· The full text has a total of 6666 words and is about 16 minutes long
· Source of this article: Liu Shengjun's overall view (produced by Liu Shengjun Micro Finance)
Text: Liu Shengjun
Jin Yong, the great man of chivalry. His novels are unique, bringing people truth, goodness, beauty and unbridled imagination, chivalrous tenderness, national integrity, and resonance to the heart, interpreting the character of the Chinese nation with a grand historical vision, and becoming the spiritual food that inspires the Chinese people to go through the historical storm and live endlessly. - Liu Shengjun
Jin Yong's emotional experience "connects" the depths of Chinese cultural traditions. - Hu Heqing
Jin Yong's artistic practice brought modern martial arts novels into the palace of literature for the first time, which was a literary revolution. Jin Yong's novel is a miracle of Chinese culture in the twentieth century. - Yan Jiayan
Jin Yong's novels, the first in the world, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, unsurpassed. - Ni Kuang
Life is to make a big fuss and then quietly leave. - Jin Yong
Xu Zhimo is Jin Yong's cousin, Qian Xuesen is Jin Yong's cousin-in-law, and Qiong Yao is Jin Yong's niece. Emperor Kangxi wrote an inscription for the Haining Cha family: Since the Tang and Song dynasties, there have been several families in the south of the Yangtze River.
On March 10, 2024, the 100th anniversary of the birth of the hero Jin Yong (Zha Liangyong).
Chinese culture is formed by the continuous convergence of trickling streams in the long river of history. From the hundred schools of thought, to Zen Buddhism, Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, and then to Wang Yangming, "Four Great Masterpieces", and the May Fourth New Culture Movement in the past 500 years, its connotation has been continuously enriched. If you talk about contemporary, Jin Yong is the first to be recommended.
Jin Yong's novel is unique, it brings people truth, goodness, beauty and unbridled imagination, chivalrous tenderness, national integrity, and resonance to the heart, interpreting the character of the Chinese nation with a grand historical vision, and becoming the spiritual food that inspires the Chinese people to go through the historical storm and live endlessly.
01
According to the statistics of Jin Yong's fans, Jin Yong's novels have created a total of 1,427 characters, 97 schools and about 385 kinds of martial arts.
If fans are all over the political, business, academic, domestic and foreign circles, men, women and children eat all, it is fascinating, there is only one person in the world: Jin Yong. Even scientists such as Yang Zhenning, Li Zhengdao, Hua Luogeng, and Chern Shiingshen are all fans of Jin Yong.
During the Cultural Revolution, the rivers and lakes in the mainland were turbulent, and Deng Xiaoping had several ups and downs. Jin Yong is in Hong Kong and worried about the rivers and lakes in the mainland. "Smiling Proud Jianghu" and "The Legend of Deer and Ding" were created by Jin Yong during the Cultural Revolution.
In the sixties and seventies, Ming Pao, founded by Jin Yong, was known for its opposition to the "Cultural Revolution," and its editorials constantly criticized the perverse actions of Lin Biao, Jiang Qing, and others, and complained about Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, Peng Dehuai, and others. He was abused by the ultra-left in Hong Kong and even made the left's assassination list.
In 1973, Deng Xiaoping made his second comeback, and soon after returning to Beijing from Jiangxi, he asked someone to buy a set of Jin Yong's novels from abroad, and he had to read them for half an hour before going to bed at noon and at night. After Deng Xiaoping was defeated for the third time, Jin Yong predicted in an editorial that Deng Xiaoping would soon make a comeback.
In 1981, Jin Yong became the first Hong Kong compatriot Deng Xiaoping officially met alone. Deng Xiaoping said:
• Welcome Mr. Cha back for a visit. We're old friends now. I have read your novels, and this is the third time that I have 're-emerged from the rivers and lakes'! Most of the protagonists in your books have gone through hardships to achieve great things, and this is the law of life.
