reedak
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2014
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- 752
Narrator: After many days of travelling, the priest arrived at an open space in a tribal region. There he found a huge crowd gathering around a raised platform, 24 feet by 24 feet and 4 feet high, without railings.
He spotted among the spectators an old friend who told him the tribal chief's eldest son would be defending his championship title in 10 consecutive years. The 10th annual mixed martial arts "lei tai" (擂台) championship was a full-contact tournament with no protection for the fighters such as protective headgear and gloves.
There were no written rules or round limits, no weight categories and no referee. The fight continued until either fighter surrendered, was thrown or forced from the stage, was incapacitated or even killed. The winner would remain on the stage unless ousted by a stronger opponent. If there were no more challengers, he would become the champion. In other words, a fighter had to defeat countless opponents to become a champion.
As the defending champion, the tribal chief's son was the first martial artist to go up onto the stage and issued his challenge to the crowd below. One after another, he was challenged by 18 martial artists, but he swiftly demolished them in succession. The spectators could see his mouth moving throughout the fights, but they could barely him.
After 18 consecutive wins, he raised both his fists in the air as a gesture of victory and invited anyone among the spectators to knock him off. After waiting for a while, there seemed to be no more challengers. As he was about to declare himself the unbeaten champion in 10 consecutive years, a man in his early twenties suddenly leaped up onto the stage.
The defending champion muttered something to the new challenger. As the spectators could barely hear him, they took it as an initial greeting. As in his earlier fights, the defending champion kept murmuring throughout the fight. The challenger showed no response but kept fighting hard with a straight face. Unlike the earlier challengers, he did not give up fighting even after taking a hard punch in the stomach.
After a long drawn-out fight, the defending champion was kicked off the stage like a football and carried away on a stretcher. Filled with curiosity, the priest turned to his old friend.
Priest: I am not surprised by the defeat of the undeserving champion. What's puzzling is the irrational behaviour of the first 18 challengers. Why should they concede defeat after exchanging a few light blows?
Old friend: Your question brings to mind my bitter experience in the first annual mixed martial arts "lei tai" championship 9 years ago. Despite the passing of time, I can still recall it as if it were yesterday. At that time, that so-called champion was 20 years old -- about the same age as me. He built the first "lei tai” platform in the tribal region and challenged all martial artists to a fight.
Among 30 martial artists, I was the first to challenge him on the elevated fighting arena. After exchanging greetings, he warned me in a whisper: "There's a special place in hell for any martial artist who dares to retaliate against my attacks. My father, the tribal leader, will arrange with Yama, the god of death, to invite you, your entire family and even your relatives to the underworld if you won't acknowledge defeat."
Throughout the fight, he used a combination of taunts and intimidation to pressure me into capitulation, labelling me “an embarrassment” and a “terrible martial artist”. “You are easily this region’s worst martial artist yet," he whispered so near that I felt his stinking breath on my face.
He continued taunting, "Honestly I think you have done a terrible job so far in your martial arts school. You should be ashamed to call yourself the grandmaster of your martial arts system. Well as I’m sure you know, I’ve closely followed news of whatever happening in your martial arts school all my life. And I think you've done such damage to your leadership that your disciples should rename it to like, gang leader or something more sounding, like mafia boss. You accept all kinds of characters into your school. You are the founder of a terrorist organisation in this region.
"You acted so meek and mild during our breakfast meeting this morning only to be the first challenger in my first mixed martial arts ‘lei tai’ championship, telling the other martial artists that my invitation to them to a duel is kind of insulting. You are very dishonest and weak. You have stolen many pupils from my martial arts school by regularly lowering your tuition fees. My punches are in response to your repeated theft. If you want to be the adult in the fighting arena, you need to behave like an adult."
Priest: It looked like the so-called unbeaten champion was conducting a psychological warfare to undermine your will to fight.
