I am not a big fan of many of the modern Wuxia novels (post Jin Yong's retirement), many whose language ranks only a little higher than the equivalent of Young Adult (YA) books in the west, without any of the originality of storyline. So it was to my surprise that there was a big hooha earlier this year when Shangguan Ding (上官鼎), a famous Taiwan wuxia author was coming out of retirement to publish a new martial arts novel after 46 years.
Originally consisting of three brothers (sons of an Air Force General who all went on to obtain doctorates in engineering), who wrote the novels together in their teens (hence the name, which refers to a tripod used for cooking during the Zhou and Shang dynasties). They were relatively well known in the 1960s in Taiwan and not really that famous in Hong Kong. But did publish 7-8 novels 《蘆野俠蹤》（1960）、《長干行》（1961）、《沉沙谷》（1961）、《鐵騎令》（1961）、《烽原豪俠傳》（1962）、《七步干戈》（1963）、《俠骨關》（1964）、《金刀亭》（1966）, which included ghostwriting one for the famous wuxia author Gu Long《劍毒梅香》（1960）. The brothers stopped writing towards the end of the 60s so that they could go abroad to study.
The one brother that had come back out from retirement used to be the Head of the Executive Yuan in Taiwan - Liu Zhaoxuan (劉兆玄) and he has written a novel called《王道劍》(which can be translated to something like "Sword of the Kingly/Stately Way...王道 is the Confucian concept of the proper way to run a benevolent government).
The novel is set during the early part of the Ming dynasty and focuses heavily on the usurpation of the throne by Prince Yan, the uncle of the Jian Wen Emperor, who later became the great Emperor Yongle. It was inspired by recent archaeological evidence that the Jian Wen Emperor did not die in a fire as many believed, but eventually spent his remaining years as a monk in Ningde in the province of Fujian. A series of color plates in the final volume presents the archaeological evidence for this as well as pictures of many of the settings in the book. The eunuch Zhenghe also makes an appearance and it is speculated that his remarkable voyages were also motivated by the search for the deposed Emperor overseas.
This new evidence seemed to really get Liu Zhaoxuan's creative juices going and he wrote close to 880,000 words in half a year. The book has been released with a number of heavy hitting endorsements from both the academic and literary sectors in Taiwan. Jin Yong also mentioned that Shang Guan Ding was one of his favorite authors. The novel is published by Yuanliu publishing, same company that publishes Jin Yong's work in Taiwan.
This new evidence seemed to really get Liu Zhaoxuan's creative juices going and he wrote close to 880,000 words in half a year. The book has been released with a number of heavy hitting endorsements from both the academic and literary sectors in Taiwan. Jin Yong also mentioned that Shang Guan Ding was one of his favorite authors. The novel is published by Yuanliu publishing, same company that publishes Jin Yong's work in Taiwan.
I recently finished the five volumes and was pleasantly surprised by the content and I would definitely rate this amongst the best wuxia I have read, after Jin Yong. Although the usual martial arts tropes are there, such as revenge, finding the secret martial arts manual(s), the evil villains, the main difference is that it is based upon a real historical incident and backdrop. Thus sections of the book are dedicated to describing actual battles and campaigns (which lends the novel more than a passing resemblance to Tolstoy's War and Peace) before reverting to the Wuxia storyline which involves three high level fighting monks from India who are agitating to gain hegemony over the martial arts world in China. Besides an exciting story there are also meditations on what is nature of justice, the futility of revenge, what constitutes good government and why does it not last, loyalty, sacrifice and other sweeping questions. (In this respect there are some resemblances to Jin Yong's Condor Shooting Heroes.) And the author's psychological study of the Yongle Emperor is astute and presents us with an understanding of why he acted the way he did, even if we do not sympathize with his methods.
The focus on the politics and Confucian aspect of Chinese culture is something which is different from many martial arts novels which tend to focus upon the Daoist or Buddhist aspects of Chinese history, be it an emphasis on internal alchemy and almost magical powers, or the impermanence or vanity of fame and power. Instead the theme underlying the book is a meditation of what constitutes good government, and how one can govern in an enlightened manner without excessive use of violence or a big stick. The politics of the court and the differing motivations of the key players is something which the author conveys with authority, given his background in the cut and thrust of Taiwanese politics. (There are also shades of a Game of Thrones during these sections.) But the suffering of the common people, whose main motivation is to lead a good life and have no interest in who ultimately sits on the throne and the horrors of war are ever present. These questions continue to bedevil Chinese society and can be seen reflected in the recent purges of Xi Jinping.
