It's surprising which characters in the world of wuxia are literate.

[Ken Cheng]

When one considers the term "wuxia," one tends to think of individuals of great physical prowess, not literary prowess. Oh, to be certain, there are scores of wuxia characters who are very literate...whose literary skills might even match or surpass their martial arts skills. This is generally not the norm, however. In pre-modern times, most of the population was illiterate. Martial artists, dedicating themselves to the physical arts, had even less time, need, or inclination to learn the literary arts than most other people.

That's why it's surprising who's literate in wuxia fiction sometimes.

We know why Yeung Gor can read. Wong Yung taught him how to read from the time he was a boy. Cheung Mo Gei was able to read because his father, Cheung Chui San, was a scholar as well as a warrior. More surprising is that Gwok Jing could read. His teacher Chu Chung (Gong Nam Freak # 2 ) was a scholar, but was there ever any time or need to teach Gwok Jing to read and write? Moreover, martial arts prodigy though he might be, Gwok Jing was never an intellectual power. It's amazing that he eventually became literate enough to read the 9 Yum Jen Ging.

But there are some folks in wuxia whose literacy is even less likely and more dumbfounding than Gwok Jing's: his mother Lee Ping and Genghis Khan.

Lee Ping was a simple peasant woman from Lin-an. She had no educational background, and because she was a common peasant housewife of the Southern Sung Dynasty, her literacy would be very limited...she could read street signs, but not letters.

Genghis Khan was a Mongolian. During his time, the Mongols had no written language (although they would soon invent one). History does not record, as far as I know, that Genghis ever learned to read or write Chinese.

And yet, it was Genghis Khan, the supposedly illiterate Mongolian barbarian, who wrote secret commands in CHINESE so that somehow, Lee Ping, an illiterate peasant woman, was able to read them and learn that the Khan had plans to execute her and her son if Gwok Jing did not obey Genghis' instructions to begin the invasion of southern China.

This sounds like a TVB invention. Please tell me it is, or this is a huge WTF?!

Genghis Khan could not have written that letter (although I suppose he could get someone to write it for him). Lee Ping was highly unlikely to have been able to read it.

It's surprising sometimes who in wuxia fiction can read and write.

[CC]

Guo Jing only memorised the sounds of the 9 Yin. He had no idea what the mumbo jumbo was at first.

[owbjhx]

Genghis Khan was a Mongolian. During his time, the Mongols had no written language (although they would soon invent one). History does not record, as far as I know, that Genghis ever learned to read or write Chinese.

And yet, it was Genghis Khan, the supposedly illiterate Mongolian barbarian, who wrote secret commands in CHINESE so that somehow, Lee Ping, an illiterate peasant woman, was able to read them and learn that the Khan had plans to execute her and her son if Gwok Jing did not obey Genghis' instructions to begin the invasion of southern China.

This sounds like a TVB invention. Please tell me it is, or this is a huge WTF?!

Genghis Khan could not have written that letter (although I suppose he could get someone to write it for him). Lee Ping was highly unlikely to have been able to read it.

It's surprising sometimes who in wuxia fiction can read and write.

Haha, you might be onto something here!

This all really comes down to Li Ping's literacy. In Chapter 4, Jin Yong mentioned that she was illiterate. The incident with the letter is in Chapter 38. In the ten years or so between those two events, she must have learned how to read, in order for Chapter 38 to work. Unlikely, but stranger things have happened.

As for Genghis, we could probably assume that he didn't write the letter personally. There are a couple of scenes in LOCH that suggest that, whether or not he could actually write himself, he'd likely have ordered a scribe to do it. I'd also speculate that the recipients of the letter would usually have had scribes to read it to them. If this were the case, the nature of the written form would only have been important insofaras all the relevant scribes and Li Ping and Guo Jing could understand it.

JY did indeed mention in Chapter 3 that there was no native Mongolian script, but this doesn't necessarily mean *nobody* in Mongolian society was literate in *any* language. (Indeed, the novel shows this to be untrue.) It just means that, as at Chapter 3, they didn't have their own written form. It's probably possible to argue (weakly), based on historical events, that a written form of Mongolian might have come into use between Chapter 3 and Chapter 38. Unlikely, but again, stranger things have happened.

So in short, the lack of clarity you've spotted is Jin Yong's fault, not TVB's.

[wandering]

I remember she was illiterate...but I thought she convince GJ to open up the pouch and he read the order not her.

I could be wrong.