So I have just finished reading Other Tales of Flying Fox and Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain. I took some notes and made some rankings of the important characters, which I will share below:
Character Rankings
1. Chen Jialuo, Miao Renfeng, Hu Fei [Flying Fox]
It goes without saying that Chen Jialuo is the best, as he demonstrated clear superiority to Hu Fei. I rank Miao Renfeng in the top tier as well because he was equal to Hu Yidao about 17 years ago and we see later that Hu Fei is not equal to Miao Renfeng until the next novel, which takes place about 10 years later. As for the rankings of Hu Fei and Miao Renfeng by the end of Flying Fox, I think they wouldn’t be too far behind Chen Jialuo.
2. Taoist Wuchen, Zhao Banshan, Lu Feiqing, (Hu Yidao), Hu Fei [Other Fox]
This requires a bit of backtracking into Book and Sword. Back in Book and Sword, Wuchen and Chen Jialuo were just about equal at the end of the novel, which puts them both about half a level above Zhang Zhaozhong. Lu Feiqing was stated inferior to Zhang Zhaozhong, and Zhao Banshan is probably somewhere in between Wuchen and Lu Feiqing. Hu Fei is stated to be equal in saber skills to his father, but it’s been repeatedly mentioned in the novel that his internal energy is not great, so I rank him last. That said, I don’t think Hu Fei is necessarily losing to anyone in this group in a fight.
3. Chang Hezhi, Chang Bozhi, Yuan Ziyi, Debu, Tang Pei, Wang Jianying, Wang Jianjie
We see that in a palm clash a Chang brother demonstrated superiority to Tang Pei, so they come first here. Debu gave some difficulty to Wuchen, although the latter was worn out after the previous fight. Yuan Ziyi is stated several times to be half a level below Hu Fei. She is about the same as Tang Pei—she was able to kill him but not without sustaining serious injuries herself, and Tang Pei was injured to begin with. Yuan Ziyi also demonstrates about half a level of superiority towards Wang Jianying in their fight.
4. Liu Hezhen, Hai Lanbi, Tian Guinong, Zhou Tiejiao, Zeng Tie’ou, Wang Tie’e
Liu Hezhen fought with Yuan Ziyi and was able to give the latter some trouble. Hai Lanbi was able to seize two low tier sect leaders in one stance, and the narrator stated that Tian Guinong might not be superior to either Tang Pei or Hai Lanbi. Tian Guinong isn’t too bad himself; in a fight with equal weapons Hu Fei was able to beat Tian Guinong in less than 20 stances, while Hu Fei was able to beat one of the Tie brothers in like a dozen stances.
5. Feng Tiannan, Zhong Zhaowen, Zhong Zhaoying, Zhong Zhaoneng, Madam Shang, Yan Ji
Feng Tiannan loses to Hu Fei in like under 10 stances. The Zhong brothers are also quite weak, all 3 of them combined could not beat Hu Fei. Madam Shang and Yan Ji are about the same level.
6. Ma Xingkong, Shang Baozhen
Ma Xingkong said Hu Yidao is 10 times stronger than him and I think this statement can be taken literally. Shang Baozhen is noticeably better than Xu Zheng et al. but is clearly inferior to his mother. I don’t think he surpassed Ma Xingkong either.
7. Xu Zheng, Ma Chunhua, He Sihao
These guys all suck. No comment.
Martial Arts Feats
- Miao Renfeng was capable of halting a moving horse carraige with one hand
- A young Hu Fei was capable of using a bone shrinking technique to free himself from the iron chains and rope that binded his body
- Hu Fei's carrying limit is about 650-700 catties
- Liu Yuanzhen was capable of throwing a wine cup on the ground without it breaking (and did so for 36 cups in succession), demonstrating finesse
- Yi Ji from the Nine Whip Clan was stated to have an arm strength of 600-700 catties
- Hu Fei was afraid to battle a dozen wolves barehanded
- Hu Fei was able to unseal someone's acupoint by throwing a wine cup at them from long distance
- Chen Jialuo was able to execute a stance and then change it midway when fighting against Hu Fei
- Hu Fei was able to slash 36 times in an instant. This is exactly the number of times that the Blood Sabre Elder from A Deadly Secret was able to slash in an instant against Wang Xiaofeng. Since they both use sabers and are both from Qing Dynasty novels, I believe these feats are directly comparable.
- Hu Fei and Taoist Wuchen fought over 500 stances in the time for a cup of tea, which is about 10 minutes
- In Flying Fox, it was said that being stabbed by a branch from Miao Renfeng is no different from being stabbed by a sword
- There are not too many mentions of internal energy throughout either novel; it is mentioned several times that Hu Fei and Yuan Ziyi were lacking in internal energy because they were still young, but from what I can see this didn't really affect their combat performance much
Other Notes
- The timeline of Book and Sword and Other Fox suggests that the duel between Miao Renfeng and Hu Yidao takes place around the same time as the beginning of Book and Sword, which is around the year 1753. Other Fox takes place from about 1766-1770, and Flying Fox takes place in 1780.
- When talking about the Eagle Claw Sect, the narrator said that they flourished during the late-Ming Dynasty but suffered in present day due to arrogance. However, the clan later saw a resurgence during the reign of Jiaqing (early 1800s). This event would post-date any of his novels.
- In the Afterword to Other Fox, Jin Yong says that he purposely made the martial arts more grounded in reality, as compared to DGSD and martial arts like 6MSJ, D9GJ, QKDNY, etc.
- The most prominent sects in Other Fox are Shaolin, Wudang, and Taiji Sect. The only reference to Emei is that Yuan Ziyi's teacher is a highly respected Emei elder. The Beggar Sect is not mentioned in Other Fox but one of the characters in Flying Fox is the sect leader
- In the World Martial Arts Gathering, there was an expected 124 sect leaders that would attend, suggesting that the scope of wulin is much larger than what is generally depicted in JY novels
- Zhao Banshan knows both Taiji Fist and Taiji Sword, but he is from the Taiji Sect, not Wudang
- Many characters from Book and Sword make appearances in Other Fox
- As far as I can remember, there are no references in Flying Fox to Other Fox; this is intentional, as JY wanted the novels to be able to stand on their own. There is one small foreshadowing in Other Fox to Flying Fox, which says that Cheng Lingsu wouldn't be able to guess that Hu Fei grew a real beard in 10 years.