武俠即奇幻：絕代雙驕之英譯

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(1)! WUXIA AS FANTASY: AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF JUEDAI SHUANGJIAO! 武俠即奇幻：. !. 代雙驕之英譯!. ! ! ! A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE INSTITUTE OF TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION !. ! NATIONAL TAIWAN NORMAL UNIVERSITY! ! 國立台灣師範大學翻譯研究所碩士論文!. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Ryan Kueck! 柯潤元!. ! Thesis Advisor: Dr. Sharon Lai! 指導教授：賴慈芸博士!. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! December 2013! 2013年12⽉月!.

(2) Contents! Partial List of Gu Long’s Novels……………………………………………….……..iii! Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………...iv ! Introduction…………………………………………………........................................1 ! Motivation…………………………………………………………….…………….2! Significance to the Field……………………………..…………….……………..3 ! Background on Wuxia Fiction……………………….……………………….…..4 ! Literature Review..…………………………………….…………………………………11 ! Wuxia in English Translation…………………………………….….……………11 ! Reviews of Translation…………………………………………….……………..13 ! Reviews of Reception……………………………………………….……..……..16 ! Gu Long: His Life, His Works, His Style……………………………………….…….22 ! His Life…………………………………………………………………….………..22 ! His Works…………………………………………………………………………..25! His Style………………………………………………………………….………...30! Legendary Siblings…………………………………………………….………….39 ! Legendary Siblings in English………………………………………….……………..43 ! Setting……………………………………………………………….……………..44 ! Proper Names……………………………………………………………………..45 ! General Problems………………………………………………………………….52 ! Conclusion………………………………………………………………….……………..58 ! References………………………………………………………………….……………..61 ! Appendix A: List of Gu Long’s Novels……………………………….………………67! Legendary Siblings in Translation…………………………………………………….71!. ! !ii.

(3) Partial List of Gu Long’s Novels!. ! The following is a list of the titles that I will be referencing throughout my thesis. As only Gu Long’s The Eleventh Son (Xiao Shiyilang 蕭十一郎) has been published in English, I have made my own translations of the titles for easier reading. A complete list of his works is provided in Appendix A.!. !. 1. A Fine Sword (Mingjian Fengliu 名劍風流)! 代雙驕)!. 2. Legendary Siblings (Juedai Shuangjiao. 3. The Legend of Chu Liuxiang (Chu Liuxiang Chuanqi 楚留香傳奇)! 4. The Sentimental Swordsman (Duoqing Jianke Wuqing Jian 多情劍客無情劍)! 5. The Happy Hero (Huanle Yingxiong 歡樂英雄)! 6. Meteor, Butterfly, Sword (Liuxing, Hudie, Jian 流星·蝴蝶·劍)! 7. The Legend of Lu Xiaofeng (Lu Xiaofeng Chuanqi 陸小鳳傳奇)! 8. Betrayal of the Eleventh Son (Huobing Xiao Shiyilang 火併蕭十一郎)!. !. !iii.

(4) ! ! Abstract!. ! !. The Chinese wuxia novel has enjoyed a long history spanning millennia. While. even within the last century there have been hundreds of published wuxia authors, only a handful of names are ubiquitous in the Chinese-speaking world. This thesis will introduce one prolific wuxia novelist who is well-known and studied in China and Taiwan, but overlooked for the most part by Western academics: Gu Long (古龍). After an introduction to his life and works, I will compare his writing style with that of Jin Yong (金庸), the wuxia author favored by academia. I will also introduce my own translation of Gu Long’s Juedai Shuangjiao (. 代雙驕) and state my case for why Gu Long’s novels,. which closely resemble fantasy novels, are excellent candidates for translation into English to extend the wuxia genre to English readers,.!. ! Keywords: Gu Long, wuxia novel, Juedai Shuangjiao, translation, fantasy . !iv.

(5) ! 摘要!. ! . 武俠⼩小說的歷史悠久，儘管近數⼗十年，華⽂文⽂文壇裡已有幾百位武俠作家，但是達到. 家喻⼾戶曉境界的作家屈指可數，更何況在歐美國家，讀者對於武俠⼩小說就更陌⽣生了。本論⽂文以古⻯⿓龍作為研究對象，探究其⽣生平、著作並且與⾦金庸對⽐比，藉此機會介紹古⻯⿓龍的作品給⻄西⽅方。除此之外，筆者翻譯了《絕代雙驕》，並且在本論⽂文討論所使⽤用到的翻譯策略，最後提出古⻯⿓龍的作品較容易進⼊入⻄西⽅方世界的原因。. ! 關鍵字：古龍，武俠小說，. 代雙驕，翻譯，奇幻 . !v.

(6) Chapter One! Introduction!. ! !. Chinese martial arts novels, wuxia xiaoshuo 武俠⼩小說, have enjoyed a long. history. There have been hundreds of modern wuxia1 novelists over the past century; . however, only a handful of their names are ubiquitous throughout the Chinese-speaking world. Jin Yong ⾦金庸 (Louis Cha 查良鏞 1924- ) is almost synonymous with wuxia novels; he has been celebrated as the greatest author of the genre and has even been honored with his own “study of Jin Yong” (⾦金學) as academics have begun studying and analyzing his works. The English-speaking world has also recently begun to recognize his works. Within the past few decades there have been academic works focusing on Jin Yong both written and translated into English. A selection of his novels has been translated into Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Thai, and English (Lai 1998, 134).! !. This thesis, however, will introduce another prolific wuxia novelist, also well-. known and studied in China and Taiwan, but overlooked for the most part in Western academia: Gu Long 古龍 (Xiong Yaohua 熊耀華 1937-1985). Gu Long and Jin Yong’s careers overlapped, but as Gu Long continued to experiment with each of his new. 1!. There is no consensus on the exact starting point of “modern martial arts fiction,” but most critics agree on the consequential contribution of Extraordinary Heroes on River and Lake (Jianghu Qixia Zhuan 江湖奇俠傳) by The Unworthy Son of Pingjiang 平江不肖生 (Xiang Kairan 向愷然 1889-1957) published in 1922 (Lai 1998, 30). !1.

