Question: How much of Sword of the Yueh Maiden is fiction?

Hi All,

I'm considering doing a project based on the Sword of the Yueh Maiden, which I know is a story based on a real legend and some historical record mixed together. However, my question is how much did Jin Yong make up? Are the characters real figures from history? Or did he create all of them for the story?

Also, are there any other versions of the legend (besides the Jin Yong take) available out there in English I might read?

Thanks to anyone who can help.
Rob

Fan Li is real. Xi Shi is one of the four legendary beauties of ancient China. Don't know whether really got this person or not.

I know wiki cannot be used as academic source, but, it's the easiest way to get the general info of something and you can go further from there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_Li
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Shi
http://www.cultural-china.com/chinaW...49bye1301.html

jin yong rewrote the story from the legend of the yue maiden, i think. it wasn't his own original composition.

Thank you both. :) That's exactly what I needed to know!

Rob