Yanji

"The Study"

Yanji is the Philosophy of The Order of Shan Sua, a monastic order with a home in the mountains of the Pardor range (The Temple of Shan Sua).

Philosophy

The monks of Shan Sua follow a particular philosophy known as Yanji (The Study). Yanji venerates no deity above all others, but rather teaches that there is truth to be found in all things. Yanji values study and practice above prayer and piety, and its monks have a healthy tradition of debate and disagreement among disciples and masters. Their highest guiding principles known as the Pillars of the Yanji, are collected, in the Book of the Mountain, along with hundreds of other Shihua (True Words). This name of the book likely comes from the the Fourth Pillar of Yanji, “The mountain is but one, though the Paths on it are many.” Some Solace scholars who have studied Yanji have noted that 4 is a sacred number in the practice of Yanji and thus have posited that the Fourth Pillar is actually the most important.

The Book of the Mountain

All of the Pillars and True Words are written as parables in a stylized form of poetry. This, and the nature of Yanji itself, leads to constant reinterpretation and debate about the meaning and application of the wisdom of the Book of the Mountain. Thus, from generation to generation and even from master to master, the practice of Yanji can take many forms. This tradition of interpretation and debate is so strong that one of the first things taught to young novices is to argue without emotion (known as the Path of the Still Lake). Paradoxically (or perhaps not, given their typically cold and emotionless fighting style) monks of Yanji often use the same word for debate and for battle.

There are in the book, separate stanzas, written in a different script and different style. It is these stanzas that the Monks of the Path refer to as the Pillars. It seems that for reasons known only to themselves the fourth of each of these stanzas are the most important. There are in total, 256 of these and it seems that the stanzas that sit in the places 4, 16, 64, and 256 hold special significance, with the 4th and the last being the most often quoted by the monks themselves. The 256th Pillar is in many ways the most straightforward, and least scrutable of the mostly vague and banal. It simply states “The Mountain will come”. The monks use this phrase almost like a prophecy or a prayer, though i have never observed them engage in anything that looks like soothsaying or prayer. When asked the meaning of that Pillar they will typically reply with a shrug and some form of “I only study the path… I know not what lies at its end.”

Above excerpted from the Master's Thesis of Melvin Dooly, Head Clerk and Paragon Virtue to the House of Wind