Post by kyc on Aug 11, 2018 14:35:53 GMT
Finally finished reading Pingjiang Buxiao Sheng's Jianghu Daxia Zhuan 江湖大侠传 "The Adventures of the great xias in Jianghu".
A little bio on Pingjiang Buxiao Sheng, whose real name was Xiang Kairan. Born in 1889, he was educated in Japan's University of Tokyo. Well versed in both literature and martial arts, he was often considered the first true modern wuxia novelist. After 1949 he held a number of posts under various state ministries. He died in 1957.
Jianghu Daxia Zhuan 江湖大侠传 is a 466-page novel in my edition. Roughly equivalent to two Wang Dulu one-volume wuxia novels.
Plot: A 100-year-old Taoist priest tries to gather heroes to overthrow the Qing dynasty. A orphaned young boy grows up and acquires martial and magic prowess to avenge his father's death, after the latter was framed for a crime he did not commit. (This is as far as I will go without spoilers)
Features:
1) Quite a lot of archaic, literary and dated terms, as to be expected from a novel written in the early 20th century. I relied a lot on the dictionary app Pleco to search out difficult terms. Without this app I probably won't be able to appreciate the finer details of the book (luckily 90% of these terms show up in Pleco if you install the free Taiwan Chinese dictionary).
2) This is semi-xianxia, not complete, realistic wuxia! Now we know Pingjiang Buxiao Sheng is the granddaddy of modern xianxia novels (if Huanzhu Louzhu is considered its father). Sorcery and magic, Taoist priests and Buddhist monks with supernatural abilities, feature prominently in the plot.
3) This is a novel full of backstories, probably 30 to 40 throughout. Anecdotes after anecdotes about many characters, the majority narrated and interwoven in the plot - some of the backstories take up several chapters! The longest backstory on a major character takes up nearly 10 chapters. It gets kind of confusing at times, but also makes rich cast of characters more interesting. Also, quite a lot of characters - certainly more than in a Wang Dulu novel.
4) Not romance-oriented. Not that there aren't any, but obviously these aren't the main focus of the storyline. The protagonist has a pretty girlfriend but it's only a minor subplot in a book full of subplots.
5) It can get pretty exciting at times, especially the writings on magic! Recommended if points 1-4 do not bother you.
Compared with Louis Cha, I feel the presence of backstories tend to make many other side characters more interesting, than when all the weird stuff happened to one single protagonist. The plot is obviously more diffuse than a one-protagonist novel, but you also get the feeling of realism: chance doesn't favour one protagonist unduly.
All in all, I don't regret reading this novel at all. There are parts which rival a typical Louis Cha novel, and bits which surpass much of Cha's oeuvre. Mainly, the attribution of chance and the presence of multiple back stories give it a refreshing spin from new school wuxia. However, I do find reading the end a bit tiring (plenty of battles).
A little bio on Pingjiang Buxiao Sheng, whose real name was Xiang Kairan. Born in 1889, he was educated in Japan's University of Tokyo. Well versed in both literature and martial arts, he was often considered the first true modern wuxia novelist. After 1949 he held a number of posts under various state ministries. He died in 1957.
Jianghu Daxia Zhuan 江湖大侠传 is a 466-page novel in my edition. Roughly equivalent to two Wang Dulu one-volume wuxia novels.
Plot: A 100-year-old Taoist priest tries to gather heroes to overthrow the Qing dynasty. A orphaned young boy grows up and acquires martial and magic prowess to avenge his father's death, after the latter was framed for a crime he did not commit. (This is as far as I will go without spoilers)
Features:
1) Quite a lot of archaic, literary and dated terms, as to be expected from a novel written in the early 20th century. I relied a lot on the dictionary app Pleco to search out difficult terms. Without this app I probably won't be able to appreciate the finer details of the book (luckily 90% of these terms show up in Pleco if you install the free Taiwan Chinese dictionary).
2) This is semi-xianxia, not complete, realistic wuxia! Now we know Pingjiang Buxiao Sheng is the granddaddy of modern xianxia novels (if Huanzhu Louzhu is considered its father). Sorcery and magic, Taoist priests and Buddhist monks with supernatural abilities, feature prominently in the plot.
3) This is a novel full of backstories, probably 30 to 40 throughout. Anecdotes after anecdotes about many characters, the majority narrated and interwoven in the plot - some of the backstories take up several chapters! The longest backstory on a major character takes up nearly 10 chapters. It gets kind of confusing at times, but also makes rich cast of characters more interesting. Also, quite a lot of characters - certainly more than in a Wang Dulu novel.
4) Not romance-oriented. Not that there aren't any, but obviously these aren't the main focus of the storyline. The protagonist has a pretty girlfriend but it's only a minor subplot in a book full of subplots.
5) It can get pretty exciting at times, especially the writings on magic! Recommended if points 1-4 do not bother you.
Compared with Louis Cha, I feel the presence of backstories tend to make many other side characters more interesting, than when all the weird stuff happened to one single protagonist. The plot is obviously more diffuse than a one-protagonist novel, but you also get the feeling of realism: chance doesn't favour one protagonist unduly.
All in all, I don't regret reading this novel at all. There are parts which rival a typical Louis Cha novel, and bits which surpass much of Cha's oeuvre. Mainly, the attribution of chance and the presence of multiple back stories give it a refreshing spin from new school wuxia. However, I do find reading the end a bit tiring (plenty of battles).