Lin Pingzhi: a more cruel fate than archvillains like Cheng Kun and others?

[BlackRaven]

From the very first page of Smiling Proud Wanderer at Lanny Lin's page:

Leading the pack was a beautiful horse, white as snow, with a silver bridle and stirrups. A young man in silk clothing, roughly eighteen years of age, sat on the horse, with a sword hanging from his belt and a bow strapped onto his back.

I think it's sad that the first protagonist of the book, who was a kind young man with a heroic heart, ended up with a fate much worse than nearly any archvillain in Jin Yong's stories.

Xiao YuanShan, Murong Bo, Cheng Kun, Xie Xun, all have killed many more innocents than Lin Pingzhi did. Yet all of them ended up at the Shaolin Temple. Merely BEING at Shaolin means a chance for redemption, enlightenment and inner peace.

Even a full strength Ren Woxing couldn't escape from the prison beneath the lake without miraculous assistance from the outside. Was it really necessary for Ren Yin Yin to destroy all of LPZ's tendons? He was already blind, but she still insisted on turning him into a cripple like Yu Dainan.

Lin Pingzhi's most serious crime was killing his wife. But even she forgave him, citing his tragic past. Why can't Linghu Chong and Ren Yin Yin forgive LPZ and just send him to Shaolin? Linghu Chong had just received an extremely precious gift from Shaolin, namely the YJJ, which was the only way to save his life. I'm sure Fangzheng would have accepted to keep watch on LPZ, considering that all the negative karma caused by Bixie Sword Play originated in Shaolin in the first place, with their disciple Lin YuanTu scribbing it on his robe.

It would have been perfect for things to come full circle, with the last vestige of KHBD returning to Shaolin. The HSDS monks patiently recited scriptures during Xie Xun's inprisonment, and even he was moved and realized the error of his ways. XYS and MRB were given a clean slate and a chance to reach inner peace.

Cheng Kun, who committed a myriad more crimes than LPZ, lost all his inner power, was blinded, but he did not have his tendons destroyed. He did not become a cripple confined to a wheelchair like LPZ and YDN. Also, instead of being locked in a damp prison beneath a lake, alone, CK was still at Shaolin, where it's always possible for anyone to find inner peace.

[Ian Liew]

Lin Pingzhi's most serious crime was killing his wife. But even she forgave him, citing his tragic past. Why can't Linghu Chong and Ren Yin Yin forgive LPZ and just send him to Shaolin? Linghu Chong had just received an extremely precious gift from Shaolin, namely the YJJ, which was the only way to save his life. I'm sure Fangzheng would have accepted to keep watch on LPZ, considering that all the negative karma caused by Bixie Sword Play originated in Shaolin in the first place, with their disciple Lin YuanTu scribbing it on his robe.

Didn't he work for Zuo Lengchan and slaughter dozens of disciples from the Five Peaks Sects at Huashan? He wasn't exactly a man with any redeeming factors by that point, and probably didn't even regret what he did to his wife. Despite already accomplishing what he wanted (learning Bixie and avenging his family) he remained bitter and consumed with hatred. Even if he hadn't lost his eyesight it is unconceivable that he would have treated YLS better, or had a better ending and turned his back on Jianghu. If LHC hadn't promised YLS to protect him, he would most likely have slaughtered him the way he did Zuo (which would probably have been a better way to end it).

Xiao Yuanshan, Murong Bo and Xie Xun all repented of their crimes, and were totally salvageable as men. Cheng Kun less so, and would probably remain bitter and consumed with hatred all his days locked up in a Shaolin dungeon (in possibly the same way as Ding Chunqiu). Cheng Kun had lost all his martial arts, while Ding Chunqiu was struck by the ShengShiFu, and neither were a threat any longer to those around them. LPZ was still extremely dangerous, blind or not. Maybe RYY should have just shattered his clavicles or something, but I don't think he got off too harshly. LPZ got dealt a very tragic blow to his life with his family being killed and with Yue Buqun using him to obtain Bixie, but he nevertheless was in a more fortunate position than many other people, and a lot of the issues which made him the monster he was at the end were of his own doing.

