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Post by kyc on Apr 25, 2019 11:08:36 GMT
Sure, but maybe on Sat or Sun... busy these few days I've always thought that Admin is from Mainland China, a Mainland Chinese? Seems that I'm wrong... What is your native language?
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Post by Admin on Apr 26, 2019 6:39:11 GMT
Sure, but maybe on Sat or Sun... busy these few days I've always thought that Admin is from Mainland China, a Mainland Chinese? Seems that I'm wrong... What is your native language? No, I'm working in China, but not a mainland Chinese. I'm your neighbor lah, from Indonesia Thank you tho`...for the poems. I'm currently in love with Chinese poems.
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Post by kyc on Apr 26, 2019 13:08:50 GMT
Thank you tho`...for the poems. I'm currently in love with Chinese poems. Admin cannot blame me. Admin says she's managing Chinese artistes in Mainland China, reads Chinese, recommended some Chinese writers. So I naturally thought you were from China. So we have a new friend from your country. I'm a bit sad today because I think the story of Yang Yuncong and Nalan Minghui will end in great tragedy. Already tearing because of the poems I saw online already. Seven Swords will be my next or next next read.
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Post by Admin on Apr 28, 2019 6:02:57 GMT
Thank you tho`...for the poems. I'm currently in love with Chinese poems. Admin cannot blame me. Admin says she's managing Chinese artistes in Mainland China, reads Chinese, recommended some Chinese writers. So I naturally thought you were from China. So we have a new friend from your country. I'm a bit sad today because I think the story of Yang Yuncong and Nalan Minghui will end in great tragedy. Already tearing because of the poems I saw online already. Seven Swords will be my next or next next read. LOL, no worries lah. Since I only adopted Chinese after I grown up, I have to work really hard for Chinese. And since I love good historical fictions, I force myself to read good historical fictions such as 康熙大帝, 雍正王朝, 大秦帝国. Classics literature 古文 is very difficult for me. I'm lucky that many wuxia series have been translated into Indonesia and or English. That saves a lot of my time. kyc : yes the story of YYC and Nalan Minghui will end in tragedy. Last time I read 女帝奇英专 by LYS in Chinese, and found out that the poems are really touching! I will recommend you to read this novel when you have time. It's really awesome!
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Post by kyc on Apr 28, 2019 9:57:55 GMT
I give the poems in Simplified Chinese.
Opening poem:
一剑西来,千岩拱列,魔影纵横。问明镜非台,菩提非树,境由心起,可得分明?
是魔非魔?非魔是魔?要待江湖后世评!且收拾,话英堆儿女,先叙闲情。
风雪意气峥嵘,轻拂了寒霜妩媚生。叹佳人绝代,白头未老,百年一诺,不负心盟。
短鉏栽花,长诗佐酒,诗剑年年总忆卿。天山上,看龙蛇笔走,墨泼南溟。
——词寄沁园春
Chapter 24:
“一”
蝶舞莺老又一年,花开花落每凄然,
此情早付东流水,却趁舂潮到眼前!
“二”
浮沉道力未能坚,慧剑难挥只自怜,
赢得月明长下拜,心随明月逐裙边。
“三”
补天无计空垂泪,恨海难填有怨禽,
但愿故人能谅我,不须言语表深心。
Chapter 26:
秋夜静,独自对残灯,啼笑非非谁识我,坐行梦梦尽缘君,何所慰消沉。
风卷雨,雨复卷侬心,心似欲随风雨去,茫茫大海任浮沉,无爱亦无憎。
Chapter 31, a song:
莫不是雪窗萤火无闲暇,莫不是卖风流宿柳眠花?
莫不是订幽期:错记了茶蘼架?
莫不是轻舟骏马,远去天涯?
莫不是招摇诗酒,醉倒谁家?莫不是笑谈间恼着他?
莫不是怕暖嗔寒,病症儿加?万种千条好教我疑心儿放不下!
Chapter 32, end poem:
别后音书两不闻,预知谐诼必纷纭,只缘海内存知己,始信天涯若比邻:
历劫了无生死念,经霜方显傲寒心!冬风尽折花千树,尚有幽香放上林。
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Post by kyc on May 5, 2019 6:44:02 GMT
Yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the May 4th (and New Culture) Movements. Let's give a hand to all the writers who emerged from this movement... to their championing of Vernacular Chinese and equal gender treatment. Many wuxia writers like Wang Dulu, Liang Yusheng and Jin Yong were influenced by this movement. Otherwise, female leads will have to share their guy with other girls.
