Jin Yong
Louis Cha | |||||||||||||||||
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![]() Jin Yong in July 2007 | |||||||||||||||||
Born | Zha Liangyong (查良鏞) 10 March 1924 Haining, Zhejiang, Republic of China | ||||||||||||||||
Died | (aged 94) Happy Valley, Hong Kong | ||||||||||||||||
Pen name | Jin Yong | ||||||||||||||||
Occupation | Novelist, essayist, newspaper founder and editor, policymaker | ||||||||||||||||
Nationality | Chinese | ||||||||||||||||
Alma mater | Soochow University University of Cambridge[1] Peking University | ||||||||||||||||
Period | 1955–1972 | ||||||||||||||||
Genre | Wuxia | ||||||||||||||||
Spouse |
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Children | two sons and two daughters | ||||||||||||||||
Relatives | |||||||||||||||||
Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||
Chinese | |||||||||||||||||
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Birth name | |||||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 查良鏞 | ||||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 查良镛 | ||||||||||||||||
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Website | |||||||||||||||||
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Louis Cha Jing-yong[3] GBM OBE (Chinese: 查良鏞; Sidney Lau: Cha4 Leung4 Yung4; 10 March 1924 – 30 October 2018), better known by his pen name Jin Yong, was a Chinese wuxia ("martial arts and chivalry") novelist and essayist who co-founded the Hong Kong daily newspaper Ming Pao in 1959 and served as its first editor-in-chief. He was Hong Kong's most famous writer.[4]
His wuxia novels have a widespread following in Chinese communities worldwide. His 15 works written between 1955 and 1972 earned him a reputation as one of the greatest and most popular wuxia writers ever. By the time of his death he was the best-selling Chinese author, and over 100 million copies of his works have been sold worldwide[5] (not including an unknown number of pirated copies).[6] According to The Oxford Guide to Contemporary World Literature, Jin Yong's novels are considered to be of very high quality and are able to appeal to both highbrow and lowbrow tastes.[4] His works have the unusual ability to transcend geographical and ideological barriers separating Chinese communities of the world, achieving a greater success than any other contemporary writer.[4]
His works have been translated into many languages including English, French, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese, Malay and Indonesian. He has many fans outside of Chinese-speaking areas, as a result of the numerous adaptations of his works into films, television series, comics and video games.
The asteroid 10930 Jinyong (1998 CR2) is named after him.[7]
Jin Yong is named along with Gu Long and Liang Yusheng as the "Three Legs of the Tripod of Wuxia".
Early life
Cha was born Zha Liangyong in Haining, Zhejiang in Republican China, the second of six children. He hailed from the scholarly Zha clan of Haining (
Cha was an avid reader of literature from an early age, especially wuxia and classical fiction. He was once expelled from his high school for openly criticising the Nationalist government as autocratic. He studied at Jiaxing High School in 1937 but was expelled in 1941. He continued his high school education at Quzhou No. 1 Secondary School and graduated in 1943.[11]
Education
Cha was admitted to the Department of Foreign Languages at the Central University of Political Affairs in Chongqing.[12] Cha later dropped out of the school. He took the entrance exam and gained admission to the Faculty of Law at Soochow University, where he majored in international law with the intention of pursuing a career in the foreign service.
Career
Cha was a journalist. When Cha was transferred to New Evening Post (of British Hong Kong) as Deputy Editor, he met Chen Wentong, who wrote his first wuxia novel under the pseudonym "Liang Yusheng" in 1953. Chen and Cha became good friends and it was under the former's influence that Cha began work on his first serialised martial arts novel, The Book and the Sword, in 1955. In 1957, while still working on wuxia serialisations, he quit his previous job and worked as a scenarist-director and scriptwriter at Great Wall Movie Enterprises Ltd and Phoenix Film Company.
In 1959, Cha co-founded the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao with his high school classmate Shen Baoxin (沈寶
By then, Cha's wuxia novels had gained great popularity in Chinese-speaking areas. All of his novels have since been adapted into films, TV shows and radio dramas in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. The important characters in his novels are so well known to the public that they can be alluded to with ease between all three regions.
In the late 1970s, Cha was involved in Hong Kong politics. After Deng Xiaoping, a Jin Yong fan, came to power and initiated the reform and opening-up process, Cha became the first non-Communist Hong Konger to meet with Deng.[14] He was a member of the Hong Kong Basic Law drafting committee but resigned in protest after the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989. He was also part of the Preparatory Committee set up in 1996 by the Chinese government to monitor the 1997 transfer of sovereignty.[15]
In 1993, Cha prepared for retirement from editorial work and sold all his shares in Ming Pao.
