Wulin people and personal hygiene-related matters

[World Peace]

It seems to me that when roaming around jianghu, wulin people, esp. the main characters, do not care much about their personal hygiene, yet strangely their bodies and clothes are always sweet-scented and splendid. for example, Guo Jing and Huang Rong cross-leggedly sit face-to-face for 1 week without going to WC, cleaning their teeth and faces, etc. nevertheless, IIRC, JY wrote that her face looked like a peach blossom and her breath was as fragrant as a certain freaking kind of flower whose name I can't recall ; Xiaolongnu lived in a cave for like 20 years in a time when washing-powder was yet to be invented even so the color of her clothes is described to be as white as snow ; etc. How did they do that?

[bellamia]

The power of make-believe.

[flamer]

I think its more like JY just doesnt talk about such trivial stuff. Just like how we dun read Harry Potter going to WC for 7 years, except like once.

[warlock110]

really, no one wants to read how XLN took a huge dump after breakfast.

[Ken Cheng]

really, no one wants to read how XLN took a huge dump after breakfast.

It'd be something different, I suppose.

[Wu Wudi]

I guess I'm not the only weirdo here who thinks of such things. I once brought up the subject of the Wuxia beauties having hairy limbs/pubes.

[World Peace]

I think its more like JY just doesnt talk about such trivial stuff. Just like how we dun read Harry Potter going to WC for 7 years, except like once.

I have no problem with authors ignoring petty things, only that some details in JY's novels are really mind-boggling. Ok, I have never read Harry Potter and will never, but I guess although JKR did not write anything about HP going to the WC, the guy did have free time to do so outside the time for studying at campus, hanging out with hot chicks, etc. Whereas in Guo Jing & Huang Rong's case, to heal Guo Jing's injuries, they had to sit face to face with one's palms pressing against the palms of the other in a narrow room for 1 week (or 10 days if you like as I don't remember exactly). Well, as powerful as Zhou Botong was, he still had the needs to void his bowels and release his johnson, thus I don't see why HR & GJ could hold back for such a long time, and why their bodies, clothes, and breaths still had pleasant odors after 1 week of no bathing and no cleaning.

[asiatique2491]

for the sake of perserving such sacred novels, lets just pretend HR and GJ can use part of their chi force to hold the bowels and such. As for the clothes for XLN. they did have time to wash clothes. I think JY gives them private WC time when they go to the inns.

[shenlong]

You can judge personal hygiene with characterization. If someone's "refined" (the translation most used to describe scholars I believe) then it's most likely they are very concerned with personal hygiene. If you spend 7 days without bathing in an inn healing your injuries, well, there's not much you can do.

[Quinton]

They also did eat the watermelons while spending 7 days healing.