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Post by soengyee on May 5, 2019 17:18:13 GMT
As luck would have it, my libraries decided to purchase The Legend of the White-Haired Demoness, after months of bugging. So, after several Gu Longs and Wang Dulus, I'm ready for my Liang Yusheng getaway again. ------------------ Review of The Legend of the White-Haired Demoness (《白髮魔女傳》, 1957-58). What a superb novel. Better than all the other Liang Yusheng novels I've read by a considerable margin. The Legend of the White-Haired Demoness is the prequel to The Legend of the Strange Heroes beyond the Pass (《塞外奇俠傳》) and Seven Swords Descend Mount Heaven (《七劍下天山》). These novels were written about a year before, almost concurrently. They form the "Mount Heaven Trilogy" of Liang Yusheng's works. Seven Swords Descend Mount Heaven, like The Legend of the White-Haired Demoness, is thought as one of the author's masterpieces. Strange Heroes beyond the Pass isn't really spoken in the same breath as the two subsequent works. The chronology is: The Legend of the White-Haired Demoness --> The Legend of the Strange Heroes beyond the Pass --> Seven Swords Descend Mount HeavenI've read and commented on Strange Heroes beyond the Pass before. It's much shorter and certainly not as well written as The White-Haired Demoness. The White-Haired Demoness is a totally different kettle of fish. It tells of the ill-fated love between Lian Nichang (練霓裳), a superbly skilled female swordswoman with an eccentric temperament, and Zhuo Yihang (卓一航), the chief disciple of the Wudang Sect who later succeeds as Sect Leader. Although Lian Nichang is definitely the female protagonist, Zhuo Yihang has to share the limelight with Yue Mingke (岳鳴珂), who is the best swordsman (equal to Lian Nichang) in the entire book. Yue Mingke is both gutsier and more highly skilled than Zhuo Yihang, but his love is equally ill-fated. For the sake of first-time readers, I will not reveal any more spoilers. The language of White-Haired Demoness is more literary than Jin Yong's. It sent me scrambling to my dictionary dozens of times each chapter. It evens out the more inconsistent style in his earlier books. By now, Liang Yusheng has fully mastered the genre. A better traditional wuxia novel (aside from one or two cavils) cannot be imagined. The book is not particularly long (two volumes) but packed with incidents... its death scenes will make many readers tear. Its exploration of male-female relationships is beyond what Jin Yong has achieved--at least in my opinion. I've always rated LYS above JY in writing about women and romantic love. This novel vindicates my opinion. Lian Nichang is a very interesting creation, suckled by a wolf mother and reared by Yue Mingke's teacher's wife. She has no parallel in JY universe: self sufficient, more highly skilled than the rather wimpy Zhuo Yihang, far braver in her pursuit of love. That she and Zhuo Yihang aren't really compatible has often been said. But still, the tragic love affair breaks your heart. Zhuo Yihang is as indecisive as JY's Zhang Wuji but you also sympathizes with him. He makes braver decisions in the end, but they come too late. Their love story is continued in Seven Swords. Where the novel succeeds most is in the proliferation of major and minor characters, many memorable. The pig-headed Five Elders of Wudang, Tie Feilong (鐵飛龍), Wang Zhaoxi (王照希), Gongsun Daniang (公孫大娘), Jin Duyi (金獨異), Tie Shanhu (鐵珊瑚), Xiong Tingbi (熊廷弼), Li Tianyang (李天揚), Murong Chong (慕容沖) are all, in one way or another, memorable. A couple of them leave their evil ways, two die for their love. That this novel is half as long as a four-volume JY novel, boasting almost as many memorable characters, is a testament to LYS's writing prowess. LYS's poetry is mesmerizing, and he litters them throughout the book. The young Hamaya, Yang Yuncong, Chu Zhaonan and Xing Longzi make their appearances in this novel, integrating the novel fully with the rest of the Tianshan series. This novel and many others remind me of JY's debt to LYS. Fei Hongjin probably inspired Huo Qingtong, the Five Elders of Wudang inspired the Quanzhen Sect, Huo Tiandu and Ling Muhua, Wang Chongyang and Lin Chaoying. The influences are endless... [Huo Qingtong comes before Fei Hongjin, so probably the two writers influenced each other... ] Verdict: A superb traditional wuxia novel, probably the best you can imagined by LYS in a two-volume format. A sense of freneticism aside, it has a slew of well delineated major and minor characters. I cannot wait to read Seven Swords after this. 5/5
It is simply one of my favourite novels as well. I was first introduced to the TV series before I read the novel and I loved it. However, after reading the novel I have to say none of the TV series did much justice to the actual novel at all. My favourite adaption is the ATV version in 1986 with Ngai Chau Wah and Tsang Wai Kuen but even that adaption was only 60-70% faithful to the actual story. None of the movie adaptions were even close and butchered the entire story. I have to say they can create many adaptions of LOCH and ROCH and still have them remain faithful to the true story, yet for some reason they like to butcher the story for this novel all the time. Even the 70's version gives a happier ending to this novel as well. It is also longer and draggier and very slow, I had to skim through it. (Lee Lai Lai is also not the stunning beauty I imagined but her acting is acceptable).
