Zhang Sanfeng, the king/victim of NLUTSR?

[PJ]

NLUTSR: Not Living Up To Stated Reputation

In HSDS, almost EVERY time Zhang Sanfeng appeared, Jin Yong always hyped up his reputation, giving him a god-like attribute, and then IMMEDIATELY present a real case contradicting it. See what I mean:

1. When the old, experienced Zhang Sanfeng first appeared in HSDS, he was trying to heal his injured disciple Yu Daiyan. Jin Yong said: "With Zhang Sanfeng's divine martial arts level now, he would have no trouble resurrecting a dead person back to life for a few seconds." And yet, after 20 attempts, he was unable to resurrect Yu Daiyan in the least! Talk about an EOE: Embarrassment On Entrance.

2. The second time adult Zhang Sanfeng appeared, Jin Yong said "Zhang Sanfeng has been diligently cultivating for 80 years; he has secured the attainment in Not Caring About World Matters." And yet, the very next thing that happens, is that Zhang Sanfeng got super emotional, and even cried! Talk about Exception.

3. A few dozen paragraphs later, Jin Yong said: "According to Zhang Sanfeng's level in internal cultivation, when he injects his internal energy into anybody, as long as that person is not dead yet, he would instantly recover from any injury." And yet, what's the next immediate thing that happens? You guessed it: Zhang Sanfeng injected his internal energy into somebody, and it failed to do anything for that person!

4. Some chapters later, Jin Yong wrote: "Zhang Sanfeng's martial arts is so wonderful, he has reached the stage of being able to accomplish any task as his heart desires." As if that had a chance of being true. The very next thing that happens is that he gets ambushed and greatly injured. Where was his ability to accomplish a defense as his heart desires when that happened?

5. A few paragraphs later, Jin Yong once again repeated: "Zhang Sanfeng's cultivation is so thrilling, he has long surpassed the stage of Caring About Any Worldly Matter." I think you know the drill by now: immediately following the above description, Zhang Sanfeng contradicted it by caring very much about worldly matters. He even spat blood b/c he cared about them so much.

I'm sure there are other instances of NLUTSR by Zhang Sanfeng. IMO Jin Yong really made his case unique and consistent throughout the novel: first present some arbitrary praise about Zhang Real Man, then show him do the exact opposite.

[HuangYushi]

1. When the old, experienced Zhang Sanfeng first appeared in HSDS, he was trying to heal his injured disciple Yu Daiyan. Jin Yong said: "With Zhang Sanfeng's divine martial arts level now, he would have no trouble resurrecting a dead person back to life for a few seconds." And yet, after 20 attempts, he was unable to resurrect Yu Daiyan in the least! Talk about an EOE: Embarrassment On Entrance.

First thing: It isn't any "dead person"; it's a person who "had just breathed his last".

Second, I think it's a bit unfair to call this particular scene an EOE. Yu Daiyan was very gravely injured. His nervous system was badly damaged and his breathing very faint. Zhang Sanfeng's main treatment for Yu in this situation was to sustain breathing and thereafter life. Zhang used the 白虎夺命丹 (pills) before transferring a very gentle (a keyword here) stream of energy into Yu's 龙跃窍 acupoint. But Yu could not even swallow the pills.

Inability to swallow aside, I believe that Yu's damaged nervous system affected the transfer of energy into his body. The statement about resurrecting a just-dead person for just a few seconds was made for comparison sake, to provide a point of reference for Zhang's internal energy. For this statement and point of reference for work, the just-dead person had to be a normal just-dead person, i.e. without a nervous system that was damaged to the extent of Yu's.

Then, the helplessness of Wudang in the face of such great ability against so little improvement can be portrayed more effectively.

[Loke-Gao-Zhu]

Dude even ZWJ can't stand a chance (palm to palm)against Xuan Ming elders with full 9 yang (after defeating Ah Dai, Ah er, Ah San) while Z3F can just kill the Xuamin with 1 tap on the shoulder

and Z3f is still confident that he can beat Ah 3 despite being heavily injured

[PJ]

Dude even ZWJ can't stand a chance (palm to palm)against Xuan Ming elders with full 9 yang (after defeating Ah Dai, Ah er, Ah San) while Z3F can just kill the Xuamin with 1 tap on the shoulder

Which has nothing to do with the theme of this topic, which is NLUTSR::RARWS - Not Living Up To Stated Reputation (Right After Reputation Was Stated).

and Z3f is still confident that he can beat Ah 3 despite being heavily injured

Sorry, but you got your fact wrong.