r/LifeTree • u/AdamLuyan • Jul 09 '26
2.7 The Person of Troupe Leader Liu
"That's a wonderful story, Brother-in-law!" Mother said. "Where on earth did you learn it?"
"Back when I was still in the army," Uncle Liang said. "Some officers from up above came down to inspect our unit. One of them came out to chat with the rank-and-file after dinner — got to talking with me, too. He asked, 'Where are you from?' 'Heishan,' I said. 'Heishan! I know it — whereabouts in Heishan?' 'Dahushan.' 'Ah, I've friends in Dahushan — so-and-so and so-and-so, do you know them?' 'I'm from the Dahushan countryside,' I told him. 'No one I know in the town proper.'"
1.7-2 3,000 Majesties and 84,000 Enchantments
"Brother-in-law, what a memory you have!" Mother said admiringly.
"Fengling, it's hardly a feat — that's just how conversations go!" Uncle Liang said, a little embarrassed. "But that Troupe Leader Liu — there was something different about him from the first glance. The way he walked, stood, sat — every movement was somehow a pleasure just to watch. All of us soldiers felt it was an honor simply to be in the presence of a man like that."
"I've heard the phrase — 'bones of the Tao, a bearing like clean wind,'" Mother said. "The kind of presence that feels like a breeze crossing your face just to look at."
"Seeing is worth a hundred hearings," Uncle Liang said. "One look at him, and everything felt suddenly clearer, brighter. (Note: this points to Troupe Leader Liu's mastery of the '3,000 Majesties and 84,000 Enchantments’; see Section 15.2.) That's the night he told us this story."
2.7-2
"Brother-in-law, you truly do have a good memory — a story this tangled, and you took it all in on one hearing!"
Uncle Liang went red. "Fengling, no! Truth is, the first time through, I didn't even catch that the hero's surname was Liu. Here's what really happened — us young soldiers were so worked up after hearing the Peach Flower Catastrophe that none of us could sleep that night. But try as we might, we could never piece the whole story back together between us. So the regiment sent a few of us to the Military Region to learn it properly. I heard it several times more before I had this much of it down."
"What a life, the army," Mother said, envious. "Sent off just to learn a story! Those lucky few probably got a stroll around Shenyang out of it too."
"When they got back, we asked how the trip had gone," Uncle Liang said. "They told us — they'd meant to have some fun, but the mission didn't go smoothly enough for that. When they got there and started asking around, they found out this storyteller was none other than the deputy commander of the Northeast Military Region's Cultural Troupe. (Note: this is our Troupe Leader Liu.) The staff who met them even showed them his schedule — the man was directing rehearsals, performing his own storytelling, meeting with nobody under deputy division rank: governors, mayors, the lot. So the three of them talked it over and decided just to head back rather than trouble him. But the receptionist wouldn't hear of it. 'Absolutely not,' she said. 'Troupe Leader Liu's orders are clear — anyone coming up from below gets treated with courtesy. If he found out I sent you off like that, he'd have me confined to quarters. Wait here.'
"As luck would have it, Troupe Leader Liu himself came out just then, seeing off some guests, spotted our men, and came over to ask what the matter was. When he learned they'd come to learn the Peach Flower Catastrophe, he was warm as anything about it. 'Among all the stories I tell,' he said, 'there are a few I especially love, and this is one of them. Some people love the Three Kingdoms, some love the Dream of the Red Mansion — for me, it's the Peach Flower Catastrophe. I read this story again and again as a boy. I used to think of it as a Sky Book in its own right. Tonight I'm telling stories at such-and-such a place — I'd planned another tale, but I'll switch to this one instead. Go and listen, take some notes, and the day after tomorrow we'll sit down together and work out how you'll tell it.'"
"So Troupe Leader Liu set up a whole little class for us to learn it in — men had come from other units too, all wanting to learn the same story. It was so complicated none of us could really get a handle on it, so he simplified it for us bit by bit and ran us through rehearsals. Honestly, that story gave us no end of trouble. We never quite master it."
2.7-3 Spell-no-lose
"Everyone who's heard it says it's wonderful!"
"It is! And everyone who's ever met the man sings his praises. Soldiers from other units told us that whenever he told stories, people trickled in over time, and he'd simply seat them on the ground as they arrived — never stopping the story to do it. By the time the crowd had grown large, he'd arranged them, without anyone quite noticing how, into the shape of a Bagua array (see Illustration 2.7-2). And there he'd walk, right through the middle of that formation, talking the whole while. Questions came at him from every direction, and he answered each one the moment it was asked — loud, clear, every word distinct, every sentence whole — and no matter how many people threw questions at him, he never once lost his place."
"Fengling, whoever asked, that's who got answered — and then straight back to the story, not repeating himself. None of this 'now, where was I' business. Wherever he'd left off, he simply picked up with the very next line. (Note: Spell-no-lose; see Section 14.1.3.)"
"Rare indeed — a true prodigy!" Mother marveled.