I want to get the pure, unadulterated truth on one of my favorite wuxia characters (and my avatar here at SPCNET), Gu Long's Sai Mun Chui Sheut from the LUK SIU FUNG novels.
What I've seen in TV and comics adaptations, what I've read in the LUK SIU FUNG novels (yes, I actually kind of read a few of them), and what I've read at wuxia discussion forums has left me with a sense of cognitive dissonance as to exactly how great (or not so great) a swordsman/martial artist Sai Mun Chui Sheut really was.
If you go by TV and comics adaptations (not just one adaptation, but all of them, spanning a period from the 1970s to the 2000s), then Sai Mun Chui Sheut is awesome: unless he's fighting someone of his own level like Luk Siu Fung, Dook Goo 1 Hok, Yip Goo Sing, or the Wooden Taoist, his fights are what you would imagine a truly great swordsman's fights would be: one stroke, dead opponent...no clashing of blades against scrubs and also-rans. In TVB's classic 1970s LUK SIU FUNG adaptation (considered one of the most novel-accurate adaptations ever made), Sai Mun Chui Sheut never needed more than one stroke for regular opponents. Only the other elites gave him any serious challenge. Contrast that with adaptations of Jin Yong's novels, where even great swordsmen like Yeung Gor, Ling Wu Chung, and Tai Chi-sword wielding Cheung Mo Gei have to clang swords with relative scrubs for a good 30 seconds before securing the win. Going by adaptations alone, Sai Mun Chui Sheut would seem to own all these guys.
But as we all know, you can't judge by adaptations. Fine. Gu Long's descriptions of Sai Mun Chui Sheut's swordsmanship were also quite awesome. Certainly, Gu Long never described Sai Mun Chui Sheut as needing to clash swords with any opponent other than Dook Goo 1 Hok (whom Sai Mun Chui Sheut needed 30 moves to kill). Even Yip Goo Sing went down in one stroke in the novel. In the later LUK SIU FUNG novels, Sai Mun Chui Sheut stopped carrying a physical sword altogether, suggesting that he was entering the "swordless" level that Dook Goo Kau Bai became famous for.
Then I read these forums: all I ever see when I bring up Sai Mun Chui Sheut is "Can't beat Luk Siu Fung. Luk Siu Fung is Sai Mun Chui Sheut's friend and doesn't want to hurt him. Luk Siu Fung has martial arts that can beat Sai Mun Chui Sheut but he never shows them" (WTF?!), "Can't beat Dook Goo 1 Hok. He was just lucky that Fok Teen Ching drained Dook Goo 1 Hok's inner power first" (OK, I'll allow that one because Gu Long did indeed say that), "Can't beat Yip Goo Sing. Yip Goo Sing just didn't want to win because he knew he'd die anyway." (OK, sure.), "Can't beat Ding Pang and his curved sabre.", "Can't block Lee Chum Foon's flying dagger", "Can't beat any of Jin Yong's great swordsmen." , etc.
Based on forum comments, it would seem that Sai Mun Chui Sheut truly, really sucks as a swordsman, but that doesn't match either the adaptations or Gu Long's descriptions of him, or the admiration and fear that the other LUK SIU FUNG characters feel towards him (it's been explained that it's only because Sai Mun Chui Sheut is so cold and strange; I know alot of cold, strange people too, but they don't SCARE me).
I want a straight explanation about exactly what's going on here.