Problem for wulin sects that give their leaders exclusive skills.

[Ken Cheng]

Many wulin sects teach exclusive, elite martial arts skills to their leaders...let's use the Beggar's Union as a well-known example. In the Beggar's Union, the Union Chief is taught two elite skills...the Dog Beating Stick Technique and the Hong Lung 18 Palms. Throughout wulin history, people who master either or both of these two skills are often counted among the most powerful martial artists of their time, often BECAUSE they have mastered these skills.

Herein lies a problem: the leaders do not necessarily serve for life. Again using the Beggar's Union as an example, we have seen Union Chiefs get expelled (Kiu Fung) or voluntarily retire (North Beggar Hung 7 Gung and Wong Yung). In either case, the departing Union Chiefs take the skills with them: it's not like the Beggar's Union requires that the departing Chief destroy his/her martial arts when he/she vacates the position. Fortunately, Kiu Fung, Hung 7 Gung, and the mature Wong Yung of ROCH were good, responsible people who did not abuse their Beggar's Union Chief martial arts, but what if an ex-Chief did? Isn't it dangerous to the sect's reputation (not to mention public safety and the security of wulin) to let a former sect leader wander free and possibly go rogue with the sect's most powerful skills, which were not stolen (which would absolve the sect at least partly for whatever the rogue former leader might do with the skills), but legitimately learned? I'm surprised that no wulin sect adopted some kind of provision for neutralizing the departed leader's skills if he/she leaves the sect.

[_Kenny_]

Many of these sects also have these elite elders that can reign in the former ex-chief, if something bad happens.

[Ken Cheng]

Many of these sects also have these elite elders that can reign in the former ex-chief, if something bad happens.

Are these elders capable of overcoming the former leaders? For example, nobody in the Beggar's Union during the times of Kiu Fung, Hung 7 Gung, or Wong Yung was capable of handling them in combat.

[tape]

Are these elders capable of overcoming the former leaders? For example, nobody in the Beggar's Union during the times of Kiu Fung, Hung 7 Gung, or Wong Yung was capable of handling them in combat.

I don't think there's a solution to your problem except picking a good honorable candidate to be the leader from the start.

Nobody should be able to subdue them since they're the leader and generally the strongest by a good amount.

Even if there was a way to subdue them, if that was the norm then the person would probably just not officially retire and "disappear" and not face the sect.

[Ken Cheng]

I don't think there's a solution to your problem except picking a good honorable candidate to be the leader from the start.

Guess that's all they can do, but given how dicey that arrangement is from the get-go, and how often it fails, they might want to reconsider how they handle these situations.

[Ian Liew]

Guess that's all they can do, but given how dicey that arrangement is from the get-go, and how often it fails, they might want to reconsider how they handle these situations.

Having said that, it seems to have worked with the Beggar Clan all this while, since none of the retired leaders ever went rogue. Perhaps the character judgement of the old chief does tend to be pretty good. Chiefs also never tended to retire anyway - Xiao Feng was forced to leave because of his heritage, Huang Rong retired due to pregnancy and inability (or probably desire) to continue, while Hong Qigong retired because he really thought he was going to die. Wang Jiantong only passed the mantle over to Xiao Feng before he expired, so I'm assuming clan chiefs are usually chiefs for life unless there are exceptional circumstances. Huang Rong's pregnancy would be considered exceptional as female chiefs were probably unheard of anyway - it's not like they had a lot of female members. In fact, the only other female member I can think of would also be chief in the future - Shi Hongshi.

I assume that if, by some chance, an ex-chief went rogue, and the new chief was hapless enough, the rest of wulin could be trusted to stand in.

[CC]

Are these elders capable of overcoming the former leaders? For example, nobody in the Beggar's Union during the times of Kiu Fung, Hung 7 Gung, or Wong Yung was capable of handling them in combat.

According to Jin Yong, no matter how good your martial arts, you cant defend against 7-8 soldiers so just let the authorities handle the rogues.