Hong Kong’s “Great Wuxia Era”
by Lin Yao
3
Luo Bin’s founding of Wuxia World was the first magazine specializing in wuxia fiction. It was a weekly and readers could read more words at a time, much more satisfying than what readers got with what was published in newspaper supplements. For a time, Wuxia World was a bestseller, every week publishing over 10,000 copies, and it was available all over Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore.
Luo Bin was a businessman. He took the wuxia fiction that had been published in the other magazines under the “Global” banner: West Point and Blue Book, and reprinted them in Wuxia World. Aside from printing old manuscripts, new manuscripts shifted to this battlefield, simultaneously serialized in the magazine and published as standalone volumes by Global Publishing and Wulin Publishing, each thin volume around 70-80 pages. These are still being sought after by wuxia fans and collectors today.
Besides Wuxia World, on October 5, 1959, Luo Bin also founded Hong Kong Daily News. In addition to publishing Hong Kong news, it mainly focused on horse racing and sports forms.
Ti Feng’s wuxia fiction and horse racing reports were well-written, but he was also a skilled calligrapher. The masthead of Hong Kong Daily News was written in his calligaphy, and he wrote horse racing forms for the paper as well.
Luo Bin had his “business sense”: “Every day I had to publish periodicals and the Hong Kong Daily News; some of them were no cost, like when it came to printing I could use the leftover paper from the newspaper. Hong Kong Daily News was a bit narrower, so there was more leftover paper. Typesetting and printing after all has personnel and machinery, you do what you can. Publishing so much, some would make a lot of money, some not so much, but still it’s something.”
The publication of Wuxia World made Ming Pao’s proprietor, Jin Yong, want to have a go at it himself. Jin Yong, possessing a mind for business, naturally wasn’t going to let Luo Bin have a monopoly. Once Ming Pao had been in operation for over half a year, on Janurary 11, 1960, he started publishing the magazine Wuxia and History. In order to attract readers, Jin Yong wrote another wuxia novel—he gave 1959’s Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain a prequel, The Young Flying Fox, to compete with Wuxia World.
Wuxia and History’s first issue also published an article under the name “Swallow Man” called “Huanzhu Louzhu’s Wuxia Fiction”. Immediately after that, on January 15, 1960 in the column “Gadfly Ramblings” in Zhen Bao, Yi Qi wrote an article “Recommending Wuxia and History—This is Truly a Great Title”, and in the article he praised Swallow Man’s “Huanzhu Louzhu’s Wuxia Fiction”, and said, “In exploring the development of wuxia fiction, it evaluates wuxia fiction at the level of theory…”
Who was Yi Qi? A young Ni Kuang!
Why was there an article about the theory of wuxia fiction in Wuxia and History magazine?
Not long before this, the scholar Hu Shih during a lecture said that “Wuxia fiction is low class”, and the contents of that lecture were published in Hong Kong in December 1959. Jin Yong read this and responded promptly, publishing an editorial in Ming Pao on December 10 called “The most low class is Hu Shih”. And it didn’t end there. In 1962, Ming Pao in a news story mocked Hu Shih as a base person who “resorts to petty tricks”. That same year, Hu Shih passed away. It was a major event, but Ming Pao only included a brief note on the fourth page; Jin Yong never expressed his condolences. From this we can see that Hu Shih’s critical attitude toward wuxia fiction had needled Jin Yong.
After Hu Shih’s speech was published, because of his standing in cultural circles, Taiwan was naturally silent. In Hong Kong, though Ni Kuang wrote an article in opposition, the voice of a no-name youngster like him was very feeble.
Wuxia and History’s publication of an article on the study of wuxia fiction, aside from contending with Wuxia World, can also be regarded as Jn Yong’s protest of the notion that “wuxia fiction is low class”.
Wuxia and History’s initial full title was “Wuxia and History Fiction Magazine”, and it was originally published every ten days, on every 1st, 11th, and 21st of the month. Around 1961, after the 45th issue, it changed to a weekly, published every Friday. The title was fixed as Wuxia and History, and aside from wuxia fiction it also had an equal amount of historical fiction; the cover was the same way; besides wuxia, mostly it was historical figures or cultural relics and historic sites. In the early days the magazine also featured martial arts and fighting techniques, as well as action adventure fiction.
