There are still people stronger than strong people, and mountains higher than high mountains

The expression “There are still people stronger than strong people, and mountains higher than high mountains” articulates a wuxia principle of humility before superior strength: being defeated in martial arts need not be a lasting disgrace, because sustained practice may eventually make revenge possible. Its force sharpens when set against Chu Wanli’s death, and its image of higher peaks also resonates with the narrative’s widening passage from personal combat to the command of armies and the succession struggle in Liao.

Meaning and Martial Context

The saying appears in the explanation of Chu Wanli’s final attack on Duan Yanqing. Chu had been caught in A'Zi’s fishing net, a humiliation that the account presents as unbearable because he was a servant of the Duan Clan and A'Zi was Duan Zhengchun’s daughter. Ordinary defeat in martial arts could be answered: a fighter might train for ten years and one day take revenge. Chu, however, could not escape the shame attached to his subordinate position, and he chose a fight in which he expected to die.

That contrast gives the expression its particular edge. It does not promise that every injury can be repaired, or that training guarantees victory; rather, it locates martial defeat within a continuing contest in which skill and fortune may change. Chu’s death marks the limit of that hopeful logic: his grievance is not simply that someone stronger beat him, but that his place in the household makes the humiliation feel permanent.

From Martial Skill to Political Power

The book’s later political narrative enlarges the saying’s scale. When a bugle carries news of rebellion in the capital to YeLu HongJi’s hunting encampment, the emperor orders an immediate return. The warning travels through relay stations, while the army receives the order to break camp and moves south in disciplined formation. The scene shifts attention from individual prowess to the systems of command that can mobilize a state.

The rebellion’s background is itself a contest of succession and power. YeLu HongJi’s grandfather, YeLu LongXu, had designated his eldest son, YeLu ZongZhen, to inherit the throne, although their mother favored the younger son, YeLu ZhongYuan. YeLu ZongZhen thwarted her plan by informing his brother; in gratitude, he made YeLu ZhongYuan the royal emperor brother and next in line. Yet after YeLu ZongZhen’s death, the throne went to his son HongJi instead. HongJi later compensated his uncle with the title of royal emperor uncle and supreme command of the army, while YeLu ZhongYuan’s son, YeLu NieLuGu, received the title Prince of Chu and command of the Southern Chancellery. The inherited arrangement that had secured these men’s positions also supplied the setting for rebellion.

Reversal, Authority, and the Saying’s Wider Resonance

Facing the advancing forces, YeLu HongJi refuses retreat, promises rewards to his soldiers, and personally leads his troops into battle. Xiao Feng rides beside him as his bodyguard, while A'Zi remains with the Flying Bear troops at the rear. The emperor’s presence restores his soldiers’ courage, but the crisis is not resolved by personal bravery alone: after Xiao Feng captures the royal emperor uncle, YeLu ZhongYuan calls on the leaderless rebels to lay down their weapons, and they obey.

HongJi then embraces Xiao Feng and offers to share his country with him. When Xiao Feng urges mercy for the captured uncle, the emperor pardons him and appoints Xiao Feng Prince of Chu and Lord of the Southern Chancellery. Xiao Feng had acted to save his sworn brother, not to gain office; he declines the honor and says he does not want to serve as an official. HongJi answers by treating refusal as an impossible distance between them, even suggesting that he could surrender the throne. The exchange turns prowess into political legitimacy: Xiao Feng’s standing rests not only on his ability to fight, but on his judgment about what must follow victory.

The title bestowed on Xiao Feng also echoes the defeated rebel’s former title, Prince of Chu. The reversal makes power appear less like a permanent possession than a position altered by conflict, recognition, and the victor’s decisions. That resonance should not be mistaken for a direct quotation or explicit restatement of the saying; it is the narrative’s broader movement from the changing fortunes of fighters to the instability of rank and rule.

Office and Its Limits

After the rebellion is settled, Xiao Feng takes up duties in the Southern Chancellery. Chiefs from Liao’s tribes, military officers, palace officials, and envoys from many of the empire’s constituent countries come to pay their respects or seek his favor. For more than a month he is occupied by audiences, treasures, and praise. The abrupt change is striking: the man who had rejected office is surrounded by the ceremonies and obligations of authority.

HongJi eventually orders him to be based in Nanjing and prepare for a possible campaign against the Great Song. Xiao Feng objects that the undertaking is momentous and that the troops are not ready. HongJi agrees that Liao needs time to recover and that the Great Song offers no immediate weakness to exploit, but he instructs Xiao Feng to watch for internal disorder and be prepared to invade if circumstances change. The expression’s vision of changing strength thus meets an unsettling political counterpart: victories and appointments do not end the contest; they can make the victor responsible for deciding whether power will be used to begin another one.