Deng Qingyang’s generosity and straightforwardness sent Shi Tongxuan and Cheng Xinzhan away from Yangming Mountain in unexpectedly high spirits.
After thanking him many times, they returned to Yuzhang.
“Ancestor, the mountain gate is settled. Have you thought of a sect name?” Cheng Xinzhan asked with a smile as they walked.
Shi Tongxuan nodded.
“I long ago decided. As the Dao De Jing says: ‘The sage is always good at saving people, therefore he does not abandon people; he is always good at saving things, therefore he does not abandon things. This is called Xi Ming.’”
“These dead-but-revived yin-corpses — neither quite people nor quite things, and severed from their pasts with no kin or ties — could easily be called abandoned people or abandoned things. Though I am still in the mortal fold of cultivation, I have long heeded the sage’s words and followed the sage’s deeds. Now that I found a mountain and set up a sect, it will be to save these abandoned people and things.”
“So I will follow the sage’s teaching and action. I’ll take the two characters ‘Xi Ming’ from that passage and call the sect the Xi Ming Sect. The doctrine will be: ‘The sage is always good at saving people, therefore he does not abandon people; he is always good at saving things, therefore he does not abandon things.’”