Edition note: An independent English rewriting of the Chinese argument, shaped for English-language readers.
Zhu Yuanzhang's decisive maneuver does not require superior martial skill or an open challenge. He arranges evidence suggesting that Zhang Wuji's presence will bring conflict and humiliation to those Zhang cares about. Whether every implication is true is beside the point. The scene only has to make remaining in office feel like another injury inflicted on his brothers.
The tactic is perfectly fitted to its target. Zhang has accepted leadership whenever refusal would leave someone before him in danger. He does not defend position for its own sake. Give him a choice between authority and the apparent well-being of others, and he will release authority himself. Zhu need not seize the chair from him; he makes him want to stand up.
This is why Zhu ultimately prevails in politics. He is not merely more ruthless. He understands that institutions run on incentives, appearances, delegated force, and the management of what other people believe they are choosing. Zhang understands suffering person by person. Zhu understands the room in which those persons will act.
The small image of Zhao Min drawing Zhang's eyebrows carries a different kind of power. Their relationship grows through rivalry, testing, rescue, and refusal. It cannot be made respectable by fitting neatly into the obligations surrounding either of them. When Zhang leaves public command, he turns toward a promise with no empire attached to it: to let one person draw his brows.
That retreat is not a grand political solution. The Ming movement continues, Zhu builds a dynasty, and the machinery of power does not pause because its nominal leader has found an exit. Yet the contrast matters. Zhu uses what he has to produce actions from others. Zhang, for all his indecision, repeatedly relinquishes the ability to require them.
Two men help build the same historical force. One becomes emperor because he knows how a position reproduces itself. The other disappears because the position has begun to reproduce itself through him. The novel does not pretend that leaving defeats power. It shows what a person may have to leave in order not to become its method.
Based on the Sanlian Bookstore edition of Jin Yong's The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber.
版本说明：中文原作；简体与繁体同页切换。
明教打的是元朝。这件事做到后来，快要做成了。
各路义军里最能打的几个都是明教的人：徐达、常遇春、汤和，还有朱元璋。张无忌坐在教主的位子上，管着这一整摊。
朱元璋这个人，书里出现得不算早，做的事情却是一步一步的。
他先是在军中立了战功，被韩林儿的政权封了吴国公。功劳是真的，兵是他自己带出来的，这一点书里没有含糊过。
接着他开始动位子。谢逊被囚在少室山的时候，他带兵来帮忙救人；救完之后，他当着众人提出一件事：教主身边那位赵姑娘是元朝的郡主，这样下去不成体统，请教主让位。
理由摆得很正。教中兄弟为此愤愤不平，赵敏当场发誓退出。事情压了下去。
再往后是那一次。
朱元璋把张无忌灌倒，用了药。张无忌迷迷糊糊之间，听见隔壁徐达和常遇春在说话，说的是要怎么处置教主——听上去是这两个人也商量好了要把他拿掉。
那两个人是他的兄弟。常遇春当年在蝴蝶谷背过他，徐达跟他一路走过来。
他醒过来之后没有查，也没有问。他写了一封信，把教主之位传给杨逍，自己走了。
这一步棋的巧处在于它不必是真的。朱元璋要的不是让他相信一件事实，是让他不想再待在这里。对着一个只要看见兄弟为难就退让的人，这个办法最省。
他走之后的事情，书里几句话交代完：明教的兵权最后落到了朱元璋手上，元朝被赶走了，新朝的国号叫明。
一个几十万人的教，几十年里被人围剿、被人诬陷、被人叫作魔教，最后成了一个王朝的名字。做成这件事的人，不是那个把它从光明顶救下来的人。
朱元璋不是这本书里最坏的人。成昆为了一件私事毁掉几十年、几百条命；灭绝为了一个门派的仇把弟子逼死；这两个人身上都有一股狠劲。朱元璋没有那股狠劲，他做的每一件事都合乎情理：教主身边有元朝郡主，这是实情；打仗要有人指挥，这也是实情；他手上确实有兵，也确实打赢了。
他不是靠比别人更狠拿到那个位子的，他是靠比别人更清楚那个位子是怎么运转的。
这里可以放另一个人做对照。
张三丰活了一百多岁，一手创出武当。武当在他手上从无到有，成了跟少林并称的大派。他有这份声望，也有这份武功。
书里从头到尾没有写过他用这些东西去要求谁。徒弟娶了天鹰教的女儿，他收下；徒弟在他面前自刎，他没有跟在场的任何一派翻脸；孙儿身上的毒治不好，他自己上少林去求，被折辱一场，回来接着想别的办法。他后来知道张无忌做了明教教主，也没有要他退出来。
同样是把一件事从头做起来，一个把手上的东西用来要求人，一个没有。
书的最后一页是这样的。
张无忌不再管江湖上的事，跟赵敏在一起。他在给她画眉毛。
画到一半，周芷若来了。她跟他说，等你们成亲那一天，我要你答应我做一件事。
他问是什么事。
她说她还没有想好，到时候再说。
书停在这里。张无忌手上拿着眉笔。
这本书从一个人撞见另外两个人开始——成昆推开门的那一刻，谁也不知道这件事将要杀掉多少人。中间几十年，所有人都在追一把刀、一柄剑、一个位子、一份仇。
到最后，刀和剑都被砍开了，里面的东西被人拿去练成了武功；那个位子换了人；那份仇也报完了。
剩下一个人，坐在那里，替另一个人画眉毛。
那是他这一生里，头一件没有人交代他去做的事。
注：本文所据为金庸《倚天屠龙记》三联书店版。人物、情节与引述均出自该版本；新修版结局另有增补，与本文所论以三联版为准。