Maybe I should have separated the wording more, because it sounded confusing. What I mean, is that Zheng Xuan's reputation of "having never met a rival in several decades" is just that, reputation. Being undefeated could mean a lot of things, one being that he never went up against anyone really good.Originally posted by JiaMoZhi
-Yu Xuan was a good friend of Deng Xuan, he knew him better than by reputation. He even knew the kind of health that Deng had, which suggests that they frequent each other regularly. So I still think that Yu Xuan's hopelessness after learning about Deng's demise shows that Deng was a skilled expert.
Yu Xuan may be familiar with Zheng Xuan's skills, but his respect doesn't mean much to me at all. He'd have respected Yu PeiYu (before acquiring Mr.DengGuo's skill) if he was aware of him.
Maybe. Too much speculation. The exact length of training time is unknown.Even if he hasn't seen his master in the last 7-8 years, Deng Xuan still had many more years of martial arts training than the younger ShiYun.
Maybe. Zheng Xuan's level of talent is unknown. ShiYun's is, given his skill at a young age. See above regarding the "unmatched" part. ShiYun could have been unmatched if he took on the known wulin world (i.e. the world where the 13 heads of the major schools reigned at the upper end of the spectrum).That could be possible, but the opposite could also be true, since Deng was said to be unmatched for the last couple of decades.
Age doesn't necessarily equate skill. So concluding that the students balance out is premature. I have no problem with some amount of speculation when it comes to these things. We all do it. But I believe there are certain levels of speculation and how much weight one should place on them. It seems to me that any strong conclusions centered around Zheng Xuan is kinda slim. I can accept that Zheng Xuan's skill lies anyway between Yu Xuan and ShiYun. Personally, I'm not prepared to go any higher based on the level of speculation here.But even though Nu might be higher in the top 10 list than DongFang, the difference in age between their students should still be able to balance it out.
IMHO, your original conclusion that 8th Squire Fu is at least as good (implying that he's probably better) as the Ten Masters is rather bold if you're solely basing it on the Zheng Xuan incident. And I'm not even going to get into having the Ten Masters at the bottom of your list (below a Shade)?! (And please don't take anything I say the wrong way... I respect the fact that everyone has their own opinion, I just disagree strongly with some of yours, as you do mine.)
The problem I have with some peoples' view of the deterioration theory is that they hide behind it like some law of the universe. The theory is just that, a theory. What actually happens in the novels take precedance and drives the theory, not the other way around.That's nice. I'm not a fan of the deterioration theory anyway since people can always record their skills in a book.
A lot of GL's longer epics do have a larger number of powerful fighters (and they tend to take place earlier) but the later eras don't seem to lack fighters just as powerful. And there doesn't appear to be a consistent descending slope in general skill when one examines the chronology.
Answer A: Mr. DongGuo is wise when it comes to martial arts, but not so wise in other things.Originally posted by Charlieboyjust a couple of things I found strange and inconsistent in the story were the fact that Mr.Dongguo is this seemingly god-like wise old man but then says and does things that are incomprehensible for such a great
Answer B: The writer who finished the story for GL just ruined some of the characters. A horrible ending for a great story. Such a shame.