Zhu Ziliu's real martial arts ability

[Ren Wo Xing]

I was rereading XAJH (I really do love that novel) and suddenly, this passage hit me:

“Bald-headed Third uses a Judge’s Pen. His handwriting is no better than a three-year-old kid, yet he loves posing as a lover of culture and even claims that his Kung Fu contains conception from famous calligraphers. Little friend, I am sure you understand that combat with your enemy is an important matter that distinguishes between life and death. Even if one wrestles with all his strength, he is not guaranteed a triumph, where would he find such leisurely and carefree mood to be particular about the style of the inscription or script? Only when your opponent’s Kung Fu is far inferior to that or yours, you might be able to tease him or play him, but if the two sides’ Kung Fu skills are comparable and you still try to write words with your Judge’s Pen, you are only offering your own life with both hands to the mercy of your enemy.”

“Senior Masters’ words are very precise. The Third Master is a bit too casual when he fights others,” Linghu Chong agreed.

When Mr. Bald-Brush first heard the man’s comments, he was furious. But the more he thought about these words, the more he found them to be in the right. It was a lot of fun when he permeated calligraphy in his Judge Pen moves, but the power from his weapon did decrease dramatically after all. If it weren’t because Linghu Chong held back, even ten Mr. Bald-Brush would have been slain easily. At that thought, he broke into cold sweat.

“To beat Bald-headed Third is as easy as a walkover,” the man said with a laugh. “His Judge Pen Kung Fu used to be quite worthy, but he is too bigheaded and would rather add some kind of calligraphy in his Kung Fu. Humph, when elite fighters exchange moves, the outcome is determined from very minor aspects. Treating his own life as a joking matter, it is really a miracle in the Martial World that he was able to stay alive till today. Bald-headed Third, for the last ten years you just holed up and didn’t go around the Martial world, didn’t you?”

If we treat Ren Woxing's words as true (and as far as Bald Brush went, apparently they were), then most likely, the martial arts ability displayed by Zhu Ziliu in his fight against Huo Du was likely far beneath what his real ability, if he hadn't wasted all that time doing random writing fancy crap. How badly did Zhu Ziliu limit himself in that fight, or maybe even in his entire Wulin career, by putting writing in his martial arts? My gut feeling is a considerable amount. We might be badly underestimating the actual level of Zhu Ziliu!

[PJ]

Yes, I always thought that Zhu Ziliu was putting on a performance more than fighting. And even as performance goes, I felt Zhu went easy on Huodu. The fight went over 1000 stances. If he tried his best combining calligraphy (aka weird stances) with martial arts, he might have been able to subdue Huodu in 100 stances.

[jsamador]

i think zhu ziliu wanted to embarrass the mongols to raise the confidence of every chinese present in the heroes assembly. he could have easily beaten hudou if he wanted to.

[Ken Cheng]

That was a bit irresponsible and unwise for a guy who was known for his wisdom and good judgment, wasn't it? The hopes of the Chinese wulin were riding on him. He should have finished off Fok Do as quickly as possible instead of showboating.

[sarakoth]

Zhu Ziliu was good enough for his descendants in HDSD to be considered first rate.

[tape]

That was a bit irresponsible and unwise for a guy who was known for his wisdom and good judgment, wasn't it? The hopes of the Chinese wulin were riding on him. He should have finished off Fok Do as quickly as possible instead of showboating.

Perhaps he was so used to using calligraphy in his martial arts that WAS the best he could do at the time. Were he to get Ren's advice or some other Great's, he might have realized it and practiced his martial arts without the calligraphy. I'm sure he'd get more powerful without the calligraphy, but it's hard to break habits. Kind of like how LHC just needed a little pointer from Feng to make his moves flow. He always had the general martial arts and swordplay knowledge, he just needed that enlightening guidance.

[kyss of the sword]

actually zhu zhili was far ahead of bald-head brush. bald-head brush added calligraphy to make it more fun for him but zhu zhili combined calligraphy and yiyang finger so each complemented the other. even guo jing thought zhu zhili's moves were brillient. zhu zhili's moves were like zhang cuisan's wudang 'heaven sword dragon dabre poem' brush skill that was created by ZSF. the calligraphy had martial ideas behind it. for zhu zhili, both yiyang finger and calligraphy were in his heart, like LHC's sword intention. the calligraphy had intentions of sealing accupoints and the martial arts moves had intention of calligraphy.

[CC]

actually zhu zhili was far ahead of bald-head brush. bald-head brush added calligraphy to make it more fun for him but zhu zhili combined calligraphy and yiyang finger so each complemented the other. even guo jing thought zhu zhili's moves were brillient. zhu zhili's moves were like zhang cuisan's wudang 'heaven sword dragon dabre poem' brush skill that was created by ZSF. the calligraphy had martial ideas behind it. for zhu zhili, both yiyang finger and calligraphy were in his heart, like LHC's sword intention. the calligraphy had intentions of sealing accupoints and the martial arts moves had intention of calligraphy.

Agree but do you think Zhu could write 2.2 times faster than Bald-Head Brush while drawing characters 1.5 times larger with identical brushes?

[ChanceEncounter]

Agree but do you think Zhu could write 2.2 times faster than Bald-Head Brush while drawing characters 1.5 times larger with identical brushes?

Haha.

I always had the sense that Zhu Ziliu's martial art's were first class. It was stated repeatedly that his techniques were equal to LMC's. Not to mention his internal is also very solid.

For a secondary character, he's certainly very powerful.

[ChronoReverse]

Well he did beat Huo Du cleanly and rather easily even though he took his time to write messages. It took a very sneaky move to incapacitate him.

[kyss of the sword]

zhu zhili was not casual when fighting with huado. the calligraphy he wrote were real martial arts moves. when he wanted to right a sentance, he just chose to use those moves on huado's fan. his moves had variations accordingly to the style of calligraphy he choose.