7 Freaks' bet with Qiu Chuji

[PJ]

The bet was that 7 Freaks would teach GJ, while Qiu teaches YK. 18 years later they would compete with each other.

Now, knowing what we know about how things work in JY universe, I think the Freaks definitely got the tougher job. GJ learning from 7 people of equal calibre isn't much different from learning from one person. In fact having 7 different instructions is probably worse than having just one. It's like how MRF and Su Xinghe tried to learn too many MAs (or other stuff) and ended up being a master of none.

In reality, the bet was equivalent to 1 Freak teaching GJ, while Qiu teaches YK.

[Ian Liew]

I think neither Qiu nor the Seven Freaks realised what a difficult prospect it was. Qiu was probably used to Quanzhen, where probably more than one master would impart skills to the 3rd generation students, but in that case all seven masters had trained in the same skills with the same fundamentals (even if their strengths were different). The Freaks had never had a student before and had no idea how to teach a student anyway, so neither party thought much of it. In fact, neither did even after so many years, and it took Ma Yu to correct that imbalance. Such a wonderful man, to travel all that way just to see how his martial brother's rival was doing, and take the time to test Guo Jing's character and teach him valuable skills which would form the core of what he needed to learn in the future. Was his original intention of traveling to Mongolia to see if the odds needed evening, and to keep his martial brother more humble? Or did he feel bad about the 18-year pact which arose purely out of Qiu Chuji's stubborness?

[Ken Cheng]

I think neither Qiu nor the Seven Freaks realised what a difficult prospect it was. Qiu was probably used to Quanzhen, where probably more than one master would impart skills to the 3rd generation students, but in that case all seven masters had trained in the same skills with the same fundamentals (even if their strengths were different). The Freaks had never had a student before and had no idea how to teach a student anyway, so neither party thought much of it. In fact, neither did even after so many years, and it took Ma Yu to correct that imbalance. Such a wonderful man, to travel all that way just to see how his martial brother's rival was doing, and take the time to test Guo Jing's character and teach him valuable skills which would form the core of what he needed to learn in the future. Was his original intention of traveling to Mongolia to see if the odds needed evening, and to keep his martial brother more humble? Or did he feel bad about the 18-year pact which arose purely out of Qiu Chuji's stubborness?

Yau Chui Gei actually wanted no part of this bet; he only agreed to it to salvage the Freaks' pride. Naturally, Yau Chui Gei didn't want his student to lose, but it never mattered to him as much as it did to the Freaks.

[CFT]

Yau Chui Gei actually wanted no part of this bet; he only agreed to it to salvage the Freaks' pride. Naturally, Yau Chui Gei didn't want his student to lose, but it never mattered to him as much as it did to the Freaks.

I think this nuance is lost in the TV adaptations.

[pannonian]

I think neither Qiu nor the Seven Freaks realised what a difficult prospect it was. Qiu was probably used to Quanzhen, where probably more than one master would impart skills to the 3rd generation students, but in that case all seven masters had trained in the same skills with the same fundamentals (even if their strengths were different). The Freaks had never had a student before and had no idea how to teach a student anyway, so neither party thought much of it. In fact, neither did even after so many years, and it took Ma Yu to correct that imbalance. Such a wonderful man, to travel all that way just to see how his martial brother's rival was doing, and take the time to test Guo Jing's character and teach him valuable skills which would form the core of what he needed to learn in the future. Was his original intention of traveling to Mongolia to see if the odds needed evening, and to keep his martial brother more humble? Or did he feel bad about the 18-year pact which arose purely out of Qiu Chuji's stubborness?