Jin Yong later commented:
• Deng Xiaoping is better than any of my favorite heroes.
Deng Xiaoping and Chiang Ching-kuo were classmates when they studied in the Soviet Union. Coincidentally, Chiang Ching-kuo's bedside also has a set of Jin Yong's novels all year round.
Zhu Rongji often reminds me of heroes. Interestingly, Zhu Rongji is also a fan of Jin Yong.
In 1999, Premier Zhu Rongji went to Yunnan for investigation, and after learning that Ling Hu'an, then secretary of the Yunnan Provincial Party Committee, was also a fan of Jin Yong, he asked: "Have you read all Jin Yong's novels?" Ling Hu'an said: "I have read it all, more than once." Zhu Rongji asked in public: "Jin Yong has a couplet: "Flying snow shoots white deer in the sky, and the smiling book god leans on the blue duck", each word represents a novel, can you name each novel?" Ling Hu'an wrenched his fingers and only said twelve. Zhu Rongji said with a smile: "There are still two parts that have not yet been written out in the plan."
In 2003, Zhu Rongji came to the Audit Office for investigation, and Ling Huan was transferred to the post of Deputy Auditor General of the Audit Office at that time. As soon as Zhu Rongji got out of the car, he asked: Where is Linghu Daxia? After a few words of greeting, Zhu Rongji said: "In Kunming that year, I tested the couplet written by Jin Yong, and I said that he still had two novels that he had not written. I didn't expect that after four years, the prime minister of a country would still remember this little thing.
02
China has had legends of chivalry since ancient times. Li Bai's "Chivalrous Journey" wrote:
Kill one person in ten steps, and don't stay for a thousand miles.
Brushing off the clothes and going away, hiding deep with the name.
The bones of the arson are fragrant, and he is not ashamed of the world.
Who can write Your Excellency, the white head is too mystical.
But bringing the ethereal shadow of chivalry into the spiritual world of the Chinese began with Jin Yong. Because of Jin Yong, the Chinese have a spiritual world that no one else can understand: chivalry and rivers and lakes.
Why did Jin Yong admire Deng Xiaoping the most? Because in the rivers and lakes of chivalry, the feelings of family and country come first. And Deng Xiaoping set things right after the Cultural Revolution and reversed the fate of the country. Jin Yong has written in "The Condor Heroes":
• The great man of chivalry, for the country and the people.
Deng Xiaoping told Jin Yong:
• The Cultural Revolution caused confusion in the minds of the people of the country. Ten years of turmoil have affected the growth of an entire generation. In the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, a group of Red Guards made trouble.
• After the Gang of Four was crushed, the situation could not be reversed for a while. Cultivating talent is a long-term thing, and it takes at least 20 years to recover after 10 years of destruction. The dolls are accustomed to the habit of making trouble during the Cultural Revolution. Anarchism is rampant, people are undisciplined, and they think that they are heroes who are unconventional and do their own thing.
Jin Yong's sensitivity and concern for the fate of the country also stems from the misfortune of his family. His father, Zha Shuxun, is a typical elite, Chinese and Western figure. In 1950-1951, a nationwide political campaign to purge and suppress counter-revolutionaries was launched, and Cha Shuxun was shot dead in the playground of Longtouge Primary School. After the person was executed, his wife Gu Xiuying learned the news, and when she arrived, her husband was already lying on the side of the playground. In the following decades, Gu Xiuying has been running for many appeals. Jin Yong was working at Hong Kong's "Ta Kung Pao" at the time, and when he heard the news, he cried for several days. 30 years later, Jin Yong's father was rehabilitated.
Deng Xiaoping mentioned Jin Yong's father in the conversation, expressed apologies, and said to unite and look forward. Jin Yong said: "People can't be resurrected when they enter the Yellow Spring, forget it!"
