Category: Wuxia

There’s one word that I want to use to describe this novel: Sobering.

In The Smiling Proud Wanderer by Jing Yong, we follow the adventures of the main protagonist, Linghu Chong, as he goes from a happy-go-lucky martial arts practitioner to facing the real world where he has to deal with the nasty world of politics and power struggles. Along the way, he has to make many difficult decisions, as he faces conflicts between loyalty, righteousness, and his own self-benefit.

While this book is commonly viewed as a wuxia novel, I consider this work to be a political novel as well. Unlike the rest of Jin Yong’s novels where an explicit time frame is mentioned, this novel does not mention a specific dynasty. This is most likely a conscious decision by Jin Yong, who in the afterward noted that the events in this novel can apply to any dynasty.

The book starts by introducing Lin Pingzhi, a son of the head of the Fuwei Security Service Agency. His family owns the Bixie Swordplay Manual, which makes them a target. One day, the agency gets massacred and his family gets captured by the Mt. Qingcheng Sect, which leads to Lin thinking of ways to avenge his family. 

Meanwhile, Linghu Chong saves the nun Yilin from the bandit Tian Boguang. Soon after, Lin Pingzhi gets accepted to be a disciple of Linghu Chong’s master, Yue Buqun, where they soon return to the home base of their sect, Mt. Hua. For reasons that will be made clear when you read it, Linghu Chong gets punished by his master to isolate himself on a section of the mountain, where he later learns skills that were carved into a cave that he finds, as well as learning a technique called Dugu Nine Swords from a very old member of the sect, Feng Qingyang.

One day, Yue Buqun calls on the members of his sect to go on adventure, which causes a series of events that leads to Linghu Chong facing the complexities of the jianghu, the world of martial arts.

Warning: Major spoilers ahead.

As the story progresses, Linghu Chong becomes more aware of the complex world of politics. He realizes that the leader of the Mt. Song Sect, Zuo Lengchan, wants to get the other sects in the Five Mountain Sword School Alliance to submit to him. He eventually realizes his own master that took care of him all these years turns out to be a power-hungry schemer who aims to overthrow Zuo and be the leader of the Five Mountain Sword School Alliance.

Overall, there is an overarching theme of the gray morality of people. Linghu Chong is portrayed as a bit of an alcoholic and gambler who uses coarse language and doesn’t mind associating with people that have a bad reputation, but deep down Linghu Chong has a strong sense of honor to do what is right and is very caring towards the people around him. In contrast, his master is portrayed as a gentleman who carefully selects his words to seem like a morally upright individual, when in fact he is willing to betray everyone around him, even his family, to gain power and get what he wants. 

Speaking of Linghu Chong’s relationship with his former master, an important topic of discussion in this novel is loyalty. The code of jianghu dictates that students should do what their master wishes them to do, but we see how the case of Linghu Chong tests the bounds of this “rule.” Even while his master Yue Buqun started doubting him, and even kicked him out, Linghu Chong always tried to remain loyal towards him. In fact, towards the end of the novel, Yue tried to kill him, but even then Linghu Chong tried his best to remain in self-defense rather than being on the offense and killing his former master.

Truth be told, it was a bit hard to read towards the end when Linghu Chong vowed to remain loyal when his own master was literally trying to kill him. 

While Linghu Chong has to deal with his former master, he also starts being tangled in the affairs of the Sun Moon Holy Cult, a sect that is known to be evil among the more “orthodox” schools of the jianghu, after he falls in love with Ren Yingying, the daughter of the former leader of the cult, Ren Woxing. He starts realizing that not everyone in the Sun Moon Holy Cult were as evil as they were rumored to be, 

Things aren’t as simple for the organizations in the novel as well. The “orthodox” schools in the Five Mountain Sword School Alliance turned out to contain quite a few evil individuals, while the Sun Moon Holy Cult has some pretty good individuals. Jin Yong was really trying to hammer the point that often in politics, it’s rare to come across an organization that is entirely good or bad. We live in a world where many people think that their side, their party, their organization, etc. must be the good guys, while the other side must be the bad guys, when in fact both sides can contain rotten apples. Check out this related tweet I found.

At this point, one might think that as long as a decent person rises to the head of an organization, then everything will be alright. However, the novel seems to suggest this is not the answer as well, as power can lead to moral corruption, judging from the case of Ren Woxing. When Ren Woxing found out that Dongfang Bubai, the man who ousted him from power, started implementing all sorts of rituals and customs into the Sun Moon Holy Cult, he found it ridiculous at first. However, after Ren regained his position, he started going on an ego trip and decided to keep the rituals and customs that Dongfang Bubai introduced prior.