Jin Yong was not part of the earliest editorial department for Wuxia and History; it wasn’t until 1962 when Jin Yong’s name appeared as editor-in-chief on the magazine’s copyright page.
From beginning to end, Wuxia and History was supported by Jin Yong’s wuxia fiction. Before the magazine was founded, Jin Yong had already published The Book and the Sword, Sword Stained with Royal Blood, Legend of the Condor Heroes, Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain, and Return of the Condor Heroes, but the rest of his novels, aside from White Horse Neighs in the West Wind and A Deadly Secret which did not appear in the magazine, the other eight did.
Jin Yong wrote The Young Flying Fox specially for Wuxia and History, running from the first issue to the 74th issue with 9 issues skipped in between, so in actuality it totaled 65 installments from January 11, 1960 to April 6, 1962, two years and three months. During The Young Flying Fox’s run, from issue 37 to 40, Mandarin Duck Blades ran for four issues, from January 11, 1961 to February 21, 1961, one month exactly. Mandarin Duck Blades and The Young Flying Fox were both first published in Wuxia and History.
Besides Jin Yong, among the famous wuxia authors, Wuxia and History carried the works of only Liang Yusheng, Gu Long, Wen Rui’an, and Ni Kuang. Most of the rest cannot be found within the pages of Wuxia and History.
This of course was because of Luo Bin.
Jin Yong had started a new book and there was now another wuxia magazine. Wuxia fans of course were elated, but Luo Bin was indignant. With Jin Yong out on the scene, who could compete with him?
Luo Bin pondered, with Jin Yong on the cutting edge, Hong Kong only had Liang Yusheng who was his match. But Liang Yusheng was a mainstay of left-wing New Evening Post, how would he be willing to help out right-wing “Global”?
To compete for readers, Luo Bin set his sights across the strait.
When Wuxia World began publication in 1959, Taiwan wuxia fiction was already in its golden age. Of the older authors, Lang Honghuan was writing his final novel, Black Rouge; Cheng Tiewu was imitating Huanzhu Louzhu in writing the sword immortal novel Hidden Xia of the Southern Ming. As for the “Four Hegemons” of Taiwan wuxia fiction, Banxia Louzhu’s Blue Lamp, White Nimbus trilogy was approaching its end; Wolong Sheng was writing his third novel, Swallow Startles the Dragon, putting forth his own ideas and exploring his own writing style; Zhuge Qingyun was publishing his sister novels Purple Lightning, Blue Frost and Heaven’s Will Seven Swords Wipes Out the Demons in Independence Evening Post; and Sima Ling was writing the representative work of his early period, Record of a Thousand Variations of Sword Qi.
That year, the son of General Xiao Zhichu who had fought in the Northern Expedition and the Second Sino-Japanese War, Xiao Jingren, entered the Chung Yuan Christian College of Science and Technology, but not liking the department of science and engineering, he chose the pen name Xiao Yi and began writing his debut novel, Iron Goose, Frosty Feathers.
That year, high school student Liu Zhaoxuan was sixteen years old, the fifth son of KMT Air Force general Liu Guoyun. For some extra spending money, he chose the pen name Shangguan Ding and began writing his debut novel, Xia Traces in the Green Wilds.1 At this time no one had any idea that this kid who wrote wuxia fiction when he had nothing else to do would later go on to become the president of National Tsing Hua University and Soochow University, and then Minister of Transportation and Communications, and Premier of the Republic of China.
That year, wuxia fiction prodigy Gu Long was still translating English fiction and had not yet stepped foot into the “martial-arts circle”.
Different from Hong Kong wuxia fiction authors who only wrote part-time, Taiwan wuxia authors, because the pay was so good, mostly wrote full-time. During its most prosperous period, over 400 authors brandished their weapons in the “martial-arts circle”.
The reason there was such a large group of authors was because the barrier to entry for writing wuxia fiction was comparatively low, and the payment was high.
