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Post by Admin on May 25, 2014 12:57:44 GMT
List of Jin Yong (Louis Cha)'s novels: Cha wrote a total of 15 pieces, of which one ("Sword of the Yue Maiden") is a short story and the other 14 are novels and novellas of various length. Most of his novels were initially published in daily instalments in newspapers. 1.The Book and the Sword (書劍恩仇錄) (first published on The New Evening Post from 1955–6) 2. Sword Stained with Royal Blood (碧血劍) (first published on Hong Kong Commercial Daily in 1956) 3. The Legend of the Condor Heroes (射鵰英雄傳) (first published on Hong Kong Commercial Daily in 1957-9) 4. Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain (雪山飛狐) (first instalment appeared on the first issue of Ming Pao in 1959) 5. The Return of the Condor Heroes (神鵰俠侶) (Ming Pao, 1959–61) 6. Other Tales of the Flying Fox (飛狐外傳) (Wuxia and History, 1960-1) 7. Swordswoman Riding West on White Horse (白馬嘯西風) (first published on Ming Pao in 1961) 8. Blade-dance of the Two Lovers (鴛鴦刀) (first published on Ming Pao in 1961) 9. The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber (倚天屠龍記) (first published on Ming Pao in 1961) 10. A Deadly Secret (連城訣) (first published on Southeast Asia Weekly 《東南亞周刊》in 1963) 11. Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (天龍八部) (Ming Pao and Singapore's Nanyang Siang Pau, 1963-6) 12. Ode to Gallantry (俠客行) (Ming Pao, 1966-7) 13. The Smiling, Proud Wanderer (笑傲江湖) (first published on Ming Pao in 1967-9) 14. The Deer and the Cauldron (鹿鼎記) (Ming Pao, 1969–1972) 15. Sword of the Yue Maiden (越女劍) (Ming Pao evening supplement, 1970)
After Cha completed all his titles, it was discovered that the first characters of the first 14 titles can be joined together to form a couplet with 7 characters* on each line: Traditional Chinese 飛雪連天射白鹿 Fēi xuě lián tiān shè bái lù 笑書神俠倚碧鴛 Xiào shū shén xiá yǐ bì yuān Simplified Chinese 飞雪连天射白鹿 笑书神侠倚碧鸳 Loose translation Shooting a white deer, snow flutters around the skies; Smiling, [one] writes about the divine chivalrous one, leaning against bluish lovebirds (or lover)
Cha has stated that he has never intended to have the couplet. The couplet serves primarily as a handy mnemonic to remember all of Cha's works for his fans. "Sword of the Yue Maiden" was left out because it would be an odd number, thus the couplet would not be complete, also because the "Sword of the Yue Maiden" was so short it was not even considered a book.
(source : wikipedia)
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Post by siuyiu on Jul 9, 2014 7:26:08 GMT
and if we were to put his novels in chronological order:
6th century BC: Sword of the Yue Maiden (Spring & Autumn period) 11th century: Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (Northern Song Dynasty) 13th century: The Legend of the Condor Heroes and The Return of the Condor Heroes (Southern Song Dynasty) 14th century: The Heavenly Sword and the Dragon Sabre (Yuan Dynasty) 17th century: Swordswoman Riding West on White Horse (Ming Dynasty), Sword Stained With Royal Blood (Ming Dynasty), The Deer and the Cauldron (Qing Dynasty), A Deadly Secret (Qing Dynasty--as per 3rd edition; was ambiguous in first two eds) 18th century: Blade-dance of the Two Lovers (Qing Dynasty), The Book and the Sword (Qing), Other Tales of the Flying Fox (Qing), Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain (Qing) (deliberately) unspecified: Ode to Gallantry and The Smiling, Proud Wanderer
(source: wikipedia)
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Post by chefying on Jul 10, 2014 15:45:18 GMT
Thanks for the posts. I find this interesting and informative.
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Post by Admin on Jul 13, 2014 12:29:40 GMT
I make it sticky
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Post by siuyiu on Jul 23, 2015 19:06:37 GMT
@all members who've read JY's works, which books would you say are the best and most representative ones of his entire body of works? and which one would you say is a good first-ever story for someone who's never read JY?
