Originally Posted by
Athena
Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre
1) Reverend Wuse speaks on behalf of Zhang Junbao at Shaolin, saying that he was reponsible for giving away those iron Arhats to Guo Xiang. He added that if anyone should be blamed it should be him and not Zhang Junbao. However, the old monk of the Spiritual Zen Hall was adamant in saying that Zhang Junbao learnt Shaolin martial arts without permission and should still be punished. Abbot Tianming suggested that Wuse, Jueyuan and Zhang Junbao should go to the Dharma Hall and all of them would discuss how to punish all 3 of them. Jueyuan feared for the worst and took Guo Xiang and Zhang Junbao and ran away.
2) Yin Susu and other higher ranked people in Tianying Sect knew who Xie Xun was. They knew he was a guardian lord of the Ming cult.
3) Xie Xun's son was 3 years old when he was killed by Yuanzhen (Cheng Kun), in the earlier editions Xie Wuji was 1 years old and lead to some time discontinuity. (To be honest, I am not sure what that discontinuity was in the earlier editions, I did not notice that error in the past).
4) The supposed battle between Shaolin and Wudang has changed somewhat. The original plan was that 6 Shaolin monks v.s. 6 Wudang disciples. Wudang would use their famous sphere formation. However, Yu Lianzhou was still weakend by that exchange of palms with He Biweng and Zhang Cuishan was too distraught at that time. Reason, Yuanye was scolding Zhang Cuishan for killing Dou Dajin's family and for blinding one of his eyes and the left eyes of Yuanyin and Yuanxin. Yuanye kept his anger in control while his teacher (Kongzhi) and his martial arts uncles (abbot Kongwen and reverend Kongxing) were speaking. But when the battle was to start he could not help himself from venting his anger and scolding Zhang Cuishan for being an utter disgrace to Zhang Sanfeng and Wudang. He said that a real man would at least admit the crimes he did, Zhang Cuishan felt that he really did disgrace his school. He could not tell them the actually culprit was his wife but by keeping quiet he endangered Wudang's reputation. So, Yu Lianzhou feared that they would loose this fight, because it would be probable that the other 4 heroes would have to look after him and Zhang Cuishan and weakening the formation. Yin Susu saw the pain of her husband and approached Kongwen, Kongzhi and Kongxing and confessed to what she did and chided the 3 reverends for being muddle-headed. Then, she told Zhang Cuishan to follow her inside, she went to Yu Daiyan and confessed to what she did 10 years ago and asked him to punish her.....(the rest is pretty much the same as the old editions). What I liked about this part was that Yin Susu showed how much she loved her husband and what a responsible woman she had become.
5) Origins of Jiuyang (Laviathan has already posted this and I too have expressed my feelings about this). The origins are mentioned when Zhang Wuji is training Jiuyang in that cave and that Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist monk wrote how and why he wrote Jiuyang. (Again, I thought it was redundant and farfetched).
6) When Zhang Wuji saw Yin Tianzheng and Song Yuanqiao fighting he was crying, because he recognized the stances both of them used and it reminded him of the times when his mother and father would train (using the same stances).
7) The Ming cult has 3 capital orders and 5 minor orders. There are 12 holy sceptres in total, on the first 6 there is a martial arts engraved on it (learnt by Zhang Wuji and those Persians) on the other 6 the most important 8 rules of the Ming cult are engraved on it.
Three capital orders:
- Ming cultists are prohibited from becoming emperors, officials, kings, generals, etc. They rebel because they want to save the people not for their own gain. However, it is allowed to use those names when rebelling to attract support.
- Ming cultists are not allowed to oppress the people and should do whatever is possible to ease the suffering of men.
- Ming cultists are not to fight each other.
Five minor orders:
- Ming cultists are men and women of their words.
- Ming cultists are to treat each other like brothers and sisters.
- Respect your elders, brothers, sisters, parents and friends.
- Treat women with respect
- Protect the cult with your life and obey the commands of your seniors in the cult.
8) The Dragon Sabre is made from Yang Guo's heavy iron sword. (like in the previous editions, he gave this sword to Guo Xiang; I don't know when he gave that sword to her). The Heavenly Sword is made from the Lady and Gentleman swords. There are two small chips on the sabre and sword just a few centimetres from the hilt. Use both weapons to saw through the chips, only those two weapons are powerful enough to break each other. Inside the weapons is a metal map to Peach Blossom Isle and the location of the manuals.
9) Manuals: Yue Fei's art of war and Jiuyin Zhenjing, plus various Peach Blossom Isle and Hong Qigong's martial arts. There isn't a manual on 18 Dragon Subduing Palms anymore. The Jiuyin Bone claws and other skills used by Mei Chaofeng have been slightly altered by Huang Yaoshi, those are still evil skills but not as vile as used by Mei Chaofeng. Huang Yaoshi was saddened by the deaths of Chen Xuanfeng and Mei Chaofeng, therefore he made some changes to this martial arts.
When Xiangyang fell, Guo Xiang was in Sichuan province and when she rushed back it was too late. Guo Jing and Huang Rong did not give the sword and/or sabre to Guo Fu, because they knew she was too reckless and dumb. (Miejue Shi-tai told this to Zhou Zhiruo).