[Ren Wo Xing]

I agree with Ian. In addition, the rest of them never had a 'kick the dog' moment like Lin Pingzhi did with killing Yue Lingshan.

In addition to having repented, Xiao Yuanshan and Murong Bo, by all accounts, deeply loved their spouse and kid.

Xie Xun, in addition to having repented, crippled his own martial arts; what's more, what he did, he did BECAUSE someone (his master) killed his wife and kid.

Cheng Kun, despite never repenting, will be forevermore locked up, but what he did, he did because the person he loved (and who loved him) chose to die with her husband instead of live for him.

Lin Pingzhi is one of the very, very few who had the kick-the-dog moment. He had someone he was supposed to love and cherish and protect, and who loved him full-heartedly and unstintingly...and he killed her for no reason at all.

[Doc Kwok]

Was it really necessary for Ren Yin Yin to destroy all of LPZ's tendons? He was already blind, but she still insisted on turning him into a cripple like Yu Dainan.

It wasn't Ren Yingying who did it - it was Linghu Chong:

令狐沖生怕林平之又再反撲，在他左臂補了一劍，削斷他的筋脈...

Linghu Chong, afraid that Lin Pingzhi would charge him again, added a sword stroke to his left arm [the earlier one was to his right], cutting his tendons...

He did it to ensure his and RYY's safety as they were still in the dark at that point. Furthermore, as far as we know, LPZ's legs were only stabbed - it said nothing about severing the tendons.

[tape]

He had a ton of misfortune so it's hard for me to not feel sorry for him, especially since I don't really like the character of Yue Lingshan anyway, and killing her was his worst literary moment.

He seemed to be a pretty decent guy in the beginning considering he was pampered at every turn since a child. Saving Yue Lingshan in the beginning was probably a moment of adolescent arrogance rather than any sort of heroic spirit, but it at least showed he grew up with decency.

After suffering no setbacks his whole life, he had to watch all his escorts get murdered one after another, and his parents soon afterwards. He then gets saved by a man known for being righteous, and it turns out he's worse than all the others. Throughout all this he has to beg for food, get looked down upon, live in fear, and get bullied by every character he comes across. Keep in mind he lived as an arrogant, rich noble, so those things hurt him emotionally more than it hurt other people.

The one chance he has for revenge is his family treasure left to him by the dying words of his father, which gets stolen by his master and attempts to murder him -- revealing all the backstage treachery that has been going on. Can't blame him for not trusting anybody named Yue at this point.

When he finally recovers the one thing he wanted in his life, it plays a cruel joke on him and makes him castrate himself at the young age of ~20.

Then he goes blind and disfigured. Every single time something positive happens to him, something terrible sets him back as well. One of the worst things to happen to someone imo is constant regression.

I mean, I almost can't blame the guy for doing what he did, because I can't blame him for ANYTHING. If all those things happened to someone, I really don't think anything he does could ever be considered wrong considering how unfair the world has been to him. It might be a test of character to cope with it, but it seems like an impossible test to pass.

[Trien Chieu]

tape, while LPZ had a ton of misfortune but it doesn't excuse him for what he did. I don't blame him for going after his enemies as pretty much everyone would do the same thing if they were in his shoes. However, he should not kill Yue Lingshan, someone who loves him with all her heart. LPZ was stupid for castrate himself. At that point, he was about to marry Yue Lingshan and eventually become the leader of Huashan. If he has any intelligence, he would of wait until Yue Buqun transfers all his kungfu of Huashan to him and becomes leader of Huashan then seek revenge. Too bad, he is too stupid to figure it out.

[BlackRaven]

It wasn't Ren Yingying who did it - it was Linghu Chong:

令狐沖生怕林平之又再反撲，在他左臂補了一劍，削斷他的筋脈...

Linghu Chong, afraid that Lin Pingzhi would charge him again, added a sword stroke to his left arm [the earlier one was to his right], cutting his tendons...

He did it to ensure his and RYY's safety as they were still in the dark at that point. Furthermore, as far as we know, LPZ's legs were only stabbed - it said nothing about severing the tendons.