Personal life
Cha had four brothers and two sisters. He was the second oldest among them. His brothers were Zha Liangjian (查良鏗; 1916–1988),[16] Zha Lianghao (查良
Cha married three times. His first wife was Du Zhifen (
Death
On 30 October 2018, Cha died after a long illness at the Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital in Happy Valley, Hong Kong. He was 94.[24] [25]
Decorations and conferments
In addition to his wuxia novels, Cha also wrote many non-fiction works on Chinese history. For his achievements, he received many honours.
Cha was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the British government in 1981. He was awarded a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur (1992) and a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2004) by the French government.[26]
Cha was also an honorary professor at Peking University, Zhejiang University, Nankai University, Soochow University, Huaqiao University, National Tsing Hua University, Hong Kong University (Department of Chinese Studies), the University of British Columbia, and Sichuan University. Cha was an honorary doctor at National Chengchi University, Hong Kong University (Department of Social Science), Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the Open University of Hong Kong, the University of British Columbia, Soka University and the University of Cambridge. He was also an honorary fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford and Robinson College, Cambridge, and a Waynflete Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.
When receiving his honorary doctorate at the University of Cambridge in 2004, Cha expressed his wish to be a full-time student at Cambridge for four years to attain a non-honorary doctorate.[27] In July 2010, Cha earned his Doctor of Philosophy in oriental studies (Chinese history) at St John's College, Cambridge with a thesis on imperial succession in the early Tang dynasty.[28] [29]
Novels
Cha wrote a total of 15 fictional works, of which one ("Sword of the Yue Maiden") is a short story and the other 14 are novels and novellas of various lengths. Most of his novels were first published in daily instalments in newspapers, then later in book editions. The novels are:
English title | Chinese title[T 1] | Date of first publication[30] | First published publication[30] | Character count |
---|---|---|---|---|
The Book and the Sword | 8 February 1955 – 5 September 1956 | New Evening Post | 513,000 | |
Sword Stained with Royal Blood | 1 January 1956 – 31 December 1956 | Hong Kong Commercial Daily | 488,000 | |
The Legend of the Condor Heroes | 1 January 1957 – 19 May 1959 | Hong Kong Commercial Daily | 918,000 | |
Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain | 9 February 1959 – 18 June 1959 | New Evening Post | 130,000 | |
The Return of the Condor Heroes | 20 May 1959 – 5 July 1961 | Ming Pao | 979,000 | |
The Young Flying Fox | 11 January 1960 – 6 April 1962 | Wuxia and History ( |
439,000 | |
White Horse Neighs in the Western Wind | 16 October 1961 – 10 January 1962 | Ming Pao | 67,000 | |
Blade-dance of the Two Lovers | 1 May 1961 – 31 May 1961 | Ming Pao | 34,000 | |
The Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber | 倚天 |
6 July 1961 – 2 September 1963 | Ming Pao | 956,000 |
A Deadly Secret | 12 January 1964 – 28 February 1965 | Southeast Asia Weekly ( |
229,000 | |
Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils | 3 September 1963 – 27 May 1966 | Ming Pao and Nanyang Siang Pau | 1,211,000 | |
Ode to Gallantry | 俠客 |
11 June 1966 – 19 April 1967 | Ming Pao | 364,000 |
The Smiling, Proud Wanderer | 20 April 1967 – 12 October 1969 | Ming Pao | 979,000 | |
The Deer and the Cauldron | 24 October 1969 – 23 September 1972 | Ming Pao | 1,230,000 | |
Sword of the Yue Maiden | 1 January 1970 – 31 January 1970 | Ming Pao evening supplement | 16,000 |
- ^ Click to sort in order of the first-character couplet "
飛 雪 連 天 射 白 鹿 笑 書 神 俠倚碧 鴛 ".
Of these, the novels (The Legend of the Condor Heroes, The Return of the Condor Heroes, and The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber) make up the Condor Trilogy and should be read in that order; a number of his other works are also linked to this trilogy (Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils is a precursor to the Condor Trilogy). Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain and The Young Flying Fox are companion works with the same protagonist and characters from The Book and the Sword appear. A few major characters from Sword Stained with Royal Blood also appear in his final novel The Deer and the Cauldron as minor characters.
Couplet
After Cha completed all his works, it was discovered that the first characters of the first 14 titles can be joined together to form a couplet with 7 characters on each line:
飞雪连天
- Loose translation
Shooting a white deer, snow flutters around the skies;
Smiling, [one] writes about the divine chivalrous one,
leaning against bluish lovebirds (or lover)
Cha stated that he had never intended to create the couplet. The couplet serves primarily as a handy mnemonic to remember all of Cha's works for his fans.
