Got two new books today, wuxia of course. But this time they are young adult books:《江湖，還有人馬？》(Jianghu, Is Anyone There?) and《一箭之遙》(An Arrow’s Flight), both by Taiwan author 張友漁 Chang Yeou-yu. They are books 1 and 2 in her Who’s in the Jianghu series.
Recently I’ve been kinda burnt out on wuxia and have given it a rest and gone back to my first love: westerns.
Ever since I was a little kid with my cap gun revolvers watching Rustlers’ Rhapsody I have been into westerns; I take after my dad that way. Like most people, I know westerns for the most part from film and TV, but I have been exploring more of the literary side of westerns, which like wuxia, is where the genre started.
The parallels between the two genres do not end there. A long time ago I noticed the similarities between the two genres—I suspect that it was these similarities that unconsciously drew me to wuxia in the first place—and for years now I have wanted to write about them in detail. I have begun working on such a book. I think this wil be my formal introduction of wuxia to the Western public. Everyone knows about westerns, so comparing the similaritites and differences between it and wuxia ought to be a good way to illustrate wuxia as a genre.
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Today Er Gen began his new xianxia novel called Outside of Time《光阴之外》. You could also translate it as Beyond Time. The description of the novel, such as it is, is this:
Heaven and Earth is the guesthouse for all living things. Time is the sojourner of since time immemorial.
The difference between life and death is like the difference between waking and dreaming, diverse and confused and changing.
So then transcending life and death, transcending heaven and earth, what awaits us beyond time?
I also took the liberty to translate the first chapter, just so people can get an idea what it’s like. I don’t plan to translate any more of this novel, but who knows when (if?) anyone will translate it, so I thought I’d translate the first chapter anyway as a short teaser. Pretty interesting so far, actually.
Anyway, here it is:
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It’s easy to forget that the Jin Yong novels we know nowadays are actually revised versions. From 1970 to 1980, Jin Yong revised his entire oeuvre. In 1999 he underwent another round of revisions, though the changes made here were relatively minor. The first round of revisions were major overhauls, some sections being completely rewritten.
The opening of Legend of the Condor Heroes is a good example of this. So I thought it would be interesting to compare the opening of the current edition with that of the original edition serialized in the Hong Kong Commercial Daily.
We start then, with the current edition, as translated by Anna Holmwood in the official English translation of Legend of the Condor Heroes, volume 1: A Hero Born.
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Gu Long began his writing career writing literary fiction, but he didn’t get anywhere with it. At the time he knew Feng Nuoni 馮娜妮, who was his classmate in middle school. In 1958 she married manhua artist and author Li Feimeng 李費蒙, and by hanging out with this couple, Gu Long was introduced to the literary circles of Taipei. There he met Zhuge Qingyun 諸葛青雲, one of the top wuxia authors of at the time. Wolong Sheng 臥龍生, Sima Ling 司馬翎, and Zhuge Qingyun were friends, and they all hung out together.
Zhuge Qingyun, Wolong Sheng, and Sima Ling were busy writing multiple novels at the same time and spending a lot of time hanging out and drinking and clubbing and playing mahjong, so there was limited time for writing! Gu Long would occasionally write some installments here and there for them when they were under pressure to meet deadlines (or too drunk to write).1
In 1960, Gu Long published his first novel,《蒼穹神劍》Divine Sword of the Cerulean Vault, though he dropped it before it was finished. He released seven novels in 1960 alone;2 some he ended up finishing, some he abandoned.3 Read more
Recently I did some research into the serialization of Wolong Sheng’s 臥龍生 wuxia novels in Singapore newspapers. Fortunately, Singapore’s newspapers are archived online, so anyone can go and look at any issue. So I looked up all the Wolong Sheng novels I could find in that archive, and below is what I found.
The most important discovery is that the novel Red Snow, Black Frost《絳雪玄霜》was actually published from Feb. 20, 1961 to Nov. 21, 1963 in Singapore’s Sin Chew Daily《星洲日報》. Bibliographies of Wolong Sheng’s works have always placed the date of publication at 1963, but there’s never been any details given about what month or where it was published. Turns out, the novel was a Singapore exclusive at the time. That’s probably why the earliest publication date up till now has presumably been when it was first published in Taiwan in book form (presumably 1963). But it’s actually an earlier novel than that.
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In the 1978 Shaw Bros. film, The Avenging Eagle, Ti Lung’s character, Qi Mingxing, uses a three-sectioned staff. In two key scenes in the film, he uses it to stab people. As in thrusting the end of a section of the staff into someone’s body. That’s pretty weird, especially since the ends of the staff aren’t sharp or pointed.
