Tengshe

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T engshe Lo lives his life as a quixotic yu-hsia, a kind of knight errant who adheres to the chivalrous code of hsia (“righteousness and honor”). For too long, he fears, he has dwelled in the relative safety of the Wandering Isle; he must now repay the Universe for his good fortune in the manner of a wu-hsia hero: For ten years I have been polishing this sword; Its frosty edge has never been put to the test. Now I am holding it and showing it to you, sir: Is there anyone suffering from injustice? As a monk walking the earth in search of wrongs to right, Tengshe dedicates himself to the virtues of compassion, moderation, and humility, which comes down in practice to abstention from aggressive war and capital punishment, absolute simplicity of living, and refusal to assert active authority. It does not imply moderation in eating; Tengshe, like all Pandarens, is an enthusiastic epicure, which, combined with his chivalry, has made him fast friends with Alexiphosa.

He also strives to attain wu wei (“action without action”), that is, instinctive action that is in harmony with the flow of the Universe, and tzu jan (“self such”), the primordial state of naturalness of all things, by freeing himself of selfishness and desire and appreciating simplicity. In this way he also expects to become a hsien, an enlightened, super-pandaren and immortal sage. This is the basis of Tengshe’s friendship with Isilyë, who seems to Tengshe to already be in a state of tzu jan.

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