cnovels | Wuxia and xianxia: Some essays in Strange Horizons magazine

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I was recently reminded of the wuxia and xianxia edition in Strange Horizons (an online speculative fiction magazine).

Link: http://strangehorizons.com/issue/29-may-2023/

In particular, I found this essay about Dongfang Bubai to be an interesting read (mostly because my favourite characters in The Smiling Proud Wanderer is decidedly all the side characters including DFBB who only appeared briefly) and relevant to this community (because it's about a novel). This essay talks about the story from the perspective of DFBB.

I thought maybe others might be interested too, so sharing it here!

Note: My knowledge of this novel is all through TV adaptations. I particularly imprinted on the 1996 TVB adaptation State of Divinity. Maybe I'll just make this my first actual Jin Yong book to read...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

snowynight

Thanks for the link!

It's interesting. I don't think Dongfang Bubai really leaves the jianghu. He's still the figurehead of the Sect of the Sun and Moon. Yang does bad things because he needs to hold onto power to protect them.

People who want to leave the jianghu or distant themselves from the power fare badly in the book. The book begins with a tragedy of someone wanting to leave the jianghu. Early in the book, a group of sympathetic minor characters distant themselves from the jianghu and end up enslaved.

Dongfang Bubai is the biggest example that this will inevitably fail. Because despite your intention, if you don't hold power, others will impose their power on you. If you hold power, you will inevitably get corrupted.

From:

geraineon

😭 the two old men who just wanted to make music together!! Truly hard to leave (the only way out is death). The problem is also that people talk, gossip, and keeps seeing and interpreting people in bad faith if they are not part of the "good" sects... (So damned if you do, damned if you don't, a tragedy).

From:

snowynight

The two sad old man's endings are heartbreaking!

Even the protagonist Linghu Chong can't really leave entirety. He knows that he's beholden to Ren Yingying, whose position will always connect them to the Sect. Death is the only say out in the novel

From:

geraineon

Maybe in their next life, they can all be free of jianghu chains...

From:

douqi

Oh god that was also my defining Smiling Proud Wanderer adaptation.

I keep thinking Xiao Zhan would be a great Linghu Chong. Basically he just has to reprise his CQL!WWX performance, given how much of a Linghu Chong expy CQL!WWX is. Sadly, absolutely no casting directors have asked me for my opinion.

Yes, read the book! It's my favourite Jin Yong, it's great.

From:

geraineon

Omg!! Yes! Even when I was reading MDZS, I was already thinking WWX reminded me of Linghu Chong! I didn't finish CQL but given what I've read and heard about it, he's probably Even more Linghu Chong there (this is the reason I really bounced off WWX as a character because my dislike for Linghu Chong affected how I saw WWX 😆... Idk why somehow I end up not really liking Jin Yong main characters in general).

XZ just has to act himself/WWX and that's Linghu Chong already, you're right. Maybe someday when they readapt it. It's about time anyway.

I will. I love that story (despite my feelings about the main character). My other fav is Sword Stained in Royal Blood mostly because of Crimson Sabre

From:

douqi

Haha, and I really liked WWX because he reminded me of Linghu Chong!

I also have a fondness for Sword Stained in Royal Blood, predictably because of the Wen Qingqing/He Tieshou ship.

From:

geraineon

Haha, same same but different then!

Wen Qingqing/He Tianshou yes!!

(I am trash, I like the awful dogblood relationship of the past too, Xia Xueyi and He Hongyao)

From:

douqi

I also love Xia Xueyi (bar side-eyeing him selling the Wen daughters-in-law to a brothel, which I'm not sure they would necessarily keep in the TV adaptations). Such a compelling character. I don't think Jin Yong ever writes that type of bishonen-style anti-hero again, does he?

As usual, Yuan Chengzhi is the most forgettable character in what is nominally his novel, haha.

From:

geraineon

I don't remember him selling wen daughter-in-laws to the brothel so maybe that part was left out of the drama. And hm, I don't think so yeah.

... I would rather have Xia Xueyi as the main character, if it has to be a guy (there hasn't been a woman main character in Jin Yong's novels, has it?)