Old friend: Absolutely. Accusing me and other martial artists of starting the problem by unfair competition, he said: "If you and other martial artists retaliate, you’re making a mistake. Due to unfair competition by all martial artists, my school's enrollment has decreased tremendously. There’s very bad spirit when I have a small enrollment and all of you keep taking away my students so my martial arts school can never catch up. That’s not a good thing to do. And I have very, very strong measures that take care of that. The numbers are so astronomically against all of you. I shall win this championship a thousand times out of a thousand. I shall not be pushed around. It’s going to change, 100%. My martial arts school is like the piggy bank that everybody’s robbing. And that ends."
So he kept taunting and insulting me throughout the fight. Gradually I lost my temper. If the gates of hell opened suddenly, I would not hesitate to throw him down below. However, I was aware of the catastrophic consequences of defeating him. My entire family and I, even my relatives would be executed by the tribal chief as punishment. Hence before any tragedy happened, I gave up fighting by leaping down the stage.
Priest: Did he use the same psychological manipulation techniques to force the others into submission?
Old friend: Yes, I found out from all the other challengers that he had used the same underhanded tactics against them in the past 9 years.
Priest: How did the spectators, particularly your disciples, respond to the outcome of your match?
Old friend: The spectators found it very puzzling why I should give up fighting for no rhyme or reason. Of course, they could not hear the big bully's taunts and intimidation because he uttered very softly, almost in a whisper. I was labelled as a coward and failure. My reputation was destroyed in the wake of my apparent defeat. Many of my disciples left to join his martial arts school. After some years I had to close my school because of declining enrollment.
Priest: Did the same thing happen to the others after their apparent defeat?
Old friend: Yes, many of their disciples went over to learn martial arts from that so-called unbeaten champion. Many martial artists had to close their schools due to declining enrollment, and some of them had their schools taken over by the big bully.
Priest: Then how come the last challenger could dismiss all the threats and put up a good fight to become the new champion?
Old friend: The last challenger is deaf. That explains his apparent ignorance of the bully's intimidation, and his smashing success in smashing the crown of the undeserving champion to smithereens.
Priest: You seem to know the last challenger very well.
He spotted among the spectators an old friend who told him the tribal chief's eldest son would be defending his championship title in 10 consecutive years. The 10th annual mixed martial arts "lei tai" (擂台) championship was a full-contact tournament with no protection for the fighters such as protective headgear and gloves.
There were no written rules or round limits, no weight categories and no referee. The fight continued until either fighter surrendered, was thrown or forced from the stage, was incapacitated or even killed. The winner would remain on the stage unless ousted by a stronger opponent. If there were no more challengers, he would become the champion. In other words, a fighter had to defeat countless opponents to become a champion.
As the defending champion, the tribal chief's son was the first martial artist to go up onto the stage and issued his challenge to the crowd below. One after another, he was challenged by 18 martial artists, but he swiftly demolished them in succession. The spectators could see his mouth moving throughout the fights, but they could barely him.
After 18 consecutive wins, he raised both his fists in the air as a gesture of victory and invited anyone among the spectators to knock him off. After waiting for a while, there seemed to be no more challengers. As he was about to declare himself the unbeaten champion in 10 consecutive years, a man in his early twenties suddenly leaped up onto the stage.
The defending champion muttered something to the new challenger. As the spectators could barely hear him, they took it as an initial greeting. As in his earlier fights, the defending champion kept murmuring throughout the fight. The challenger showed no response but kept fighting hard with a straight face. Unlike the earlier challengers, he did not give up fighting even after taking a hard punch in the stomach.
After a long drawn-out fight, the defending champion was kicked off the stage like a football and carried away on a stretcher. Filled with curiosity, the priest turned to his old friend.
Priest: I am not surprised by the defeat of the undeserving champion. What's puzzling is the irrational behaviour of the first 18 challengers. Why should they concede defeat after exchanging a few light blows?