- "Sword of the Yue Maiden" was left out because it would be an odd number, thus the couplet would not be complete, also because the "Sword of the Yue Maiden" was so short it was not even considered a book.
Editions
Most of Cha's works were initially published in instalments in Hong Kong newspapers, most often in Ming Pao. The Return of the Condor Heroes was his first novel serialised in Ming Pao, launched on 20 May 1959. Between 1970 and 1980, Cha revised all of his works. The revised works of his stories are known as the "New Edition" (
In Taiwan, the situation is more complicated, as Cha's books were initially banned. As a result, there were multiple editions published underground, some of which were revised beyond recognition. Only in 1979 was Cha's complete collection published by Taiwan's Yuenching Publishing House (
In China, the Wulin (
From 1999 to 2006, Cha revised his novels for the second and last time. Each of his works is carefully revised, re-edited and re-issued in the order in which he wrote them. This revision was completed in spring 2006, with the publication of the last novel, The Deer and the Cauldron. The newer revised edition, known variably as the "New Century Edition" (
Patriotism, jianghu and development of heroism
Chinese nationalism or patriotism is a strong theme in Cha's works. In most of his works, Cha places emphasis on the idea of self-determination and identity, and many of his novels are set in time periods when China was occupied or under the threat of occupation by non-Han Chinese peoples such as the Khitans, Jurchens, Mongols and Manchus. However, Cha gradually evolved his Chinese nationalism into an inclusionist concept which encompasses all present-day non-Han Chinese minorities. Cha expresses a fierce admiration for positive traits of non-Han Chinese people personally, such as the Mongols and Manchus. In The Legend of the Condor Heroes, for example, he casts Genghis Khan and his sons as capable and intelligent military leaders against the corrupt and ineffective bureaucrats of the Han Chinese-led Song dynasty.
Cha's references range from traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, martial arts, music, calligraphy, weiqi, tea culture, philosophical schools of thought such as Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism and imperial Chinese history. Historical figures often intermingle with fictional ones, making it difficult for the layperson to distinguish which are real.
His works show a great amount of respect and approval for traditional Chinese values, especially Confucian ideals such as the proper relationship between ruler and subject, parent and child, elder sibling and younger sibling, and (particularly strongly, due to the wuxia nature of his novels), between master and apprentice, and among fellow apprentices. However, he also questions the validity of these values in the face of a modern society, such as ostracism experienced by his two main characters – Yang Guo's romantic relationship with his teacher Xiaolongnü in The Return of the Condor Heroes. Cha also places a great amount of emphasis on traditional values such as face and honour.
In all but his 14th work, The Deer and the Cauldron, the protagonists or heroes are explored meticulously through their relationships with their teachers, their immediate kin and relatives, and with their suitors or spouses. In each, the heroes have attained the zenith in martial arts and most would be the epitome or embodiment of the traditional Chinese values in words or deeds, i.e. virtuous, honourable, respectable, gentlemanly, responsible, patriotic, and so forth.
In The Deer and the Cauldron, Cha departed from his usual writing style, creating in its main protagonist Wei Xiaobao an antihero who is greedy, lazy, and utterly disdainful of traditional rules of propriety. Cha intentionally created an anticlimax and an antihero possessing none of the desirable traditional values and no knowledge of any form of martial arts, and dependent upon a protective vest made of alloy to absorb full-frontal attack when in trouble and a dagger that can cut through anything. Wei is a street urchin and womanising weasel, with no admirable qualities whatsoever.[citation needed] The fiction writer Ni Kuang wrote a connected[clarification needed] critique of all of Cha's works and concluded that Cha concluded his work with The Deer and the Cauldron as a satire to his earlier work and to restore a balanced perspective in readers.
Criticisms
The study of Cha's works has spun off a specific area of study and discussion: Jinology. For years, readers and critics have written works discussing, debating and analysing his fictional world of martial arts; among the most famous are those by Cha's close friend and science fiction novelist, Ni Kuang. Ni is a fan of Cha, and has written a series of criticisms analysing the various personalities and aspects of his books called I Read Jin Yong's Novels (
Despite Cha's popularity, some of his novels were banned outside of Hong Kong due to political reasons. A number of them were outlawed in the People's Republic of China in the 1970s as they were thought to be satires of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution; others were banned in the Republic of China (Taiwan) as they were thought to be in support of the Communist Party of China. None of these bans are currently in force, and Cha's complete collection has been published multiple times in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Many politicians on both sides of the Straits are known to be readers of his works; Deng Xiaoping, for example, was a well-known reader himself.