Hong Kong wuxia writers had a relatively strong “nationalist sentiment”. Beyond their other occupations or special writing columns, their wuxia fiction had a clear-cut historical background, even to the point of hoping to convey a kind of historical reflection or political point of view. Yet Taiwan’s political atmosphere was more tense, and due to the influence of the “Downpour Project” (At the end of 1959, the KMT government ordered the enaction of the “Downpour Project” with the principal goal of preventing mainland writers’ works from propagating and circulating, but this also affected many Hong Kong authors, such as Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng’s work, which was also included on the list); wuxia fiction gradually entered an age of “what time period is it?”, and the xia no longer rose up to fight the upheavals of the times, but shifted instead to seizing secret martial arts manuals and looking for hidden treasure. These authors wrote wuxia fiction as their full-time jobs and were not concerned with literary ideals. As Zhuge Qingyun stated, “Though there’s no literary inquisition these days, writing books is still just to ‘make a living’”. Zhuge Qingyun said that around 1960 he was making NT$500 for a wuxia novel, and he had a monthly income of NT$8-900.
A book back then was not the thick book we know today but was a thin volume of about 70-80 pages, totalling 20,000-30,000 characters. One wuxia novel would run a couple dozen volumes. Given Zhuge Qingyun’s writing speed, writing two volumes a month was no big deal.
So what kind of income was NT$500 in Taiwan in those days?
Ye Hongsheng and Lin Baochun in their History of the Development of Taiwan Wuxia Fiction noted, “A typical new writer would write two volumes a month and could make NT$1,000 or more, roughly equivalent to the salary of a midlevel government employee in 1960.”
In light of this, a NT$500 income was only for a “new writer”, so these famous wuxia authors would make even more. Some new writers negotiated with their publisher to increase the pay a bit.
Famed Taiwanese wuxia author Qin Hong, in an interview with Lin Baochun, said, “I spent eight months writing Peerless Sword, a couple 100,000 characters or so, about half of the novel. I took it to a nearby publisher, Damei Publishing, and five days later they sent me a response and agreed to pay me NT$600 a volume (of about 20,000 characters or so). After haggling, that number went up to NT$800, and I accepted.”
In History of the Development of Taiwan Wuxia Fiction it states that Taiwan wuxia author pay was between NT$500 and NT$3,000. So then there must have been a number of well-known authors in the annals of wuxia fiction history who were able to make NT$1,000-2,000.
Xiao Yi in an interview stated, “In the 60s-70s in Taiwan there were five wuxia authors that could be called ‘first-rate’: Wolong Sheng, Sima Ling, Zhuge Qingyun, Gu Long, and me.” Xiao Yi said the criteria for this was pay: “A volume of around 20,000 characters typically paid NT$800, but the highest was NT$2,000 or more, and only us five were able to reach that.”
In addition to the money they made from publishing slim volumes, wuxia authors also made money from periodical publications. Generally speaking, the pay standard was around NT$40/1,000 characters, lower than the NT$50-100 rate for literary writers in Taiwan at the time, but wuxia authors could easily write tens of thousands of characters, and they wrote much quicker, so their income was correspondingly considerable.
If we take an average writing of 2-3,000 characters a day, that’s 60-90,000 characters a month, enough to put out at least two books, and at a rate of NT$800, the lowest income would be NT$1,600. And these authors often submitted a manusscript multiple times, publishing the same piece at the same time in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, which brings the total to over NT$10,000, far exceeding the average government employee’s income. As a matter of fact, this is a conservative estimate; up-and-coming talent Wen Rui’an once said that he wrote 4,000 characters an hour, and Xiao Yi had a record 17 newspaper serials.
With such high payment, high schooler Liu Zhaoxuan could use the money to pay for university, until he stopped writing to go study abroad in the United States2, not to mention the output of famed writers Gu Long, Sima Ling, Wolong Sheng, Zhuge Qingyun, and Xiao Yi.
Luo Bin, far away in Hong Kong, had an unusually acute sense of smell and his eyes firmly fixed on these Taiwan wuxia authors. If Hong Kong didn’t have anyone who could stand shoulder to shoulder with Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng, then he would get Taiwan’s wuxia authors!
But, who should he get to be the “vanguard” for this battle? Luo Bin pondered this and thought of Wolong Sheng and settled on the novel that was enjoying a large enthusiastic readership at the time, Swallow Startles the Dragon.
Swallow Startles the Dragon began serializing August 16, 1958 in Taiwan’s Great China Evening News and ran until July 8, 1961. At this time it was currently in the midst of serialization.