Old friend: Your question brings to mind my bitter experience in the first annual mixed martial arts "lei tai" championship 9 years ago. Despite the passing of time, I can still recall it as if it were yesterday. At that time, that so-called champion was 20 years old -- about the same age as me. He built the first "lei tai” platform in the tribal region and challenged all martial artists to a fight.
Among 30 martial artists, I was the first to challenge him on the elevated fighting arena. After exchanging greetings, he warned me in a whisper: "There's a special place in hell for any martial artist who dares to retaliate against my attacks. My father, the tribal leader, will arrange with Yama, the god of death, to invite you, your entire family and even your relatives to the underworld if you won't acknowledge defeat."
Throughout the fight, he used a combination of taunts and intimidation to pressure me into capitulation, labelling me “an embarrassment” and a “terrible martial artist”. “You are easily this region’s worst martial artist yet," he whispered so near that I felt his stinking breath on my face.
He continued taunting, "Honestly I think you have done a terrible job so far in your martial arts school. You should be ashamed to call yourself the grandmaster of your martial arts system. Well as I’m sure you know, I’ve closely followed news of whatever happening in your martial arts school all my life. And I think you've done such damage to your leadership that your disciples should rename it to like, gang leader or something more sounding, like mafia boss. You accept all kinds of characters into your school. You are the founder of a terrorist organisation in this region.
"You acted so meek and mild during our breakfast meeting this morning only to be the first challenger in my first mixed martial arts ‘lei tai’ championship, telling the other martial artists that my invitation to them to a duel is kind of insulting. You are very dishonest and weak. You have stolen many pupils from my martial arts school by regularly lowering your tuition fees. My punches are in response to your repeated theft. If you want to be the adult in the fighting arena, you need to behave like an adult."
Priest: It looked like the so-called unbeaten champion was conducting a psychological warfare to undermine your will to fight.
Old friend: Absolutely. Accusing me and other martial artists of starting the problem by unfair competition, he said: "If you and other martial artists retaliate, you’re making a mistake. Due to unfair competition by all martial artists, my school's enrollment has decreased tremendously. There’s very bad spirit when I have a small enrollment and all of you keep taking away my students so my martial arts school can never catch up. That’s not a good thing to do. And I have very, very strong measures that take care of that. The numbers are so astronomically against all of you. I shall win this championship a thousand times out of a thousand. I shall not be pushed around. It’s going to change, 100%. My martial arts school is like the piggy bank that everybody’s robbing. And that ends."
So he kept taunting and insulting me throughout the fight. Gradually I lost my temper. If the gates of hell opened suddenly, I would not hesitate to throw him down below. However, I was aware of the catastrophic consequences of defeating him. My entire family and I, even my relatives would be executed by the tribal chief as punishment. Hence before any tragedy happened, I gave up fighting by leaping down the stage.
Priest: Did he use the same psychological manipulation techniques to force the others into submission?
Old friend: Yes, I found out from all the other challengers that he had used the same underhanded tactics against them in the past 9 years.
Priest: How did the spectators, particularly your disciples, respond to the outcome of your match?
Old friend: The spectators found it very puzzling why I should give up fighting for no rhyme or reason. Of course, they could not hear the big bully's taunts and intimidation because he uttered very softly, almost in a whisper. I was labelled as a coward and failure. My reputation was destroyed in the wake of my apparent defeat. Many of my disciples left to join his martial arts school. After some years I had to close my school because of declining enrollment.
Priest: Did the same thing happen to the others after their apparent defeat?
Old friend: Yes, many of their disciples went over to learn martial arts from that so-called unbeaten champion. Many martial artists had to close their schools due to declining enrollment, and some of them had their schools taken over by the big bully.
Priest: Then how come the last challenger could dismiss all the threats and put up a good fight to become the new champion?
Old friend: The last challenger is deaf. That explains his apparent ignorance of the bully's intimidation, and his smashing success in smashing the crown of the undeserving champion to smithereens.
Priest: You seem to know the last challenger very well.
