Editing Yanji (section)

===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 [[Head Clerk| Melvin Dooly]],  Head Clerk and Paragon Virtue to the [[Magistery#House of Wind| House of Wind]]''