Wolong Sheng naturally had no problem with reprinting his old manuscripts. But Luo Bin thought it out carefully, knowing that since Swallow Startles the Dragon’s content had drifted from Taiwan to Hong Kong, he couldn’t reprint it in Wuxia World in its original form without alterations, so he put forth the idea of revamping the novel. Wolong Sheng didn’t understand, so Luo Bin said the story would not be changed, but the names of the characters would be altered, and the protagonist Yang Menghuan was changed to Ma Junwu, Zhu Ruolan became Bai Yunfei, Shen Xialin became Li Qingluan, Li Yaohong became Su Feifeng, Zhao Xiaodie became Lan Xiaodie, Tao Yu became Cao Xiong, etc… The novel’s title was also changed to Immortal Crane, Divine Needle. This way, at a glance it seemed a completely new work.
Wolong Sheng was a magnanimous person; as long as he was being paid, everything could be negotiated, and so Immortal Crane, Divine Needle began serializing in Wuxia World under a pen name changed to resemble and rhyme with “Jin Yong”—“Jin Tong”. Such a change was like a rainbow after a rainy day, and Immortal Crane, Divine Needle was very popular and with one stroke parried Jin Yong’s offensive.
I read Swallow Startles the Dragon when I was young; later I learned that Wolong Sheng had a famous work called Immortal Crane, Divine Needle, but when I sought it out I was puzzled. It was really like “déjà vu”. Later, when I was writing A Narrative History of Chinese Wuxia Fiction, I was combing through wuxia fiction material and only then solved the conundrum; turns out the author had “pirated” his own “edition”!
Immortal Crane, Divine Needle underwent a metamorphosis to become the darling of Hong Kong wuxia fans, and for a time, the number of readers who adored Ma Junwu, Li Qingluan, and Bai Yunfei were no fewer than those who adored Guo Jing, Huang Rong, and Hong Qigong.
Immortal Crane, Divine Needle’s method of serialization was also peculiar. I don’t know if it was because they lacked confidence in it at the outset, but the novel was at first published in the “novella” format under the title A Group of Heroes Vie for the Secret Treasure Map and was published from issues 35-37, along with illustrations. The story was announced as concluded after the first snatching of the “Return to the Primal Manual”, when the heroes discover they’d been duped. More than a month later, in the 45th issue, it continued. The editor explained it thusly: “We originally planned to publish the complete book in standlone volumes, but later decided to serialize it first, then publish it as a book.” It ran until the 110th issue in 1961 before it was completed, basically catching up to its scheduled run in Taiwan. Henceforth, Wolong Sheng published Sound of the Flute Rocks the Martial World (1962), Fair Hand Incident (1963), and other major works one after another in Wuxia World until 1994’s Lord of the Ages, a collaborative period spanning 34 years. Such a long run can be called the peak of perfection.
In 1961, Luo Bin took advantage of the remodeling of Immortal Crane, Divine Needle to partner with Miao Kangyi to shoot a film in three episodes, and it was a big success. As a result, “Sin Hok Gong Luen” film company produced 40 films in the span of ten years, most of them adapted from novels he pubblished. Luo Bin took it upon himself to oversee all the details: sets, props, hair & makeup, wardrobe design all one after another, with the result that he established a unified, “Sin Hok Gong Luen” style. Therefore, in addition to the publishing industry, Luo Bin cultivated a lot of talent in the film industry, such as directors Chan Lit-Ban, Lo Chi, art designer Tung Pui-sun, and he promoted actors and actresses such as Suet Nay, Kenneth Tsang, Wong Man-Wai, and Law Oi-Seung.
At first, Luo Bin gave Wolong Sheng the pen name Jin Tong in Hong Kong, but it later became a house name under Global’s banner, and many wuxia novels that were not Wolong Sheng’s were published under the name Jin Tong. For example, in 1961 Gu Long’s novel Poisonous Sword, Fragrant Plum Blossom also used the name Jin Tong, and when it was published in Hong Kong the title was changed to Plum Blossom Sword Xia. As long as he got paid, Wolong Sheng didn’t care. The confusion about his novels began with his early works; it’s a real mess.
