Fan Hua

Fan Hua is a senior official of Dali and one of the three Dukes who accompany Duan Zhengchun into the Central Plains. At Little Mirror Lake, he helps direct the response to Duan Yanqing’s attack, first urging the prince to withdraw and then coordinating a defense when Duan Zhengchun refuses to abandon his companions. His conduct places the obligations of office alongside the personal loyalty that binds the Dali court’s ministers to the Duan family.

Identity and Service

Fan Hua holds the office of Minister of War and serves among the three Dukes of Dali, alongside Hua Hegen and Ba Tianshi. He is one of the officials and guards who travel with Duan Zhengchun while the prince investigates the circumstances surrounding Venerable Xuan Bei’s death. Duan Zhengchun has come to the Central Plains because he doubts that the Gusu Murong Clan was responsible and wants to learn what happened; the journey also gives him the opportunity to visit Ruan Xingzhu, with whom he has renewed his relationship.

The officials’ duties are not merely ceremonial. As the party moves through the region, members of the group disperse to keep watch, and Fan Hua joins the effort to protect Duan Zhengchun when the party’s adversary catches up with them. When Xiao Feng sees the officials bowing respectfully to the middle-aged prince, their deference and talk of returning to Dali lead him to suspect that they belong to the House of Duan. The scene establishes Fan Hua as part of a courtly chain of service, even as the crisis soon tests whether that service is only political or also personal.

The Threat at Little Mirror Lake

Duan Yanqing’s formidable martial skill has already put members of Duan Zhengchun’s party in danger: Gu Ducheng and Fu Sigui have been wounded, while Zhu Danchen has failed to stop Xiao Feng at the bluestone bridge. Chu Wanli, meanwhile, has been caught in A'Zi’s Flexible Silk Net. After Fan Hua and the other senior officials reach the prince, Fan Hua urges him to place Dali’s welfare first and go back to seek help from the monks of Tianlong Monastery.

The suggestion is a tactical appeal as well as a warning. The monastery is far away, and the officials cannot realistically summon its monks in time. Fan Hua invokes it to encourage Duan Zhengchun to retreat and to make Duan Yanqing consider whether powerful reinforcements might be near. The stratagem reflects the difference between what the party can actually do and what it hopes its enemy will believe. Duan Zhengchun understands the peril, but refuses to leave his people behind; his lover and daughter are also present, and retreat would, in his view, bring dishonor.

Fan Hua next proposes dividing the fight rather than allowing every defender to face Duan Yanqing. When Yue the Third charges at the prince, Fan Hua instructs Hua Hegen and Zhu Danchen to attack him together, reasoning that the immediate aim is to deal with the other attackers before all the defenders have to confront the far more dangerous Duan Yanqing. Hua Hegen takes up his steel shovel and Zhu Danchen his iron brushes, closing on Yue the Third from opposite sides. Although they recognize that two against one may seem undignified, they accept Fan Hua’s judgment because a direct contest with Duan Yanqing is so perilous.

Fan Hua also assigns Ba Tianshi to fight Yun Zhonghe, while he and Chu Wanli are to face Ye Erniang. Chu Wanli has lost his iron fishing rod to A'Zi and instead takes up Fu Sigui’s copper staff. These deployments show Fan Hua attempting to keep the attackers occupied across several fronts, giving the Dali party a chance to resist collectively instead of letting Duan Yanqing dictate the whole encounter.

Loyalty, Loss, and the Duel

Fan Hua’s plans cannot prevent Chu Wanli from rushing toward Duan Yanqing. When the prince’s opponents move into a duel, Chu’s death becomes a turning point: A'Zi dismisses the killing as inconsequential because Chu was a subject of her father, but the Dali officials do not regard him as a disposable retainer. Their response reflects a relationship shaped by both public custom and long companionship. Although the division between ruler and subject is strict, Duan Zhengchun and his brother have treated trusted officials such as Chu Wanli and Hua Hegen as brothers; Chu had shared dangers with Duan Zhengchun over many years.

Duan Zhengchun is distressed by Chu’s death and ashamed of A'Zi’s attitude. He declares that if Duan Yanqing wants his life, he should take it, and argues that the Duan family’s rule rests on benevolence and righteousness. He then salutes Chu’s corpse and tells Fan Hua that, after his own death, his tomb should lie beside Chu’s, without any distinction between master and subject. Fan Hua’s presence as the minister who receives this request places him at the heart of the prince’s attempt to define loyalty as more than obedience to rank.

As Duan Zhengchun and Duan Yanqing fight, Fan Hua and the other two Dukes watch the exchange of inherited Duan family techniques. The contest increasingly turns on internal energy rather than unfamiliar moves: both opponents have mastered their forms from youth, and the officials have seen such techniques for decades. Recognizing that Duan Zhengchun is unlikely to endure, Fan Hua and the others prepare to intervene. The decision carries a conflict of its own, since helping the prince would mean entering a duel that he has chosen to fight alone, but the danger makes standing aside difficult.

When Duan Yanqing presses his attack and Duan Zhengchun is close to being killed, Fan Hua, Hua Hegen, and Ba Tianshi leap in together. Their weapons target Duan Yanqing’s vulnerable points, forcing him to turn his attention from the prince and counter their attack. They do not overpower him: he repels all three, and Ba Tianshi has to seize Ruan Xingzhu’s wrist to stop her from rushing into danger. Xiao Feng then pulls Duan Zhengchun away from the imminent strike. Fan Hua’s intervention is thus one part of a collective effort to avert the prince’s death, but the decisive rescue comes from outside the Dali party.

Character and Significance

Fan Hua’s actions combine the calculation of a military minister with the allegiance of a longtime companion. He tries to preserve the prince by proposing withdrawal and a show of possible religious support; when the prince stays, he organizes the defenders around the actual distribution of threats. When Duan Zhengchun is in immediate danger, Fan Hua abandons the orderly separation of combat and joins the other Dukes in attacking Duan Yanqing.

The episode also clarifies why the party’s formal hierarchy does not wholly determine its behavior. A'Zi treats Chu Wanli’s death as a matter of a ruler losing a subject, but the ministers’ grief and Duan Zhengchun’s wish for a shared burial reject that reduction. Fan Hua is the recipient of the prince’s request, a witness to the cost of the confrontation, and one of the men willing to risk himself to protect him. His role is not to decide the succession struggle between Duan Zhengchun and Duan Yanqing; it is to uphold the bonds of duty and fellowship while that struggle threatens to destroy the people gathered around it.