The novel is not without its flaws, however. My main reservation on the book is that at 5 volumes, the novel is rather long, and large sections could have been cut with a better editor, who was not afraid to stand up to the writer. There also seems to have been a bit of a race to finish the novel which was indicated by a profusion of new characters that only emerged in the final volume.
The second issue problem with the novel is that the powers of the main characters are pitched too high, with a number of martial artists breaking ground or reaching levels that have never been reached in history. (If you have ever played traditional Dungeons and Dragons, one knows that if your characters reach immortal levels with god-like powers, this rapidly takes out much of the challenge and fun of the game.) This could be why even though this is a marital arts novel, the descriptions of the duels and fighting falls rather flat as do the description of the martial arts training and breakthroughs (the part I like the most in movies and novels). Concepts coined by the author like 生生不息 and 脫胎換骨 seemed unconvincing to me as high level martial arts principles.
The author indicated in an interview with the Taiwanese media that, unlike Jin Yong, he was not so interested in the martial part of the marital arts novel and focus on each movement and style but was more interested in the setup and character development. It was telling to note that in the early years it was his two elder brothers who were responsible for scripting the fighting and romantic scenes while he was responsible for everything else and I believe this shows, as the romance in the novel remains strictly PG, without any nudity or sexual violence, with any intimacy between the protagonists being strictly implied.
However all in all, it was an entertaining read, and offered great value for money in terms of entertainment time per dollar spent. I would highly recommend this to those who are looking for something different from Jin Yong but remains of a high quality.
The focus on the politics and Confucian aspect of Chinese culture is something which is different from many martial arts novels which tend to focus upon the Daoist or Buddhist aspects of Chinese history, be it an emphasis on internal alchemy and almost magical powers, or the impermanence or vanity of fame and power. Instead the theme underlying the book is a meditation of what constitutes good government, and how one can govern in an enlightened manner without excessive use of violence or a big stick. The politics of the court and the differing motivations of the key players is something which the author conveys with authority, given his background in the cut and thrust of Taiwanese politics. (There are also shades of a Game of Thrones during these sections.) But the suffering of the common people, whose main motivation is to lead a good life and have no interest in who ultimately sits on the throne and the horrors of war are ever present. These questions continue to bedevil Chinese society and can be seen reflected in the recent purges of Xi Jinping.
The novel is not without its flaws, however. My main reservation on the book is that at 5 volumes, the novel is rather long, and large sections could have been cut with a better editor, who was not afraid to stand up to the writer. There also seems to have been a bit of a race to finish the novel which was indicated by a profusion of new characters that only emerged in the final volume.
The second issue problem with the novel is that the powers of the main characters are pitched too high, with a number of martial artists breaking ground or reaching levels that have never been reached in history. (If you have ever played traditional Dungeons and Dragons, one knows that if your characters reach immortal levels with god-like powers, this rapidly takes out much of the challenge and fun of the game.) This could be why even though this is a marital arts novel, the descriptions of the duels and fighting falls rather flat as do the description of the martial arts training and breakthroughs (the part I like the most in movies and novels). Concepts coined by the author like 生生不息 and 脫胎換骨 seemed unconvincing to me as high level martial arts principles.
The author indicated in an interview with the Taiwanese media that, unlike Jin Yong, he was not so interested in the martial part of the marital arts novel and focus on each movement and style but was more interested in the setup and character development. It was telling to note that in the early years it was his two elder brothers who were responsible for scripting the fighting and romantic scenes while he was responsible for everything else and I believe this shows, as the romance in the novel remains strictly PG, without any nudity or sexual violence, with any intimacy between the protagonists being strictly implied.
However all in all, it was an entertaining read, and offered great value for money in terms of entertainment time per dollar spent. I would highly recommend this to those who are looking for something different from Jin Yong but remains of a high quality.
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