Wolong Sheng’s crossing the sea could not rival Jin Yong’s brilliance, but it no doubt increased Wuxia World’s popularity and renown and essentially enlisted the vast majority of Hong Kong and Taiwan’s famous wuxia authors.
The group of authors from Taiwan who crossed over were every one of them extraordinary, possessing their own consummate skills, traveling far across the sea to compete with Hong Kong’s authors, with whom they mutually improved, and in the end left behind a resplendent place in the history of Hong Kong wuxia fiction. Following Wolong Sheng’s initial “Riding the Immoral Crane, Carrying Divine Needles”, there was Zhuge Qingyun’s fluttering “Soul-Snatching Banner”, Qin Hong’s soaring “One Fragrant Sword Stroke”, Gao Yong’s deeply sighing “Moving Heaven Record”, Xiao Yi’s “Armed Escort Company”, Sun Yuxin’s “All Great Men are Ruthless”, Dongfang Yu’s “Startling the North Mountain Dragon”, Dongfang Ying’s unafraid “Scorching Sun, Flying Frost”, Dongfang Bai’s plucking “Stringless Zither”, Sima Ziyan’s “Biographies of Xia”… Until 1967, when “prodigy” Gu Long’s success with Wuxia World’s “Legend of Iron and Blood”. Henceforth, the name Chu Liuxiang swayed with willowy motions in the fictional “world of wuxia”.
Without the onrush of a large quantity of Taiwan wuxia writers’ work there could not have been Wuxia World’s glory. Jin Yong certainly yielded to no one the title of “Alliance Head of the Martial World”, but the flourishing of wuxia fiction was the hard work of a great many authors.
The competition between wuxia magazines brought no harm to wuxia authors or readers; authors received payment and were of course happy, and readers had a lot of works to read and were as well delighted.
4
An advertisement in Wuxia World once said, “Many Famous Authors, Manuscripts in Droves”. Some say that Wuxia World enlisted all of the major wuxia authors from Hong Kong and Taiwan, but that’s an exaggeration. At least two of the “New School” wuxia authors—Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng—were not among their ranks. Lacking these two masters must have been a regret for Luo Bin, though he never said so.
After Jin Yong founded Ming Pao in 1959, he never submitted manuscripts to other publications; for the rest of his life, he only wrote for Ming Pao.3
As for Liang Yusheng, subordinate to the left wing Ta Kung Pao camp, as a hired writer, he could not easily submit to other publications either; even though his colleague Jin Yong sought his help, he had to refuse.
When Jin Yong was preparing to establish Ming Pao, he invited Liang Yusheng, hoping for the both of them to put their swords together to conquer the world; they would surely be a success. Unexpectedly, after considerable thought, Liang Yusheng politely declined Jin Yong’s offer.
Afterward, Liang Yusheng told a friend: “It’s not that I didn’t want to help Old Cha out, it’s just that my family had many mouths to feed; if something were to go wrong, I’d be in a tight spot. A good horse will not turn around and graze the same patch of grass again.” From this we can see that Liang Yusheng was worried about putting his family in trouble.
In his later years, Liang Yusheng was quite regretful, not because he envied Jin Yong’s accomplishments or abundant wealth, but because he had looked forward to having the freedom and time to write like Jin Yong did. In fact, Liang Yusheng had a good sense of humor and liked to crack jokes, much more playful than the reticent Jin Yong. Today not a few wuxia fiction critics deride Liang Yusheng as inferior to Jin Yong, but they don’t know the true picture.
Liang Yusheng was good friends with Jin Yong, but seldom had relations with Ni Kuang. Ni Kuang once publicly criticized him, saying, “Liang Yusheng’s novels are not that good, I can’t even finish them.”
Straightforward Ni Kuang held nothing back in criticizing Liang Yusheng’s work, and his fame was substantial, so that he certainly influenced not a few readers in reading Liang Yusheng’s novels.
Are Liang Yusheng’s novels really as bad as Ni Kuang said?
Seven Swords Descend Tianshan, Sea of Clouds, Jade Bow, and Tale of the Wandering Xia are powerful and resonating, not inferior to Jin Yong. It’s just that Liang Yusheng worked at a left wing newspaper and was in a bind, unable to spread his wings, and he had to make a living, so writing thirty books in short order was sure to cause some unevenness in quality. Liang Yusheng also didn’t have Jin Yong’s lofty aspirations in revising his entire body of work, which influeced his novels’ quality.
