How old was Lee Chum Foon at the beginning of TRS?

[Ken Cheng]

How old was Lee Chum Foon supposed to have been at the beginning of THE ROMANTIC SWORDSMAN? It was said that he had gone into the hinterlands twenty years ago, and had already been a well-known martial artist ten years before that. If that's the case, he must have been pushing fifty by the time TRS begins...that's a pretty old age for the main character of a wuxia novel.

[Dennis Chen]

Or he could be in his late 30's or early 40's.