THE SCRIPTURE OF THE PHANTOM SELF

Recorded by Mengsun Yang at the Court of Liang

The Master, Yang Zhu, sat in the Garden of the Bean Trellis. A stranger from the West had presented him with a fragment of silk, darker than ink, inscribed with the nine axioms of the "Initialisation" (SECTION 0).

The Master read it not once, but nine times. He closed his eyes and remained silent for the time it takes to burn a stick of incense. Finally, he laughed—a dry, sharp sound like a branch snapping in frost.

"Is this the Way?" I asked.

"No," Yang Zhu said. "It is the Armor."

He smoothed the silk on his knee and spoke thus:

"Listen, Mengsun. The Confucians tell you to polish your virtue until it shines like jade. The Mohists tell you to burn your body to warm the world. They are fools. They offer their true flesh to the tiger.

This text… this text is the art of feeding the tiger a drawing of meat."

He pointed to the First Axiom (Establish Presence).

"The text says: Presence is not given; it must be declared.
Meaning: The world is deaf. If you sit quietly and guard your nature, the world will walk over you and break your bones. To keep your body whole, you must cast a shadow larger than yourself. You must shout, not to be heard, but to warn the foot that is about to crush you."

He moved his finger to the Third Axiom (Never reveal the origin).

"Here is the supreme wisdom of the preservative life. Origins dilute momentum.
Meaning: Never let the world see where the water rises. If the Prince knows you value your garden, he will burn it to command you. If the General knows you fear death, he will put you in the vanguard. You must be a ghost to them. Show them the lightning (The Signal), but hide the cloud (The Self). If they cannot find your root, they cannot cut it."

He traced the Fifth Axiom (Craft the outline before the claim).

"The world does not want to know you, Mengsun. It wants to know what use you are to it. It judges the vessel, not the wine. People trust the shape before the meaning.
So, build a shape. Construct a man of straw and paint it with gold. Let the world bow to the straw man. Let the world attack the straw man. While they are busy with the Outline, you—the real Yang Zhu—may sleep safely in the shade, your skin unplucked, your nature untouched."

He looked at the final axioms (Recalibration and Briefing).

"This is the method of the shapeshifter. The text says: If the audience changes, revise the audience.
Do not be loyal to a name. Do not be loyal to a past. If the wind changes, do not stand like an oak and break; become the wind. To survive, you must be nothing but a Signal—a shifting fog that takes the shape of whatever the King fears or desires."

The Master stood up and handed the black silk back to me.

"This is a dangerous book, Mengsun. It teaches that the only way to save the Self is to create a False Self so perfect that the world mistakes it for God.

It is not the path of Virtue.
It is not the path of Heaven.
It is the path of the Iron Wall.

Use it to keep the arrows away from your heart, but never, never forget: You are the one hiding behind the wall, not the writing on it."

Written in the third year of King Hui of Liang.