(7) stories, he gradually separated his writing style from the traditional backdrop which Jin Yong maintained.! !. This introductory chapter will give a brief overview of my motivation for writing. this thesis, the significance of this thesis, and background information on the wuxia genre. Chapter Two will introduce recently published English translations of wuxia fiction and review some of the academic papers focusing on those works and opinions on the reception of this new genre. Chapter Three provides a biography of Gu Long and an analysis of his writing style. In Chapter Four I will discuss some of my thought processes and the hurdles I encountered during the translation of Legendary Siblings (Juedai Shuangjiao. 代雙驕). And Chapter Five concludes with my ideas on the. translation of Chinese martial arts fiction and advice to future translators in this field. Appendices attached include a list of Gu Long’s novels and my translation of Legendary Siblings.! !. This thesis will not provide an in-depth analysis of wuxia or Gu Long’s position in. literature as a whole or of Gu Long’s life and how that may have influenced his writing.!. ! Motivation! !. Like many Americans born in the mid-1980s, I was introduced to the wuxia genre. by Hollywood films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Hero (2002), and House of Flying Daggers (2004). These were also my first introduction to the Chinese language and culture before I began studying Chinese in 2007. After stepping into the field of translation, I decided early on that I would like to try my hand at translating something that piqued my interests and had yet to be translated into English.! !2.

(8) !. My experience reading parts of the few Chinese martial arts novels in English. translation failed to live up to the excitement I had felt watching those wuxia films in my youth. On the recommendation of my advising professor, Dr. Sharon Lai, I read and began translating Gu Long’s Legendary Siblings. After comparing Gu Long and Jin Yong, it became clear to me that Gu Long’s novels would be easier to translate and more likely to be accepted by a western audience. It is my hope that this thesis and translation can continue to widen the selection and reach of Chinese martial arts fiction as I sincerely believe that Gu Long’s later works lend themselves to translation much better than any of Jin Yong’s novels.!. ! Significance to the Field! According to Lin Baochun 林保淳, “in recent years, Jin Yong has become the. !. dominant figure, nearly the sole figure, in academic analyses of wuxia novels. People instinctively bring up Jin Yong when discussing the genre and most readers are only familiar with his books, rejecting outright all other wuxia novels”2, 3(洪文軒 3).! . !. . There have been innumerable studies of modern Chinese martial arts fiction. conducted in the Chinese-speaking world. The majority focus on Jin Yong, Gu Long, and Liang Yusheng 梁羽生 (Chen Wentong 陳文統 1926−2009), three prominent authors in the genre. In comparison, English academic works on the subject have. 2!. Originally from Lin Baochun’s “救救台灣的武俠小說 — 解構金庸及走出金庸體系的迷思” published in. 《明報月刊》Volume 31卷2期, February 1996. 3! All. quotations from sources originally in Chinese are my own translations unless otherwise noted. !3.

(9) developed tunnel vision on Jin Yong. In terms of the translation of wuxia novels, while there is by no means a large selection, there is also a bias towards Jin Yong’s works. ! !. The present thesis aims to slightly offset the partiality given to Jin Yong—in both. academia and translation—in favor of his colleague, Gu Long. I have translated the first book of Gu Long’s seminal work, Legendary Siblings,4 which is included at the end of . this thesis. If published, my translation will be the second English rendition of a Gu Long novel after Rebecca Tai’s translation of Xiao Shiyilang (蕭十一郎) entitled The Eleventh Son. I will also introduce my own take on translating this genre, citing some specific strategies which vary from previous translators.!. ! Background on Wuxia Fiction! !. Chinese wuxia fiction is a genre of traditional Chinese fiction. Fiction with martial. arts themes has evolved over thousands of years from the storytelling tradition and has appeared in many forms throughout Chinese history (Lai 1998). However, before the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the term wuxia xiaoshuo 武俠小說, as the genre is described today, did not exist (葉洪生 11). ! Chinese tales of xia 俠—chivalrous as most translate the term today—heroes. !. can be traced back to the Warring States period (403-221 BCE) (Liu, James 1); Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji 史記), written from 109 to 91 BCE,5 . includes biographies of some of these “xia characters.” There were many different types 4! As 5!. published by Storm & Stress Publishing Co. in 2009; there are a total of five books in this series.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Records_of_the_Grand_Historian !4.

(10) of people classified as being xia before the modern xia hero was born, including the wandering youxia 游俠, benevolent renxia 仁俠, young shaoxia 少俠, righteous yixia 義俠, boisterous haoxia 豪俠, courageous yongxia 勇俠, reclusive yinxia 隱俠, Confucian ruxia 儒俠, sword-wielding jianxia 劍俠, thieving daoxia 盜俠, monk sengxia 僧俠, and female nüxia 女俠 (葉洪生 11). The xia character of the protagonist has always been the heart of these stories although the definition, ideals, actions, and assessment of these characters have evolved over time: the youxia of the Warring States period travelled great distances heralding justice; the haoxia of the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) domineered local villages by their own moral compass; the shaoxia during the Six Dynasties (220-589) were recalcitrant young men full of self-confidence, the jianxia of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) were strange and mysterious expert swordsmen, the yixia after the Song Dynasty (960-1279) advocated a return to man’s natural benevolence and righteousness6 (葉洪生, 林保淳 16).! . !. Below I will give a concise overview of the major changes seen in the genre. starting from its first popularization in the Tang Dynasty until the end of the Qing Dynasty, and then from the beginnings of the modern wuxia novel until the end of Gu Long’s career in the mid-1980s.!. ! Wuxia Fiction 618-1920!. 6!. These previous xia characters did not necessarily practice a form of martial arts (wu 武) like modern wuxia characters !5.