How does Linghu Chong deal with all the complicated political intrigue he had to see and experience? By the end of the novel, we see that he has been fed up with all of this and decided to distance himself from the politics in the jianghu. Instead he chooses to spend his days with his wife, Ren Yingying. This is not unlike many of the thinkers in Chinese history who’ve attained great positions in government, but decided to give it up to live in the mountains or their hometowns where they can be free from the complex web of politics.

In essence, the message from this novel seems to be rather than dealing with the nasty game of politics, it is better just to not play the game at all and instead become a smiling, proud wanderer. 

What is Wuxia?

In short, wuxia is a Chinese genre that is focused on martial arts. This is evident from the Chinese characters for wuxia, which are 武俠. The first character, 武, means martial, while the second character, 俠, means hero. However, there is much more to wuxia than simply Chinese martial arts and tales of heroism. There are usually themes of loyalty, brotherhood, romance, and more present in the novels as well.

What is the difference between wuxia and xianxia?

Let us contrast the Chinese characters for wuxia, 武俠, with the Chinese characters for xianxia, 仙俠. While the second character, 俠, remains the same, the first character, 仙, is different and harder to translate. 仙 is a type of mythical being that is commonly translated as “immortal,” and they usually possess mythical qualities. Unsurprisingly, xianxia would have more tales involving supernatural abilities compared to wuxia, which is more grounded in reality. As an example, while a xianxia character would have the ability to fly long distances in an instant, a wuxia character would utilize qinggong and maybe leap across trees and roofs, but not literally fly into the air.

Who are some famous wuxia authors?

I’m not sure who are the most famous wuxia authors nowadays, but among the classic ones, the most well-known ones are Jin Yong, Gu Long, and Liang Yusheng. Among the three, Jin Yong is undoubtedly the most famous one. 

Who is Jin Yong, and how famous is he?

Jin Yong is an author who grew up in Haining, China, and later moved to Hong Kong, where he started writing wuxia for his newspaper. He is very famous in Chinese-speaking countries. Go talk to any stranger in a Chinese-speaking country, and it’s almost certain that he or she has heard of him. In fact, there are constantly new remakes being made based on his novels. I heard Jin Yong was also pretty famous in Vietnam, and according to the epilogue of The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, at one point members of the South Vietnamese National Assembly would hurl around names of the evil characters in the novel as insults toward other members.

What are the best novels by Jin Yong?

While his Condors trilogy is probably the most famous one, the Chinese internet seems to agree that his three works with the most literary value are The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, Demi-gods and Semi-devils, and The Deer and the Cauldron. Jin Yong himself was said to have said that the longer the novel, the better he thought it was, and the later he wrote the novel, the better it was. This leaves the three novels that I mentioned earlier.

Where can I read wuxia?

If you can read Chinese, then it will be fairly easy for you to find the original versions. However, if you want to read them in translation in English, things will probably be a bit harder. If you want to read more recent wuxia novels, you will likely have to make do with a time lag while the most recent update gets translated from Chinese to English. For older novels from authors like Jin Yong, not everything has been officially translated to English yet, so you might have to rely on unofficial translations from websites such as WuxiaSociety.

How much Chinese culture and history should I know before reading wuxia?

You do not need to know a lot in order to enjoy it. However, knowing more about Chinese culture and history is certainly a plus, because it will give you context that will aid in understanding the novel. Before you read one, try looking up the historical background associated with the setting. Trust me, knowing that would help you gain a finer appreciation of the work.

In the middle of a novel, you will likely be tempted to do some research on parts of the culture. Feel free to use Wikipedia or watch videos on Youtube to learn more. Before you realize it, you will start having a rudimentary knowledge of Chinese history. Through reading wuxia, my friend from Pakistan at this stage probably knows more about random Chinese historical figures than most of my Chinese American friends.

Why are wuxia novels so long?

Sooner or later, once you start picking up a novel, you will realize that they are long. Really long. Jin Yong used to be a journalist who started a newspaper in Hong Kong, so he would write installments of around 10,000 characters each day in order to attract people to read them and get hooked on what happens next so they would buy more copies in the future. As a result, some of his novels like the The Deer and the Cauldron were published in installments every day for almost three years.

Nowadays, modern wuxia writers are paid by the character, so the more characters they write, the more they earn. As a result, there is direct incentive for them to write more “filler” chapters. I heard some web novels written in China nowadays can stretch for more than a thousand chapters if they are popular.

Why should you read wuxia?

There’s a lot of content in wuxia, including epic fights, fast action, intricate plot lines, and more. I’ve also written about how we can take lessons from sword stances mentioned in the novels for everyday life. You can also learn quite a bit about traditional Chinese thoughts and values from reading this genre, as well as various sections of Chinese history. You might feel inspired to start reading up on Chinese history afterwards, which can be just as interesting. Last but not least, reading wuxia is fun!

