time period of SPW

[sarakoth]

in the very begginning of SPW, there was a mention of corn

since corn wasn't brought into China until the 16th century.....

[Ren Ying Ying]

actually, someone had suggested that SPW took place after the ming dynasty because yue lingshan once refered to Zhu Yuanzhang as "the founder of the Ming Dynasty" instead of "the founder of our dynasty" or something along those lines.

[PJ]

since corn wasn't brought into China until the 16th century.....

Jin Yong is allowed to change history in his novels. Historically, Qianlong didn't have a half brother named Chen Jialuo, but Jin Yong wrote that he did.

[Ken Cheng]

You think the corn anomaly was strange? In LOCH and HSDS (adaptations, at least), references were made to characters eating potatoes. Potatoes were also unknown in Eurasia until sometime after the first European explorers arrived in the New World beginning at the end of the 15th Century (i.e. during China's Ming Dynasty).

[Ian Liew]

in the very begginning of SPW, there was a mention of corn

since corn wasn't brought into China until the 16th century.....

16th century would be 1500-1599. That's well within the Ming timezone as it did not fall until 1644. Given the negative light the government officials were being held in (both with Liu Zhengfeng's retirement and Linghu Chong's little soldier episode) SPW should be somewhere around the latter period of Wanli, when corruption really started getting out of hand and set the end of the dynasty in motion. SPW probably wouldn't be in the Taichang, Tianqi or Chongzhen reign since there was no talk of Manchus or foreign tribes at the border. Late 16th century, early 17th century seems to be the most probable.

actually, someone had suggested that SPW took place after the ming dynasty because yue lingshan once refered to Zhu Yuanzhang as "the founder of the Ming Dynasty" instead of "the founder of our dynasty" or something along those lines

By "founder of Ming Dynasty" do you mean "Ming Taizu"? Zhu Yuanzhang's title was Ming Taizu, dynastic name Hongwu. It would be normal to refer to him as Ming Taizu, even during the Ming dynasty, no more wrong than to refer to Kangxi during Qianlong's reign. During the Han Dynasty people still referred to Liu Bang as Han Gaozu, and Tang's Li Longji was always Tang Xuanzong. It's just a title they're referred to by, although some of them have more literal meanings than others.

[Ren Ying Ying]

By "founder of Ming Dynasty" do you mean "Ming Taizu"? Zhu Yuanzhang's title was Ming Taizu, dynastic name Hongwu. It would be normal to refer to him as Ming Taizu, even during the Ming dynasty, no more wrong than to refer to Kangxi during Qianlong's reign. During the Han Dynasty people still referred to Liu Bang as Han Gaozu, and Tang's Li Longji was always Tang Xuanzong. It's just a title they're referred to by, although some of them have more literal meanings than others.

she said, "明朝开国皇帝太祖朱元障” (2nd Ed)

it's not so much how she refered to zhu yuanzhang himself that makes me suspicious, but rather she said "ming dynasty". if you were a citizen of the ming, wouldn't you refer to it as "our dynasty" or "big ming" or something of that sort? "ming dynasty" seemed a bit impersonal