From Chapter 6 - Mysterious happenings on the Summit of the Cliff:

In fact, after discovering the circumstances behind the journey of the
Six Freaks to Mongolia, he felt great admiration for them. He
interrogated Yin Zhiping, who confirmed that Guo Jing didn’t have any
neigong. As a Senior of the Quanzhen Sect he knew perfectly the
principles of Taoism. He didn’t want Qiu Chuji to impose this challenge
on the Six Freaks. He tried to convince his martial brother repeatedly,
but Qiu would not hear of it. As last resort he came to the steppe to
try to help Guo Jing without telling anyone. Otherwise, how could he
have met the child, by accident, in the immensity of the northern plain?
What other reason would he have for dedicating two years of his life to
give Guo Jing this precious instruction? If Mei Chaofeng had not
re-emerged unexpectedly, he would have discreetly left for the south
once assured that Guo Jing’s neigong foundations were well established.
The result would have been that neither the Six Freaks nor Qiu Chuji
would have suspected anything.

I think this nuance is lost in the TV adaptations.

In the 2003 adaptation, Qiu Chuji is backed into a corner by Ke Zhen E's pride and exasperated at their demands, but then a lightbulb lights up and his mood changes. Any fan of LOCH should definitely try that adaptation, as it's probably the closest novel to screen adaptation of anything that I've ever seen.

[Ian Liew]

From Chapter 6 - Mysterious happenings on the Summit of the Cliff:

In fact, after discovering the circumstances behind the journey of the
Six Freaks to Mongolia, he felt great admiration for them. He
interrogated Yin Zhiping, who confirmed that Guo Jing didn’t have any
neigong. As a Senior of the Quanzhen Sect he knew perfectly the
principles of Taoism. He didn’t want Qiu Chuji to impose this challenge
on the Six Freaks. He tried to convince his martial brother repeatedly,
but Qiu would not hear of it. As last resort he came to the steppe to
try to help Guo Jing without telling anyone. Otherwise, how could he
have met the child, by accident, in the immensity of the northern plain?
What other reason would he have for dedicating two years of his life to
give Guo Jing this precious instruction? If Mei Chaofeng had not
re-emerged unexpectedly, he would have discreetly left for the south
once assured that Guo Jing’s neigong foundations were well established.
The result would have been that neither the Six Freaks nor Qiu Chuji
would have suspected anything.

In the 2003 adaptation, Qiu Chuji is backed into a corner by Ke Zhen E's pride and exasperated at their demands, but then a lightbulb lights up and his mood changes. Any fan of LOCH should definitely try that adaptation, as it's probably the closest novel to screen adaptation of anything that I've ever seen.

Ma Yu was truly a great man. No wonder even someone as arrogant as Huang Yaoshi was moved to say that he was worthy of being the sect head of Quanzhen.

[Dirt]

Given how markedly Guo Jing improved under the tutelage of Ma Yu, I think the person who originally got the short end of the stick in the bet was Guo Jing himself. The 7 minus 1 Freaks were crappy teachers.

[Ken Cheng]

Given how markedly Guo Jing improved under the tutelage of Ma Yu, I think the person who originally got the short end of the stick in the bet was Guo Jing himself. The 7 minus 1 Freaks were crappy teachers.

The Freaks were *OK* as teachers. Gwok Jing did manage to learn some valuable lessons from them that would be useful to him later on. Their main problems were that 1). there were seven of them with disparate martial arts styles and 2). none of them had any particularly advanced martial arts to offer their student.

[Ken Cheng]

Yau Chui Gei agreed to the bet mainly to humor the 7 Freaks, but I wonder if he also agreed to it because, frankly, he needed their help. He was one man searching an entire continent for two kids. That's a great amount of ground for one man to cover, but with seven other people searching, the odds were better that at least one of the kids would be found.

[tape]

From the passage pannonian posted, it seems Qiu wasn't any less bullheaded than the Freaks were about the whole issue.

[Ken Cheng]

From the passage pannonian posted, it seems Qiu wasn't any less bullheaded than the Freaks were about the whole issue.

Perhaps, but it was for different reasons. The Freaks (particularly Ohr Jen Ngok) were desperate to prove that they were not inferior to Yau Chui Gei by showing that their student could beat his; Yau Chui Gei, of course, was notorious for insisting on his way, but he wasn't altogether consumed by the idea that his student *had* to defeat the Freaks'.