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A Gu Long Primer - Introduction
Apr. 11th, 2021 11:06 amIf Jin Yong was the elder statesman of the 'new wuxia school', then Gu Long was its enfant terrible (do not ask me about Liang Yusheng, aka the third 'new wuxia school' guy. I only know two things about Liang Yusheng: (1) he wrote The Bride With White Hair, (白发魔女传 | 白髮魔女傳) a book that wasted the potential of its badass, literally-raised-by-wolves female lead so much that the (sapphic) fix-it fic that eventually sprang from this has become a foundational baihe text; and (2) there is a passage in one of his novels where the characters discuss Jungian dream interpretation).
It's tempting to define Gu Long by comparing him to Jin Yong, and I will succumb to that temptation, as so many have done before me. First of all, while Jin Yong tends to start with young protagonists, and follow them through the different stages of their martial and personal development (the only protagonist who starts at the height of his powers and fame is Qiao Feng, the second protagonist of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils), Gu Long almost always starts with protagonists at the height of their martial prowess and reputation, with many being presented as legendary, almost mythic jianghu figures. Second, at his best, Gu Long's ability to craft memorable starting premises and paint iconic character portraits puts Jin Yong's in the shade. For instance, the premise of Twin Siblings (绝代双骄 | 絕代雙驕) is the attention-grabbing, easy-to-blurb 'twin brothers are separated at birth and raised to become each other's mortal enemy'. And in the first book of the Chu Liuxiang series, the titular master thief is introduced forewarning his mark with a courteous, beautifully-calligraphed message: 'At midnight, I will tread the path of the moon to obtain your jade statue for myself'. Where Gu Long falls down, again and again, is in his inability to construct a coherent, well-structured plot out of these promising scenarios and characters. In one of his most frustrating open endings (from White Jade Tiger (白玉老虎)), the protagonist is left stranded in the middle of an enemy fortress, having finally worked out the truth of what brought him there, but with exposure and death imminent, and no clear indication as to how he's going to get out of the situation alive.
In terms of their mood, Gu Long's novels tend to be much bleaker than Jin Yong's. There's often a sense of resignation, of powerlessness, of being carried along on the currents of the jianghu. There is sometimes hope and brightness — this is especially the case with the Chu Liuxiang series — but that is always presented as something that needs to be fought for and won. Gu Long's prose style is also more spare and, at its most sublime, more poetic than Jin Yong's (Jin Yong stans please do not @ me, you know deep down that it's true) — though at its worse, it sinks into truly cringeworthy sixth-form-style wannabe profundity. We have the peaks, and we have the Marianas Trenches. Incidentally, the opening lines of baihe wuxia novel The Beauty's Blade (美人剑) contain what is, to me, the most spot-on, pitch-perfect Gu Long pastiche I have ever read (though I'm unsure how much it comes through in the translation).
Last, but by no means least, Jin Yong's protagonists (other than Wei Xiaobao from The Deer and the Cauldron) Do Not Fuck, Except Maybe Post-Canon Within the Confines of a Loving and Respectful Marriage. This is so much the case that Qiao Feng, who is around thirty by the time we reach his part of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, can readily be read as both asexual and aromantic — in fact, it's the reading which makes the most sense. Gu Long's protagonists, on the other hand, not only Definitely Assuredly Fuck, But Have Evolved Whole Philosophies Around Fucking. Whenever the characters arrange a duel to the death, there's sure to be an extended discussion of whether one should have sex the night before the duel or not (though, from memory, the one time this doesn't happen is in the book that's expressly about a duel, the boringly titled Before and After the Duel (决战前后 | 決戰前後), mainly because both participants are ascetic super-powered swordsmen).
Next time: A Gu Long Primer - The Classics (for real this time, I promise)
It's tempting to define Gu Long by comparing him to Jin Yong, and I will succumb to that temptation, as so many have done before me. First of all, while Jin Yong tends to start with young protagonists, and follow them through the different stages of their martial and personal development (the only protagonist who starts at the height of his powers and fame is Qiao Feng, the second protagonist of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils), Gu Long almost always starts with protagonists at the height of their martial prowess and reputation, with many being presented as legendary, almost mythic jianghu figures. Second, at his best, Gu Long's ability to craft memorable starting premises and paint iconic character portraits puts Jin Yong's in the shade. For instance, the premise of Twin Siblings (绝代双骄 | 絕代雙驕) is the attention-grabbing, easy-to-blurb 'twin brothers are separated at birth and raised to become each other's mortal enemy'. And in the first book of the Chu Liuxiang series, the titular master thief is introduced forewarning his mark with a courteous, beautifully-calligraphed message: 'At midnight, I will tread the path of the moon to obtain your jade statue for myself'. Where Gu Long falls down, again and again, is in his inability to construct a coherent, well-structured plot out of these promising scenarios and characters. In one of his most frustrating open endings (from White Jade Tiger (白玉老虎)), the protagonist is left stranded in the middle of an enemy fortress, having finally worked out the truth of what brought him there, but with exposure and death imminent, and no clear indication as to how he's going to get out of the situation alive.
In terms of their mood, Gu Long's novels tend to be much bleaker than Jin Yong's. There's often a sense of resignation, of powerlessness, of being carried along on the currents of the jianghu. There is sometimes hope and brightness — this is especially the case with the Chu Liuxiang series — but that is always presented as something that needs to be fought for and won. Gu Long's prose style is also more spare and, at its most sublime, more poetic than Jin Yong's (Jin Yong stans please do not @ me, you know deep down that it's true) — though at its worse, it sinks into truly cringeworthy sixth-form-style wannabe profundity. We have the peaks, and we have the Marianas Trenches. Incidentally, the opening lines of baihe wuxia novel The Beauty's Blade (美人剑) contain what is, to me, the most spot-on, pitch-perfect Gu Long pastiche I have ever read (though I'm unsure how much it comes through in the translation).
Last, but by no means least, Jin Yong's protagonists (other than Wei Xiaobao from The Deer and the Cauldron) Do Not Fuck, Except Maybe Post-Canon Within the Confines of a Loving and Respectful Marriage. This is so much the case that Qiao Feng, who is around thirty by the time we reach his part of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, can readily be read as both asexual and aromantic — in fact, it's the reading which makes the most sense. Gu Long's protagonists, on the other hand, not only Definitely Assuredly Fuck, But Have Evolved Whole Philosophies Around Fucking. Whenever the characters arrange a duel to the death, there's sure to be an extended discussion of whether one should have sex the night before the duel or not (though, from memory, the one time this doesn't happen is in the book that's expressly about a duel, the boringly titled Before and After the Duel (决战前后 | 決戰前後), mainly because both participants are ascetic super-powered swordsmen).
Next time: A Gu Long Primer - The Classics (for real this time, I promise)