10) The Yang family must be aware of the secret of the sword and sabre, therefore Miss Yang was able to deduce what Zhou Zhiruo did and exposed her crimes.
11) The dialogue in which Miejue Shi-tai forces Zhou Zhiruo is moved, we do not see this scene when they are at the pagoda. Instead when Zhou is exposed she thinks back and then we are able to read about the dialogue.
12) Zhou Zhiruo was thinking of killing all 4 of them on that island, but she could not do it because she realized that she was madly in love with Zhang Wuji.
13) Yelu Qi mastered all 18 stances of the Dragon-Subduing palms, in the previous editions this was never really clear. But now it is! Furthermore it seems that Xiao Feng made the alterations from 28 to 18 and Xuzhu was responsible for returning this martial arts back to the Beggar's Union after Xiao Feng's death.
14) Zhu Yuanzhang tried to force Zhang Wuji to give up leadership of the Ming cult by bringing his army and questioning Zhang Wuji about Zhao Min. The truth is that the Ming Cult lost control of the army leaders, those army leaders were still Ming cultists but they more or less gathered their own support and with their army they have become quite autonomous. This was something that Yang Xiao, Fan Yao and others realised and they knew they could not kill Zhu Yuanzhang and endanger further alienation from the other army leaders. The fact is in order to topple the Yuan dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang had to stay alive.
Zhao Min vowed to leave the central plains when everything was over, she smiled it was up to Zhang Wuji whether he wants to follow her or not.
15) The 3 Du-generation monks did not kill Kunlun He Taichong, Madame He and those 2 other Kunlun experts. The Du monks easily defeated and wounded them and Yuanzhen quickly stepped forward to kill the 4 of them. The Du monks were angry at that, and said there was no need to kill them.
16) Song Qingshu is not killed by Zhang Sanfeng, but succumbed to his injuries at Mount Wudang. HOWEVER, he was not forgiven by anyone!
17) Xiao Chao sent emissaries to return the other 6 sceptres to the Ming Cult, Zhang Wuji "stole" the first 6 from the Persians. In return he gave the a copy of the Qiankun martial arts back to Xiao Chao. But the real reason behind this was that Xiao Chao missed Zhang Wuji and really wanted to make contact with him once more. It was very sweet, because if you can remember from previous editions and tv adaptions. Xiao Chao was making some clothes for Wuji when she was in that in that inn when Wuji was rescueing those people in the pagoda. She finished making those clothes and sent them to Zhang Wuji along with the sceptres.
18) Zhang Wuji became disillusioned when he could not save the life of a general and address the death of Han Lin'er and with that he left the leadership of the Ming Cult in the hands of Yang Xiao, Fan Yao and left the Central Plains with Zhao Min. And he did not want to break the capital order of the Ming cult.
19) Zhou Zhiruo's wish was that Zhang Wuji could not marry Zhao Min, Zhang Wuji complied. However, he added that without being married it would not prevent him from loving her or having children with her. Zhou Zhiruo did not mind that. In the end Zhang Wuji was thinking who he loved most (all 4 girls), he really did not know the answer. This does NOT mean, he will leave Zhao Min. Because he knows very well the sacrifices Zhao Min made for him.
20) There are 5 elders of Kongtong in all the editions. The first elder is Guan Neng, second Zong Weixia, third elder Tang Wenliang, fourth elder Chang Jingzhi. But the fifth elder never had a name and he does not have one in the third edition either. I would have hoped that Jin Yong would at least try to give that 5th elder a name.
21) Granny Golden Flower says she and her husband were poisoned by an old Buddhist monk of the western regions working for the Mongolians. In the past it was a mute, 'Tou Tuo" from the western regions working for the Mongolians.
22) The comment Zhang Wuji made to Zhou Zhiruo about how Zhang Sanfeng thought he might not have reached Guo Jing's level of martial arts is gone. The reason is that in the older editions, Zhou Zhiruo started to train Jiuyin on the isle but now she does have the manuals yet. So the two of them cannot have that talk about martial arts and the comment is therefore gone.
23) When Zhang Wuji took Zhang Sanfeng's hand at Mt Wudang, Zhang Sanfeng thought that only experts like reverend Jueyuan, Guo Jing, Yang Guo and others had such powerful internal energy. Yang Guo's name is on that list too.
24) Zhou Zhiruo does not fake a suicide when Zhang Wuji met with Zhao Min anymore. Instead she leaves and disappears for a month or two (destination: Peach Blossom Isle). She finds the manuals and starts to train.
25) The comment that Yuanzhen/Cheng Kun is as good as Duwei, Dujie and Dunan is gone. It is only commented that Yuanzhen was superior to Xie Xun. But that is something most people know.
26) Zhang Wuji used his Jiuyang internal strength to eradicate 70% of the martial arts of the Xuanming elders. The 3 of them fought each other when the Xuanming elders were after the Jiuyin manual on Zhou Zhiruo. And Lu Zhangke wanted to have the manual and rape Zhou Zhiruo. Of course, they were foiled by Zhang Wuji. Their martial arts are even inferior to the 8 archers of Zhao Min.
There seems to be a subtle hint in the novel that the creator of Jiuyang might have written the manual but did not study it himself.