Do you think there's more to Chow Chi Yerk's background than Seung Yu Chun told C3F?

[Ken Cheng]

Before Seung Yu Chun left little Chow Chi Yerk to Cheung 3 Fung, Seung told Cheung that Chow was the daughter of a simple fisherman.

Perhaps that was actually the case, but do you find Chow Chi Yerk's background a bit suspect? Her later wulin savvy as a member of the Ngor Mei Sect suggests that she was familiar with the ways of wulin from a very early age. Moreover, her surname was *Chow*...the same surname as that of the boy for whom Seung Yu Chun was also caring when the trio first encountered Cheung 3 Fung and little Cheung Mo Gei. That boy of the surname Chow was the son of an anti-Mongol rebel (e.g. a wulin person). I've always suspected that despite what Seung Yu Chun told Cheung 3 Fung, Chow Chi Yerk was actually that boy's sister and thus, the daughter of that anti-Mongol rebel. It would explain so much about Chow Chi Yerk's character.

[Doc Kwok]

I've always suspected that despite what Seung Yu Chun told Cheung 3 Fung, Chow Chi Yerk was actually that boy's sister and thus, the daughter of that anti-Mongol rebel. It would explain so much about Chow Chi Yerk's character.

That was exactly how it was in the first edition, but was changed in the later editions to a boatman's daughter - perhaps due to the improbability of Miejue accepting a descendent of a Ming cultist as a disciple?

[Ken Cheng]

That was exactly how it was in the first edition, but was changed in the later editions to a boatman's daughter - perhaps due to the improbability of Miejue accepting a descendent of a Ming cultist as a disciple?

Mit Jeut See Tai didn't need to know.

However, had Chow Chi Yerk's father been a Ming cultist (my impression was that the rebel leader was only an anti-Yuan rebel and not necessarily a Ming cultist), it would create an apparent character inconsistency when Chow Chi Yerk later committed herself to the cult's destruction.

[Doc Kwok]

However, had Chow Chi Yerk's father been a Ming cultist (my impression was that the rebel leader was only an anti-Yuan rebel and not necessarily a Ming cultist)

Historically, Zhou Ziwang was a disciple of Pang Yingyu (the monk blinded by Ding Minjun), and both were members of the White Lotus sect (as was Zhu Yuanzhang). In this alternate history, they were all members of the Ming cult instead.

it would create an apparent character inconsistency when Chow Chi Yerk later committed herself to the cult's destruction.

It probably just makes her look worse, by adding a charge of 'forgetting one's origins' (wang ben/mong boon) to her rap sheet.

[Ken Cheng]

Historically, Zhou Ziwang was a disciple of Pang Yingyu (the monk blinded by Ding Minjun), and both were members of the White Lotus sect (as was Zhu Yuanzhang). In this alternate history, they were all members of the Ming cult instead.

Indeed. It seemed that Jin Yong basically took many of the things attributed to the White Lotus Sect in history and attributed them to the Ming Cult instead for HSDS.

It probably just makes her look worse, by adding a charge of 'forgetting one's origins' (wang ben/mong boon) to her rap sheet.

Indeed.