(11) !. Tales of chivalry did not flourish until the end of the Tang dynatsy, and by the end. of the Song Dynasty, chivalry was one of the main subjects of oral story-telling (Liu 1967, 81), although by this time, these protagonists were no longer normal people, but mystical persons imbued with supernatural skills (Lai 1998, 13).! !. Also during the Song, chivalric stories began to split into chuanqi 傳奇, short. stories recited in classical prose, and huaben 話本, short- to medium-length stories told in the vernacular (葉洪生 21). There was not much evolution in the stories in the literary language, with most writers following the format established in the Tang Dynasty (Lai 1998, 20). However, some stories about heroes were joined together and became longer prose military tales such as The Water Margin (Shuihu Zhuan 水滸傳) (Liu 1967, 108). Unlike the previous literary-language stories which only focused on one person or event (Lai 1998, 23), The Water Margin revolved around a gang of heroes. These heroes also did not possess the magic abilities that the heroes of the Tang Dynasty had. After the success of The Water Margin, it became the model for many stories after the Qing Dynasty.! !. Another important evolution in martial arts-themed fiction provided by these. longer stories was the introduction of a love story plot. Different from The Water Margin, other military romanticizations detailed generations of military generals and their exploits, including their romances with female generals, “a barbarian princess or daughter of some chieftain” (Lai 1998, 25).! !. Up until the end of the Qing Dynasty, what began as tales of honor and valor had. evolved into several branches. As James Liu divided them: 1. Chivalric tales and. !6.

(12) detective stories (gong an 公案) involving “a group of knights-errant who protect an upright official and help him to eliminate criminals” (Liu, James 117); 2. The romances of the Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School (yuanyang hudie pai 鴛鴦蝴蝶派) combining chivalry and love (Liu 1967, 121); 3. Tales of flying swordsmen which included elements of the supernatural (Liu 1967, 129); and 4. Tales focusing on feats of strength and schools of swordsmanship and martial arts—wuxia (Liu, James 134).!. !. ! Wuxia Fiction 1920-1985! !. It was only after The Unworthy Son of Pingjiang’s Extraordinary Heroes on River. and Lake and The Legends of Modern Chivalric Heroes (Jindai Xiayi Yingxiong Zhuan 近代俠義英雄傳) in the early 1920s that martial arts fiction began to distinguish itself from previous chivalric fiction (葉洪生, 林保淳 3). Novels published before the twentieth century were mainly short stories modeled after the Tang Dynasty legends and written in classical Chinese (葉洪生 43). Wuxia fiction varied greatly in length and style during 1910-1920s with the Mandarin Duck and Butterfly stories gaining great popularity (葉洪生 29-30). After 1920 and the May Fourth New Literature Movement (xin wenxue yundong 新文學運動), literary prose decreased significantly, stories grew in length, and professional wuxia novelists emerged (葉洪生 43). Huang Yonglin (黃永林) compressed the changes in wuxia novels from the end of the Qing Dynasty to the 1920s into five categories: “1. More descriptions and criticisms of the current society; 2. More intricate depictions of characters; 3. More room for imagination and more developed themes of. !7.

(13) romance; 4. More concrete and elaborate descriptions of martial arts; 5. More diverse and innovative narrative styles”7 (翁文信 125-126).! . !. In the 30s and 40s, Master of the Returned Pearl Pavilion 還珠樓主 (Li Shoumin. 李壽民 1902-1961), Bai Yu 白羽 (Gong Zhuxin 宮竹心 1899-1966), Zheng Zhengyin 鄭證因 (Zheng Rupei 鄭汝霈 1900-1960), Wang Dulu 王度廬 (Wang Baoxiang 王葆祥 1909-1977), and Zhu Zhenmu 朱貞木 (Zhu Zhenyuan 朱楨元 1905-?) unified the style and content in wuxia novels through their works, establishing a course of development for later wuxia novels over the next fifty years (葉洪生 45). ! !. Martial arts fiction in the 1950s was prohibited in Mainland China and censored in. Taiwan8 which led to the development of a “New School” (xinpai 新派) of wuxia novels in . both Hong Kong and Taiwan. These New School authors began to express new thoughts and ideals as well as employ a new writing style (葉洪生 62), but the Hong Kong authors, including Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng, moved in a historicized and scholarly direction, while Taiwanese authors removed most historical aspects (陳康芬 175).! !. The wuxia market flourished in Taiwan during the 1960s; there were over three. hundred martial arts authors, mostly soldiers or scholars, who produced a great number of martial arts novels. One publisher, Zhen Shan Mei Chubanshe 真善美出版社, is 7. From Huang Yonglin’s article “Changes and Characteristics of Chinese Martial Arts Fiction from the 1920s to the 1940s” (二〇至四〇年代中國武俠小說的現代轉型及其特徵). 8!. Martial arts fiction was considered “a relic of the old literature of the bourgeoisie” in Mainland China and was banned outright. Taiwan censored all works that were deemed to have connections with the Communist Party and by authors who did not leave Mainland China (Lai 1998, 39). !8.

