Quicksand Valley《沉沙谷》is a wuxia novel by Shangguan Ding 上官鼎. Shangguan Ding1 is actually the pen name of three brothers: Liu Zhaoli, Liu Zhaoxuan, and Liu Zhaokai. Liu Zhaoli wrote the romance parts, Liu Zhaokai wrote the fight scenes, and Liu Zhaoxuan wrote everything else, being the principal writer of the three. When Quicksand Valley was published in 1961, Liu Zhaoxuan was only eighteen years old, Liu Zhaokai only sixteen. And this was their fourth novel.
They wrote their first novel in 1960, thinking to try their hand at writing the kind of novel they were so fond of reading. Their first novel was well-received and they were asked to complete a novel that Gu Long had stopped writing, Poisonous Sword, Fragrant Plum Blossom《劍毒梅香》. This was Gu Long’s second novel, but he only wrote four volumes before quitting.2 The story goes that he had asked his publisher for more money and was rebuffed, so he just quit writing it. The novel sat for several months before the Liu brothers (Shangguan Ding) were commissioned to finish it. They wrote volumes five through fifteen and finished the novel. It was a big hit and the brothers wrote seven more novels together between 1960 and 1966 before they all went overseas to study.
Jin Yong once said that Shangguan Ding was his second-favorite wuxia author behind Gu Long.
Liu Zhaoxuan went on to be president of National Tsing Hua University and Soochow University. He was also Premier of the Republic of China from 2008-2009.
Liu Zhaoxuan returned to the jianghu in 2014 and released another wuxia novel, writing alone this time but still under the name Shangguan Ding. He has since continued to write other novels, including political thrillers.
Quicksand Valley is Shangguan Ding’s most lauded novel, and is also the one Liu Zhaoxuan is most proud of, according to a preface to the edition I own. A tale of three sworn brothers and a mystery of what happened to the top martial artists in the jianghu long ago at Quicksand Valley. That incident is the subject of the first chapter translated below. Shangguan Ding’s novels were different in that they were actually written by young men in their teens, which is the same age as most wuxia protagonists, so they were able to give their characters the realistic vigor and temperament of hot-blooded young men. Most wuxia novels were older and already past those formative years; Shangguan Ding was able to tap into that young energy and it shows in the writing.
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