Luo Bin didn’t like Jin Yong for two reasons. First of all, they were trade rivals, Wuxia and History and Wuxia World competing with each other. Second, Jin Yong stole away Luo Bin’s trusted general, Ni Kuang.
After Ni Kuang first came to Hong Kong in 1957 and published his debut work in The Kung Sheung Daily News and received his payment, he saw an article in Zhen Bao that was serialized for three days that discussed Hong Kong’s international status. Zhen Bao was located at building 2, no.30, Hollywood Road and was a fairly well-selling right wing newspaper, and along with The Hung Look Daily News and Chiu Yin Daily News, still went by the “Republic of China” calendar.
Ni Kuang felt the author’s viewpoint was worth discussing, so he set to writing a long response refuting the author, saying he didn’t understand the mainland, and he submitted his retort to the Zhen Bao editorial department. To his surprise, the paper published the entire editorial and indicated it had been submitted by a reader and did not express the newspaper’s opinion, etc. For the next two months Ni Kuang wrote over twenty rounds of attacks on topics from China’s modern history to various problems facing Chinese society, until essayist Lu Hai’an arranged a meeting with him.
Lu Hai’an was an editor for Zhen Bao. They talked for an afternoon and got on well. Lu Hai’an issued Ni Kuang a payment of HK$90, which was no small amount for Ni Kuang at the time. Lu Hai’an knew he didn’t have a job yet, so he invited him to come work for Zhen Bao.
Zhen Bao wsa a small newspaper; when Ni Kuang joined his title was “office assistant to the assistant proofreader”, but actually he did all kinds of odds and ends, proofreading, and writing articles all at once. At the time, Ni Kuang never imagined that later he would be a professional fiction writer; he just wrote for a column called “Gadly Ramblings” under the pen name “Yi Qi”.
One day Taiwan wuxia author Sima Ling happened to not turn in his scheduled manuscript. Lu Hai’an urgently asked the people in the office who could fill in for him? Sima Ling was at the height of his poularity in Taiwan then, and no one dared to respond, all except Ni Kuang, who said, “I can!” Ni Kuang had only written a few small articles, so no one thought anything of him.
Lu Hai’an looked at Ni Kuang and was speechless for a moment. Then finally he said, “Wuxia fiction? You can do that?”
Lu Hai’an naturally didn’t believe Ni Kuang could write wuxia fiction because Ni Kuang had never written it before.
Ni Kuang, however, was brimming with confidence: “I’ve read wuxia novels since I was little. If you’ve read a lot you can write it, no problem at all.”
Lu Hai’an was desperate, so he had to give it a shot. The next day, Ni Kuang sent up the manuscript. Lu Hai’an read it and was amazed. There were no flaws, so he accepted it right away.
Subsequently, Sima Ling’s manuscripts continued coming. Lu Hai’an valued talent, so he asked Ni Kuang if he could write a novel. Ni Kuang just wanted to make money so he agreed at once. Ni Kuang’s writing was smooth and easy, his plots intricate, and they quickly drew readers’ attention.
In Ni Kuang’s autobiographical essay “Bare to the Waist” and his book “Ha Ha Ha Ha”, he mentioned this matter, but he never specified which book it was he ghostwrote on. But this was quite possibly his earliest wuxia writing. Looking into the first wuxia novel Sima Ling serialized in Zhen Bao, it was his early representative work Record of a Thousand Variations of Sword Qi which began June 1, 1959. And Ni Kuang’s own first wuxia novel was Black Amber Red Seal, published October 24, 1959. Therefore, the novel Ni Kuang ghostwrote for must have been Record of a Thousand Variations of Sword Qi, but as for which part he wrote, many researchers have put forth guesses, but without any definite conclusion. It really is “without flaw”. Ni Kuang’s earliest wuxia trilogy then is Black Amber Red Seal,, Legend of the Seven Jeweled Twin Heroes, and Killing Blow Divine Sword;4 the characters and stories of the three novels are connected, and all were published in Zhen Bao.
