!
! This chapter will discuss different aspects of Gu Long’s life and career. I will end with a synopsis of Legendary Siblings and my own assessment on the translation of this genre and why Gu Long’s works would be a better choice for translation.!
!
His Life!
! Gu Long was born in Hong Kong, where his parents—originally from Jiangxi (江 西)—had moved due to the unfavorable political climate during the Chinese Civil War.
There is some dispute over the year of his birth, with statements ranging from 1936 to 1941, though it appears most scholars agree on 1937 as statements from friends after his death state that Gu Long lived forty-eight years. (翁文信 31). In 1950, his parents moved to Taiwan following the Kuomintang government after the Chinese Civil War. !
! His family life fell apart shortly after arriving in Taiwan. His parents often fought and sometimes took their anger out on him and his younger sister (彭華 9). After his parents divorced, Gu Long, still only in high school, left to live on his own. With the help of his friends, he survived on the little money he made from working odd jobs (費勇, 鍾 曉毅 4).!
he did not finish his degree and found work as a translator after dropping out of college.
Gu Long began submitting his own work through various channels and only began to focus on wuxia novels at the suggestion of a publisher (費勇, 鍾曉毅 6). His first martial arts work was published in 1960.!
! At this time he had already met a dancer named Zheng Lili (鄭莉莉). They had begun living together and shortly after had a son. After just three years, Gu Long ended up leaving his girlfriend and son in the winter of 1963-1964, (彭華 16). !
! But there were plenty of women in Gu Long’s life, and it wasn’t long until he found another one he liked. Not soon thereafter, he fathered another son with another girlfriend, a dancer named Ye Xue (葉雪) (彭華 102). This brief moment of happiness was not meant to last either, and they soon separated.!
! Around 1971, Gu Long married for the first time. His wife was a young high school girl named Mei Baozhu (梅寶珠). But after having three children, they too divorced (費勇, 鍾曉毅 25). A few years after the divorce, Gu Long met and married another high school student, Yu Xiuling (于秀玲) (彭華 284).!
! Meanwhile, aside from floundering in a sea of women, Gu Long was writing a staggering number of novels and drinking copious amounts of alcohol. Around 1977, his lifetime of heavy drinking began to catch up with him and his health began to slowly deteriorate. In 1980, after some trouble at a bar, he was sent to a hospital with a knife wound which required a transfusion. Unfortunately, the blood he received also gave him hepatitis, worsening his situation (彭華 251). During his final years, Gu Long spent
much of his time in the hospital. After spending several days in a coma, Gu Long died on September 21, 1985 (彭華 320). His last words were, “Why haven’t any of my girlfriends come to see me?” (費勇, 鍾曉毅 33).!
!
!
There were basically four things that filled Gu Long’s life: women, alcohol, friends, and literature. It could be argued that his fondness for each was rooted in his early childhood; perhaps the familial troubles he experienced as a child influenced his outlook on family, shaping his attitudes towards women and friends. In his adult life Gu Long was a loner and an alcoholic. He frequented adult entertainment venues and had a rather feeble idea of family. He also had a bad habit of taking advances frompublishers and not producing anything, often leaving publishers to find someone to write for him (費勇, 鍾曉毅 13). Gu Long did, however, have his own chivalrous and gallant side. As something of an orphan himself, he often donated money to orphanages. After his death, a large portion of his wealth was donated to charitable organizations (彭華 66).!
! A passage in his novel A Fine Sword (名劍風流) could also describe his early life:
“I’d already experienced too many of life’s miseries. But no matter what, I’m still alive.
I’m still young and the world is a big place; I can go anywhere I want” (彭華 11). Gu Long’s friend and apprentice, Ding Qing (丁情), had said, “Gu Long was never short of
could he forsake his friends and care only about women? That’s how Gu Long felt about women and friends, and that’s the reason a lot of women hated him” (彭華 103).!
! Friends meant everything to Gu Long. He once wrote, “No matter what’s being compared, friends always win” 14 (蘇姿妃 52). The importance he placed on friendship carried over greatly into his writing. His character Chu Liuxiang (楚留香) from The Legend of Chu Liuxiang (Chu Liuxiang Chuanqi 楚留香傳奇) series is perhaps the
greatest example. He has friends from all walks of life who are willing to cast aside their lovers, reputation, wealth, status, and even their own life to aid Chu Liuxiang when he is in trouble (陳墨 226-227). But what separated his friendships from those written by other
wuxia authors, is that “Gu Long did not seek the type of sworn brotherhood between male characters found in traditional Chinese wuxia and in Jin Yong’s novels, but a pure friendship” (蘇姿妃 54-55).