03
When Zhejiang University gave Jin Yong the qualification of doctoral supervisor, other people's evaluation materials were three books and several papers, and only Jin Yong was a blank form with the words 'Zha Liangyong' written on it. Jin Yong's bullish capital lies in:
• Wherever there are Chinese, there must be Jin Yong's martial arts novels.
According to conservative estimates, Jin Yong's novels have a global circulation of more than 300 million copies, and more than 100 related films and televisions.
Although Gu Long, Liang Yusheng and Jin Yong are known as the three masters of the new school of martial arts, the works of the first two are not the same as Jin Yong in terms of thickness, heritage and width. In the vast and profound Chinese world, Jin Yong uses martial arts novels to open up a new cultural and spiritual space: his contributions transcend the elegant and the ancient. Jin Yong's works have influenced countless people:
• When Kai-Fu Lee was in school in the United States, he read every Jin Yong novel five times.
• "The Wind is Clear" Ma Yun is an out-and-out fan of Jin Yong, and the Alibaba office is named after the martial arts holy places of Jin Yong's novels: Peach Blossom Island, Guangming Ding, Tingyuxuan...... , even the value of Alibaba is called "Dugu Nine Swords" and "Six Veins Divine Sword".
• If there is no Jin Yong, what should Liushen Lei Lei do?
• Ni Kuang proposed "Jinxue". The study of Jin Yong's novels has become an academic field. Ni Kuang praised it like this: Jin Yong's novels are the first in the world, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, unsurpassed.
Jin Yong is also my idol. In my eyes, he is a once-in-a-century genius:
• The literary value of Jin Yong's works may not be as good as that of Lu Xun and Cao Xueqin, but he is unprecedented in terms of public influence and uniqueness of his works, and he has injected fresh blood into Chinese culture.
• His novels are so perfectly and brilliantly matched with historical figures and events such as Genghis Khan, Qiu Chuji, Wanyan Honglie, Kangxi, and Wu Sangui.
• His novels are so imaginative that they are suffocating. In the vast river of Chinese culture, there are two works that have "alternatively" inspired the curiosity and imagination of the Chinese people, one is "Journey to the West" and the other is Jin Yong's novel. If I still have a little curiosity and innovative spirit, it is by no means given by "cramming education", but bathed in the grace of Jin Yong.
• As a self-media person, I realized the hardships and difficulties of writing manuscripts every day. Jin Yong is a thousand times more difficult than me, because he writes serialized novels, and he is also a true god. He recalls that when he first started, he was very stressed, and he owed 2,000 words of manuscript every day when he woke up. In the past 33 years, he has personally written more than 7,000 editorials, carefully considering every word, and the manuscript of more than 1,000 words has been changed and changed, and it took at least two hours.
• His Spring and Autumn penmanship of writing heroes, beautiful women, feelings, and bad guys is breathtaking, satisfying all the imagination of the Chinese people for truth, goodness and beauty.
In 1993, at the "International College Debate", a showdown between Fudan University and National Taiwan University was regarded as a "classic". The final debate topic is "human nature is inherently good or human nature is inherently evil", Jin Yong sat in the judges, and Ji Xiang, the "second debater" of Fudan University, made an extremely ingenious argument about the four evildoers in "Tianlong Babu", which attracted a full house of voices.
Language has borders. Jin Yong is a unique treasure of the Chinese. In 2018, the first volume of the English translation of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "A Hero Born", was released worldwide. This is the first time the book has been translated and published in English. Martial arts moves such as "Falling Ying Divine Sword Palm" are five characters in Chinese, and English becomes lengthy "Wilting Blossom Sacred Sword Fist". I firmly believe that foreigners can't understand it. Jin Yong said:
• Martial arts novels can be liked not because of fights and plot twists and turns, but mainly because of traditional Chinese forms, which express Chinese culture, Chinese society, Chinese people's thoughts and emotions, human customs, morals and concepts of right and wrong. Translations of my novels into Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, and other Eastern languages are quite popular, but translations into Western languages are not very successful, because Westerners do not easily understand the thoughts, emotions, and lives of Eastern people.
