Do you ever give Guo Jing the same stick for leaving the Central Plains to raise a family? A couple of brief excursions aside, during which he picked up Yang Guo and later sent him to Quanzhen, Guo Jing spent 16 years on Peach Blossom Island. And while both defeated an attempted Mongol invasion before leaving, Yang Guo had to actually fight in a battle, whereas Guo Jing first frightened Tolui off without a battle, then had Genghis call his armies back. While both protagonists left Central Plains to raise a family, Yang Guo did rather more before leaving.
When push comes to shove, YG always does what he feels is the right thing, regardless of what anyone thinks (including XLN), or indeed, regardless of what he himself might want, at an intellectual level. It's practically his defining trait.
XLN will always do what she feels is best for YG, even if it at her own expense.
The interesting thing about Yang Guo the character is how all these traits that came together in the Eagle hero were already present in his first appearance in the encounter with Li Mochou and the Lu and Cheng girls. It took the course of the novel to show that these were heroic traits, but they were there at the very beginning, with the sense of right and wrong and the desire to do something about it, lack of fear, and playfulness. And when Ouyang Feng entered the picture, we also saw Yang Guo's loyalty to those who were good to him.
Agree with tape. That is most untrue. He always said he will listen to Xiao Long Nv, but, it has been shown a couple of times that he did defy Xiao Long Nv to do what is right. The incident I remember the most is when Yang Guo and Xiao Long Nv saw the pregnant Huang Rong and Guo Fu in trouble. Xiao Long Nv told him not to get involved with other people's business, but, Yang Guo defied her and helped Huang Rong.
什麼是朋友?朋友永遠是在你犯下不可原諒錯誤的時候,仍舊站在你那邊的笨蛋。~ 王亞瑟
和諧唔係一百個人講同一番話,係一百個人有一百句唔同嘅說話,而又互相尊重 ~ - 葉梓恩
I don't, and the reasons are very simple: Gwok Jing was away on Peach Blossom Island, but he was never out of touch with wulin affairs on the mainland. He kept abreast of affairs from afar, and wulin knew where to look if it needed him (it wasn't exactly a secret that he had settled on Peach Blossom Island, so he was accessible). When his services were required, he promptly reemerged, ready to do his part and more.
Last edited by Ken Cheng; 01-07-13 at 10:08 PM.
How quickly did Xiangyang fall? Historically the final assault on Xiangyang-Fancheng was reinforced with troops from Khubilai's brother Hulegu, who brought with them knowledge of the counterweight trebuchet. Partly due to this new technology, instead of a drawn out siege as happened previously, Fancheng fell quickly to assault with its walls breached, upon which the commander of Xiangyang surrendered to spare its inhabitants the slaughter. Guo Xiang couldn't return to Xiangyang in time, presumably because the assault happened so quickly, and it's a tad unfair to expect Yang Guo to get there in time.
The Monoglian invasion weakened periodically after the death of Genghis Khan as Ogedei Khan and Mongke Khan focussed on expanding nothern and western borders of the Yuan Empire rather than concentrate on Southern Song. It was not until the end of Mongke Khan's reign that the Mongolian's ambition refocussed on Southern Song again and Kublai Khan finished off the job within ten years.
So for the period GJ stayed on Peach Blossom Island, the Northen Frontiers were relatively quite safe and well defended with the Song Generals. Plus, he stayed in close contacts with the rest of wulin and organised emergency meetings if any issue should arise. Also HR had to attend to the Beggar Union as well so the couple were probably doing a lot of travelling between Mainland China and Peach Blossom Island in those 16 years.
"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."
Cyril Connolly
This is demonstrably untrue.
郭靖年紀已然不輕,但自偕黃蓉歸隱桃花島之後,甚少與外界交往 - Guo Jing's age was no longer young, but ever since retiring together with Huang Rong on Peach Blossom island, he interacted very little with the outside world...
他自在桃花島隱居後,不與馬鈺等互通消息,是以全真門下弟子都不相識 - Since retiring to Peach Blossom island, (he) didn't communicate with Ma Yu and company, so was not familiar with the Quanzhen students...
Guo Jing:「怎地我十餘年不闖江湖,世上的規矩全都變了?」 - "How is it that I have not travelled the Jianghu for about ten years, the rules of the world have completely changed?"
Qiu Chuji:「你在桃花島隱居,與世隔絕,因而不知。」 - "You have retired on Peach Blossom island, cut off from the rest of the world, so you do not know." (regarding Huodu and Da'erba).
This also seems to be untrue.
Guo Fu: 「這些年來,我媽也只掛個名兒。丐幫大大小小的事兒,一直就交給魯有腳長老辦著。我媽聽見丐幫中這許多嚕哩 嚕唆的事兒就頭痛,她說何必老是這樣有名無實,不如乾脆叫魯長老做了幫主。」 These couple of years, my mother is only bearing a title. Affairs of the Beggar association, major or minor, have been given to Elder Lu to attend to all along. My mother gets a headache just hearing about all these fussy affairs of the Beggar association, she said why keep things in name only without substance, better to just tell Elder Lu to become the chief.
Frankly, it beats me why Huang Rong is revered as a chief of the Beggar association - she doesn't seem to have done anything at all during her reign. She and Hong 7 Gong have also set a dangerous precedent - that it is acceptable for the chief to be absent for years at a time.
Last edited by Doc Kwok; 01-08-13 at 09:53 AM.
I think she was respected because she was the anointed heir of Hong 7 Gong, and the successor to the Dog-Beating Stick which she could wield with considerable skill. Elder Lu, while a competent leader, had difficulty in learning the Dog-Beating Stick. It's always nice to have a powerful leader to look up to rather than just a competent one. In any case Elder Lu covered for Huang Rong in every adminstrative department, and probably had to invoke her name to carry the authority to do so, and so nobody knew what a slacker she was!
Girls from Mainland China are very open minded toward men from the west. Being a College Instructor, Ken can easily find someone who is beautiful in her early 20s. However, it's no guaranteed that the girl truly love him or just use him as a way to get out of China. I was in Shantou, Guangdong, China for one week last week and the pollution was so bad. My father hometown (close to Guiyu) is a garbage dump. My relative are either multi-millionaire, if not billionaire, but I have nothing to admire their lives. They smoke like at least 2 packs a day, more like 3 or more a day. If I live there for few years, I would die of cancer. Things are very very expensive and salary is low. I wonder how can average people survive. Environmentally, the future of China is very dim, survival would be a problem. I wonder how can people keep thinking somehow China will be the world leader surpassing the US.
Last edited by Trien Chieu; 03-25-14 at 07:47 AM.