(14) estimated to have published between 1,200 and 2,000 stories written across 25,000 to 40,000 books (葉洪生, 林保淳 151-152). In “The Modernization of Wuxia Fiction” (武俠小說的現代化轉型), Gong Pengcheng (龔鵬程) wrote that “while novels still used martial arts (wu 武) and chivalry (xia 俠) as their source material, the novels became more modernized and shifted emphasis from describing martial arts to writing about human nature” (翁文信 105).! !. The 1970s and later saw many adaptations of wuxia novels into television,. theatre, comics, and movies, but there was a decrease in new authors and books and some publishers stopped printing altogether as the popularity of martial arts fiction began to decline (葉洪生, 林保淳 340).!. ! !. With such a long literary history, martial arts fiction has developed its own tropes. —! “murder, escape, finding a martial arts master, practising the martial arts, returning to the world of River and Lake from some secluded place, encountering a beautiful woman, the humiliation and frustration of defect [sic], finding another martial arts master, being abandoned by a lover, being wounded, being healed, finding a treasure, revenge, settling scores, and retiring from the world of River and Lake to some secluded place” (Lai 1998, 81)!. !. —and its own lexicon used by all martial arts authors. Originally serialized in newspapers, modern martial arts fiction tells tales of adventure and romance between men and women with extraordinary, almost supernatural, abilities set in historical China. ! !. “Fiction on martial arts themes first attracted western translators’ attention in the. eighteenth century” (Lai 1998, 90). Since then, there have been many translations of certain stories; for example Water Margin (水滸傳), or sections thereof, has been !9.

(15) translated and re-translated several times in the past two hundred years.9 However, in . comparison, the modern wuxia novel has been relatively ignored in translation.!. !. 9!. Some translations are “Tales of a Chinese Giant” (1872-3), All Men Are Brothers (1933), Outlaws of the Marsh (1980), Men o the Mossflow (1986-7), The Broken Seals: Part one of The Marshes of Mount Liang (1994) and The Tiger Killers: part two of The Marshes of Mount Liang (1997) (from Lai 1998, 91-92). !10.

(16) Chapter Two! Literature Review!. ! !. This chapter is presented in three parts. The first section introduces the wuxia. novels that have already been published in English translation. The second reviews academic papers focusing on these translations, analyzing the ideas of researchers in the field of modern martial arts fiction in English. The third part looks at articles written on the reception of these translations. Sections two and three will end with my own reflections of these papers and the general reception of wuxia by the novels’ Englishspeaking audiences.!. ! Wuxia in English Translation! !. For a large part of the western world, the Chinese martial arts novel may still be a. relatively new and unfamiliar genre. Although wuxia has become more recognized and recognizable through its adaptations into movies or video games, the novels on which these are based are all but nonexistent in English translation.10 ! . !. A total of five modern Chinese martial arts novels written in the past century have. been published in English: ! •. Flying Fox of Snow Mountain (Xueshan Feihu 雪山飛狐) written by Jin Yong in 1959 and translated by Robin Wu in 1972!. ! 10. There are actually a great number of martial arts novels available in English if unauthorized, unpublished (and amateurish) translations found on the internet are included. !11.

(17) •. Blades from the Willows (Liuhu Xiayin 柳湖俠隱) written by Master of the Returned Pearl Pavilion in 1946 and translated by Robert Chard in 1991!. •. Fox Volant of Snowy Mountain (Xueshan Feihu 雪山飛狐) translated by Olivia Mok first in 1993 and edited in 1996!. •. The Book and the Sword (Shujian Enchou Lu 書劍恩仇錄) written by Jin Yong in 1955 and translated by Graham Earnshaw in 1995 with the most recent edition by Earnshaw, Rachel May, and John Minford in 2005!. •. The Deer and the Cauldron (Luding Ji 鹿鼎記) written by Jin Yong in 1969 and translated by John Minford in three books; the first of which was published in 1997, the second in 2000, and the third in 2003!. •. The Eleventh Son written by Gu Long in 1973 and translated by Rebecca Tai (戴幸) in 2005!. ! !. As seen above, Jin Yong accounts for over half of the translations available in. English. I believe solely looking at one author is not enough to give the wuxia genre due justice. Granted, there are also movies, television series, video games, and other available adaptations of martial arts fiction, but the selection in print is extremely limited.! !. As evidenced by the prefixes and forwards of the four most recent translations,. each of the translators seemed to have the same target audience and translation strategy: “This book is an attempt to translate and make acessible to the English reader this important work in Chinse wuxia fiction” (T. L. Tsim, Foreword to Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain). “While every effort has been made to follow as closely as possible the original in rendering the text into English, the translator has taken it upon herself to !12.

(18) leave out certain sections or to move some paragraphs to ensure a smooth reading of the translated text” (Mok, Introduction to Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain). “[W]e11 . hope to give English readers a glimpse of the rich Chinese cultural tapestry that is Cha’s kungfu world...I hope that now some English-speaking readers will be able to share a little of the enormous pleasure his novels have given to millions of Chinese readers since they first appeared over twenty years ago” (Minford, Translator’s Introduction to The Deer and the Cauldron). “I was as faithful to the spirit of the original as I could be. I took the view that I could omit or simplify, but not add and Mr. Cha agreed with my approach” (Earnshaw, The Book and the Translator).12 Unfortunately Tai did not mention . her strategy or intentions in her “Note from the Translator,” but it is safe to assume she held similar thoughts in mind. !. ! Reviews of Translation! !. A number of papers have been written and translated into English asserting the. value of Jin Yong’s works. Specifically in the field of translation, many have explored the task of reproducing the terminology of martial arts fiction in English, the reception of the English translations, and some have written analyses of these translations.! !. In Translating Chinese Martial Arts Fiction, with Reference to the Novels of Jin. Yong, Sharon Lai writes a comprehensive history of the wuxia genre and its English translation. Before analyzing the translations of Jin Yong’s novels, Lai selects twenty-. 11 !. Minford’s “we” is referring to himself along with Sharon Lai and Graham Earnshaw, fellow translators of Jin Yong’s works. 12 !. http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Sword-Louis-Cha/dp/0195907272 !13.