Perhaps it’s because in the novel it was adapted from,《冷血十三鷹》Thirteen Cold-Blooded Eagles, by Taiwan wuxia author Qin Hong 秦紅, Qi Mingxing uses a sword. Much better for stabbing. The screenplay for the film version was written by Hong Kong wuxia and science fiction author Ni Kuang 倪匡. Presumably it was he who changed the weapon for the film, as well as changing Vagrant’s weapon from judge’s brushes to sleeve knives. Ni Kuang also happened to write the adaptation of another of Qin Hong’s novels,《怪客與怪鏢》The Stranger and the Strange Cargo, which became the film Rendezvous with Death (In Chinese called 請帖, The Invitation). There the protagonist’s weapon was changed from a sword to an umbrella.
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From October 22, 1981 to May 21, 1982, Gu Long published what would be his final novel, The Sound of a Sabre Among the Windchimes《風鈴中的刀聲》in the United Daily News in Taiwan. But the last two chapters of the novel were ghostwritten by Yu Donglou 于東樓. It was not very much, only around 7,500 characters, so it’s curious he didn’t finish it himself. In a 2015 interview with Ding Qing 丁情, one of Gu Long’s “disciples”, Ding Qing said that at the time Gu Long was busy, so Ding Qing wrote a bit in his place, but then he got busy, and so Yu Donglou came in to finish the novel so that publication wouldn’t be interrupted.1 In that interview, Ding Qing also indicated that Gu Long dictated Windchimes while he copied down the dictation.
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When it comes to wuxia authors, there are two names that are often bandied about: Jin Yong and Gu Long. And with good reason, because it is these two authors who have received the most critical acclaim and the best reader response. Nowadays, wuxia is more or less a dead genre. There are still wuxia novels being published, but they are few and far beween. In the West, of course, it’s even worse. In the rare event you do find an article about wuxia in English, nine times out ten (and that’s a conservative estimate) it’s going to be about Jin Yong. Gu Long might get a namedrop. One article I saw not too long ago on the “history and politics” of wuxia didn’t even mention the Republican period or wuxia in Taiwan at all!1
But Gu Long had quite an influence and impact on the development of wuxia fiction as a genre. More than anyone else, Gu Long strove for change, for “breakthroughs” as he called them, trying to come up with a new way to write an old genre. Sometimes he was successful, sometimes not, but he kept trying to the end. He began writing his own wuxia novels in 1960 with Divine Sky Sword, at first imitating the major writers of his day, such as Jin Yong, Wolong Sheng, Sima Ling, and Zhuge Qingyun.
Gradually his style changed. With Cleansing Flowers, Refining the Sword in 1964, Gu Long was already experimenting with his fight scenes, moving away from the detailed descriptions of moves with flowery names that was (and remained) common in wuxia. By the 1970s, he had already found his own voice. At the same time, more and more of his novels were being adapted to film and TV, bringing him more readers. viewers, and notoriety. The rise of film and TV in Taiwan also led to more and more wuxia authors switching to screenwriting, which Gu Long dabbled in as well. And so wuxia as a genre of literature began to decline.
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Well, it took a while, but I finally finished it: Heartbroken Arrow《傷情箭》by Taiwan wuxia author Liu Canyang 柳殘陽. It was first serialized in The China Times from January 10 – March 17, 1971. A short novel, only seven chapters, yet its somber tone and lively writing make it a quick, satisfying read. It also has all the main characteristics of Liu Canyang’s unique “iron and blood” writing style: Lots of dialogue with characters trading barbs, a focus on the seamy side of the jianghu, gangs rather than lofty martial arts sects (you will rarely see Wudang or Shaolin in a Liu Canyang novel), graphic violence, and a hard-edged protagonist who never yields. Heartbroken Arrow is a good introduction to Liu Canyang’s work, and is his first work to be translated into English.
I started this translation September 21, 2012 on my old, short-lived wuxia forum, Among Rivers and Lakes. Back then I translated the first chapter and a half and then stopped, for whatever reason. There is sat for about eight years. Then in August 2020 I thought to finish it. I got about a chapter and a half from the end before losing steam and setting it aside, planning to come back to it after a break. Then I forgot about it until now. It’s not very long, maybe around 35k words or so. Good-sized novella length. Really shouldn’t have taken me this long. But so it goes.
In the reprint copy I have there are fifty illustrations. I have included them in my translation, inserting them at the same place they occur in my print copy. Four of them are in color.
So yeah, here’s a new wuxia novel for everyone to read! I really like Liu Canyang’s novels. He’s probably my second favorite, behind Yun Zhongyue. I like his more down-to-earth, “blue collar” style. The jianghu feels like it ought to, rough and tough and gritty. What really struck me translating Heartbroken Arrow was how creative his figurative language is. It’s not just stock phrases used over and over, Liu Canyang describes things in new, interesting ways. His fight scenes I found difficult to translate because the moves are detailed and not all that simple at times. Hopefully my clumsy renditions come through okay. Also the protagonist’s weapon, a gold arrow with a black cord, is one of the coolest weapons I’ve encountered in a some time.
Anyway, here it is! It’s a quick read, so give it a shot: HEARTBROKEN ARROW
