Swordsman Without a Sword

During the turbulent times of the Warring States Period, a poor scholar named Feng Chen joined the family of Lord Mengchang with an empty scabbard in his arms. He stirred up the situation with three wild songs about playing the cymbals: when he had no food, he burned bonds to "treat his lord's unhappiness"; when he had no car, he built 300 gear-driven kowtow machines based on "The Analects of Confucius"; when he had no way of building a home, he melted sapphire plugs into jade seals. When the mechanical loyal soul ran amok in the wilderness and smashed the walls of ethics, and when Meng Changjun's stubborn illness became a barometer of power, Feng Xuan's empty scabbard contained the most absurd truth of the Warring States period - benevolence and righteousness are the rusted bronze bearings, and freedom is the blade that never appears. Wang Xiaobo's style of writing tears apart the robe of history: burning bonds is an existential surgery, the kowtow machine is a moral perpetual motion machine, and the edict of King Qi is soaked into black rain pulp. This Warring States rhapsody uses an empty scabbard as a metaphor to playfully deconstruct the narrative of loyalty and cast a blackly humorous philosophical allegory on the garbage heap - when everyone kneels down to worship the eternity cast in bronze, the absurdity of the sober ones is using moonlight to credit the next life.