Ah, I see. Thank you for the precision. I remembered LPZ being in a wheelchair in the excellent 1996 State of Divinity so I assumed wrong.

Concerning the other villains' redemption, XYS, MRB and XX repented SPECIFICALLY because they were at Shaolin and were offered a chance to repent. Would XYS and MRB have repented if they haven’t met Sweeper Monk at Shaolin? Highly unlikely.

Would XX have just killed Cheng Kun outright instead of sparing him, if he wasn’t listening to the 3 Du generation monks for a long period of time? Very possible.

I think overall, XYS, MRB, XX and CK harmed a lot more innocents than Lin Pingzhi did. I disagree with Cheng Kun deserving a less cruel fate than Lin Pingzhi simply because romance and adultery were at the root of Cheng Kun’s actions. Cheng Kun committed many more evil acts and caused more harm to innocents than Lin Pingzhi did. Even Linghu Chong believed that LPZ's actions were less evil than Lao Denuo's.

"This traitor [Lao Denuo] has been very sly and his evil is much higher than martial brother Lin. I should let him suffer more."

Yeah, killing YLS was cruel, but since YLS herself forgave LPZ, and considering :
-the history of Shaolin and KHBD
-The fact that Lin Pingzhi was a good person for the vast majority of his life.
-added to FangZheng being a very enlightened and compassionate monk, I think FZ would have accepted LPZ being imprisoned at Shaolin, and expose him to sutras to try to make him repent. That would be in tune with FZ’s character.

Bottom line, all of XYS, MRB, XX and CK were at Shaolin where they at least had a CHANCE to repent. LPZ was never offered that chance by LHC, despite the fact that Fangzheng, who is one of the most enlightened monks in JY stories, would likely have accepted LPZ at his temple.

[tape]

tape, while LPZ had a ton of misfortune but it doesn't excuse him for what he did. I don't blame him for going after his enemies as pretty much everyone would do the same thing if they were in his shoes. However, he should not kill Yue Lingshan, someone who loves him with all her heart. LPZ was stupid for castrate himself. At that point, he was about to marry Yue Lingshan and eventually become the leader of Huashan. If he has any intelligence, he would of wait until Yue Buqun transfers all his kungfu of Huashan to him and becomes leader of Huashan then seek revenge. Too bad, he is too stupid to figure it out.

With the things that happened to him, I wouldn't be surprised if he developed a serious psychological or mental disorder. He obviously shouldn't have done all those things from a rational standpoint, but my point was that with all the things he had to endure, expecting him to be rational is a very tall order.

In the end what he did wasn't justified, but it is understandable to me.

[Dirt]

Lin Pingzhi was never a kind young man with a heroic heart. A Guo Jing or a Zhang Wuji would have been happy living an average life as a minor student of a martial arts school, never having gotten his revenge (ZWJ never wanted it). That wasn't enough for Lin Pingzhi. He was only tested in his life after the story began. He failed from the get go.

[Ken Cheng]

Lam Ping Tze strikes me as a more fleshed-out version of HSDS's Sung Ching Sheu.

Speaking of which, HSDS is notoriously horrible about properly meting out justice. Sing Kwun seems "underpunished" to many people, but at least he GOT punished. Chow Chi Yerk, Ding Mun Gwun (half the Ngor Mei Sect, really), Chan Yau Leung, Granny Golden Flower and others got away scot free after the crimes they committed.

[BlackRaven]

In chapter 1, it was said that LPZ was generous and often helped the needy. He also cared a lot for his horse and wept when it was killed. All of this shows that he was indeed a kind young man.

He didn't have to help a ugly, poor girl when she was being harassed, but he did. When Qingcheng attacked, they used blood to mark a line on the ground and wrote "whoever crosses this line will die". Yet Lin Pingzhi still crossed the line to retrieve 2 corpses of guards who were murdered the night before. This shows that he had a heroic heart.

“What a brave young man the Young Master is! He has great courage!” all the escorts and henchmen cheered, while Lin Zhennan and Madam Wang were both filled with pride for their son.

