This is not a list of martial arts performances, but these are scenes in Jin Yong novels that left or still leaves an impact on me.
One characteristic that I have noticed using a historical-biographical approach in literary criticism is that Jin Yong writes about parent and child relationships a lot. There are certain scenes writes so well, and it is cruel irony that he lost a son. However, he had finished written all of his novels before his son committed suicide. Isn’t irony the cruellest of all literary conceits?
1) DGSD: How Xiao Feng’s past was revealed, and how half of the Beggars’ Union denounced. On top of that, how his teacher and master, Wang Jiantong, left a letter behind that would give any members of the Beggars’ Union a carte blanche the moment Xiao Feng does anything that would indicate he sides with an organisation that is not Han Chinese pained Xiao Feng a lot. As a reader, I could feel that pain.
2) In DGSD, the death of A Zhu, we often comment how illogical it is for A Zhu to have her final moments to say something to Xiao Feng; however, it is necessary for that tragedy to be tragic.
3) The moment that Duan Yanqing realises that Duan Yu is his son. The joy he felt made him think that becoming an emperor is nothing compared to having a son. Furthermore, Duan Yanqing became so happy that Duan Yu acknowledged that Duan Yanqing is his father. That was an emotional scene.
4) The suicides of Abbot Xuanci and Ye Erniang are quite powerful too.
5) The suicide of Xiao Feng is a tearjerker and the combination of A Zhi losing her mind are just engraved into my mind. A Zhi is terrible person, but that moment she realises that the only good person in her life, her love and her moral compass is gone are a tour de force by Jin Yong.
6) LOCH: The death of the Five Freaks and Guo Jing discovering and burying his teachers’ bodies is also tugging my heart strings. Readers often joke about how low the martial arts level is of the Seven Freaks, but they are good people. They committed to a promise and that promise led them to leave their home for 18 years. They raised that boy into a good-hearted young man, and that young man loved them so much, and they loved him and were proud of him. The scenes that the Seven Freaks have Guo Jing are emotionally packed. I don’t blame Guo Jing for not paying respects to Ouyang Feng’s grave at the end of ROCH.
7) LOCH: the death of Li Ping. Li Ping is arguably one of the best mothers in Chinese fiction. She embodies all the qualities that an unconditional motherhood should represent. Her last words to Guo Jing show that unconditional love a parent has for his/her/their child. Every time I read or watch an adaptation of LOCH, this scene really gets me teary-eyed.
8) ROCH: I found the chapters where Yang Guo was going through this internal conflict of whether he should assassinate Guo Jing. However, through Yang Guo we appreciate Guo Jing’s selflessness towards a noble cause but also towards Yang Guo. When Yang Guo realises that Guo Jing is that father figure he has always wanted. Guo Jing was the father that Yang Guo envisioned how Yang Kang might have been in Yang Guo’s troubled mind. In those scenes there was a lot father-son bonding taking place.
9) Yang Guo and the Little Dragon Girl getting married, and finding solace that neither of them will live long.
10) Yang Guo realises that the Little Dragon Girl is accidentally poisoned by Guo Fu, and that despair that he has.
11) The suicide of Gongsun Lu’e reveals so much about her and also her despicable father, Gongsun Zhi. There are very few characters that invoke disgust in me, but Gongsun Zhi is one. He holds his own daughter as hostage, she commits suicide on his blade, and then uses her dead body as a shield to block the iron nails form his wife, Qiu Qianchi. Gongsun Zhi is scum.
12) The Little Dragon Girl carving the characters in stone, and Yang Guo’s fear of where the little Dragon Girl is.
13) When the war is over and Guo Jing extends his hand to Yang Guo and they walk into Xiangyang together was very heart-warming. Two heroes of their time hand in hand and understanding each other.
14) This is a lesser heart tug, but it was gratifying to see Guo Fu eat crow and apologise to Yang Guo.
15) The melancholy Guo Xiang had during the last chapters in ROCH and that carried over to HSDS. Here is a girl who is perfect. She has a great personality, she cares a lot of the matters of the world, and she is not afraid to stand up against bullies. It sounds very sexist to say that she should find a good man and marry that good man (either Zhang Junbao or He Zudao). Guo Xiang’s two most important men in her life are her father: North Hero, Guo Jing and her big brother, West Eccentric, Yang Guo. Zhang Junbao and He Zudao as nice or impressive they are, they can’t compete with the former two, she is doomed to being melancholic. In HSDS, we find out that she became a Buddhist nun and founded the E Mei School.
16) HSDS: The story of Xie Xun and how Cheng Kun killed his family. Additionally, how he against his own wishes killed reverend Kongjian with trickery. Xie Xun found a bit of his humanity back that night.
TBC..........