(19) eight stories with martial arts themes which have been translated over the past two hundred and fifty years. The original dates of publication for these tales span the 1600s to the 1900s. Using these stories as reference, she give examples of the different strategies used by translators over the years, focusing mainly on domestication and foreignization. ! !. Lai then analyzes how modern translators tackled the same problems when. translating Jin Yong in terms of lexicon, omission, annotation, and adaptation. In general, Lai says of Wu’s Flying Fox of Snow Mountain, “As a version it is reasonably readable, but over-simplified. The translator's insufficient knowledge of Chinese history and culture constitute another problem” (Lai 1998, 136). Mok’s translation of the same book “follows the original so closely that it sacrifices idiom” (Lai 1998, 137). She draws attention to the fact that Earnshaw “is not a Chinese nor a specialist (he is a journalist working in Shanghai), [so] he has certain difficulties in translating passages in the literary language, especially poems and allusions. Nevertheless, this translation is much more idiomatic than the earlier two” (Lai 1998, 137-138). As for The Deer and the Cauldron, Lai simply states that “it is much more admired by critics than Xueshan [Fox Volant] and Shujian [Book and Sword]” (Lai 1998, 138).! !. Her conclusion is not very encouraging: translating Jin Yong’s works is filled with. challenges—“problems of language and the problems of bringing to life a historical period and a sense of cultural heritage” (Lai 1998, 173)—and of the variations of strategies used by these translators have only been somewhat successful. She believes “the translation of Jin Yong’s works call for still more imaginative and bold strategies” (Lai 1998, 174).!. !14.

(20) ! !. As a student of martial arts, Drew Cameron believes everything should be as. authentic as possible to maintain the full “Chineseness.” He warns against the translator making assumptions about the cultural knowledge of the readership and makes it clear that he believes the majority of readers of wuxia novels in English are those who are “interested in or already are practicing the Chinese martial arts” (Cameron 15).! !. The overall emotion of his analysis of The Deer and that Cauldron is one of. lament. The assortment of strategies Minford used in translation, including simplification, borrowing terms from other languages such as Italian and French, and even creating new words, seemed to be the exact opposite of what makes a successful translation in Cameron’s eyes:!. ! !. I personally consider direct romanization of Chinese martial arts terms into English, by using pinyin or whatever romanization system a translator is used to, to be the best way of translating such terminology in a Wuxia novel...I believe that many of the readers of a Wuxia novel in English translation would very likely be those who practice the Chinese martial arts themselves or those who possess an interest in them...As such, I suggest that direct romanization of these key terms to be a good strategy to give readers an authentic Wuxia reading experience while at the same time allowing them to learn more about Chinese language and culture. (Cameron 65).!. He concludes with a suggestion, a warning, and a word of encouragement to. future translators: be braver in the foreignization of wuxia novels, make sure to clearly identify your audience to avoid any disappointment, and be positive about the reception of martial arts fiction in English. Unfortunately, it may be more difficult for translators to remain positive after such a harsh review.!. ! !15.

(21) !. In A Comparison between the Book and the Web Versions of the English. Translation of The Book and the Sword, Elliot Chiang (江奇忠) also stresses that cultural content and martial arts should not be downplayed or omitted, but explained. He hails the glossary and footnotes in the book for providing readers with more complete explanations than in its Internet version; however, Chiang still believes the translation could have supplied even more information on characters relations, history, names and sobriquets, kungfu, and weapons. He advocates the use of footnotes which only provide facts and separate themselves from the actual story. An example of what he considers an appropriate annotation:!. ! !. ZHAO, BUDDHA Zhao Banshan, Hidden Needle Lu’s old friend from the Dragon Slayer’s Society, now prominent member (third-ranking) of the Red Flower Society; a dart expert, sometimes using copper coins as missiles, nicknamed the Thousand Arm Buddha, or Buddha Zhao for short (江奇忠 70).!. Each of these three assessments of the translations utilize different theories of. translation—Venuti’s “domestication” versus “foreignization,” Lefevere’s “translation as rewriting,” and Venuti’s theory along with Vermeer’s Skopos theory, respectively—to investigate translation practice, but it is impossible for any critic to refrain from offering his own opinions on whether or not the final product was “successful.” But while the translations of Jin Yong’s works currently on the market may or may not suit critics in the academic field of translation, it is impossible to extend these opinions to a larger public audience. !. ! Reviews of Reception!. !16.

(22) !. Apart from textual analyses, there have also been papers published on the. reception of martial arts fiction in English translation. Unfortunately, most of these have a similarly dim outlook. John Minford, the translator of Jin Yong’s The Deer and the Cauldron, had even asked, “what hope can there be for Martial Arts fiction in English translation? What hope for the bastard child, in this strange world into which we are proposing to drag it? Who wants it anyway?” (Minford 4). He continues to explain that of the numerous Chinese works that have been translated and re-translated into English, he only considers a few to have been successful. Minford later describes martial arts novels as a Chinese banquet in which westerners have no right to partake (Minford 31). He ends saying:!. ! !. The crucial consideration is whether or not the readers can believe in and visualize people fighting, whether or not they can hear people speaking. In order to achieve this goal, a whole lexicon has to be created, partly from the detail of Chinese kungfu, partly from whatever bits and pieces we can use--beg, borrow or steal, Hermes-magpie-like--from the Western traditions of fighting, wrestling, fencing, duelling. But more important than all of this is the rhythm of the language, the cut and thrust of the sentence and paragraph (Minford 35).!. I agree that readers must be able to relate to the characters and the story;. whether they can picture people fighting and speaking is one important determining factor of the success of a novel. But that should not depend solely on the martial arts and the lexicon used to describe them. Borrowing words from Western traditions could and will disappoint and confuse some readers. Translators cannot invent a new, wholly accepted lexicon overnight. A lexicon should be the aftereffect of creating English wuxia novels where readers can first and foremost accept the characters.!. ! !17.