!
His Works!
! Gu Long’s entrance onto the wuxia stage was drastically different from that of Jin Yong. Jin Yong was born into an illustrious family where he grew up studying journalism.
He began working for a leading newspaper in Shanghai, in 1947. Jin Yong’s first martial arts novel was serialized in 1955 after he had moved to Hong Kong. He established his own newspaper, Ming Pao (明報), in 1959 which provided him the perfect place to publish his own stories until he put down his pen in 1972.!
Originally in Gu Long’s “Chu Liuxiang and His Friends” (楚留香和他的朋友們) published in 中國時報
14
on September 16-17, 1982.
! Gu Long began his career helping other wuxia authors write installments for their novels, slowly learning from his peers. Many of his earlier novels were nothing special as he had yet to develop his own style. There were also many clear traces of imitation of other authors, including Jin Yong (費勇, 鍾曉毅 9). This could have been due to his living situation at the time; Gu Long relied heavily on his writing to survive, which resulted in his excessive output without regard for quality (費勇, 鍾曉毅 10). Gu Long himself explained he originally wrote such a great number of stories only to be able to eat, drink, travel, entertain girlfriends, watch movies, and have a place to live. 15!
!
! Each scholar who has researched Gu Long’s novels appears to have their own opinion on the stages of his career. In 1979 Gu Long separated his own works into three stages of evolution: his early period from 1960-1963, middle period from 1964-1970, and late period after 1971. 16 Hong Wenxuan (洪文軒) compiled the positions of many other scholars, some of which paint very different pictures of Gu Long’s writing. Cheng-Wen Tsao (曹正文) broke his career into 1. Exploration (1960-1964) 2. Prolificacy (1965-1968) and 3. Peak (1969-1984). In “A Review of the Five Great Wuxia
Authors” (武俠五大家品賞) Chen Mo (陳墨) wrote 1. Beginning (1960-1965) 2. Peak (1966-1973) and 3. Recession (1973-1984). Whereas Liu Qiaoyun (劉巧雲) wrote 1.
Foundation (1960-1964) 2. Transformation (1965-1968) 3. Turning point (1969-1974)
and 4. Decline (1975-1984) (洪文軒 29-31). There are two major differences between these scholars’ opinions: the years that divide the stages of Gu Long’s career and whether or not they include a fourth stage that asserts a decline in his writing. As seen in the few examples above, Legendary Siblings, which Gu Long began writing in 1966, does not alway occur in the same point in these differing opinions. Regardless of where others put it, I believe Legendary Siblings marks the beginning of Gu Long’s fame as the first major success in his career. Below I will detail some of the characteristics of Gu Long’s writing style during each stage of his career as he himself periodized it.!
!
Early Period: 1960-1963!
! Gu Long wrote fourteen novels during the first four years of his career. His early career can be summarized as a period of emulation; his writings were still immature, somewhat clichéd, and inexperienced (彭華 66). His early works followed the more traditional guidelines of martial arts novels, his writing was underdeveloped, and he had yet to create his own style. Some of his characters could be two-dimensional and simple (彭華 51). As a wuxia author and critic, Tsao described his earliest novels as far behind Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng. The structure and language of his novels still adhered to the outdated, traditional models and lacked any new aesthetic value. However they did display Gu Long’s vivid imagination and literary background (曹正文 148). Fellow martial arts author and critic Jiang Shang Ou 江上鷗 (Li Rongde 李榮德 1945- ) described the works in his early period as being able to lure readers with peculiar plots and excellent
manipulation of suspense, but lacked depth and the author’s later contemplation on life and morals (彭華 62).!
! Gu Long made some early attempts at writing “new, different, and innovative”
martial arts novels (彭華 53). Although Gu Long had made early attempts at developing his own style, Tsao still criticized his stories of being unnecessarily complicated, the majority of his characters were unappealing, the language still mirrored older wuxia works, and the endings were a predictable, fairy tale ending (曹正文 82-83). Simply put, they were failures.!
!
Middle Period: 1964-1970!
! Gu Long only wrote nine novels during the next six years of his career. But with just these few works, he made great strides in experimenting with his own style in the hopes of setting himself apart. He moved away from writing long, intricate and bloody fight scenes and started to focus more on the characters’ personalities. However, there is still evidence of influence from other wuxia authors, including Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng (彭華 76).!
