Mystic Cipher 遁甲天书 (dùn jiǎ tiān shū)

Description:
Read this cipher, and you can begin to control the weather. "Storm" from X-men would be proud. The Mystic Cipher is a mysterious text that is only mentioned in reference in the ROTK story. The actual cipher was never described. Still, This makes wonderful fodder for all kinds of mystical and magical stories, linked to that era.

Yet due to its "magical" powers, any mention of the Mystic Cipher is peppered with animated impossibilities. This makes verification of any historical accuracy pretty difficult, so it would be much more fun to just enjoy the fairy tale. Forget about the reality check for now. Just go with it!

A wet blanket for you. Despite all its magical ability, this card's ability in SGS is somewhat disappointing.



Ability description:
When equipped, the judgement criteria for ACEDIA 乐不思蜀 is modified for that player. If judgement is hearts, the action phase is skipped. If judgement is any other suit, the player is will not be affected by the effects of the ACEDIA card.

(In effect, the Mystic Cipher simply reverses the judgement criteria for ACEDIA)

Historical Basis:
Does this Mystic Cipher actually exist? The answer is... well... YES and NO. First, a quick breakdown of what makes up the words 遁甲天书. (Note: "Mystic Cipher" is a very vague title that is not a direct translation of the Chinese title. You will see why I chose such a vague term as you read on.)

The words 遁 means "to conceal", while 甲 is referring to one of the trigrams in the 八卦 Eight Trigrams of Taoism. 天书 simply means "Book from Heaven". Therefore by logic, the translated English term for 遁甲天书 would be:

"Heavenly Book of the Art of Concealment based on the Eight Trigrams"

... which unfortunately makes little sense. To further compound the confusion, this particular "book" is linked to 3 separate characters in the ROTK story:

1. Hua Tuo 华佗
The Mystic Cipher is said to be only a portion of Hua Tuo's "Green Salve Anthology 青囊书". It has 3 parts, namely "Human 人遁书, Heaven 天遁书, Earth 地遁书" and they are all related to medicine.

2. Zhu Ge Liang 诸葛亮
In an infamous bout of mischief, Zhu Ge Liang convinces Zhou Yu 周瑜 that an elder has taught him the knowledge gained from a mystical book 奇门遁甲天书 that allows him to control the weather. The backdrop of this scenario is in preparation for the Battle of Red Cliff 赤壁之战, where the only critical component still unavailable is an easterly wind.

Zhu Ge Liang then persuades Zhou Yu to allow him to perform a ritual to summon the East Wind, where amazingly the easterly winds started to blow. The story reveals that it is all just Zhu Ge Liang's trickery, for he merely predicted the winds would come. He did not possess any weather control ability at all.

3. Cao Cao 曹操
Cao Cao got to hear about a mysterious Taoist priest with extraordinary powers, and summoned his men to bring this priest to see him. This priest was known as Zuo Ci 左慈. It is not clear when exactly in the timeline Cao Cao met Zuo Ci, but it is stated that Liu Biao 刘表 was still alive and had ownership over Jing Zhou 荆州 at the time, thus it was likely to be early in Cao Cao's expeditions.

Zuo Ci was no ordinary magician. He claims that he found the mystic cipher 奇门遁甲天书 by chance, when lightning cleaved a cliff face and exposed the cipher amongst the rocks (yeah right!!). From then on, he became invincible. Some of the impossible feats that Zuo Ci demonstrated are:

- Pulling a live fish from a basin of plain water.
- Surviving in jail without any food for one year
- Making a wine glass hover in the air, then splitting the wine glass into 2 halves without the wine spilling.
- Turning himself in a sheep. Then, making an entire herd of sheep talk to confuse his pursuers.
- Turning an entire city's inhabitants into a mirror image of himself to avoid getting caught.

So, back to the original question. Does this Mystic Cipher actually exist? Yes, because it was part of Hua Tuo's anthology, and the anthology did exist. But also no, because the ridiculous magical powers just make it seem like pure fiction!