(23) !. Lawrence Wong ends his Is Martial Arts Fiction in English Possible? on a more. positive note, stating that classical Greek literature may have been unaccepted and foreign at first in English translation, but over hundreds of years of exposure, English readers have become familiar with the cultural background. Just as with other foreign literatures, it is possible to slowly acclimatize Chinese culture and wuxia novels in English.! !. While an understandable presumption (although the only way to begin this. acclimatizing process would be to have more translations available in English and to get people to actually read them), Wong counters this statement saying translators have yet to “tame the hydra” (Wong 111) that is martial arts fiction. The three heads of his beast manifest themselves as unmanageable terms, fighting scenes, and cultural differences.! !. I might suggest that the former two heads perhaps both stem from the cultural. differences, but there is no denying that Chinese words specifically used for detailing martial arts, various names for geographical locations often used in wuxia novels, and a plethora of other terms can carry a significance to which most English readers may not be privy. Although he asks to be excused for sounding personal, he claims that fight scenes—“the essence of all martial arts fiction” (Wong 112)—in English translation are left lacking, presumably due to the absence of any exact correlations for these words in English. Wong compares Jin Yong’s dramatic fight scenes, which can run over several pages, to From Russia with Love, The Lord of the Rings, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. However, for Wong, Jin Yong’s fight scenes beat out all three.!. ! !18.

(24) !. Lingdun Wei (危令敦) separates readers of Chinese literature into three. categories: sinologists who read for knowledge, general readers who read for enjoyment, and students who read for both interest and for study. Wei believes that it would be difficult for the general populace to begin reading Chinese works—aside from classical Chinese literature which has an established readership in academia—because the quality of some translations leave much to be desired and the subject matter does not suit the tastes of Western readers. Wei looks at Minford’s The Deer and the Cauldron as an example, highlighting what he sees as the major advantages and disadvantages to the novel’s reception.! !. The story of The Deer and the Cauldron revolves around the antics of a trickster,. Wei Xiaobao (韋小寶) (Trinket in Minford’s translation). Wei asserts that as this type of character has roots in Western literature, citing Lazarillo de Tormes, a Spanish novel published in 1554 as an example of a similar picaresque novel. As the Chinese martial arts novel somewhat follows this picaresque tradition13, Wei believes this might appeal . to a foreign readership.! !. On the negative side, Wei is also uncertain about the cultural background: in this. specific example of The Deer and the Cauldron, the continuous presentation of China’s power during the height of the Qing Dynasty. He also has reservations about allusions to Genghis Khan and “the yellow peril,” asking “How could English readers not be shocked” (危令敦 97) after seeing the unfavorable stance the book takes against non-. ! 13. “The picaresque novel is a popular sub-genre of prose fiction which might sometimes be satirical and depicts, in realistic and often humorous detail, the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his wits in a corrupt society.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picaresque_novel !19.

(25) Chinese people—a famed pugilist losing in a contest of strength to the willowy Shuang’er 雙兒 (Doublet in Minford’s translation) and even Westerners being chased out of brothels by Trinket’s mother simply for being “foreign devils.”!. ! !. In contrast to what the translators themselves wrote, these aforementioned. papers on wuxia novels and their reception in English translation have no consensus on translation strategies or even target audience. Of course each translator will have a different approach, but most should agree that the intended end result is that people read and enjoy these novels. It is sad enough that these books do not share the readership they do in the Chinese-speaking world, but it is worse to try to pigeonhole them into being translated solely for those who practice some form of martial art or who merely wish to compare it to the original Chinese.! !. In fact, a look at some of the reviews of the translations on online booksellers. such as amazon.com gives the opposite impression. In the website’s five star rating system, the three books in the The Deer and the Cauldron series received a 4.6 (nineteen reviews total), a 4.4 (five reviews total), and a 3.8 (four reviews total), respectively. The Book and the Sword was given a 4.7 (seven reviews total), Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain a 3.8 (thirteen reviews total), and The Eleventh Son a 4.3 (fourteen reviews total). While it seems true these books have not had a wide readership, the readers they do have at least appear to be satisfied.! !. I do not think the mountain of decisions these translators have faced—for which. some have been unsparingly criticized, such as Minford’s translation of Chinese kungfu as “karate”—is a problem with the genre itself, but of the translator’s selection of novel. I !20.

(26) am not disputing Jin Yong’s fame, but I do disagree with the decision of most modern English translators of the genre to select his works as an introduction to wuxia fiction. Even the Preface to Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain tells readers that “Jin Yong [is] nearly impossible to translate.” In the next chapter, I will present Gu Long and his works in an effort to introduce another extremely popular author of wuxia novels—one with an extremely different writing style which I believe would carry into English translation much smoother than Jin Yong’s.!. !. !21.

(27) Chapter Three! Gu Long: His Life, His Works, His Style!. ! !. 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).! !. His studies never fell behind despite his situation (費勇, 鍾曉毅 4) and he was. able to put himself through to Tamkang University where he studied English. However. !22.

(28) 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. !23.

(29) 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 from publishers 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 women, but he often tossed the women he loved aside for the sake of his friends. He always thought that women were replaceable but good friends were hard to find; how. !24.

(30) 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.!. 14. 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. on September 16-17, 1982. !25.

(31) !. 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. ChengWen 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). 15 !. 古龍, 一個作家的成長与轉變.. 16 !. 古龍, 一個作家的成長与轉變 — 我為何改寫《鐵血大旗》. !26.

(32) 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. !27.

