The world of Confucian Chivalry was created a triumvirate writers composed of Louis Cha (Jing Yong), Gu Long and Liang Yusheng. The three magnates formed the framework and contributed the main contents of this tremendous Oriental magic land which is beyond the understanding and grasp of English-only readers. Taken for instance, one of the title translations, The Book and the Sword, translated by a western scholar and published by Oxford University Press, is nonetheless a toning-down and simplification of the original Chinese title.
It’s really hard for the western readers to get a hand on the so-called Chinese WuXia genre, or let me use an analogy, the genre of Oriental Chivalry or Confucian Chivalry. It’s a contemporary Chinese literature genre which enamored almost the whole Chinese community, domestic and worldwide. Basically, the fictions of Confucian Chivalry tell the story of the so-called Chinese knights and the oriental chivalry associated with them.
The Chinese knights lived in the Chinese dynastic eras and needed not to be conferred by the royal house. No patent was needed to create a Chinese knight. The knighthood was in the heart of those destined. Also, they were born of Confucian spirits and were meant for some great journeys which always would produce empathy among the readers who are also deep-rooted in the Confucian heritage.
Most of all, the heroes depicted by the writers were often of humble births and worked all their way up the social ladder by series of lucky encounters. Much like a modern computer game, the good fortune is always the mechanism for the upbringing of an apprentice. The apprentice would manage to build the strongest mental and physical power, and excel the rest. The Chosen One, just as Harry Porter, figuratively speaking.
The Gongfu movie which later swung and changed the Hongkong film industry as well as the major Chinese movie genre ever landed in Hollywood, was spawned by the fictions of the WuXia genre. As portrayed by the Gongfu movies, the heroes always could perform stunts beyond the capacity of a normal man. Such as flying above the roofs, controlling stuff through the manipulation of field conjured by mental power, and even the magic touch of a finger could destroy a subject. However, more astounding stunts described in the books are off the limits to the modern cinematography.
Meditation is one of the main methods of training a Confucian knight. The mental power is far stronger than the physical strength that could be acquired through earthly exercise. The mental power is infinite and beyond imagination. Actually, no one can achieve the ultimate level, or the ultimate level is beyond any secular experience that has ever happened. It’s like a pilgrimage to the holy temple, and only to find an unfathomable, extraterrestrial being. It’s called GOD in the western hemisphere and known as DAO in oriental world.
The guidance is the teachings of Confucius. By following Confucius’ practices, an apprentice could pursue the right road leading to the holy place. However, the achievements of a Confucian knight apprentice would not be only judged by the power he accumulated but also by the merits he culminated. A chivalrous heart could always achieve higher level of Gongfu and put his strengths to the use of the poor and oppressed.
The final judge of a Confucian knight is the transcendence of the smallness of oneself and the reaching of the highest level of humanity. That’s also the purpose of Confucian. Ultimate sacrifice would always be the final call to the culmination of a Confucian knight. For nation, for family and for friendship, a broad spectrum of love is always the theme. And for most of the time, the hero is the center of a great tragedy, personal sacrifice leading to the prevalence of collective purpose. However, most of the finales would always provide a satisfactory ending and revealing the eagerness of the writers to please their readers. That’s another reason for the popularity of this kind of fictions. Always the feelings of the readers are assuaged and pacified by a happy ending no matter how the rescue had gone off human logic. And maybe that’s one of the reasons this genre is less recognized by the scholar world.
The financial situations are seldom mentioned in these fictions. It looks like the heroes were born into good financial status. Or a growing social standing was the byproduct of the development of a Confucian knight. Sometimes, the protagonist was granted property and wealth by the then royal house, or local magistrate. Sometimes, the protagonist developed connection with nobles, and therefore gained fortune through trading services. Or, sometimes, the protagonist was in the hands of kindhearted local landowners and marriage was always the solution. Anyway, most of the protagonists could make use of their talents in exchange for personal wealth. Or they could choose to stay poor which is one of the teachings by Confucius.
Well, at the last, let’s touch upon the three giants in the realm of Confucius Chivalry. Liang Yusheng could be the most traditional writer of the three. Even he wrote the chapter titles of his fictions in the form of traditional Chinese poems. Most of his works took the style of traditional Chinese literature and fabricated with significant amount of Chinese traditional poems and conversation style. Also Chinese history lays the foundation of his works. He altogether accomplished a total of 33 fictions.
Jing Yong is a contemporary of Liang Yusheng. And the two worked in suit with each other to kick off the Wu Xia fiction age. Although Jing Yong finished only 14 fictions altogether, but his achievement transcended Liang’s in a great leap. Jing Yong perhaps is the most influential contemporary Chinese writer and all his works have been adapted to movies or TV sitcoms. Jing Yong is a household name among Chinese community and even the characters of his books have entered the daily language vocabulary.
Gu Long is the youngest of the three and writes in the most modern style. He tends to write little of the scene of a fight which is the climax of a Wu Xia fiction but dedicate most of the volume to the development of the plot which carries only one topic, LOVE. He is the most radical of the three and rid of the vestige of traditional Chinese literature. He broke off with the old legacy and leaned more towards English classics such as Ernest Hemingway.
Astin Page 