Why didn't the young Gwok Jing (and other heroes) carry a weapon?

[Ken Cheng]

When Gwok Jing had matured as a man and become a Great in wulin, he eschewed using weaponry. He had two reasons for this: 1). his honorable-to-a-fault worldview caused him to see using weaponry as cowardly and unfair and 2). his best martial arts skill, the Hong Lung 18 Palms, was an unarmed combat technique, making weaponry redundant.

But why didn't the young Gwok Jing, who hadn't learned the Hong Lung 18 Palms yet, carry weaponry (other than his Yeung Hong dagger, which he almost never used in melee combat)? Gwok Jing's original martial arts teachers, the Gong Nam 7 Freaks, each carried a weapon. Each of the Freaks was an accomplished hand-to-hand fighter, but it was evident that their best martial arts were their weapons skills. Without carrying a weapon, how did Gwok Jing utilize his Freaks teachers' best skills?

In the Jin Yong canon, Gwok Jing was not the only young hero who did not regularly carry a weapon with him. Until he gained possession of the Gentleman Sword from Passionless Valley (and later, the Heavy Iron Sword from Dook Goo Kau Bai's grave), Yeung Gor did not usually carry weaponry with him either (he usually captured them from enemies he disarmed or borrowed them from armed friends). Cheung Mo Gei likewise did not carry weaponry regularly. Ling Wu Chung *did* typically carry a sword, but he was an exception.

[immakiku]

Just a guess without digging into the books themselves - they weren't expecting fights really. Until GJ left Mongolia, he lived in what looks like a big family (everywhere was his home). YG also didn't expect to fight after he left the tomb: he just wanted to live with XLN alone; and when she left his first priority became looking for her. Also remember that he probably doesn't have the money to buy a weapon so it's just easier to improvise (and cooler too ). ZWJ was completely secluded for most of his young years.

[Whsie]

GJ didn't have good weaponary skills (the exception is the bow/arrow) until he was forced to learn weaponary skills by OYF. After that, the skills he learned from 9 Yin got him a decent level in weapon.

[Ken Cheng]

GJ didn't have good weaponary skills (the exception is the bow/arrow) until he was forced to learn weaponary skills by OYF. After that, the skills he learned from 9 Yin got him a decent level in weapon.

Early on, however, he would have been reliant on weaponry skills even though he wasn't particularly proficient in them, wouldn't he? The Gong Nam 7 Freaks were primarily weaponry fighters, so I imagine that the martial arts they taught to Gwok Jing were mostly weapons-intensive skills.

[kyss of the sword]

guo jing actually carried the golden knife given to him by ghengis khan, i belived. he used a sabre when defending xiangyang. when he first came to the central plains, he was better in empty hands then weapons, since his teacher's focused on that since for the duel, most likely they won't have him and yang kang fight with weapons. later he improved mostly in plams, so he didn't rely on weapons. yang guo was best in swordplay but when he left mt zhongnan, he didn't think to take any weapon as he was trying to find XLN. later he just hadn't the opportunity to find a proper blacksmith. too many things happening. then he had the gentleman sword and heavy sword right before he jumped into no sword training.

[Ken Cheng]

guo jing actually carried the golden knife given to him by ghengis khan, i belived

He did, but I don't believe he ever used it in combat. It was the avatar of the Prince Consort of the Mongol Empire, after all, and had great symbolic value...probably not something that one would actually want to use in battle.