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Thread: Impact of wulin events on society at large

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    Moderator Ken Cheng's Avatar
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    Default Impact of wulin events on society at large

    The nature of wuxia fiction is that wulin events are at the centers of the characters' universe. Whatever the heroes' or villains' goals might be, those goals are cast as things of utmost importance: the various Heroes Conferences, the competitions between elite fighters, large wulin massacres, etc.

    But how much did these events really affect society at large? Did it change the ordinary farmer or blacksmith's life that Kiu Fung was kicked out of the Beggar's Union and framed for murder...that Central Divinity Wong Chung Yeung won the First Mt. Hua Sword Tournament...that Sai Mun Chui Sheut and Yip Goo Sing dueled on the roof of the Imperial Palace in Beijing...that Lee Chum Foon killed Seung Gwoon Gum Hung?

    Overall, it seems that wulin events have no impact on society at large. The only exceptions might be Kiu Fung's death (prevented war between the Liao Empire and the Sung Dynasty), Yeung Gor's killing of Mongke Khan (forestalled the Mongol conquest of southern China for another thirteen years), Gwok Jing's death (last line of defense against Mongols broken), and maybe a few others that had national or even international implications. For the most part, however, it seemed that wulin affairs mattered only to wulin members and did not affect the lives of ordinary people on a large scale much.

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    Senior Member Extremer88's Avatar
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    I think most commoners do not know much about Wulin or Jianghu people at all, because the problem is wulin is like a secret society.

    When they see people carrying swords and weapons, they will just walk away, I think they fear the soldiers more than these jianghu people.

    There's a rule in jianghu in which people in Wulin should respect each other, and not harm commoners at all. People who possess martial arts are normally beggars (Beggars' Clan), taoists (Quanzhen, Kongtong, Kunlun, Huashan, Wudang), monks (Shaolin), nuns (E-Mei, Hengshan), etc. It's very hard to recognise Wulin people if you are a commoner. I think the government knew the existance of the wulin in general, but both the wulin and government do not cross swords. Wulin people do not interfere with government affairs, while the goverment do not interfere with wulin people. (but the Mongolians tried to eliminate wulin though)

    Places like Huashan, Wudang, Songshan, Shaoshi Shan, Xueshan are quite far away from large settlements or cities. Unless you are Zhang Sanfeng who is famous, nobody would know who you are.

    Most commoners in Central Plains knew Guo Jing but not much commoners knew that he possess very good martial arts. They only knew that he risks his life protecting Xiangyang City.
    ..ext88

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    1. the marriage failure of zzr has resulted in the whole er-mei becoming a nunnery. just imagine, so many pretty girls going into nunnery instead of contributing to society as wives, ceos, managers, etc etc etc

    2. the refusal of zwj to save xiao zhao has made a mockery of chinese people. that being such a huge country, they cannot fight or unwilling to fight a small cty like persia.


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    Moderator Ken Cheng's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by wkeej
    2. the refusal of zwj to save xiao zhao has made a mockery of chinese people. that being such a huge country, they cannot fight or unwilling to fight a small cty like persia.

    Persia was a huge empire, not a small city.

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    One thing to consider, I suppose, is that there was no mass media back then. Even if you were a great martial artist who accomplished great things, how many people would know about it? Information spread through word of mouth only, and word of mouth wasn't comparable to the reach of modern media.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Cheng
    Persia was a huge empire, not a small city.
    cty = country, my dearest dude. anyway, you may be right. persia is a huge empire whilst china is only mongol empire then.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Cheng
    One thing to consider, I suppose, is that there was no mass media back then. Even if you were a great martial artist who accomplished great things, how many people would know about it? Information spread through word of mouth only, and word of mouth wasn't comparable to the reach of modern media.
    do not under-estimate the power of WOM. it grows exponentially.

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    Quote Originally Posted by wkeej
    cty = country, my dearest dude. anyway, you may be right. persia is a huge empire whilst china is only mongol empire then.
    Actually, both China and Persia were under Mongol rule at the time. The Chinese and Persian Empires had both been great and powerful empires throughout history, but both were under the domination of the Mongol Empire around the 14th Century CE.

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    Ken, as usual, what i am going to write is going OT. hope you do not mind.

    so, on snake island, do the persian ming cultists know that zm was a mongolian aka their enemy?

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    Quote Originally Posted by wkeej
    Ken, as usual, what i am going to write is going OT. hope you do not mind.

    so, on snake island, do the persian ming cultists know that zm was a mongolian aka their enemy?
    The persians do not take mongolians as their enemy, they submit to the rule of the Mongol Empire. The Persian Ming Cult was always trying to ask the Central Plains Ming Cult to submit to the Mongol Empire. But the Central Plains Ming Sect do not. I'm not very sure also.
    ..ext88

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    Quote Originally Posted by wkeej
    so, on snake island, do the persian ming cultists know that zm was a mongolian
    If they did, they gave no indication of it. Had they known, they might have been friendlier, however. There's no way that Persia wanted to piss off the mighty Mongol Empire.

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    Senior Member SolidSnake's Avatar
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    Wei Xiaobao killing Aobai have a huge impact on society. With Aobai gone, Kang Xi was able to rule more effectively.

    Xiang Shaolong helping Qing Zheng to become the first Emperor also has a big impact.
    Last edited by SolidSnake; 03-27-06 at 05:27 AM.
    There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.
    Plato

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    Senior Member danshu_'s Avatar
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    they always say "the river water doesnt mix with the well water"

    but people like WXB mixed with every kind of water and had a big impact on society, also early novels like book and sword. I think in general Gu Long characters have less to do with normal society than Jin Yong's do.

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    Well, many people in Wulin wonder around the country and "Xing Xia Zhang Yi", so I'm sure the normal people would talk about that a lot.

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