! In his 1966 novel A Fine Sword, Gu Long added aspects of thriller and mystery novels. Compared to his more traditional colleagues, Gu Long absorbed much of his inspiration from foreign novels. While still in college, he began reading many Japanese and English works which ultimately influenced his own writing style. During an interview,
especially admired Japanese novels for their ability to maintain their unique traditional flavor, yet still assimilate characteristics from foreign novels. 17!
! Although Gu Long’s unique writing style continued to develop during this second period, it was still far from his own personal expectations (彭華 83). His 1967 novel
Legendary Siblings marked a great success in his career. The characters he created for this tragic comedy have left a lasting impression on its readers. With the success of Legendary Siblings, Gu Long’s popularity quickly rose, supporting his quest for change within the wuxia genre.!
!
Late Period: After 1971!
! Gu Long wrote another forty-five novels until his death in 1985. Some of his more popular novels written during this time were also influenced by foreign works. Meteor, Butterfly, Sword (Liuxing, Hudie, Jian 流星·蝴蝶·劍) was inspired by The Godfather. His
character Chu Liuxiang was modeled after Ian Fleming’s James Bond—smart, brave, surrounded by women, and never loses—but is still a classic Chinese hero—aloof yet compassionate (費勇, 鍾曉毅 85). The Legend of Chu Liuxiang spans eight novels, incorporating detective and mystery themes. The Legend of Lu Xiaofeng (Lu Xiaofeng Chuanqi 陸小鳳傳奇) could be described as more mystery than wuxia, combing aspects
found in the Sherlock Holmes and James Bond series (彭華 206). More than a few of his later novels include elements of detective novels.!
! 古龍, 談 “新” 與 “變”, 《大人物》代序.
17
! In the last few years of his life, the number of titles he published severely decreased, partly due to his deteriorating health, and partly due to the failure of the movie studio he opened in 1980 (彭華 288). As Gu Long spent more time in the hospital, his apprentices picked up their pens to finish Gu Long’s stories (彭華 298).!
!
His Style!
! Gu Long was one of the earlier Taiwanese wuxia authors to constantly attempt to change the way he composed wuxia novels. There were five major differences in his writing style compared to other authors at the time: 1. He moved away from the old
“story-telling” and used more contemporary literary techniques; 2. He moved away from traditional explanations of martial arts moves; 3. He replaced Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist philosophies with Western existentialism and psychology; 4. He removed much of the detail when describing certain characters, fight scenes, and scenery; 5. He did not write stories detailing the entire life of the main character (葉洪生 90-91). Gu Long’s changes possibly came about because he felt the traditional wuxia novel did not suit modern tastes (葉洪生 96). Following these points above, I will explain some of the more major changes that I believe most separate Gu Long from Jin Yong.!
!
New Writing Style!
! Gu Long fully absorbed content from previous wuxia writers. He wrote, “I tried to
and Legendary Siblings, I still was imitating his writing.” 18 He enjoyed reading wuxia novels as a child, some of which greatly influenced his own writing. In a 1976 interview with Ye Hongsheng (葉洪生), Gu Long said that his favorite Taiwanese martial arts author was Sima Ling (司馬翎), and that Lu Yu’s (陸魚) 1961 Ways of the Young (少年 行) inspired him the most to be creative and innovate (彭華 42). However, Gu Long disliked how these novels were written following the oral storytelling tradition—the plot structure was too loose and there were too many characters. He was also dissatisfied with how these characters were portrayed (彭華 23).!
! The Court Cases of Judge Peng (彭公案), The Court Cases of Judge Shi (施公 案), The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants (七俠五義), Five Junior Gallants (小五 義), and The Three Chivalrous Swordsmen (三俠劍) were all written based on storytelling. These can be considered this generation’s newest and most accessible wuxia novels.!
! But most of the heroes in these novels are not true heroes who can captivate a thrilled audience because at the end of the Qing Dynasty, people were not encouraged to be heroes. Most people only believed mature, prudent gentlemen should be praised. 19!
!
He was also tired of the general storylines found in the genre. According to him, there were only two types of wuxia novels:!
Wuxia novels can be separated into a two categories:!
The story of how an ambitious young boy endowed with special gifts struggles to learn martial arts and, after succeeding, breaks the shackles of his oppression and reaches the pinnacle of virtue and ability.!
The process of course includes numerous fairy-tale-esque coincidences and adventures, including animosities, affections, ending with revenge and a happy marriage.!