(((SPOILERS: Tie Shan Hu doesn't die but becomes a nun in the 70's version.)) I guess none of the producers are not fond of the actual story? They tend to make the adaptions and characters more sadistic. Geng Zhao Nan is always a major villain and dies in every adaption, He E Hua and He Lu Hua are always merged characters and either die or don't know martial arts, Ke Ping Ting doesn't appear in some adaptions and dies in others, Lian Ni Chang is always miserable and never smiles and more tragic then the actual character in the novel. I've yet to find an adaption that is close the novel. But to date the 86 version is the closest and best version in my humble opinion. Some dialogues in the novel are verbatim, word for word in this adaption. The recent version with Nicky Wu and Ma Su is a total disaster, it is only 20% faithful to the novel. And the director was Nicky Wu himself???
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Post by Admin on May 6, 2019 2:14:56 GMT
I give the poems in Simplified Chinese.
Opening poem:
一剑西来,千岩拱列,魔影纵横。问明镜非台,菩提非树,境由心起,可得分明?
是魔非魔?非魔是魔?要待江湖后世评!且收拾,话英堆儿女,先叙闲情。
风雪意气峥嵘,轻拂了寒霜妩媚生。叹佳人绝代,白头未老,百年一诺,不负心盟。
短鉏栽花,长诗佐酒,诗剑年年总忆卿。天山上,看龙蛇笔走,墨泼南溟。
——词寄沁园春
Chapter 24:
“一”
蝶舞莺老又一年,花开花落每凄然,
此情早付东流水,却趁舂潮到眼前!
“二”
浮沉道力未能坚,慧剑难挥只自怜,
赢得月明长下拜,心随明月逐裙边。
“三”
补天无计空垂泪,恨海难填有怨禽,
但愿故人能谅我,不须言语表深心。
Chapter 26:
秋夜静,独自对残灯,啼笑非非谁识我,坐行梦梦尽缘君,何所慰消沉。
风卷雨,雨复卷侬心,心似欲随风雨去,茫茫大海任浮沉,无爱亦无憎。
Chapter 31, a song:
莫不是雪窗萤火无闲暇,莫不是卖风流宿柳眠花?
莫不是订幽期:错记了茶蘼架?
莫不是轻舟骏马,远去天涯?
莫不是招摇诗酒,醉倒谁家?莫不是笑谈间恼着他?
莫不是怕暖嗔寒,病症儿加?万种千条好教我疑心儿放不下!
Chapter 32, end poem:
别后音书两不闻,预知谐诼必纷纭,只缘海内存知己,始信天涯若比邻:
历劫了无生死念,经霜方显傲寒心!冬风尽折花千树,尚有幽香放上林。 Thanks a lot kycWhoa...I could only say whoa! Never thought that LYS was very poetic. He probably was a tragic romantic person! soengyee : I like ATV 1986 version too. The one with Nicky Wu is a disaster
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Post by kyc on May 12, 2019 1:16:57 GMT
A word about Liang Yusheng vs Jin Yong. LYS's major shortcoming, I think, is the disorganization of his prose style. He is not as organized a writer as JY; his novels are not as well structured. LYS often writes as if someone (an editor?) is breathing down his neck, so some of his pacing is frenetic. Usually, JY avoids such problems.
However, if you can take this major shortcoming, then there are some things of his I prefer to JY, like his depictions of women. LYS's and JY's heroes are about quits, but LYS has a more democratic style (i.e. his secondary characters can be as attractive as his male protagonists, whereas JY won't create an equal for his male heroes.)
If you are reading JY every year and think you can stand LYS's fault, you might be pleasantly surprised when you venture to JY's rival and friend.
