The Hero Is Gone, the Rivers and Lakes Are Still the Same - Mourning Mr. Jin Yong
I remember that when I was a teenager, I really didn't like reading novels. Although I like reading essays and "World of Science Fiction", they are limited to short texts. Once the page of the article exceeds twenty pages, it is difficult for me to continue reading, and I feel a sense of boredom. Because I always feel that a story is too long to lose the fun of reading. After reading a story in a short period of time, a good novel is short in words but rich in content.
However, when I was in the second year of junior high school, I accidentally found a martial arts novel called "Snowfall and Xuanshuang", which changed my prejudice against novels. I still remember that this novel was written by Taiwanese martial arts writer Wo Longsheng, and it was also the first martial arts novel I came into contact with. At that time, I didn't know Jin Yong, or what I knew about Jin Yong was limited to a few words mentioned occasionally on TV. Knowing that many of his novels have been adapted into movies and TV series, everyone has watched various martial arts dramas countless times on TV.
To be honest, I was annoyed by the name Jin Yong at the time, because he had too many martial arts dramas. When I was very young, I watched "The Deer and Ding Tale" starring Tony Leung and Stephen Chow's movie version of "The Deer and Ding Tale", and within two years, Chen Xiaochun's "The Deer and Ding Tale" and Zhang Weijian's "Xiaobao and Kangxi" were also released one after another. It feels like I have watched several different versions of "The Deer and Ding Tale" in about five years. There is no need to mention Huang Xiaoming's version and Han Dong's version after that. I heard that Zhang Yishan will be filming a new version of "The Deer and Ding Tale". I believe everyone here understands the so-called aesthetic fatigue. At that time, I thought to myself: Are these guys who make TV dramas empty-headed? Can you shoot a story over and over again? I can recite all the stories here.
I don't have a good impression of the name Jin Yong, limited to the content I've been exposed to on TV. On the contrary, because of the continuous adaptation of TV series, I am tired of aesthetics, and feel that the story is only mediocre. Not nearly as shocking as the short sci-fi stories I read in Science Fiction World magazine. "One Day Prisoner", "Skyfire Incident", "Chinese Sun", "Wandering Earth", these stories greatly stimulated my nerves at that time, and also built a basic prototype for my current worldview.
The first time I really read Jin Yong's novels was because I couldn't find the last volume of the martial arts novel "Snowfall and Xuanshuang" for the first time. The set of novels at home belonged to my father, but I searched through the house and there were only two volumes, the first and middle volumes, but not the second volume. The feeling of reading a novel is the most uncomfortable. I know there is an ending, but I can't see it.
In order to find the ending of this novel, I had to go to the bookstores that were everywhere in the streets and alleys at that time. Strangers after 2000 probably have a familiar but unfamiliar feeling to this kind of shop. But for most people born in the mid-1970s to the early 1990s, the rental bookstore may be one of the most memorable places in their entire teenage years.
Because here you can use cheap rent (most rents are 10 cents a day, deposit ranging from 10 to 20 yuan) to rent your favorite books to pass the time. In the era of underdeveloped Internet, when watching new movies, you have to wait for pirated discs instead of going to movie theaters (in fact, there were not many good movies in movie theaters at the time), and bookstores are undoubtedly the place where everyone seeks spiritual food. .
Originally, I just wanted to find the second volume of "Snowfall and Xuanshuang", and Wo Longsheng's novels were considered popular at the time. Wuxia novels such as Wen Rui'an, Gu Long, Jin Yong, Liang Yusheng, etc. are all must-have books in rental bookstores. But it's a pity that I missed it.
"It's rented out." I still remember the shop owner in his thirties with a scruffy beard holding a copy of "Looking for Qin Ji" with the cover almost torn out in his hand. He didn't even lift his eyelids. . However, he pointed to a set of "Dragon and Babu" that had just been returned and said to me: "Have you read this? This is better than "Snow and Profound Shuang". You know the Eighteen Palms of the Dragon, it came out of it. The novel It's better than TV shows."
So, fooled by the owner of the bookstore, I foolishly rented back a set of triptych versions of "Dragon and Ba Bu". It's really stupid to think about it, a set of four books of "Dragon Ba Bu". It takes me five days to read a book, and I have to pay the rent of four books when renting four books together, which is far less cost-effective than renting one after finishing one. After watching a set of "Dragon Babu", I spent all my pocket money for a month, which is a very unpleasant thing to think about.
But when I read the book, I didn't feel much, because I was fascinated by Jin Yong's writing for the first time. Regarding the interpretation of "Dragon Babu", the Tianlong Babu people and the meanings and hints of Buddhist reincarnation in it, I don't need to list them here, there are already a lot on the Internet. Let me just talk about some of my personal thoughts on Tianlongbabu.