In late 2004, the People's Education Publishing House (
Timeline
Era | Novel |
---|---|
6th century BC | Sword of the Yue Maiden |
11th century | Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils |
13th century | The Legend of the Condor Heroes The Return of the Condor Heroes |
14th century | The Heavenly Sword and the Dragon Saber |
16th century | (The Smiling, Proud Wanderer) (Ode to Gallantry) |
17th century | White Horse Neighs in the Western Wind Sword Stained With Royal Blood The Deer and the Cauldron (A Deadly Secret) |
18th century | Blade-dance of the Two Lovers The Book and the Sword The Young Flying Fox Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain |
Translations of Cha's works
English books currently available include:
- The Book and the Sword – published by Oxford University Press, translated by Graham Earnshaw, edited by John Minford and Rachel May.
- The Deer and the Cauldron (in three volumes) – published by Oxford University Press, translated by John Minford.
- Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain – published by Chinese University Press, translated by Olivia Mok.
(Legend of the Condor Heroes (1): A Hero Is Born was expected to be published in February 2018[34][35])
Other works available in English include:
- The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber – in comic book form by Ma Wing-shing, published by ComicsOne
- The Legendary Couple – in comic book form by Tony Wong, published by ComicsOne
- The Return of the Condor Heroes – in comic book form by Wee Tian Beng, published by Asiapac Books
- Laughing in the Wind – DVD collection of the 2001 CCTV series with English subtitles released in the United States.
Adaptations
There are over 90 films and TV shows adapted from Cha's wuxia novels, including King Hu's The Swordsman (1990) and its sequel Swordsman II (1992), Wong Jing's 1992 films Royal Tramp and Royal Tramp II, and Wong Kar-wai's Ashes of Time (1994). Dozens of role-playing video games are based on Cha's novels, a notable example of which is Heroes of Jin Yong, which was based on the major characters and events in Cha's novels.
See also
References
- ^ "'Cha Stone' unveiled". St John's College, Cambridge. 31 July 2012. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
- ^ a b c
金 庸 和 他 的 两位母 亲生母 是 徐 志摩 堂 姑 妈 - ^ "THE PRECEDENCE LIST OF THE HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION" (PDF). Protocol Division Government Secretariat of Hong Kong. October 2018. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
- ^ a b c John Sturrock (1997). The Oxford Guide to Contemporary World Literature. Oxford University Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-19-283318-1.
- ^ Jin Yong and Daisaku Ikeda (2013). Compassionate Light in Asia: A Dialogue. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1848851986.
- ^ Template:Zh icon
金 庸 与 武 侠影视 CCTV. 24 June 2004. Retrieved 4 August 2006. - ^ Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (10001)-(15000) IAU: Minor Planet Center 13 July 2006. Retrieved 4 August 2006.
- ^ Frisch, Nick (13 April 2018). "The Gripping Stories, and Political Allegories, of China's Best-Selling Author" – via www.newyorker.com.
- ^ Chen, Mo (2001). Shijue Jin Yong (
視覺 金 庸 ) (in Chinese). Vol. Volume 1 (卷 初 ). Taiwan: Yuan-Liou Publishing Company. ISBN 9573244659.{{cite book}}
:|volume=
has extra text (help) - ^ "
金 庸 父 亲查枢 卿 1950年 被 人民 政府 枪决内幕 (图) [Behind the People's Government's execution of Jin Yong's father Zha Shuqing in 1950 (illustrated)]". wenxuecity.com (in Chinese). 18 October 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2018. - ^ "Jin Yong and Quzhou". Zhejiang Quzhou No. 1 Middle School (in Chinese). 1 October 2004. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
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(help) - ^ Li, Wei. "Brief profile of Jin Yong". Jin Yong Inn (in Chinese). Retrieved 22 August 2018.
- ^ Wu, Kung-tsao (2006) [1980]. Wu Family T'ai Chi Ch'uan (
吳 家 太極拳 ). Chien-ch'uan T'ai-chi Ch'uan Association. ISBN 0-9780499-0-X. - ^ Hamm, John Christopher (2006). Paper Swordsmen: Jin Yong And the Modern Chinese Martial Arts Novel. University of Hawaii Press. p. 198. ISBN 9780824828950.
- ^ "Novelist, newspaper founder and sage". Asiaweek. 24 September 1999. Archived from the original on 20 September 2001. Retrieved 22 November 2007.