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Post by kyc on May 12, 2019 1:51:25 GMT
A review of Lianjian Fengyun Lu (《聯劍風雲錄》, "The Upheavals of the Sword Alliance"), the sequel to Sanhua Nvxia. This novel is a prequel (sort of) to The White-Haired Demoness. In short, a superb wuxia novel by Liang Yusheng again. It's better in many ways than Sanhua... a little more organized, though still not as well organized as The White-Haired Demoness. But the best parts surpass the earlier book. The Upheavals of the Sword Alliance is the sequel to Sanhua, its sister piece. Seven years have passed. The major characters of the earlier novel have moved on. The protagonist of the earlier piece is Yu Chengzhu (于承珠), who has now married Ye Chenglin (葉成林) and they head a voluntary brigade fighting the Japanese pirates (unsupported by the Ming government). Yu Chengzhu is relegated to a secondary character here. It is really her junior brother, Zhang Yuhu (張玉虎), who is a chief character. As one should know by now, there is no clear-cut main protagonist in some of LYS's works. So it is here. Zhang Yuhu is caught in a love triangle (or something like it), then Huo Tiandu (霍天都) and his wife, Ling Yunfeng (凌雲鳳), take center stage. But really, it's like Marvel Superheroes congregating... the most powerful being of course, the greatest martial artist of that era, Zhang Danfeng (張丹楓, AKA Superman). The "sword alliance" mentioned in the title isn't a formal one, just that almost all the good guys, except Zhang Yuhu, wield a sword. Hence, "sword alliance". The bad-ass villain of the novel is Qiao Beiming (喬北溟), really the most powerful badass I've read so far in LYS's novels. Unfortunately, he's just not as good as Superman in the end. Qiao Bingming's son, Qiao Shaoshao (喬少少), seems very much inspired by JY's Ouyang Ke (歐陽克). The chief relationships involve Tie Jingxin (鐵鏡心), who returns at the start of the novel; the love triangle entangling Zhang Yuhu and his preferred belle, Long Jianhong (龍劍虹); and the growing estrangement between Huo Tiandu and his wife. The most interesting plotline is Qiao Bingming's cultivation of the powerful heretical skill in order to defeat Zhang Danfeng. He manages to trick Huo Tiandu into helping him train. The novel culminates in a showdown between the big villain and the great xiake, Zhang Danfeng. The differences between Huo and his wife show, at a glance, how much LYS values gender equality. He also makes the acute observation that a married couple ought to share certain values, or else no matter how close they are, they will part. Another nagging question: is Zhang Danfeng (and Ye Chenglin) a little too... perfect? Verdict: Well, I've given Sanhua Nvxia 4.5/5, and this is a better novel. So I have to give it a 5/5. It may be a little more disorganized than The White-Haired Demoness but many people will like it just as well. The set-pieces are nail-biting. But anyone attempting this novel should read Sanhua first to get acquainted with the chief characters.
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Post by siuyiu on May 12, 2019 21:56:57 GMT
ah, so this is the story about the epic rivalry between qiao beiming and zhang danfeng's groups that cumulated in Connection of the Jade Bow and Sea of Clouds (雲海玉弓緣).
y'know, funny that you say that: i've had a few member of my family make the same comment about zhang danfeng being too perfect.
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Post by kyc on May 19, 2019 3:03:42 GMT
ah, so this is the story about the epic rivalry between qiao beiming and zhang danfeng's groups that cumulated in Connection of the Jade Bow and Sea of Clouds (雲海玉弓緣). y'know, funny that you say that: i've had a few member of my family make the same comment about zhang danfeng being too perfect. The book says that Qiao Beiming finally died in a desert island, in his 100s. So did it happen during Yunhai? So strange that Qiao Beiming, after being defeated, will die > 100 years old when Zhang Danfeng dies in his 60s because he received Qiao's palm blow.
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Post by siuyiu on May 19, 2019 18:11:07 GMT
kyc you'll have to ask yenchin . i haven't read yunhai yet.
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Post by Admin on May 20, 2019 2:54:58 GMT
As one should know by now, there is no clear-cut main protagonist in some of LYS's works. This statement is so true about LYS' novels. Sometimes it's a plus point, but sometimes it also becomes a negative point.
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Post by yenchin on Jun 12, 2019 12:16:11 GMT
ah, so this is the story about the epic rivalry between qiao beiming and zhang danfeng's groups that cumulated in Connection of the Jade Bow and Sea of Clouds (雲海玉弓緣). y'know, funny that you say that: i've had a few member of my family make the same comment about zhang danfeng being too perfect. The book says that Qiao Beiming finally died in a desert island, in his 100s. So did it happen during Yunhai? So strange that Qiao Beiming, after being defeated, will die > 100 years old when Zhang Danfeng dies in his 60s because he received Qiao's palm blow. Zhang dies in his 90s in Guang Ling Jian (廣陵劍) In Yunhai the story is already many years after Qiao's death with only Li's uncle and aunt on the island guarding his legacy.
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