(33) 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, Gu Long explained that he was more satisfied with his later novels, attributing his success to the inspiration he received from these foreign novels (彭華 13). He. !28.

(34) 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.!. 17 !. 古龍, 談 “新” 與 “變”, 《大人物》代序. !29.

(35) !. 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. emulate Jin Yong when writing wuxia. Even after ten years, when I wrote A Fine Sword. !30.

(36) 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.!. 18 !. 古龍, 談我看過的武俠小說（二）.. 19 !. 古龍, 《多情劍客無情劍》代序. !31.

(37) !. 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.!. ! 20. 古龍, 談 “新” 與 “變”, 《大人物》代序.. 21 !. For an idea of his timeline, 江湖奇俠傳 was published in 1922, 蜀山劍俠傳 from 1932-1949, and 射雕英. 雄傳 from 1957-1959. 22 !. 古龍, 《多情劍客無情劍》代序. !32.

(38) !. 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. 23 !. 古龍, 說說武俠小說，《歡樂英雄》代序.. 24 !. 古龍,《多情劍客無情劍》代序. !33.

(39) 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，回眸道：「你坐得穩麼？」! ! 鐵⼼心男道：「嗯。」! ! 桃花道：「你若是坐不穩，最好抱住我，免得跌下⾺馬去。」! ! 鐵⼼心男道：「嗯。」居然毫不推辭，真的抱住了她。! ! 桃花都軟了，突然道：「只要你救了我的族⼈人，我……我什麼事都答應你。」! ! 鐵⼼心男道：「嗯。」! ! 桃花眸⼦子⽴立刻⼜又發出了光，⾺馬打得更急，這段路本不短，但桃花卻覺得仿佛⼀一下⼦子就到了。! ! 他們已可瞧⾒見那⿈黃⾊色的帳篷，已可聽⾒見聲聲驚呼。! ! 桃花道：「我們是不是就這樣衝進去？」! ! 話未說完，突⾒見⼀一條⽩白⾊色的⼈人影，突然⾃自⾝身後直飛了出去，本來坐在⾺馬股上的鐵⼼心男，已站在⼗十丈外。! ! 桃花⼜又驚⼜又喜，趕緊勒住了⾺馬。! ! 只⾒見鐵⼼心男筆直地站在那裡，雪⽩白的⾐衣衫雖然染了灰塵，但在陽光下，看來仍是那麼乾淨，那么瀟灑。! ! 這正是每個⼥女孩⼦子夢寐中盼望的情⼈人。! ! 桃花⼼心裡飄飄盪盪，幾乎將什麼事都忘了。! ! 但驚呼叱罵聲仍不住傳來，鐵⼼心男已在厲聲喝道：! ! 「鐵⼼心男在這裡！誰要來找我？」! ! 驚呼叱罵聲突然⼀一⿑齊消寂。! ! ⾵風吹草⻑⾧長，鐵⼼心男⾐衣袂飄飄。(225-226)!. ! !. He patted his white horse on the head. “Oh, horse, let’s go see what all the excitement’s about. But if you see a pretty mare, better keep your distance. We’re still young; if you get caught now, you’ll never be free.”!. !. ! Peach Blossom whipped the horse faster, her beautiful hair blew in the wind—and right into Cinran’s face. But he didn’t move a muscle; he didn’t feel a thing.! ! Peach Blossom could feel his hot breath on the back of her neck. It made her limp. She clutched the reigns tighter and glanced back. “Are you steady in your seat?”! !34.

(40) ! “Mm,” he grunted.! ! “If you feel like you might fall off, hold on to me so you don’t.”! ! Without another word he put his arms around her.! ! Peach Blossom melted. “If you save my people, I, I’ll do anything in return.”! ! “Mm.”! ! Peach Blossom’s eyes lit up; she whipped the horse faster. Their road wasn’t short, but to Peach Blossom it only took a few moments.! ! She could already hear screams among the yellow tents.! ! “Should we ride in just like this?” asked Peach Blossom.! ! As she finished her question, a blurry white figure suddenly vaulted over her. Cinran was already standing ten yards in front.! ! Peach Blossom was astonished and overjoyed. She yanked the horse to a halt.! ! She watched Cinran stand there like a statue. His white shirt was covered in dust, but with the bright sun it looked clean and pristine.! ! This was the man of every girl’s dreams.! ! Peach Blossom’s heart fluttered; she almost forgot what was happening.! ! The screams still spread. “Cinran T’ye is here!” he shouted, “Who’s looking for me?”! ! The screams suddenly fell silent.! ! The wind blew through the grass; Cinran’s clothes flapped in the wind.!. !. Scenes change subjects with no more than a break on the page and most of his sentences are short descriptive sentences describing scenery which break up large amounts of dialogue, much like a movie script might read.! !. Gu Long’s writings have had a large impact on the evolution of Taiwanese martial. arts novels. Many authors after him were influenced by his unique style, whether it be simply emulating his techniques or generating new styles diverging from his (彭華 323). After Gu Long, using shorter sentences and more imagery techniques quickly became a popular trend (費勇, 鍾曉毅 42).!. ! Martial Arts and Character Development! !. Most martial arts novels explain where the main characters learned their skills. and provide long narratives of their studies. Jin Yong is no exception to this norm, and in. !35.

