SPW - SMILING PROUD WANDERER, and SPanner in the Works

[Ken Cheng]

Here at SPCNET, we often use "SPW" as a short designation for Jin Yong's story SMILING PROUD WANDERER. I think those same letters, in that order, can also describe the story as a "SPanner in the Works."

For those unfamiliar with the idiom, a spanner in the works is defined by Free Dictionary.com as "something that prevents a plan or activity from succeeding." In other words, a spanner in the works is something disruptive that causes a system to not operate correctly.

In terms of being part of the martial arts mythology of the Jin Yong wuxia universe, SPW (SMILING PROUD WANDERER) is indeed the SPW (spanner in the works) that causes an otherwise mostly sensible system of inter-story martial arts to just completely break down.

Let's imagine that SPW were removed from the Jin Yong canon. If we trace the characterization of martial arts through Jin Yong's major novels in chronological (storywise) order...DGSD, LOCH, ROCH, HSDS, CRIMSON SWORD, DOMD, B&S: G&R, and FFoSM, we see a gradual decline of martial arts ability. This is the so called "Deterioration Theory" that has sometimes been popular among fans.

The peak level of DGSD martial arts (e.g. the levels attained by the Janitor Monk and Hui Juk) are beyond the peak levels attained by the Greats of the CONDOR HEROES TRILOGY, and the CONDOR HEROES TRILOGY's best martial arts tower over those of the Qing Dynasty stories such as DOMD and B&S. Though the discrepancy of martial arts level from novel to novel varies, we can see a logical reverse evolution (devolution?) of martial arts from the Northern Sung Dynasty era of DGSD to the Qing Dynasty-era novels. It works.

But if you throw SPW in there, it REALLY screws things up. It doesn't just screw up the Deterioration Theory, but even just how Jin Yong wuxia martial arts in general work throughout the timeline, from novel to novel. SPW martial arts such as Qwai Fa Bo Deen, Dook Goo 9 Swords, Pik Che Sword Technique, and even the characterization of Shaolin's Yik Gun Ging (which doesn't quite square with its depiction in DGSD) JUST DON'T FIT with the way martial arts are characterized in other parts of the Jin Yong canon. Martial arts in SPW simply behave differently from how they behave in other Jin Yong stories, including even DGSD. It's almost as if SPW doesn't take place in the normal Jin Yong timeline at all, but exists in its own separate, pocket universe/parallel timeline where the rules are different from those of the normal Jin Yong universe where DGSD, the CONDOR HEROES TRILOGY, and the Qing Dynasty novels occur.

Taken on its own terms, SPW is a brilliant wuxia story, but if you try to slot it in comfortably with Jin Yong's other stories in how its martial arts are characterized, it really does throw a spanner in the works.