! 古龍, 談我看過的武俠小說（二）.
18
! 古龍, 《多情劍客無情劍》代序.
19
The story of how an upstanding chivalrous warrior uses his intelligence and martial arts skill to thwart a tremendous evil force. This warrior is young, handsome, skilled in both mental and physical capacities, and has incredible luck. At times he is even able to disguise himself so well that the impersonated’s family and friends cannot tell he is a fraud.!
These methods are not bad; the characters include heroic knights, eccentric vagabonds, valiant women who follow their husbands in death, ruthless tyrants, low-life hoodlums, and prostitutes.!
These types of stories are full of twists and bizarre occurrences, suspense and thrills, and also quite romantic.!
These are also not bad, but unfortunately they have been used too often, becoming clichéd and formulaic. 20!
!
If our current wuxia novels really began with The Unworthy Son of Pingjiang’s Extraordinary Heroes on River and Lake, reached their peak at Master of the Returned Pearl Pavilion’s (還珠樓主) The Swordsmen of the Sichuan Mountains (蜀山劍俠傳), then underwent a change with Jin Yong’s Eagles and Heroes (射雕 英雄傳), over ten years have passed with not further change. 21 The time for another change has undoubtedly arrived! If you seek change, you must strive for transformation, smash the old, rigid molds, and attempt to accept ideas. 22 !
In the same preface Gu Long continues by mentioning War and Peace, Of Mice and
!
Men, Airport, Little Women, and The Old Man and the Sea as masterpieces which use sharp observation, extensive imagination, and discontent with the status quo to illustrate their characters’ humanity and beliefs and provide some insight on the world. Gu Long invited martial arts fiction writers to do the same and create a new style by combining what he took from foreign literatures with the elements of wuxia tradition and culture, introducing the genre to those who are unfamiliar with it.!
! 古龍, 談 “新” 與 “變”, 《大人物》代序.
20
! Gu Long focused his writing on exploring humanity. “Humanity is the only thing a novel cannot lack. And humanity is not just anger, revenge, sadness, and fear, but also includes love and friendship, generosity and chivalry, humor and empathy. Why must we always focus on the negative side?” 23 He hoped this would raise the position and value people placed on martial arts novels. He explained this desire in a preface to one of his novels, stating that most people do not even consider martial arts fiction a form of literature. He considered this a terrible reality for an author, but also believed that if something exists, it must have value; and with such a long history, wuxia novels are no exception. 24!
! Along with this shift in focus, Gu Long is known for writing in short sentences that set a quick pace. He used some film techniques, such as weaving different scenes without clear transitions and relying heavily on dialogue to explain situations and develop the plot. In fact, some of his works, such as The Eleventh Son (蕭十一郎) and Betrayal of the Eleventh Son (Huobing Xiao Shiyilang 火併蕭十一郎) were written first
as screenplays which he later adapted into novels. Gu Long’s language has been described as turbulent and lively, as opposed to Jin Yong’s meticulous and smooth writing (費勇, 鍾曉毅 41). Most sentences are very short, broken by one or two longer sentences; in his later novels, most sentences are also paragraphs. He “mainly uses simple declarative sentences. His fluctuating structure, passionate language, and
! 古龍, 說說武俠小說，《歡樂英雄》代序.
23
! 古龍,《多情劍客無情劍》代序.
24
plentiful emotions leave a clear impression. Gu Long was the first to use this literary form in wuxia fiction” (費勇, 鍾曉毅 46).!
! Although Legendary Siblings was written earlier in his career, there are still traces of his style. !
!
! 他輕輕拍著那⼩小⽩白⾺馬的頭，道：「⾺馬兒⾺馬兒，咱們也去瞧瞧熱鬧好麼？但你瞧⾒見漂
亮的⼩小⺟母⾺馬時，可要⾛走遠點，咱們年紀還⼩小，若被⼥女⼈人纏著，可就⼀一輩⼦子不能翻⾝身了。」!
!
! 桃花打⾺馬飛馳，⻑⾧長⻑⾧長的秀髮被⾵風吹起，吹到鐵⼼心男的臉上，鐵⼼心男卻似毫無感覺，動也不動。!
! 桃花只覺他呼吸的熱氣吹在脖⼦子裡，全⾝身都像是發軟了，她⼩小⼿手拼命抓緊韁繩，回
! 桃花只覺他呼吸的熱氣吹在脖⼦子裡，全⾝身都像是發軟了，她⼩小⼿手拼命抓緊韁繩，回