, when Li Xian spoke of this matter, he had felt it impossible they had been wiped out completely—at the very least, those weapons could hardly all have been destroyed.

"Grand Lady…" Zhao Ti looked at Gao Taotao.

"The Poison Vault is indeed gone," Gao Taotao said.

Zhao Ti nodded—Emperor Renzong's temperament meant the very existence of that Poison Vault must have tormented him half his life; he certainly would not have let it go.

"The Armory Vault was to be hauled to the Western Hills for smelting. The carts had just left the imperial city when Renzong suddenly sent a secret edict, saying do not smelt it for now, store it at the Western Hills Flying Cannon Camp, and never bring it back into the palace."

Zhao Ti listened with full concentration.

"As for the Martial Vault… it was burned on the spot, not a single scrap of paper left!"

"Huh?" Zhao Ti was startled—hadn't she just said that of the Three Vaults, aside from the Poison Vault, the other two had not all been destroyed? How could she now say it was all burned?

Gao Taotao paused, then continued: "The books inside the Martial Vault were indeed all burned, but…"

"But what?" Zhao Ti's eyes held a question.

Gao Taotao studied him, then after a moment smiled: "Eighth Brother, you care this much?"

Zhao Ti thought to himself, if I did not show such concern, you would not take it seriously, would treat it lightly, how could you speak of it easily? You'd probably keep weighing it, making me keep laboring with words.

"Grand Lady, your grandson naturally cares," Zhao Ti said with an earnest face. "Your grandson loves martial arts, worries about safety abroad, and further considers how Li Xian's assassination during the Five Armies' Campaign against Xia affects state affairs—how could I not care!"

Gao Taotao nodded in satisfaction: "Good, since you care, it does not hurt to tell you. The Martial Vault books were indeed all burned back then, but during the previous reign of Emperor Zhenzong, there had once been an excerpting and selection."

"Excerpting and selection during Emperor Zhenzong's reign?" Zhao Ti blinked—how did Emperor Zhenzong come into this?

Emperor Zhenzong favored literature over martial arts, composing the famous exhortation to learning: "In books there is a golden house, in books there is a beauty like Yan"—how could he have thought to copy out martial arts manuscripts?

"Eighth Brother knows the Tiangong Treasury, doesn't he?" Gao Taotao said slowly.

The Tiangong Treasury? Zhao Ti nodded—he naturally knew this work.

Great Song had compiled three Daoist scriptures in total: the Baowen Tonglu, the Tiangong Treasury, and the Wanshou Daozang.

During Emperor Zhenzong's reign, the Baowen Tonglu and the Tiangong Treasury were compiled.

During Emperor Huizong's reign, the Wanshou Daozang was compiled, which was the Daoist canon, with Huang Shang overseeing the editing.

At that time the Baowen Tonglu's collection of Daoist texts was incomplete. In the fifth year of Dazhong Xiangfu, Emperor Zhenzong ordered Zhang Junfang to gather Daoist scriptures from Daoist temples across the realm, and together with Daoist Priests, following the Three Caverns' outline and the Four Sections' summary, to grade and classify, compare differences and similarities, and arrange them in order, encompassing the original Baowen Tonglu, compiled into one canon.

This canon was named the Tiangong Treasury, also called the Great Song Tiangong Treasury, totaling four thousand five hundred and sixty-five scrolls.

This set of books was later lost amid the wars of later ages; later generations could not view its full scope, and only through the selected excerpts in the Yunji Qiqian could a rough outline be glimpsed, fortunate to catch a glimpse.

"When Emperor Zhenzong compiled the Tiangong Treasury, Zhang Junfang memorialized that the old Southern Tang observatories had ancient solitary manuscripts that could be recorded, mentioning that Shanhai Monastery. Emperor Zhenzong then ordered him to go to the secret vault to search, and subsequently obtained two or three volumes, recorded in the outer palace-character section of the Tiangong Treasury, within the appended chapters."

"Two or three volumes…" Zhao Ti felt his heart both glad and uneasy at the words—glad that complete manuals truly survived, uneasy not knowing whether the Phantom Yi Yin Zhi was among them.

The secret vault had many books, not all from the Daoist tradition. Since Zhang Junfang had mentioned Shanhai Monastery, he would certainly have prioritized seeking out Shanhai Monastery's materials, and thus the Phantom Yi Yin Zhi had a chance of being retrieved.

Li Xian said that the Southern Tang Shanhai Monastery's One Yi Yin Zhi rivaled Dali Tianlong Temple's One Yang Finger, and he agreed wholeheartedly.

Shanhai Monastery's three most formidable martial arts were the One Yi Yin Zhi, the Mountain Character Scripture, and the Boundless Sea Treasure Register. He had not heard of the other two and did not know what they were, but he did understand the power of the Phantom Yi Yin Zhi.

Moreover, the Phantom Yi Yin Zhi existed as a backdoor Trojan within the Sunflower Manual—one could conceal hardness and hide ferocity, skipping the self-castration step to cultivate the Manual. This was an extremely extraordinary matter.

Zhao Ti even suspected that Cheng Kun of the late Yuan, the era of the Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber, had not practiced the complete version—after all, with the passage of time, the further on, the more martial arts were lost or damaged.

"Grand Lady, then the appended chapters of the Tiangong Treasury…"

"Only the master copy of the Tiangong Treasury contained the appended chapters, differing from the branch copies circulated outside. These appended chapters, over the past hundred years, have been kept within the palace, and few have seen them."

"Grand Lady, where in the palace is the master copy now?" Zhao Ti asked hurriedly. At this moment the map was fully unrolled and the dagger revealed—words had been spoken to this point, the atmosphere had been built up, so he might as well brazenly ask for it.

"It is right here with me," Gao Taotao said, smiling as she looked at Zhao Ti.