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Action Scene as Romantic Expression: The Chongling Sword Technique
This is the second of two planned entries on action scenes as vehicles for character moments in wuxia, and particularly in Jin Yong's oeuvre. The first, which discusses a major fight scene in Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (天龙八部), can be found here. This post will discuss a key action scene from The Smiling Proud Wanderer (笑傲江湖).
The protagonist of this novel is Linghu Chong (令狐冲), a dashing swordsman who's a veritable genius at his weapon of choice and distinctly mediocre in every other form of martial art. He loves wine, hates injustice, and has zero sense of self-preservation. He begins the novel as the head disciple of the Huashan (华山) Sect, an orthodox sect which is part of a loose alliance with four-other sword-based sects, each located on one of China's Five Great Mountains (the other four sects are: the Taishan (泰山) Sect, the Hengshan (恒山) Sect, the other Hengshan (衡山) Sect (it's a different Heng) and the Songshan (嵩山) Sect). Over the course of the novel, he befriends numerous jianghu adventurers who belong to the less 'orthodox' sects (who, let's face it, are more fun) and stands up for them repeatedly when they're attacked by the orthodox sects. This eventually causes his shifu, Yue Buqun 岳不群 (who, by the way, is the blueprint for the 'hypocritical gentleman' character beloved of Chinese genre fiction) to expel him from the sect. He also loses all of his qi at one point. For viewers of The Untamed, just think of him as proto-Wei Wuxian.
Linghu Chong is also a hopeless romantic. Since childhood, he's been in love with his shimei Yue Lingshan (岳灵珊) (who's also his shifu's daughter), and while she seemed to reciprocate his feelings to some degree earlier, she later falls in love with Lin Pingzhi (林平之), her father's newest disciple, whom she eventually marries (although the marriage is a brief and unhappy one). This, of course, does nothing to alter Linghu Chong's feelings for her, even though he's fully aware that she'll never return them. (Not actually Linghu Chong but also very Linghu Chong: 'All the privilege I claim for myself is that of loving longest, when all hope is gone.')
The action scene discussed here is a duel between Linghu Chong and his beloved shimei Yue Lingshan, which takes place in the fourth and final volume of the novel. By this time, Linghu Chong has through a series of unlikely events become sect leader of the Hengshan Sect, whose disciples are mostly Buddhist nuns (just run with it, it makes sense in context). His shifu Yue Buqun has hatched a scheme to seize the leadership of the alliance. This involves having his daughter duel the leaders of the other four sects using the specialised sword technique of each sect. As leader of the Hengshan Sect, Linghu Chong steps forward to face her. He intends, from the very outset, to deliberately lose to her. As they fight, however, an unexpected development occurs.
Caught up in the heat of battle, Linghu Chong is irresistibly reminded of the old days when they trained together at Huashan. He inadvertently counters one of Yue Lingshan's moves with something that's not out of the Hengshan Sect repertoire — it is, instead, a move from a set that he and Yue Lingshan created together for fun, which they called the Chongling Sword Technique (冲灵剑法) (after themselves, naturally) and kept secret from everyone else. The two of them being very young and not particularly skilled when they created it, the technique is juvenile and not at all powerful. But because they practised it together so many times when they were young, they can execute each move perfectly and counter each other flawlessly.
Yue Lingshan responds with a move from the Chongling Sword Technique as well, and soon they're both dueling using that technique rather than the Hengshan Sect's technique. The assembled spectators have no idea what to make of this: rather than fighting, they seem to be dancing; but they seem to be dancing for their own amusement, rather for the entertainment of the audience (as would be usual). Both Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan are smiling as they fight, and the narration notes that their duel is light-hearted and fun rather than belligerent and aggressive. Both are transported back to the old days, when life was easy and uncomplicated, when he was the dashing shixiong she looked up to, and she was the adorable shimei he doted on.
The high point of the duel comes when they both suddenly leap up, swordpoints aimed straight at each other's throats. The spectators shriek, wondering if they're about to witness a terrifying double fatality — but instead, Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan are so well-coordinated that their swords bounce precisely off each other's, leaving them both unharmed. This move, of course, would be completely useless in a standard duel, but to young Linghu Chong and young Yue Lingshan, it was a fun challenge.
We then get a flashback to the day when they'd both mastered the move, and were trying to think of a name for it. Yue Lingshan eventually proposes 'We Live and Die Together', which meets with Linghu Chong's whole-hearted approval. The narration tells us: 'Yue Lingshan, suddenly realising that the name was perhaps too intimate, dropped her sword and ran off'.
Jin Yong has, of course, written a number of romantic sword-based action scenes, among them Yang Guo (杨过) and Xiaolongnu (小龙女) fighting side-by-side using different but perfectly complementary techniques in Return of the Condor Heroes (神雕侠侣), and Zhao Min (赵敏) pulling three suicidal moves in a row in order to save Zhang Wuji's (张无忌) life in The Heaven Sword and the Dragon Sabre (倚天屠龙记). But for my money, this is his best swordfighting-as-romance scene to end all swordfighting-as-romance scenes.