"Dragon Babu" thought that the protagonist was Duan Yu when he was young, and he was a love interest when he was young and had constant adventures. When I was young, I wanted to be the same person as Duan Yu. And when I was a little older, I read it again, and felt that Qiao Feng was the person I wanted to be. Affectionate and righteous, heroic and uninhibited, with integrity. He neither wanted to harm Song Dynasty, who had raised him for thirty years, nor Khitan, the source of his blood. When they get older, maybe many people will find that they may not even be able to do Xu Zhu.
If Duan Yu is tall, rich and handsome, and Qiao Feng is a wealthy generation, then Xu Zhu may only be regarded as an honest farmer who accidentally won the jackpot. In the end, he still misses the life of meditating and chanting scriptures every day, without desires and desires. Maybe never winning the jackpot is what Xu Zhu thinks. These may be the three different stages of thinking in life.
After "Dragon Ba Bu", I began to read a lot of various martial arts novels, and at the same time, my academic performance fell off a cliff :).
I have read all of Jin Yong's long martial arts novels, except for "Book and Sword Enmity and Enmity", which is really boring and useless. I have read many novels more than once, especially "Swordsman". The political metaphors in it are wonderfully written. Young and ignorant teenagers can only see the pleasures and grievances of the rivers and lakes from it, and only adults who understand the cruelty of society can see the hidden political metaphors in it.
I especially like the "Shooting the Condor" trilogy, in which Guo Jing's "great man of chivalry" probably refers to the heroes in the hearts of Chinese people.
If the heroes in Gu Long's novels are more in line with the records of "Ren Xia" in history, those people are a group of capable gangsters. At most, some Ren Xia have a sense of justice, and some Ren Xia do not. Then Jin Yong portrayed another path for knights, which is no longer about personal grievances, but more about family, country and the world. Those who have the world in mind have the courage to embrace all rivers, and this is a hero.
Jin Yong's novels had a great influence on my youth, and his writing made me yearn for an era of martial arts.
Mr. Jin Yong died of illness yesterday. Some people say that the hero is dead and the world is gone.
In my humble opinion, the martial arts world brings forth the new, and [martial arts] novels are not only set in ancient time and space, those who rely on swordsmanship to fight against injustice. I have never liked Jin Yong's novels simply because a group of people in ancient costumes fight around. It's something more profound, that kind of portrayal of a knight.
Light life and death, heavy commitment. Shed blood for the country, and set up banners and monuments for the nation and the society to be admired. What their "Xia" walks is: establish a heart for the world, establish a life for all living beings, continue the unique learning for the sages, and open the way of peace for all generations. It's just that they are different from the literati who write books and stand up words, they use the method of [Wu]. Just as the world needs many theorists, it also needs many doers who promote these theories.
People who can sacrifice themselves for the sake of justice may seem stupid today. But how many "smart" are there to be heroes? After all the clever tricks, he may be just a Murong Fu in the end. There are too many "smart" people and too few "stupid" people in this world.
But it is enough for people to be "smart" in society. Let your thoughts fly in the book and be a fool once. Only care about right and wrong, be a child with a childlike innocence, only care about justice and not interests. If a person dare not let go of his mind while reading a book, then his life is too sad. Because he couldn't think of another way of life that was completely different from his present, even if he thought about it, he didn't dare, he was afraid, and he hesitated.
Jin Yong's novels made me open my mind when I was young. At least following the words in the book, I can follow the protagonists to be a "stupid hero".
Jin Yong died, but martial arts never died.
Because Jin Yong's novels have ignited the seeds of martial arts in the hearts of countless Chinese people. Even in today's society, there will still be people who shout out the phrase "The great chivalrous man is for the country and the people". Even though the popularity of online novels is uneven nowadays, there are still many people who portray the knights in their minds in their books.
It is no longer limited to the corner of the ancient Chinese rivers and lakes. Now the chivalrous men in the book can live high above the temple, cross the universe, or travel through the heavens and worlds. As long as you have "Xia" in your heart, then you are "Xia Zhe Tianxia"!
Mr. Jin Yong has ignited countless fires, and the recent prosperity of online literature is more or less due to Mr. Jin Yong.
Before Mr. Jin Yong, Chinese martial arts novels could only be regarded as in an immature market stage. After Mr. Jin Yong, Chinese martial arts novels officially entered the 1.0 stage. In the follow-up, Mr. Huang Yi's new martial arts created various genres such as fantasy and time travel, and Chinese martial arts novels entered the 2.0 beta version. Online novels have risen together. Although there have been a lot of scolding in the past ten years, they are still growing stubbornly. It is not an exaggeration to say that they have entered the official version 2.0 of martial arts novels.
Mr. Huang Yi left last year, and Mr. Jin Yong passed away yesterday. But their legacy still nourishes future generations.
The heroes are far away, but the rivers and lakes remain the same.