"Today, in order to determine just how genuine a young painter is, I'd ask him three questions."
"And what would they be?"
"Has he come to believe, under the sway of recent custom as well as the influence of the Chinese and European Franks, that he ought to have an individual painting technique, his own style?"
ALIF
Once, in ancient times, there were two great warlords. The first warlord, Genghis, was a fierce and successful conqueror, feared the world over. His army of thousands of the strongest and most accurate archers could decimate any so bold as to resist him. Their arrows would soar through the air in perfect unison, forming a dense and ominous blot in the sky and a dark shadow on their unfortunate victims.
The second warlord, Zheng, was also a valiant and respected conqueror. His army of expert horseman had brought him riches and plunder from all the far reaches of the world. Their skills in the saddle were unmatched, and Zheng's military tactics were the envy of the world. The was renowned for his cunning, so often would he take a foe by surprise.
In fact, so great were both Genghis and Zheng that they feared no-one. No-one, that is, except each other. Realising this Zheng sent a messenger to Genghis one day, and asked to meet him on neutral ground. He received a reply in agreement and the two met at a temple on a tall mountain, just above the cloud layer.
“We should form an alliance,” said Zheng, “so as to best maximize our wealth.”
“I agree,” said Genghis, amicably. “Our different strength complement each other and we shall be a force unlike any in history. But I must be the one in command, because I will submit to no man and you do not know the way of the archer.”
“Nor do you know the way of the rider. So great are we both at our respective talents that neither deserves to be the lesser. We must fight together, but each using his own wisdom and holding his own council.”
And so they agreed and from that point on, Genghis' archers and Zheng's horsemen fought together but separately and they split up the winnings from their campaigns evenly. The combined strength of the two armies was very great and each warlord became much more successful and much richer than before.
One morning they were attacking a village in a valley near the front of both Genghis' and Zheng's empires. Genghis stood on a tall hill, where he could survey the battlefield and surrounding area by looking down the steep slope to the village below. He saw Zheng's horsemen below, but saw they were moving away from the village.
“Where are they going?” he asked himself. “There's nothing in that direction except a town that is part of my empire.”
He put it out of his mind for the moment, and prepared his strategy. Later that afternoon, he came back to the hill and looked again. “They are still moving away!” he exclaimed. “That Zheng, he is launching one of his famous surprise attacks against my empire. I must launch a counter attack.”
But the horsemen were already too far away and moving too quickly to be caught up with. He instead gathered up his archers and rushed to the closest town in Zheng's nearby empire. He ordered his archers to attack and they quickly killed all the men of the town and this plundered it and burnt it to the ground.
After they were finished, Genghis sent a messenger to the town that he had seen Zheng heading towards. The messenger returned and informed him that Zheng had indeed attacked the town and his men had raped all the women there. “I knew it,” said Genghis, “but my keen mind saw through his cunning tactic that has surprised so many before.”
The messenger then said that Zheng desired a parley. Thinking that Zheng would prostrate himself and call himself defeated, Genghis agreed.
The meet in the deepest part of the desert, where the red rocks stood tall and reached for the sky. “Traitor!” said Zheng, when Genghis came into sight. “Why have you forsaken our alliance and attacked my justly conquered town?”
“It is you who are the traitor,” replied Genghis. “I saw you quitting the battlefield to attack my town and took it upon myself to repay in kind your treachery.”
“Then it is worse than I though, because you are not a traitor but a common fool. Horses cannot travel down steep hills swiftly and I was not leaving the battlefield, but moving stealthily around the hills to the village's most vulnerable point.”
Genghis was silent, and Zheng continued. “But now you have pillaged by town and I have raped your women in reply. There is no reconciliation for that and so we must conduct war!”
With that, they began one of the most vicious and unrelenting wars the world has ever seen. They slaughtered each other's armies until both warlord had spent all their equal wealth and lost all of their men. Eventually only Genghis and Zheng survived and even then they did not stop. They launched at each other in one on one combat, until both were too exhausted and wounded to stand. They fell on each other and collapsed to the ground, where they lay until all their blood had drained from their bodies.
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