Yan Jiayan, a well-known scholar, commented:
• As Professor Chen Shih-hsiung pointed out, the "compassionate" and lofty style of "Tianlong Babu" is difficult to achieve without a true understanding of Buddhist philosophy. We have never seen any kind of popular literature that contains such rich traditional cultural content and has such superb cultural and academic taste as Jin Yong's novels. If you read the "Commentary on Yuan Chonghuan" in "The Sword of Blue Blood", you will know how much effort the author has put into some historical issues and how incisive his opinions have been, and some of them can be said to be far more than those of historians who study Yuan Chonghuan.
• Jin Yong's artistic practice brought modern martial arts novels into the palace of literature for the first time, which was a literary revolution. Jin Yong's novel is a miracle of Chinese culture in the twentieth century.
Indian movie star Aamir Khan, the protagonist of "Wrestling Dad", wrote after Jin Yong's death:
• His novel "The Legend of the Deer and Ding" brought me a lot of joy, I only read it a few months ago, and I wish I could have met him once. He has brought so much joy to generations. I'm a big fan of him.
04
The reason why Jin Yong's novels are fascinating is that he deciphers the emotional codes in Chinese culture, thus triggering the cultural resonance of readers. Hu Heqing, a talented man who committed suicide at the age of 34, interpreted Jin Yong like this:
• Jin Yong's emotional experience "connects" the depths of Chinese cultural traditions. Jin Yong has a very exquisite understanding of traditional Chinese culture. What many novelists lack today is this kind of deep grasp of the pulse of Chinese culture. Like Cao Xueqin, Jin Yong was born into a dilapidated aristocratic family, and absorbed a wealth of hidden information about Chinese scholar culture from the genetic code and aristocratic lifestyle. The "dilapidation" made them descend into the lives of the common people and appreciate the deep and broad world of the people's emotional life.
• There is a cultivated immortal aura on the little dragon girl's body, which makes Yang Guo fascinated and never able to figure it out. Her spiritual tunnel to Yang Guo is the so-called "edge" of Eastern mysticism—a kind of spiritual tacit understanding that cannot be rationally analyzed.
• In the process of expanding his power and climbing up, Wei Xiaobao desperately pursued the number of life experiences, and at the same time occupied 7 women, enjoying the so-called glamorous blessings of officialdom. With the increase of officialdom experience, he wants to "screw up" every good-looking woman he encounters, and completely degenerates into an animalistic meat ball. This paradoxical state of existence is also a common problem of officialdom in feudal society: in the feudal era, the sexual experience of officialdom has always been a variation of the rising movement of power, and the pursuit of the number of life experiences often becomes an external marker of the degree of power. Wei Xiaobao has no political principles and is extremely shameless in personality, which just embodies the rules of the game of feudal officialdom power struggle.
05
Jin Yong's family, Zhejiang Haining Cha family, has been a scholarly family for generations, and during the Kangxi period, he created the imperial examination myth of "one family of ten scholars, uncles and nephews five Hanlin". Emperor Kangxi once wrote an inscription for it: Since the Tang and Song dynasties, there are several families in the south of the Yangtze River.
Since modern times, there have been many characters in the Cha family:
• Industrialist Cha Jimin (former vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Laura Cha, is Cha Jimin's daughter-in-law), founded Broadway Garment Factory, Mingly Group, Hong Kong Resort Company Limited, Cha's Enterprise Group and HKR International Group.
▲ Shimi Ji
• Educator Zha Liangzhao. He has successively served as the Provost of Beijing Normal University, the President of Henan University, and the Director of Henan Provincial Department of Education.
• The representative poet and translator of the Jiuye School, Zha Liangzheng (Mu Dan), is regarded by many modern literature experts as the first person in modern poetry. His main translations include works by Pushkin in Russia, Shelley in England, Byron in England, etc.