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Post by siuyiu on Jul 23, 2015 19:15:13 GMT
@all members who've read JY's works, which books would you say are the best and most representative ones of his entire body of works? and which one would you say is a good first-ever story for someone who's never read JY? my personal favourite is TLBB, although i would probably recommend SDYXZ (LOCH) for a first timer. as for most representative works, i think it's generally agreed among his fans that the "condor trilogy" (SDYXZ, SDXL, YTTLJ [AKA LOCH, ROCH, HSDS]), TLBB (DGSD), and XAJH (SPW) are the best. even though the academics say LDJ (DOMD) is masterly, most fans don't like his anti-hero WXB. but "best" is a subjective definition, so i'm interested in your picks.
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Post by siuyiu on Oct 30, 2016 22:36:52 GMT
from another thread but just as useful here: Here are the official translations (the ones provided in the actual print books). This list is from Ni Kuang's personal ranking of Jin Yong's novels. The Works of Jin Yong
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Post by chinaman on Oct 31, 2016 9:39:23 GMT
from another thread but just as useful here: Here are the official translations (the ones provided in the actual print books). This list is from Ni Kuang's personal ranking of Jin Yong's novels. The Works of Jin Yong siuyiu ,What is mandarin duck blades ?never heard before ?any movie or tv made based on this ?
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Post by siuyiu on Oct 31, 2016 22:52:43 GMT
chinaman mandarin duck blades is the english title for the novella yuan yang dao. i haven't read it but it's not a very well known story. according to the wiki blurp, there was a movie made very early on but there's been no other adaptation since. here's the link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Duck_Blades
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Post by kyc on Aug 22, 2018 12:24:34 GMT
I'm rereading Other Tales of Flying Fox now and might start a thread discussing it. But as for the question of which JY novel to start, I will recommend:
The Legend of the Condor Heroes - a starter novel for the "epic length" Jin Yong
or
Romance of the Book and the Sword - his first novel
or
Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain - the shortest of his better novels, good for a first read.
Otherwise, his longer novels are perhaps more representative. I find Other Tales of Flying Fox surprisingly good on a reread; there are some things which you don't find in other novels. I find the main romance(s) there more intriguing than in most of his other works.
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Post by reinafu on Aug 22, 2018 14:38:07 GMT
chinaman mandarin duck blades is the english title for the novella yuan yang dao. i haven't read it but it's not a very well known story. according to the wiki blurp, there was a movie made very early on but there's been no other adaptation since. here's the link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Duck_Blades I saw a tv series with the title Nlade-dance of two lovers on a Vietnamese site a while ago. I can't give you the link because I can't go to this site when I'm at home, but when I'll be back at work, I'll give it, unless you want to look for it by yourself. The site is collectphimbo.
And yes, I have been a little bit slow to react to this post...
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Post by kyc on Oct 18, 2018 5:59:21 GMT
This is a review of Jin Yong’s wuxia novel, The Sword Stained with Royal Blood / Bixie Jian (《碧血劍》). I read the third edition and there are spoilers below.
Well, I’m going to try and complete reading all of JY’s novels and BXJ is one which I haven’t read. Before I go into the review, let me clarify the differences between the 2nd and 3rd editions.
JY made lots of minor changes in the 3rd edition (post-2000 editions), but there are three major differences between the 3rd edition and the 2nd. I’ve only read the 3rd edition and cannot comment much on these differences. These are differences I garnered online.
In the 3rd edition:
– Yuan Chengzhi (袁承志) becomes enamored of A’jiu (阿九), who is really Princess Changping. His former love interest, Wen Qingqing (溫青青), has been relegated to a secondary role in the second volume. In other words, Yuan Chengzhi becomes Chen Jialuo + Zhang Wuji. A’jiu, as we know, is more beautiful than Wen Qingqing (roll eyes).
In the end, Yuan Chengzhi goes overseas with Qingqing despite being more in love with A’jiu. He is more motivated by ethics than by love.
In the 2nd edition, A’jiu is in a one-sided love relationship with Yuan Chengzhi. The latter never really loves her.
– He Tieshou (何鐵手), the leader of the Five Poisons Sect, no longer falls for Wen Qingqing disguised as a man. She does not try committing suicide as a result. Her personality is also somewhat changed.
– There are major additions on King Chuang/Li Zhicheng (闖王/李自成) after he enters Beijing and the atrocities his men commit, plus how he eventually loses favor with his army and the public.