If you want a more in-depth post of what I have to say about this genre, please read my thoughts on wuxia.

If you’re reading this article, I assume that you already know what wuxia is. If you don’t, check out my article that answers basic questions on wuxia.

When my uncle and my father recommended I take a look at some of the classic wuxia novels by Jin Yong, I’ll have to admit I was pretty skeptical initially. However, I know they didn’t recommend wuxia for no good reason, so I resorted to doing some research online.

The common consensus is that the best wuxia novels by Jin Yong, in no particular order, are The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, and The Deer and the Cauldron. Among the three, The Smiling, Proud Wanderer was the shortest, being composed of four volumes while the other two have five volumes, so I decided to start with this. My research also led me to finding out that the top wuxia authors are Jin Yong, Gu Long, and Liang Yusheng, but I’ll have to put the latter two on hold while I start with Jin Yong.

I’ll be honest here, before I read my first wuxia novel, I did not have high expectations for the genre. I’ve seen too many memes and jokes online of wuxia protagonists being some OP character who cultivated for years in the mountains and eventually developed the ability to instantly kill his opponent with one strike. He later gets into fights with random people he meets in the “jianghu,” all because someone looked at him the wrong way or said a single sentence wrong that the protagonist took offense to. Repeat this every chapter, change some names of who he’s fighting, and boom, you have a wuxia novel that for some reason thousands of readers flock to every day or week to check for the latest updates.

Admittedly, it took me a few months for me to get through my first wuxia novel, which I read in Chinese. Not necessarily out of boredom, but because I had to get used to the vocabulary for the first few chapters, which were sometimes pretty literary. However, around halfway through the first volume, I started picking up pace and was able to thoroughly enjoy the story without unknown characters obstructing the experience. I was able to finish the final volume within a few days, while the first volume took me a month or two of on and off reading. 

I’m glad that my previous conceptions of wuxia were thoroughly debunked by reading a novel by Jin Yong. Sure, you have a protagonist that manages to learn a set of powerful sword stances from a reclusive hermit in the mountains. Every other chapter, you have a fight that gets described in vivid detail by the author for several pages. However, I’ve come to realize that there are much more to wuxia novels than simple fighting scenes. Between the training and fighting arcs, you have rich discussions on traditional Chinese culture, including history, literature, philosophy, and in one scene in The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, the type of wine vessels that should be used when drinking different types of wine.

In fact, past a certain point, I realized that wuxia is merely a vehicle for Jin Yong to convey his thoughts and commentary on Chinese thoughts, values, and politics. Few people would likely want to read an essay that solely focuses on traditional Chinese ethics, but when you write an enchanting story where a protagonist has to struggle between deciding the correct ethical choice among several options, then you have a reader who starts contemplating these questions. In this sense, Jin Yong is not only a writer, but a teacher as well. For a further elaboration on how Jin Yong can teach us something about everyday life, check out my article on what the Dugu Nine Swords can tell us about specific knowledge.

Eventually, I started wondering: A lot of these classic wuxia authors lived decades ago, far away from the West. How relevant would their works be in the future? Would wuxia grow popular in the West?

As for the first question, I think the works of authors like Jin Yong would always have a certain degree of popularity, just like how J. R. R. Tolkien is with his The Lord of the Rings series. It might not be like late 20th century China where every other person on the street has read one of his novels before and can make numerous references to characters and plots in the books, but I’m sure people would have at least heard of his name and know a few of his books. After all, every year or so there’s a new remake of one of Jin Yong’s novels. Perhaps his works would even appear in Chinese textbooks in the future one day.

As for the second question, my answer will be less straightforward. Wuxia draws heavily from Chinese culture, and many of the characters base their decisions on a code of ethics that will sound foreign to a Western reader. Wuxia also commonly references parts of Chinese history that would be unfamiliar to those without a background in the subject. As a result, there are some obstacles present that might slow down the growth of wuxia in the West.

However, in recent years, Japanese media such as anime and manga have been flourishing, and Korean media such as K-pop and K-dramas have started growing in popularity as well. Chinese novels such as The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin have become bestsellers as well. I am optimistic that more and more people each day will find out what wuxia is, some of whom will start picking up books of the genre as well. Perhaps through reading wuxia, more and more people will start being interested in Chinese history and traditional Chinese thought.

The world of wuxia is a fascinating one. By reading a wuxia novel you are opening yourself to a completely different world from day-to-day life. Why not start reading now, and be amazed by what the genre has to offer?