“Child, that was too reckless. These two escorts were good friends, but they were dead, already. It wasn’t worth the risk,” Madam Wang said reprovingly.

Lin Pingzhi managed a smile, but deep inside, he was miserable. “The whole affair is my fault,” he thought to himself. “It is all because I couldn’t contain myself and killed that guy; so many people have died because of me. If I only worry about my own life like a coward, how can I bear to ever look at myself again?”

He was indeed a good person for most of his life. Until, like tape said, he became crazy and disillusioned after suffering misfortune after misfortune, and seeing the truly vile nature of the teacher that he trusted.

As for the SQS comparison: LPZ met with much more misfortune than SQS did. On the other hand, SQS's family was intact, and most importantly, the men at his Wudang school were true heroes.

What if LPZ joined a school other than HuaShan, and was surrounded by honest heroes? In the novel, LPZ met Mo Da first, and even thought about asking to be his disciple. If he joined Hengshan, LPZ would most likely remain a good person.

SQS became a villain despite being under the tutelage of great heroes at Wudang, without suffering any traumatic tragedy in his life.

[Trien Chieu]

Lin Pingzhi was never a kind young man with a heroic heart. A Guo Jing or a Zhang Wuji would have been happy living an average life as a minor student of a martial arts school, never having gotten his revenge (ZWJ never wanted it). That wasn't enough for Lin Pingzhi. He was only tested in his life after the story began. He failed from the get go.

Agree. Too bad he was neither GJ nor ZWJ. Even if GJ or ZWJ want to revenge, they would have the patience to wait, wait, and wait for the opportunity to come.

[tape]

Lin Pingzhi was never a kind young man with a heroic heart. A Guo Jing or a Zhang Wuji would have been happy living an average life as a minor student of a martial arts school, never having gotten his revenge (ZWJ never wanted it). That wasn't enough for Lin Pingzhi. He was only tested in his life after the story began. He failed from the get go.

And why do you consider being content with an average life style inherently a good thing? There's nothing wrong with aspiring to be great.

He was groomed to be the future leader the escort agency that goes back generations -- he SHOULD have higher than normal expectations of himself if only because the people around him did.

Compare the amount of misfortune versus fortune the two other protagonists had compared to Lin. Both become the greatest martial artists in the world at a young age, while Lin wwas struggling to keep his own life and living in paranoia of getting killed by Yue Buqun day and night if he didn't castrate himself. Both GJ and ZWJ pretty much have opportunities to either become kings, or to live in peace with their loved ones, or become renowned patriots and heroes of the land. Any door was open to those two while Lin had almost no options once he realized Yue Buqun was a hypocrite and would kill him at any moment.

[tape]

Agree. Too bad he was neither GJ nor ZWJ. Even if GJ or ZWJ want to revenge, they would have the patience to wait, wait, and wait for the opportunity to come.

Except Guo Jing leaving his home and traveling thousands of miles at the tender age of 18 with terrible martial arts to go kill the prince of the Jin Empire. Then he meets all the most powerful people in the world and the opportunity falls into his hand shortly afterwards.

Compare to Lin Pingzi who has to watch his family get massacred as a grownup, and having nothing good happen to him.

[BlackRaven]

Speaking of which, HSDS is notoriously horrible about properly meting out justice. Sing Kwun seems "underpunished" to many people, but at least he GOT punished. Chow Chi Yerk, Ding Mun Gwun (half the Ngor Mei Sect, really), Chan Yau Leung, Granny Golden Flower and others got away scot free after the crimes they committed.

The more I think about this, the more outraged I feel about HSDS's ending. It seems that nobody cared about confronting the true murderer of ZWJ's female cousin. That pox faced girl was killed by ZZR.

Edit: Also, ZZR's 9 Yin manual was stolen by Zhao Min, but I'm sure ZZR still remembers parts of it, like how Lin YuanTu remembered enough of the KHBD to create Bixie swordplay. It's surprising that with that 9 Yin knowledge, E Mei did not make a splash in the Ming dynasty.

[pannonian]

The more I think about this, the more outraged I feel about HSDS's ending. It seems that nobody cared about confronting the true murderer of ZWJ's female cousin. That pox faced girl was killed by ZZR.

