One frequently reoccurring forum discussions is on the validity of Demonic Swordsman Dugu Qiubai's claim of his greatness. To those with doubt, I invite you to reconsider your position by reading the following opinion (posted by Laviathan and Zilong):
Firstly, it is important to remember that Dugu Qiubai didn't exist during LOCH. Jin Yong invented him when he wrote ROCH, so of course no one knows about him.
But if I would let my imagination go wild, then I'd say:
1200 - Birth of Guo Jing
1220 - Birth of Yang Guo
1240 - Yang Guo finds Dugu's tomb. Dugu probably died around 1170. Let's assume he lived to be 70, so Dugu was born around 1100.
During his teenage years, Dugu competed with many heroes in Northern China and achieved great fame. He became very proud and arrogant, then, during his 20's (Stage of the Purple Flexible Sword) he unintentionally wounded a righteous person. In Chinese, a "righteous person" (yishi) usually means a patriot. During the period 1120-1130, the Yürchen tribe of the Jin Dynasty invaded the Song Empire. Many wars were fought in Northern China. In his arrogance, Dugu might have wounded a patriotic warrior who was fighting against the Jin troops. Ashamed, Dugu threw away his sword and abandoned his old ways. Instead of purseuing fame and glory, he began to seek defeat as a way to punish himself. It was during this time that he changed his name into Qiubai (Seeking Defeat). To find a worthy opponent, he refined his skills and roamed the realm, but hide his name from the members of the martial arts world, who began to call him "Demonic Swordsman". At his tomb, Dugu stated that he wandered for more than 30 years. Starting from his teens, he should have retreated to the mountains near Xiangyang in his 40's to live as a hermit. This would be around 1145.
Let's assume Wang Chongyang was about 10 to 20 years younger than Dugu (due to inconsistencies in LOCH timeline, we can't be sure when Wang was born). He used to be a scholar named Wang Zhe but later on started learning martial arts (told by Zhou Botong in LOCH). During his teenage years when he pursued literary studies, he didn't knew anything about the martial arts world. He later trained the fighting arts and raised a militia army to fight the Jin. During his career as a general he concetrated solely on warfare and did not heard the legends and stories about the "Demonic Swordsman". After many years and many lost battles, Wang Chongyang began to wander with Lin Chaoying/became a Taoist but Dugu Qiubai had already retired many, many years ago and his fame was slowly forgotten. Wang chongyang might have heard some vague rumours about a invincible swordsman but he did not knew who he was. Since Dugu Qiubai already retired, he could not learn about Wang Chongyang.