Is Huang Rong really older than Guo Jing?

[MrIllusion]

Apologies if this has already been discussed, but it was quite a surprise for me so I thought I'd share anyway.

I was always under the impression that HR was about 15 or so in the story, while GJ was about 18.

But I was browsing through a Chinese forum and came across this. If the OP got his facts right then it must really be true, and HR should be older than GJ by at least 4-5 few years!

黄蓉是何时诞生的？她是在黑风双煞陈玄风和梅超风逃出桃花岛后不长时间里出生的。在第十回中，梅超风回忆， 他和陈玄风偷了黄药时的半部“九阴真经”逃走，躲在深山中苦练半年，练功不成，他们又打听到黄药师将其余弟 子挑断了脚筋，赶出了桃花岛，他们偷溜回桃花岛，看见了黄师母的灵堂，还看见“一个一岁的小女孩”，这就是 黄蓉。

So when was HR born? She was born not long after the Black Wind Duo Chen Xuanfeng and Mei Chaofeng escaped from Peach Blossom Island. In Chapter 10, Mei Chaofeng recalled that Chen and her stole half of the 9Yin manual and escaped deep into the mountains to practice for half a year. They were unsuccessful and heard that HYS had crippled his other students and expelled them from the island. They secretly went back to the island, saw Madam Huang's altar tablet, and also a one-year old child, who is HR.

第一个场景：在第一回中，郭啸天和杨铁心到村外去打猎 ，目睹曲三杀死数名武官，二人大惊。郭啸天悦：“我兄弟俩当真有眼无珠，跟你老兄在牛家村同住这么些年，… …”这当然是发生在郭靖出生之前的事。这样，事件的顺序是在黄蓉出生之后，曲三（即曲灵风）被赶出了桃花岛 ，到牛家村住了好几年，才被杨郭二人看破行藏，又过了几个月，郭啸天被杀、妻子被劫掠到北方，才生下郭靖。 这样算来黄蓉至少比郭靖大四五岁。

First Scenario: In the 1st Chapter, Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin went outside the village to hunt, and saw Qu San kill several soldiers. Both were shocked.

Guo Xiaotia said, 'Both my brother and I must be blind, living with you in Ox Village all these years, ..."

This of course happened before GJ's birth. Therefore, the sequence of events is:

- HR is born
- Qu San (aka Qu Ling Feng) is expelled from Peach Blossom Island
- Qu San stays at Ox Village for a few years
- Qu San gets exposed by Yang and Guo
- Yang and Guo is killed a few months later
- Wife gets sent to the north, before finally giving birth to GJ.

On hindsight, getting Zhou Xun for the role of HR in ROCH01 seems strangely apt now... O_o

[ChronoReverse]

IIRC, this was fixed in 3rd edition.

[Huang Rong]

that's just a bug in story-line, even in the 2nd edition of LOCH and ROCH, i can cite quite a few details showing that GJ > HR ~ 3 year. Just too lazy to re-read and futhermore, it seems that Athena, the Goddess of Wuxia Knowledge, once wrote that this bug was modified in the 3rd edition.

[flyingfox2002]

HR's age is a well-known goof in LOCH. He tripped himself up.

Another well-known goof is the First Freak's blindness. He first claimed that Mei Chao Feng and Chen Xuan Feng did it, BEFORE he met the other Freaks because even the other Freaks didn't know how he became blind; but then late in the book, in the Iron Spear Temple, the First Freak remembers SEEING the other Freaks when they were all young'uns, meaning that he lost his sight AFTER they were already friends.

[kidd]

Another bug. Ah Xiu in chapter 1 was supposed to be the same age as Shi Po Tian. But in a later chapter, she suddenly became younger than him by several years.

[PJ]

Yep, bugs, they happen even to good authors like Jin Yong

The Huang Rong age bug was a bit more subtle than one inconsistency in OUTER STORY OF THE FLYING FOX (which, subsequently, was fixed in 3rd edition).