Books - The Smiling, Proud Wanderer

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	Books - The Smiling, Proud Wanderer

The Smiling, Proud Wander (T:S: 笑傲江湖) is a 1967 Chinese language novel written by Jinyong.

The term "笑傲江湖" means to live a carefree life in a mundane world of strife. An alternative English name is State of Divinity, although the book is known by both translations in English.

Background

The story is about friendship and love, deception and betrayal, ambition and lust for power. And in the middle of it all is the hero, Linghu Chong, an orphan under the care of Yue Buqun, leader of Huashan Sect. Although he didn't have much desire to fight and get involved, he was forced again and again in order to help his friends...

Legend has it that there is a martial arts manuscript Bixie Jianfa in the House of Lin, which when learned will give the person god-like speed and power. Many people lusted after this manuscript, among them Zuo Lengchan the leader of Song Mountain sect and allied leader of the 5 Mountains Alliance, Yue Buqun, Yu Canghai, leader of Qingcheng Sect, who sports the somewhat nonstandard Szechuan dialect.

Unlike his other novel in which the real timeline of the story is blatant, i.e. The Legend of the Condor Heroes and The Return of the Condor Heroes took place in the Southern Song during Jurchen and Mongol encroachment, and The Deer and the Cauldron obviously took place during the Kangxi era of the Qing Dynasty. The real time period in which The Smiling, Proud Wanderer took place is enigmatic. Given the fact that Zhang Sanfeng and Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang were mentioned in this novel, and Linghu Chong was mentioned in the Deer and the Cauldron, it is most likely set during the Ming Dynasty. In the movie Swordsman and Swordsman II starring Jet Li, it was mentioned that it took place during the reign of the Wanli Emperor.

The Smiling, Proud Wanderer was intentionally written as character study of politicians. In 1980, Jin Yong commented that he did not include any historical setting in this novel to show that these colorful people appear in every era. Furthermore, he pictured the characters (Yue Buqun, Old Man Mo, Zuo Lengchan, Ren Woxing, Dongfang Bubai, Chongxu, and etc.) as politicians rather than the leaders of the martial art sects.

Characters

The Five Mountains Alliance (五岳剑派/五岳联盟)

The Five Mountains Alliance, so called because all of its members have names ending with "shan" (mountain), is a loose alliance of self-proclaimed "righteous" sects, with Songshan Sect as its leader. The Alliance is not without friction between its members, as Songshan's Zuo Lengchan plots to unite the 5 sects under his leadership.

Huashan Sect (華山派)

Huashan Sect originally was the most powerful of the 5 Sects. Unfortunately, it became divided into two factions: the Qi faction, which emphasized the cultivation of internal energy before learning sword techniques and the Sword faction, which focused on acquiring sword techniques and mastering its use and making internal energy cultivation a secondary emphasis. Each argued that the other side had turn away from orthodoxy by forgetting the teachings of the past Huashan masters. Disagreements between the sides eventually grew to the point that an all-out war between the two factions took place, taking the lives of many masters and students. While the Sword faction was in the majority, the Qi faction managed to win control of Huashan mountain and the sect, forcing the other faction to leave the sect into exile. Because of the feud, the sect's strength was severely weakened and consequently, the Songshan sect won control of the leadership of the five sects. In general, the Sword faction possessed more innovative and creative sword techniques, while the Qi faction relied on having strong internal energy, but were less creative and skillful with the sword.

Linghu Chong (令狐冲): The hero of the novel. He is the senior disciple of Huashan, and is a carefree happy-go-lucky fellow whose main loves in life are swordplay, drinking, and (beginning in the middle of the series) music. A chance meeting with a reclusive, formerly renowned Huashan grandmaster, Feng Qingyang, opens his horizons of swordsmanship and the martial world. Due to several incidents, he spends much of the novel forced to fight without the use of internal energy and only using sword techniques taught to him by the grandmaster. Using the'9 Swords Of Dugu' skill taught by Feng Qingyang, Linghu Chong defeats his enemies with total ease just by merely locating the weak areas of the particular skill he is fighting against and attacking it from there. Even the Bixie JianFa (Evil Exterminating Sword Style) was no match to him in the end.
Yue Buqun (岳不群): The leader of Huashan sect and of its Qi faction, he had the nickname, The Gentlemanly Sword (君子劍), but was actually a small-minded, selfish, and power hungry hypocrite. Extremely dogmatic about sword techniques and orthodoxy, he lacked creativity and taught his students strictly and rigidly. Pretending to help the Lin family out of benevolence, he secretly desired the Lin's secret manuscript, Bixie Jianfa (Evil-Resisting Sword Style). Towards the end, he castrated himself in order to learn Bixie Jianfa, and was eventually killed by Yi Lin. Viewed with contempt by Feng Qingyang and Ren Woxing, who recognize his hypocrisy. Before learning the Bixie JianFa, he is already an extremely powerful martial arts exponent by using the famous internal energy skill ZiXia Shengong(Violet Mist Divine Skill) which was to be passed only to the leaders of Huashan Sect. With it, he can destroy swords with total ease by just tapping them.
Ning Zhongze (寧中則): The wife and martial sister (apprentices of same master) of Yue Buqun, she always had faith in Linghu Chong, and thought of him as a son. She was one of the only two Huashan people that Ren Woxing respected, the other being Feng Qingyang.
Yue LingShan (岳靈姍): The daughter of Yue Buqun, she was Linghu Chong's first love but she thought of him only as a big brother. She prefers people who are serious like her father, so she eventually became Lin Pingzhi's wife.
Lin Pingzhi (林平之): The sole survivor and the young master of Lin family. Everyone in his household were killed in the conflict for the Lin family's Bixie Jianfa (辟邪劍法) manuscript in the beginning of the story. Huashan sect came to his rescue and he became Yue Buqun's disciple.
Lao DeNuo (勞德諾)He is the second disciple of Huashan after Linghu Chong. Already an expert martial artist before he joined Huashan. He was actually sent by Songshan to steal the ZiXia Shengong of Huashan. He was the one who murdered Liu Hou'r in order to eliminate witnesses.
Liu Hou'r (六猴儿): His real name is Lu DaYou. One of Linghu Chong's younger martial brothers, and his best friend.
Feng BuPing(封不平): The leader of Huashan's Sword faction. He is brought back from exile by the Songshan Sect in an effort to challenge Yue BuQun for the leadership of the sect and bring further instability to Huashan. Ambitious and desiring to gain leadership of the 5 sects once he had claimed leadership of Huashan, he is forced to return to exile after being defeated by Linghu Chong's 9 Swords of Dugu style.
Feng QingYang (風清揚): Yue Buqun's martial great-uncle, he is a recluse that lives in the back part of Huashan. After observing Ling Hu Chong's spirited fights with Tian Bo Guang at Repentance Cliff and finding Linghu Chong to be a kindred spirit, he decided to teach Linghu Chong his sword technique, the 9 Sword Techniques of Dugu (獨孤九劍), which corresponds to the 9 different types of weapons a swordsman must face. He teaches him that the essence of superior swordsmanship is having no set technique, a principle shared by real-life martial artist, Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do. This is in contrast to the rigid, dogmatic approach taken by Ling Hu's master. Views Yue Buqun with contempt. He is one of the only 2 Huashan people that Ren Woxing respected.

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