As a reader who has never read the 2nd edition, I find some of the major rewrites a bit baffling. Yuan Chengzhi’s new love affair with A’jiu strikes me as odd. They never really spend any time together and the next thing you know, Chengzhi is pining for her. The rewrites stand out even for a reader who’d never read the 2nd edition. Furthermore, more readers are going to hate Yuan Chengzhi for his wishy-washy, two-timing nature. JY says the rewrites are to make the protagonists “more human”—after all, he reasons, two-timing and the switching of love allegiance are very common in love relationships. What can you say to that?
I have no comments on the He Tieshou rewrites but the parts on King Chuang are overlong. JY wants to make clear why King Chuang lost, but I think the additions unbalance the chapter.
As with most ardent JY fans, I recommend the 2nd edition after checking the additions online.
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As for the novel, it’s wonderful. Unlike many JY readers, I like BXJ enormously. It is a very traditional wuxia novel. Most JY fans do not like this novel/undervalue it for the following reasons:
1) The martial arts is on the realistic side. Yuan Chengzhi doesn’t have otherworldly martial skills and the whole novel isn’t about him learning awesome martial arts, but more of a wuxia novel with historical background.
2) Yuan Chonghuan is a very important figure behind the scenes. The novel basically traces the downfall of the Ming Dynasty amid jianghu upheavals. Some people find this boring. (Not me.)
3) The protagonists are Yuan Chengzhi and Wen Qingqing. Many fans find Yuan Chengzhi boring (he’s a kind person but other than that, his character traits are not very distinctive, unlike Guo Jing (very stupid), Yang Guo (rebellious/faithful), Xiao Feng (tragic), Zhang Wuji (wishy-washy). Wen Qingqing isn’t the best loved of JY characters. She is easily roused to jealousy, which makes her quite unloveable.
Points 1 and 2 are exactly why I like this novel so much. It doesn’t follow the usual template of protagonist learning awesome martial arts and as such is refreshing. Also, the historical background gives it a very authentic feel. I’m OK with Yuan Chengzhi as a protagonist and Wen Qingqing, while not perfect, is drawn very realistically. I don’t love her, but I can imagine such people exist. That’s good enough for me—I don’t need to love every JY protagonist (and seriously, I don’t). Volume 1 is interesting because of their interactions in love.
I kind of believe that JY is the author who plans and writes the best structured wuxia novels in the history of the genre. And BXJ really is watertight: there’s nothing superfluous; motivations and action scenes follow one another logically. A reader won’t get lost here. LYS is really no match in structure to JY; his novels are far looser.
The edition contains an outstanding biography on Yuan Chonghuan. It is extremely well written, cogently argued and good following-up material after the novel. It basically explains why the Ming Emperor, Chongzhen, killed Yuan Chonghuan because of his paranoid and haughty nature, tracing the downfall of the dynasty back to Shenzong/Wanli Emperor, “possibly the greediest and laziest Emperor in Chinese history”. It portrays Yuan as a tragic hero in a time of great upheavals.
Conclusion: I like BXJ enormously. The structure is extremely tight and the writing is of the highest order. I can’t imagine this material (historical, traditional wuxia) being better executed. This novel is underappreciated thanks to many people’s lukewarm reactions to the protagonists and/or his kungfu. If you can live with less-than-perfect human beings, there’s no reason why you should avoid BXJ. If you haven’t read it and are a JY lover, you are urged to. You may find more here than you have bargained for. The 2nd edition is recommended.
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Post by reinafu on Oct 30, 2018 23:30:15 GMT
I just saw on another forum that Jin Yong's has passed away on the 30th of October at the age of 94.
Sad news...
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Post by kyc on Oct 31, 2018 0:53:21 GMT
It's true, the news of his death. Apparently his health had not been that good for a few years. Had to eat with a tube at times.
