Lee Mok Sau recognizing Ohr Jen Ngok on sight at beginning of ROCH

[Ken Cheng]

In other threads, we have discussed the issue of limited fame in the wuxia world. Wulin existed in a world with no modern media as we know it. Therefore, fame, even for the greatest martial artists, was very limited. For example, young Wong Yung, though highly intelligent and well educated AND the daughter of East Heretic Wong Yerk See, did not know of the existence of other Greats such as North Beggar Hung 7 Gung, West Poison Au Yeung Fung, South Emperor Deun Chi Hing/1 Deng the Monk, etc. Hardly anybody even knew about the Mt. Hua Sword Tournament, possibly the most important wulin event of the century.

And yet, at the beginning of ROCH, Lee Mok Sau was able to recognize Ohr Jen Ngok, former leader of the Gong Nam 7 Freaks and teacher of Gwok Jing, on sight. Lee Mok Sau hadn't even been born when the Gong Nam 7 Freaks were in their heyday in wulin, and by the time she left the Ancient Tomb compound to begin her own wulin career, six of the seven Freaks were already dead. Ohr Jen Ngok was no Great; his claim to fame was being Gwok Jing's teacher. If even the Greats themselves had such limited fame that during LOCH that even the likes of Wong Yung hadn't heard of them, how could Lee Mok Sau in ROCH know who Ohr Jen Ngok was?

[PJ]

Sometimes certain people can recognize someone, while others cannot. There's really no straight-forward pattern regarding this, I don't think. For example, in DGSD Jiumozhi did not know the characteristics of Energy-Dissipating Technique very well, but Taoist Buping (whose kung fu is much lower) did, for no apparent reason other than Buping just happen to know about Huagong Dafa more in-depth than Jiumozhi.

Another example is in HSDS, Zhang Sanfeng was not able to recognized the Eight-Armed Swordsman Fang Dongbai, but Yang Xiao did.

Now, Ke Zhen'e does have some characteristics which make him more recognizable. He's blind and handicapped.

[Noodles]

By the time of their meeting, Li Mochou had at least ten years worth of experience of roaming the realm so she should be pretty knowledgable about people of note. The Seven Freaks were fairly well known in the area of Jiangnan and as you already stated Ken, Ke Zhen'e's claim to fame was being Guo Jing's master and Guo Jing was pretty famous by now so she should have heard of him. At the time, she was in Jiangnan fighting an old blind handicapped man who was putting up a decent fight against her. Not really hard for her to guess who he could be.

[PJ]

By the way, at the end of ROCH, it was mentioned that anyone who is anyone in the martial world would definitely know the names of the Greats.

[Ren Wo Xing]

By the time of their meeting, Li Mochou had at least ten years worth of experience of roaming the realm so she should be pretty knowledgable about people of note. The Seven Freaks were fairly well known in the area of Jiangnan and as you already stated Ken, Ke Zhen'e's claim to fame was being Guo Jing's master and Guo Jing was pretty famous by now so she should have heard of him. At the time, she was in Jiangnan fighting an old blind handicapped man who was putting up a decent fight against her. Not really hard for her to guess who he could be.

QFT.

By the way, Ken, Huang Rong DID know of the Greats in LOCH, so your argument there is wrong. When H7G first met them, she suspected it was him because of his nine fingers. When the fraud Qiu Qianzhang first came, she thought it must be either Ouyang Feng or Yideng due to his (faked) level of martial arts prowess.

Even such small time wulin martial artists such as the parents of Guo Jing and Yang Kang knew the name of a martial arts expert such as Qiu Chuji. Martial arts fame is actually quite wellspread for many, but it depends a lot on how much influence they have, where they are located, etc. etc. etc. For example, aside from the upper tier (Quanzhen level and up), the average pugilist might not know about the likes of Ouyang Feng, who lived at far off White Camel Mountain, but for the likes of the Jiangnan Freaks, who have roamed Jiangnan for such a long time and interacted with so many people, they would probably know.