Martial Arts in Smiling, Proud Wanderer

[goodrick]

I just finished watching Laughing in the Wind (SPW) 2001 starring Li Yapeng and needed some clarification on the martial arts in the novel.

Is the martial arts practiced by Dongfang Bubai and Yue Buqun the same? They seem the same with both Dongfang Bubai and Yue Buqun self-castrating themselves and using needles as their weapons. But they are referred to as The Mallow Journal (For Dongfang Bubai) and The Purity/Bixie Swordplay (For Yue Buqun). So are they the same? If not, is one superior to the other? Also, what is the Sunflower manual?

I have not read the novel, but just watched the TV series. The TV adaptations are not always very accurate and I just wanted to get my facts right. Thanks

[Banh Mi]

If I recall correctly, the manual was written by a eunich and help at Shaolin. 2 guys from Hua Shan visited Shaolin and secretly memorised half of the manual each. They didn't know how to interpret it, but Lin Pingzi's granddad was sent to talk to them. He helped them interpret it.
This part I am unsure of, but I think they still disagreed on parts of it so the manual they wrote down had some parts wrong or something and was therefore slightly inferior. It was then stolen by the Sun Moon Cult and later given to Dongfang.

Lin Pingzi's granddad had a more wholistic understanding of the manual, he wrote it down then stopped being a monk, then later his manual was passed down to Lin Pingzi, while later Yue Buqun got.

So if I have it right, then Lin Pingzi's manual should be more accurate than Dongfang's.

[PJ]

Pixie Jianfa is a martial art derived from Sun Moon Sect's incomplete version of Sunflower Manuscript. The 2 arts [Pixie and incomplete Sunflower] originated from the same source [the original Sunflower Manuscript], but both arts were only able to obtain a small fraction of the original material.

The original Sunflower Manuscript--and the nameless eunuch who invented it-- is likely to be much more powerful than the incomplete Sunflower Manuscript practiced by Dongfang Bubai AND the Pixie Jianfa developed by Lin Yuantu.

[goodrick]

Pixie Jianfa is a martial art derived from Sun Moon Sect's incomplete version of Sunflower Manuscript. The 2 arts [Pixie and incomplete Sunflower] originated from the same source [the original Sunflower Manuscript], but both arts were only able to obtain a small fraction of the original material.

The original Sunflower Manuscript--and the nameless eunuch who invented it-- is likely to be much more powerful than the incomplete Sunflower Manuscript practiced by Dongfang Bubai AND the Pixie Jianfa developed by Lin Yuantu.

So is the Incomplete Sunflower Manual that DFBB practised superior than Pixie Jianfa developed by Lin Yuantu?

[PJ]

So is the Incomplete Sunflower Manual that DFBB practised superior than Pixie Jianfa developed by Lin Yuantu?

Hard to say IMO. Lin Yuantu's Pixie Jianfa is based on the incomplete manual. Since Lin Yuantu was extremely bright, he was perhaps capable of deriving more insight in his own version. However, it was mentioned that Lin Yuantu may not have had access to the whole incomplete version--that he got an incomplete version of the incomplete version, because the 2 Huashan elders who copied down the incomplete manual may not have revealed what they wrote down in entirety to Lin. So in the end it's hard to say whether his insightful but double-incomplete version is better than the "original" incomplete version.

[Trien Chieu]

Based on TV serials, DFBB is more powerful than Yue Buqun and Lin Pingzi. Anyway, if they both are incomplete then how come they are still very powerful? How comes no one is trying to get the original manual?

[goodrick]

Based on TV serials, DFBB is more powerful than Yue Buqun and Lin Pingzi.

DFBB is probably more powerful because he had 12 years to practice and master the incomplete Sunflower manual. Yue Buqun and Lin Pingzi had a few weeks or a few months at best. Hence it does not necessarily imply that DFBB's version of the Sunflower manual was more superior to Pixie Jianfa.

Anyway, if they both are incomplete then how come they are still very powerful?

The two manuals may be incomplete but that does not necessarily mean they are not powerful. It probably does imply that they are not as powerful as the original complete version, but definitely does not mean they are not powerful.

How comes no one is trying to get the original manual?

Maybe no one is trying to get the original manual, because the original manual is believed to be lost? Just a thought.

[kyss of the sword]

there was one original version in shoalin temple which was destoryed by the monk who studied it after the huashan experts 'stole' the manual. lin yuantu/rev duyuan heard the two halfs of the manual from the huashan experts, likely the whole thing since they did not understand a single bit and were desperate to master it, plus they believed duyuan already knew something about it. duyuan played along to hear the manual. the idea that bixie jianfa could be more complete then the sunflower manual was an idea of chongxu, not a statment by the author, and unlikely to be true. because the huashan experts were unable to master the skill, they wrote down what they had remembered and those writing were what they revealed to duyuan and what the sunmoon sect stole away. dispite the difference in name, the skills when executed by DFBB and YBQ were the same, so likely the skills were one and the same.

[Trien Chieu]

there was one original version in shoalin temple which was destoryed by the monk who studied it after the huashan experts 'stole' the manual. lin yuantu/rev duyuan heard the two halfs of the manual from the huashan experts, likely the whole thing since they did not understand a single bit and were desperate to master it, plus they believed duyuan already knew something about it. duyuan played along to hear the manual. the idea that bixie jianfa could be more complete then the sunflower manual was an idea of chongxu, not a statment by the author, and unlikely to be true. because the huashan experts were unable to master the skill, they wrote down what they had remembered and those writing were what they revealed to duyuan and what the sunmoon sect stole away. dispite the difference in name, the skills when executed by DFBB and YBQ were the same, so likely the skills were one and the same.

But both the sunflower manual and bixie swordplay are pretty much garbage anyway, it's better to steal the 9 yin for Emei sect .