Ni Kuang won readers’ attention, and at the same time drew Luo Bin’s eye. Luo Bin firmly believed that Ni Kuang possessed a lot of latent potential, so he offered a hefty payment to pull Ni Kuang over to write books for him.
Ni Kuang wrote for a living, recognized money before people, and thus complied accordingly. in 1961, after Ni Kuang’s Marvelous Cold Sword Xia was published in Wuxia World, his other early important works, such as One Sword Stroke, Deep Feeling, Xia Blood, Red Plume, Six-Fingered Zither Demon, Supernatural Arrow, Divine Weiqi, Jade Maiden, Heroic Spirit, Tiger Soul, Ice Spirit, Ancient Sword, Damaged Scabbard, and Twelve Soulchaser Commands were published one after another in Wuxia World. During this period there was also his long work Myriad Miles of Strong Wind and 40-50 stories of varying length published, such as Murderous Aura, Severe Frost, Reflected Light Cliff, Chivalry and Face Powder, etc. Until 1977, when Bloody Thunder, Flying Pearl finished publication and he esentially left Wuxia World’s stage. His work shared a close to twenty-year tie with Wuxia World.
To support Ni Kuang, Wuxia World tried a new promotion. In 1962 for the 159th issue, they ran an announcement seeking a title for Ni Kuang’s new novel: “This publication will soon publish Mr. Ni Kuang’s new masterpiece following his Xia Blood, Red Plume, and because its composition is new and unprecedented, we are specially holding a public contest seeking a title for the novel; we hope readers will enthusiastically participate.” Following this was a description of the novel’s contents: “A client is willing to pay four priceless jewels for a box containing some mysterious item and hires an armed escort agency to deliver it to the home of a great xia, but no one is allowed to open the box to see what’s inside. This mysterious opening leads to a chain of miraculous, unpredictable and ever-changing happenings; this odd, varied plot casts off the normal popular novel conventions and marches forward into the unprecedented. The structure and atyle are both refreshing to readers. A wuxia novel with a genuine detective story structure starts here.”
Instructions: “1) The title can be no longer than seven characters. 2) First place will be awarded HK$200 cash, second place will receive HK$100, and third place will receive HK$50, and the ten selected entries will each receive a HK$20 coupon that can be used on any Global Publishing book or periodical. 3) The contest ends August 10 of this year and the winner will be announced in the 162nd issue of this publication. 4) Send you entry to: Hong Kong New Street No.7-9, Wuxia World Publishing Editorial Department.”
In issue 162, the contest concluded and the winner was announced: “After deliberation by Ni Kuang and the editorial department staff, the winners are as follows—1st Six-Fingered Zither Demon; 2nd Sea of Blood Feud; 3rd Hot Blood, Cold Waves”. Ni Kuang’s novel Six-Fingered Zither Demon began publishing in that issue.
This was the first time then or during the next sixty years at Wuxia World that an award was given for the selection of a title for a wuxia novel.
Ni Kuang repaid Luo Bin with high quality work; he used the pen name “Wei Li” to write a series called The Dark Heroine Mu Lanhua which caused a sensation in the fiction world, everyone vying to read it. During the ten year period from 1965 to 1974, sixty novels of the The Dark Heroine Mu Lanhua series was serialized in Wuxia World.
Even so, in his later years Ni Kuang said that he never formally sent manuscripts to Wuxia World, yet they kept on pubishing Ni Kuang’s fiction, so what happened?
Luo Bin was a typical businessman. In order to save money, he first published an author’s work in Hong Kong Daily News, then republished it in the various periodicals under his banner before finally publishing them as standalone books. One manuscript was used three times with only a one-time payment! At the time, every issue of Wuxia World sold up to 20,000 copies, a humble place under the “Global” banner! Luo Bin thought little of it from the start.
From the first book of Ni Kuang’s The Dark Heroine Mu Lanhua series, The Death Ray Watch, he made HK$10/1,000 characters, which went up to HK$100/1,000 characters as the series went on, but he was still not satisfied and asked for more. This was more than Luo Bin could take and tried to negotiate it, but the talks came to nothing and so the two parted ways.
At the same time Ni Kuang was writing for “Global”, he was also writing for Jin Yong’s Ming Pao.