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Post by kyc on Jan 6, 2019 5:26:50 GMT
I thought about posting this on the Demigods and Semidevils 2013 thread but maybe it's better to post it here. It's going to be a long post, so here goes... This post is really a response to Sara K.'s blog on " The Disunited Plot of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (Part 2)". Part 1 is here. In both posts she griped about the so-called disunity of Demigods and Semidevils (TLBB), the novel. I thought about posting a response on her blog but how much can you write there? To quote from her blog posts: Then she attempts to answer her own question: She concludes: --- I will attempt to address her problem with plot (dis)unity in the following post(s). First of all, TLBB does have specific thematic unity, which is to me far, far more important than plot unity, whatever "plot unity" is--and Sara K. doesn't define it adequately--at least not satisfactorily enough to suggest why there should be only one kind of plot unity in all novels. Just like there is no one definitive book on writing and plotting novels, there are many different ways to skin a cat. When you write a very long novel, it is natural that you aim more for thematic unity, rather than plot unity. Many long novels have several protagonists. Sara K. quotes War and Peace and Anna Karenina. You can add Middlemarch, Dream of the Red Chamber, The Plum in the Golden Vase etc. TLBB's thematic unity has been well summarized by Wikipedia (also quoted by Sara): But Sara K. seems to ignore the Buddhist origins of the novel, which is the inspiration behind it. Without addressing the Buddhist cosmology and its philosophy, it is impossible to understand fully the thematic unity behind the book. Jin Yong describes the eight beings in his foreword, so I won't go into it. Anyone who wants to read the foreword can do so in their edition; there is no translation of it I can find online. The afterword is also helpful, as translated here. Jin Yong appends a letter from Chinese critic Chen Shixiang who "got" the Buddhist context behind the novel. Unfortunately there is no translation of that online. Jin Yong's original intention was to write eight different stories to depict the eight beings of his title. But he changed it midway: the concept was too ambitious. Still, he managed three protagonists and two semi-protagonists/antagonists (You Danzhi and Murong Fu). Some others may also be included but about them I am less sure. The idea of the Saṃsāra is very strong in this novel: the rich cast of characters is Jin Yong essentially trying to depict different kinds of human beings, personified by the Tianlong Babu, motivated by the three defilements/ poisons: Moha (delusion, confusion), Raga (greed, sensual attachment), and Dvesha (aversion, ill will). In Buddhism, all human sufferings stem from these. If you are free from them, you would have attained nirvana. Another idea very prevalent in TLBB is the concept of karma: you reap what you sow. The heroes of the jianghu will not suffer from Qiao Feng's killings at Juxian Villa had they not unwittingly killed innocent people, Qiao Feng's parents. Some try to make up for it but karma still takes center stage. There are other kinds of karma in the book: Duan Zhengchun's suicide is perhaps one of them. Had he not had so many lovers, he need not die. That said, Jin Yong's idea about karma in this book is rather ambivalent: he is compassionate about Qiao Feng, even suggesting he is not to be blamed for much of his tragedy. But in Buddhism, karma is always fair. Of course, some of your bad karma come from earlier incarnations. The idea of movement up and down the Samsara is strong in this novel. Qiao Feng, for example, is very clearly depicted as a deva (god). He starts at his most glorious and powerful then moves down the scale: slandered, cast out of his sect, killing innocent people because of rage (dvesha) and a single-minded desire for revenge. He is not perfect, but in Buddhism, devas are not perfect. They can easily fall down the Samsara scale and become humans, hungry ghosts or end up even in hell. In his foreword, Jin Yong describes it perfectly: the deva will suffer from five symptoms and his fall from grace is his greatest grief. In Buddhism, only a Buddha is perfect in knowledge; and Buddhas are beyond the Samsara because they are out of it. Devas are not Buddhas and although they live well, they can plunge down the scale and suffer. Duan Yu's adventures can be read as a movement up the Samsara scale, maybe from human to deva (?). Obviously Duan Yu is not free from the three defilements: his obsession for Wang Yuyan is a sort of Raga (sensual attachment). But Jin Yong views in comically most of the time. However, even he can suffer, e.g. from the tragic deaths of his parents. In the 3rd edition, Duan Yu's infatuation with Wang Yuyan does not end happily. This may be Jin Yong telling his readers that his love for Wang is merely an obsession. But in Buddhism, even love is a Raga. In order to achieve nirvana, you must not harbor any sensual/passionate/romantic love (as opposed to compassion). About this, Jin Yong is ambivalent. Generally, the so-called "pulp" nature of the novel which Sara K. sees is really a way to depict the excesses of human defilements. Most obvious are the cruelty of Azi, the infatuation of You Danzhi for her, Xuzhu's sensual attachment to love, Duan Zhengchun's obsessions with his lovers and theirs with him, Duan Yu's love for Wang Yuyan, Qiao Feng's thirst for revenge, Duan Yanqing's need to regain his kingdom, the Murongs' lust for power etc. And there are many more... The fact is, in TLBB, human beings frequently act in more excessive, obsessed, extreme or distorted ways to demonstrate the instability of the Samsara.
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