Edit: Also, ZZR's 9 Yin manual was stolen by Zhao Min, but I'm sure ZZR still remembers parts of it, like how Lin YuanTu remembered enough of the KHBD to create Bixie swordplay. It's surprising that with that 9 Yin knowledge, E Mei did not make a splash in the Ming dynasty.

HSDS turns into a zombie novel at the end, as the undead Zhu Er returns to seek out Zhou Zhiruo.

[Trien Chieu]

Except Guo Jing leaving his home and traveling thousands of miles at the tender age of 18 with terrible martial arts to go kill the prince of the Jin Empire. Then he meets all the most powerful people in the world and the opportunity falls into his hand shortly afterwards.

Compare to Lin Pingzi who has to watch his family get massacred as a grownup, and having nothing good happen to him.

Gwok Jing would never kill his wife like LPZ did. Lin Pingzi had a the chance to stay in huashan learning martial art from YBQ and live happily with Lingshan but he blew it all. Again, if he had any intelligence and patience, he would have succeed in revenge and live a happy life that envied my most people.

The more I think about this, the more outraged I feel about HSDS's ending. It seems that nobody cared about confronting the true murderer of ZWJ's female cousin. That pox faced girl was killed by ZZR.

Edit: Also, ZZR's 9 Yin manual was stolen by Zhao Min, but I'm sure ZZR still remembers parts of it, like how Lin YuanTu remembered enough of the KHBD to create Bixie swordplay. It's surprising that with that 9 Yin knowledge, E Mei did not make a splash in the Ming dynasty.

Agree. Not just ZZR but Zhao Min as well. I can't believe the wulin let her go free given what she had done. She done way way more evil deeds than ZZR.

[tape]

Gwok Jing would never kill his wife like LPZ did. Lin Pingzi had a the chance to stay in huashan learning martial art from YBQ and live happily with Lingshan but he blew it all. Again, if he had any intelligence and patience, he would have succeed in revenge and live a happy life that envied my most people.



Agree. Not just ZZR but Zhao Min as well. I can't believe the wulin let her go free given what she had done. She done way way more evil deeds than ZZR.

Me and Blackraven have pointed out many times that he did not have the opportunity to "live in Huashan learning martial art from YBQ and live happily with Lingshan but blew it". YBQ would have killed him eventually and he realized that once YBQ stole the sword manual from the unconscious LHC. If you think waiting around was the best choice, you would've just been killed by YBQ without knowing what happened to you.

Besides, YBQ after like fifty years of practice is only slightly superior to Yu Canghai. There is almost no chance the untalented Lin would be able to kill Yu within his lifetime unless something fortunate happened.

Guo Jing was on the verge of killing Huang Rong when he found his masters' corpses. He had to hold himself back to not kill her, and he just found their corpses. Imagine if he watched Huang Yaoshi torture and kill his masters over a period of time. Wouldn't his reaction be even more extreme than it already was?

With regards to ZM, she did nothing wrong morally so people generally don't blame her too much. Her political duty was to exterminate the Chinese (wulin), and what she did was merely acting in accordance to it. Just opposite sides. Guo Jing killed many times more Mongolians (and other nations' soldiers) during his lifetime, but he was still respected because they realize it is war and his civic duty to do so.

[PJ]

It seems to me that a theme of SPW was the corruption of power. e.g. how KHBD changes a generous young man like LPZ for the worse (and DFBB, ZLC, etc).

For me, reading about LPZ killing YLS was one of the infuriating moments in JY wuxia. There are lots of people who did bad things, but damn, that one really pissed me off. It was as RWX (the poster) said, a kick the dog moment.

[tape]

Yeah it was pretty bad, good thing I didn't like Yue Lingshan to begin with

I know JY wanted to fit in the theme of people doing anything for power, but the whole castration thing makes Lin's actions a whole lot less worse for me. If it were just some random manual and he still killed YLS I doubt I'd be defending him as much. Just feel he's suffered so much and then the castration thing just made him plain ol' crazy.