Zhao Gongming

Zhao Gongming lived in the Luofu Cave on Mount Emei, kept a black tiger, used an iron whip, and had twenty-four Sea-Stilling Pearls and the dragon-binding cord beside him. When Wen Zhong’s Ten Absolutes at Western Qi had already lost six formations, he rode his black qilin up the mountain to ask for help.

Wen Zhong set out the state of the war before the cave, and Zhao Gongming gathered his treasures that same day and rode his black tiger down. He met Wen Zhong in the Shang camp, and the next day went to the Zhou lines to challenge.

Jiang Ziya came out to meet him. Zhao Gongming urged the black tiger forward, and the iron whip and Jiang Ziya’s weapon struck back and forth between the armies. In the fighting Zhao Gongming knocked Jiang Ziya from his mount, and back in camp Jiang Ziya stopped breathing for a time.

The immortals of the Zhou camp kept Jiang Ziya in his tent, and Guangchengzi came and revived him. Zhao Gongming went on challenging before the lines every day, and the Chan immortals went out in turn to meet him.

Chijingzi, Guangchengzi, Daoxing Tianzun, Yuding Zhenren and Lingbao Dafashi fought him one after another. Zhao Gongming raised the Sea-Stilling Pearls, whose twenty-four beads flashed in five colours, and struck down the Chan immortals as they came out.

When Huanglong Zhenren came out, Zhao Gongming loosed the dragon-binding cord as well. It bound Huanglong fast; the Shang army carried him back to camp, hung him from a banner pole, and sealed his crown with a talisman.

That night Yang Jian slipped into the Shang camp, loosed the cord and the talisman while the guards were off their watch, and carried Huanglong Zhenren back to the Zhou camp. The next day Zhao Gongming fought again and chased Randeng Daoren all the way to Mount Wuyi.

As Randeng and Zhao Gongming ran through the hills they met Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao, two hermits of Mount Wuyi. Zhao Gongming loosed the dragon-binding cord; Cao Bao raised the Treasure-Dropping Golden Coin, which sprouted wings and brought the cord down to the ground.

Seeing the cord taken, Zhao Gongming threw the Sea-Stilling Pearls one after another. The Treasure-Dropping Golden Coin flew again, and all twenty-four pearls came down with it and were gathered up by Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao.

Having lost both treasures, Zhao Gongming drove his tiger at Xiao Sheng with the whip and killed him with a single blow. Randeng raised the Qiankun Ruler from behind and struck him, and Zhao Gongming withdrew from Mount Wuyi wounded and returned to the Shang camp.

Zhao Gongming would not let it end there. He rode his black tiger to Three Immortals Isle to borrow the Golden Serpent Scissors from Yunxiao, Qiongxiao and Bixiao. Hearing that he had lost his treasures and been wounded, Yunxiao first urged him to stop and go back to his mountain and would not give the scissors up.

Zhao Gongming took his leave of the cave, and Hanzhi Xian came to the isle afterwards and urged Yunxiao to help him. Yunxiao at last brought out the Golden Serpent Scissors and sent them to him.

With the scissors Zhao Gongming returned to the field and went after Randeng again. He threw them into the air, and the two serpent shapes came down head to tail; Randeng saw it and ran rather than take them head-on.

When Luya came to Western Qi he gave the Seven-Arrow Book of Nails to Jiang Ziya. Jiang Ziya built the altar and made the straw figure as the book directed, wrote Zhao Gongming’s name on it, and bowed before it day after day.

In the Shang camp Zhao Gongming grew more disordered as the days went by, now unconscious and now agitated, and could no longer ride out to fight as before. On the twenty-first day Jiang Ziya, as Luya had taught him, shot the figure first through both eyes and then through the heart.

As the arrows fell Zhao Gongming died in the Shang camp, and his soul went to the investiture terrace. Jiang Ziya later opened the roll and installed him as the True Lord Xuantan of the Golden Dragon Ruyi, with the four true gods of Attracting Treasure, Gathering Riches, Bringing Wealth and Fair Profit beneath him.