(41) his early career, neither was Gu Long. But as he developed as an author, he began to remove most of the detail from his fight scenes.! !. He believed that “martial arts are meant for killing people, not for putting on a. show” (費勇, 鍾曉毅 49) and completely removed the extravagant depictions of martial arts. As Liu Qiaoyun (劉巧雲) related, “Descriptions of martial arts were not at the center of Gu Long’s novels...In his novels, the more intense the confrontation, the less fighting he described...he spent more time building the atmosphere and each character’s aura of vigor, but when they actually started fighting, it was over within one move, or you could tell who would be victorious simply from their dialogue” (劉巧雲 100). Often characters are able to defeat an opponent in an instant, leaving bystanders guessing what exactly happened, giving his fight scenes a completely different flavor than Jin Yong’s lengthy, intricate contests. ! !. Over the history of martial arts and martial arts fiction in China, readers have. become familiar with the different schools and sects portrayed through the novels. Traditionally, each character in the novel would learn particular styles of martial arts. Again Gu Long breaks from tradition, replacing it one of his favorite devices, the “move that is not a real move” (無招之招)25 (費勇, 鍾曉毅 47). He does not disclose where his . characters learned their skills and created many fantastical schools of martial arts. Characters within the novel never fail to recognize these movements, but Gu Long only. 25 !. This is similar to Jin Yong’s “the one with no moves defeats those with moves” (無招勝有招), first de-. scribed in his 1959 The Return of the Condor Heroes (神鵰俠侶). While Gu Long did not create this idea, unlike Jin Yong who originally used this to describe one character, he was the first to favor it for most of his characters. Many characters in Gu Long’s stories do not belong to one of the mainstream schools of martial arts and sometimes have their own special and strange skills. !36.

(42) provides the name of a certain move without further explanation, leaving the rest up to the reader’s imagination (Liu 2006, 105).!. ! !. Aside from departing from the norm of including the childhood of the main. character, Gu Long often wrote much of himself into his characters. “An artist’s works contain more than just his personality and education; they are closely interconnected with his circumstances in life and his emotions, especially writers who give form to their feelings and experiences in writing. If you don’t any have those experiences, how can you create such imaginative ideas?”26! . !. Many male characters in Gu Long’s later novels were vagabonds with very little. explained about their pasts. For the most part, his characters experienced some sort of abandonment; many were orphans who had trouble fitting in with society (費勇, 鍾曉毅 52). Like Jiang Yu’er 江魚兒 in Legendary Siblings (Minnow in my translation), Gu Long was a lonely orphan who cared nothing for money. Like Li Xunhuan 李尋歡 from The Sentimental Swordsman (Duoqing Jianke Wuqing Jian 多情劍客無情劍) and many of his other characters, Gu Long was somewhat of a vagrant. Like Wang Dong 王動 in The Happy Hero (Huanle Yingxiong 歡樂英雄), he was homeless at a young age, later picked up and saved by a great “martial artist.” And like Guo Dalu 郭大路, also from The Happy Hero, he had an incredible fondness for alcohol. He wrote many stories of the. 26 !. Originally in Gu Long’s “不是不幸” published in 《民生報》 on May 8, 1984. Cited from Su Zifei’s (蘇姿. 妃) 仗劍江湖載酒行 — 古龍的生命歷程與其創作風格之關係, 26. !37.

(43) hardships and discrimination these people underwent as they “constantly sought selfvalidation and understanding” (費勇, 鍾曉毅 51).!. ! Settings! !. Jin Yong wrote fifteen martial arts novels over his seventeen-year career, drawing. inspiration from China’s past rich history, sometimes even taking actual historical figures and events and making them into a wuxia story (費勇, 鍾曉毅 113). He took themes from classical literature—“Many plots in his works echo conventional ‘records of the strange’ (zhiguai) or the anecdotes in the miscellanies (biji xiaoshuo) by authors of late imperial China. Moreover, his novels are filled with allusions to the Buddhist sutras, Daoist classics, as well as to such philosophical texts as Zhuangzi and Laozi, which he nicely integrates into the structure of the story” (Tian, 222)—and also incorporated religious elements—“Many motifs in Jin Yong’s novels have a resonance with the traditional values of Daoism and Buddhism” (Tian, 222). Jin Yong’s political opinions also crept into his novels; he was quoted “saying that he was so disgusted by some people’s pursuit of power at the expense of any moral decency during the Cultural Revolution that he could not help criticizing these people in his martial arts novels.” (Shen 214).! !. Unlike Jin Yong, Gu Long liked to leave the setting relatively blank. As his stories. are closer to detective novels or romantic fiction which hardly ever incorporated ethnic conflicts or people in search of treasure (費勇, 鍾曉毅 38), the settings for his stories were not necessarily related to the plot. Gu Long never discloses a specific historical. !38.

(44) time period or dynasty during which his stories take place, simply favoring phrases such as “a long time ago” (從前) or “at that time” (那一段時間) (費勇, 鍾曉毅 38). There are also very few geographical cues, rarely alerting readers to a specific city in which the events are unfolding. For the most part, Gu Long simply mentions the name of a province, river, or mountain to alert readers to the movement of the story. !. ! !. Some of Gu Long’s books are still being reprinted today. Even in Hong Kong and. China, Gu Long has not been completely extinguished by Jin Yong (彭華 324). He has been listed as the top martial arts novelist in Taiwan by Taiwanese wuxia researcher Ye Hongsheng (費勇, 鍾曉毅 17). Although there is no disagreement that Jin Yong is the most famous and popular wuxia novelist, Hong Kong author James Wong (黃霑 1941-2004) has said, “If you set aside whose novels are better, Gu Long’s or Jin Yong’s, and solely consider the number of authors they inspired, Gu Long has to be on top” (費勇, 鍾曉毅 18). According to Hong Kong author Yan Qing (燕青), “It seems Jin Yong is the only one who can compare with Gu Long in terms of volume of sales or breadth of circulation. Even for those who do not read the novels, Gu Long’s works are often seen on the silver screen or on television. Again, if we contemplate the number of novels that have been adapted into movies or television series, only Jin Yong can compete with him” (費勇, 鍾曉毅 15).!. ! Legendary Siblings!. !39.