It’s unknown when exactly Ni Kuang and Jin Yong first met, not even the people involved could say for sure. Ni Kuang once said that Ming Pao solicited a manuscript from him at the end of 1959. January 28, 1960, the first day of the lunar year. Or maybe he meant the last day of the lunar calendar, it’s uncertain. Earlier in this article I stated that on January 15, 1960, Ni Kuang started writing at Zhen Bao for Wuxia and History. It’s hard to verify whether Ni Kuang received the solicitation letter before or after that publication. The first Ni Kuang wuxia novel that Ming Pao serialized was Legend of the Hidden Dragon at Luofu (it was called Legend of the Southern Ming Hidden Dragon when it was published in book form), on April 1, 1960. Once he received the letter, Ni Kuang probably spent some time working out the plot because after all since it was for Ming Pao, Ni Kuang might have been extremely diligent. In 1966, Ni Kuang took over the duties of editor-in-chief of Wuxia and History from Jin Yong.
Around 1977 when he left Wuxia World, Ni Kuang became closer and closer to Ming Pao. When it came to remuneration, Jin Yong didn’t pay Ni Kuang as much as Luo Bin had done. Several times Ni Kuang asked Jin Yong for a raise but was turned down, an anecdote that has been recorded in many books. Still, even though they couldn’t agree on pay, the fact that Ni Kuang threw in with Jin Yong, who paid him less, naturally made Luo Bin greatly unhappy.
Why had Ni Kuang, who all along had written for money, changed his tune? When asked this, Ni Kuang stated that it was because he admired Jin Yong’s literary talent! He said, “Before I had read Mr. Cha’s novels, I didn’t think his ‘wuxia novels’ would be better written than my own! Once I read him I was shocked, what else in the world was written better than this? Incredible!”
In the beginning, Ni Kuang used the pen name “Yue Chuan” at Ming Pao to write wuxia. Wuxia and History also published Song of the Long Sword and Record of the Broken Sword at Sky’s End attributed to “Jin Yong and Yue Chuan”. Ni Kuang later changed his name to “Wesley” and gave up wuxia for science fiction, writing the “Wesley” series of novels and became famous overnight. Author Zhou Xian once said, “Mr. Ni’s science fiction novels mostly lack scientific accuracy, but they are good reads; Taiwan’s Chang Hsi-kuo’s are every word thoroughly researched, but they aren’t good reads.”
It seems like a joke, but it was spoken from the bottom of his heart. Most important for genre fiction is that it is a good read; if you use a “literary fiction” mentality to write genre fiction you will surely fail.
Ni Kuang is one of the few living witnesses to the “Great Wuxia Era”. In 2020, Ni Kuang, 85 years old, lived in Hong Kong’s Tanner Hill in North Point with his wife. Husband and wife are both constantly ailing, mostly confined to their home. In 2017, in search of traces of Hong Kong’s former “wuxia literary circle”, I paid a visit to Ni Kuang. The distinguished, carefree “Hong Kong Genius” was actually like a Buddha in appearance, talking and laughing without restraint. I asked about the collaborative work between “Jin Yong” and “Yue Chuan”. Ni Kuang laughed and said that actually they were completely written by him and just used Jin Yong’s name to help them sell better.
Ni Kuang turned coat and took refuge with Luo Bin’s adversary, Jin Yong, making Luo Bin even more resentful, to the point that he ordered the authors and illustrators under his banner not to have any relations with Jin Yong. Wuxia World illustrator Tung Pui-sun recalls that he once wanted to do some illustrations for Jin Yong’s novels, but Luo Bin wouldn’t agree to it. Only when Luo Bin retired was he able to realize his dream, and he specially published two books of Jin Yong novel illustrations.
…to be continued in Part 3. Read the original Chinese article here.
Notes
- Translator’s note: He actually began writing along with two of his brothers. The three of them wrote together under the name Shangguan Ding.
- Translator’s note: Actually, he went to Canada and studied at the University of Sherbrooke for his Masters, and then the University of Toronto for his Ph.D.
- Translator’s note: Author Lin Yao must have meant in Hong Kong, because of course Jin Yong did publish his other novels with papers in Southeast Asia as well.
- Translator’s note: Keep in mind with this essay that I am translating most of these titles more or less literally, not having read most of them and thus being ignorant of their stories. So take these titles as tentative and by no means official.