The protagonist of this novel is Linghu Chong (令狐冲), a dashing swordsman who's a veritable genius at his weapon of choice and distinctly mediocre in every other form of martial art. He loves wine, hates injustice, and has zero sense of self-preservation. He begins the novel as the head disciple of the Huashan (华山) Sect, an orthodox sect which is part of a loose alliance with four-other sword-based sects, each located on one of China's Five Great Mountains (the other four sects are: the Taishan (泰山) Sect, the Hengshan (恒山) Sect, the other Hengshan (衡山) Sect (it's a different Heng) and the Songshan (嵩山) Sect). Over the course of the novel, he befriends numerous jianghu adventurers who belong to the less 'orthodox' sects (who, let's face it, are more fun) and stands up for them repeatedly when they're attacked by the orthodox sects. This eventually causes his shifu, Yue Buqun 岳不群 (who, by the way, is the blueprint for the 'hypocritical gentleman' character beloved of Chinese genre fiction) to expel him from the sect. He also loses all of his qi at one point. For viewers of The Untamed, just think of him as proto-Wei Wuxian.
Linghu Chong is also a hopeless romantic. Since childhood, he's been in love with his shimei Yue Lingshan (岳灵珊) (who's also his shifu's daughter), and while she seemed to reciprocate his feelings to some degree earlier, she later falls in love with Lin Pingzhi (林平之), her father's newest disciple, whom she eventually marries (although the marriage is a brief and unhappy one). This, of course, does nothing to alter Linghu Chong's feelings for her, even though he's fully aware that she'll never return them. (Not actually Linghu Chong but also very Linghu Chong: 'All the privilege I claim for myself is that of loving longest, when all hope is gone.')
The action scene discussed here is a duel between Linghu Chong and his beloved shimei Yue Lingshan, which takes place in the fourth and final volume of the novel. By this time, Linghu Chong has through a series of unlikely events become sect leader of the Hengshan Sect, whose disciples are mostly Buddhist nuns (just run with it, it makes sense in context). His shifu Yue Buqun has hatched a scheme to seize the leadership of the alliance. This involves having his daughter duel the leaders of the other four sects using the specialised sword technique of each sect. As leader of the Hengshan Sect, Linghu Chong steps forward to face her. He intends, from the very outset, to deliberately lose to her. As they fight, however, an unexpected development occurs.
Caught up in the heat of battle, Linghu Chong is irresistibly reminded of the old days when they trained together at Huashan. He inadvertently counters one of Yue Lingshan's moves with something that's not out of the Hengshan Sect repertoire — it is, instead, a move from a set that he and Yue Lingshan created together for fun, which they called the Chongling Sword Technique (冲灵剑法) (after themselves, naturally) and kept secret from everyone else. The two of them being very young and not particularly skilled when they created it, the technique is juvenile and not at all powerful. But because they practised it together so many times when they were young, they can execute each move perfectly and counter each other flawlessly.
Yue Lingshan responds with a move from the Chongling Sword Technique as well, and soon they're both dueling using that technique rather than the Hengshan Sect's technique. The assembled spectators have no idea what to make of this: rather than fighting, they seem to be dancing; but they seem to be dancing for their own amusement, rather for the entertainment of the audience (as would be usual). Both Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan are smiling as they fight, and the narration notes that their duel is light-hearted and fun rather than belligerent and aggressive. Both are transported back to the old days, when life was easy and uncomplicated, when he was the dashing shixiong she looked up to, and she was the adorable shimei he doted on.
The high point of the duel comes when they both suddenly leap up, swordpoints aimed straight at each other's throats. The spectators shriek, wondering if they're about to witness a terrifying double fatality — but instead, Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan are so well-coordinated that their swords bounce precisely off each other's, leaving them both unharmed. This move, of course, would be completely useless in a standard duel, but to young Linghu Chong and young Yue Lingshan, it was a fun challenge.
We then get a flashback to the day when they'd both mastered the move, and were trying to think of a name for it. Yue Lingshan eventually proposes 'We Live and Die Together', which meets with Linghu Chong's whole-hearted approval. The narration tells us: 'Yue Lingshan, suddenly realising that the name was perhaps too intimate, dropped her sword and ran off'.
Jin Yong has, of course, written a number of romantic sword-based action scenes, among them Yang Guo (杨过) and Xiaolongnu (小龙女) fighting side-by-side using different but perfectly complementary techniques in Return of the Condor Heroes (神雕侠侣), and Zhao Min (赵敏) pulling three suicidal moves in a row in order to save Zhang Wuji's (张无忌) life in The Heaven Sword and the Dragon Sabre (倚天屠龙记). But for my money, this is his best swordfighting-as-romance scene to end all swordfighting-as-romance scenes.