Beatdown Cudgel was published in 1974 and at only one volume, 262 pgs., it is one of Liu Canyang’s shorter novels, characteristic of his later period work. But it has everything Liu Canyang is known for: brutal violence; focus on the “dark path”, the underworld of society rather than a goody-two-shoes idealistic hero of the “light path”; a seasoned protagonist who is already a martial arts adept, who doesn’t need to find a master or esoteric martial arts manual to get strong and defeat his enemy. He can already defeat his enemy. Yet still with his own moral code he follows. Though elsewhere I have characterized Liu Canyang’s work as “grimdark before grimdark”, that’s not really accurate because morality in his novels is not grey, it’s just not idealistic. There is still a “good” and a “bad” guy, even though the good guy might, by society’s standards, be a “bad” guy. But he’s not a monster nor a completely selfish asshole. More Blondie (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly) and less Caul Shivers (Best Served Cold). Liu Canyang has been placed alongside Yun Zhongyue in the subset of wuxia authors who write more “realistically”.

The protagonist of Beatdown Cudgel is Meng Changqing. His weapon is the Beatdown Staff, a black wooden cudgel, a little over four-feet long, with a dark red sheen to it, and scratch marks on the upper half part of it where sharp weapons seemed to have cut into it over and over over the years. Though I translated it as “beatdown” cudgel, the original Chinese, 煞威棒, refers to a real, historical rod used to beat suspects into submission after they have been arrested.