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suggested) (help) - ^ "查良铿与
金 庸 :"情 比 金 坚"手足 情 [The relationship between Jin Yong and Zha Liangjian is "stronger than metal"]". www.xzbu.com (in Chinese). 3 April 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2016. - ^ "
金 庸 大 弟 查良浩 :代 哥当上 董 事 长 [Jin Yong's brother Zha Lianghao: Replacing his brother as Board Chairman]". hao1111.cn (in Chinese). 2014. Archived from the original on 6 August 2016. Retrieved 27 May 2016.{{cite web}}
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suggested) (help) - ^ Pan, Zeping. "
金 庸 兄弟 的 手足 情 [The relationships between Jin Yong and his brothers]". shuku.net (in Chinese). Retrieved 27 May 2016. - ^
金 庸 旧 照 上 的 印 痕 - 蒋连根 (图) - ^ "
金 庸 和 他 的 两个妹 妹 [Jin Yong and his two younger sisters]". www.xzbu.com (in Chinese). 7 October 2012. Retrieved 27 May 2016. - ^ "
中国 最 著名 的 十 大老 夫 少 妻 【图】 [Ten Most Famous Old Husband Young Wife Couples in China (Illustrated)]". laonanren.com (in Chinese). 13 August 2010. Retrieved 27 May 2016. - ^ Swashbuckler Extraordinaire – A Profile of Jin Yong. Taiwan Panorama. 1998. Retrieved 10 January 2010 [dead link]
- ^ "揭"
大 侠"金 庸 4子女 :长子查传侠19岁时为情自 缢 [Jin Yong's four children: Eldest son Zha Chuanxia hanged himself at the age of 19 due to relationship problems]". culture.ifeng.com (in Chinese). 1 April 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2016. - ^ "Famed Chinese martial arts novelist Jin Yong dies aged 94: Hong Kong media". The Straits Times. 30 October 2018. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
- ^ "Louis Cha 'Jin Yong', the man who united Chinese in the name of chivalry". SCMP. 31 October 2018. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
- ^ Louis Cha Awarded French Honor of Arts Xinhua News Agency. 14 October 2004. Retrieved 4 August 2006.
- ^ Octogenarian novelist wants to be student Shenzhen Daily. 23 June 2004. Retrieved 4 August 2006.
- ^ 以盛
唐 皇位 制度 作 论文金 大 侠考获剑大 博士 学位 2010-09-12, - ^ Louis, Cha, (14 April 2018). "The imperial succession in Tang China, 618-762". University of Cambridge.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b The dates conform to the data published in
陳 鎮輝,《武 俠小說 逍遙 談 》, 2000, 匯智出版 有限 公司 , pp. 56–58;創意 寫 作 系列 :書寫 香港 @文學 故事 , 2008, Hong Kong Educational Publishing Company, p. 169; and the website世上 所有 的 正 版 金 庸 小 说清单, authorised by the author - ^ While Wang Yuyan accompanied Duan Yu back to Dali in older revisions, in the new revision she refused and stayed to serve Murong Fu instead. See Chapter 50 of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils.
- ^ See
金 庸 小 说. - ^ Template:Zh icon
金 庸 小 说也走进本地 教材 Lianhe Zaobao. 4 March 2005. Retrieved 4 August 2006. - ^ "Female Oxford Grad to Publish Her Translation of Chinese Classical "Wuxia" Novel". Women of China. 28 October 2017.
- ^ Thorpe, Vanessa (26 November 2017). "A hero reborn: 'China's Tolkien' aims to conquer western readers". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
Further reading
- Stateless Subjects: Chinese Martial Arts Literature and Postcolonial History, Chapters 3 and 4. Petrus Liu. (Cornell University, 2011).
External links
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/34px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png)
- Template:Zh icon Jin Yong Teahouse (
金 庸 茶 館 ) – fansite of Jin Yong's novels in Chinese - Template:Zh icon Jin Yong Jianghu (
金 庸 江湖 ) – fansite, forums and complete works of Jin Yong's novels - Jin Yong at IMDb
- Jin Yong in the Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction
- Jin Yong (Chinese author) at the Encyclopædia Britannica
- Jin Yong
- 1924 births
- 2018 deaths
- Chinese historical novelists
- Hong Kong novelists
- Recipients of the Grand Bauhinia Medal
- Hangzhou High School alumni
- Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
- Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire
- Members of the Preparatory Committee for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
- Wuxia writers
- Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur
- Hong Kong newspaper people
- Pseudonymous writers
- Writers from Jiaxing
- Hong Kong BLCC members
- Hong Kong BLDC members
- Chinese male novelists
- Chinese essayists
- People from Haining