• The merry and talented Xu Zhimo is Jin Yong's cousin (Jin Yong's mother Xu Lu is Xu Zhimo's cousin). Jin Yong's father, Zha Shuxun, once encouraged Jin Yong and said: Your cousin Xu Zhimo studied Cambridge, and you will also go to Cambridge in the future. In 2006, Jin Yong completed his master's thesis at the University of Cambridge, "The imperial succession in early Tang China". In 2010, he completed his doctoral dissertation at the University of Cambridge entitled "The Succession to the Imperial Throne in the Tang Dynasty", when Jin Yong was 86 years old, adding another legend to the University of Cambridge.
Cambridge, University of Cambridge
• The famous military strategist Jiang Baili is Jin Yong's uncle (Jiang Baili's original wife Cha Pinzhen is Jin Yong's aunt). In 1921, Jiang Baili wrote the results of the European investigation into a "History of the European Renaissance", Liang Qichao wrote a preface for it, and he wrote more than 50,000 words, which was about the same as the number of words in the original book. In 1923, Jiang Baili and Hu Shi founded the Crescent Society. In 1937, Jiang Baili's most important collection of military treatises, "On National Defense", was published, which caused a sensation, with the inscription on the title page: "A thousand words, just to tell you one sentence, China has a way!" In 1938, he became the acting president of the Army University (formerly Jiang Zhongzheng).
• "Father of Aerospace", "Two Bombs and One Satellite" meritorious Qian Xuesen - Jin Yong's cousin-in-law (Jiang Baili's daughter Jiang Ying is Qian Xuesen's wife).
• Qiong Yao - Jin Yong's niece (Jin Yong's cousin Zha Liangmin married Qiong Yao's third uncle Yuan Xingyun).
06
Jin Yong's novel world comes from his imagination and part of his life experience. He had a legendary and rich life.
Jin Yong was born in 1924, when the warlords were fighting.
In 1937, the Japanese army invaded China in full force, and the war raged. The long street in Haining, his hometown, is full of scorched earth, and there are corpses floating on the Tianxian Futang River. A large number of the Cha family's real estate was reduced to ashes in this war, and a scholarly family that had lasted for 600 years fell into disengagement.
In 1938, at the age of 14, Jin Yong embarked on the path of exile south with the school.
Because of such painful memories, many of Jin Yong's fourteen novels focus on the suffering of the world at the time of the change of generations. It can be imagined how sad Jin Yong was when he quoted Zhang Yanghao's "Hillside Sheep and Tong Caring for the Ancients" in the novel of the Yuan Dynasty, "The people are suffering when they prosper, and when they die, the people are suffering".
1955 was the seventh year that the 32-year-old Cha Liangyong had joined Hong Kong's Ta Kung Pao. One day, the editor-in-chief of the supplement "New Evening News" came to him and said:
• Liang Yusheng's "The Legend of the Grass Mang Dragon and Snake" is almost finished, Xiao Cha, only you are on top.
Jin Yong is a fan of Liang Yusheng, but he has never written it himself. When the day of publication came, the editor sent an old worker to his home to wait for the manuscript, and urged him to write a thousand words at 9 o'clock that night, otherwise there would be a blank in the newspaper the next day. He looked at the old worker, and when he was inspired, he started with an old man on the Saiwai Ancient Road:
• Nearly 60 years old, his eyebrows are white, but he is full of divine light and energy.
The opening sentence of "Book of Swords and Enmity" also became the beginning of Jin Yong's martial arts myth.
Jin Yong's love affair with his first wife, Du Yefen, sprouted in Hangzhou in 1947, and Jin Yong's colleague in Ta Kung Pao said:
• Du Yefen, a native of Hangzhou, did not speak Cantonese, and felt depressed about life in Hong Kong, and Zha Liangyong's income was not much at the time, so she left Zha Liangyong when she could not endure the hardships.
Jin Yong recalled this unhappy marriage and said with tears in his eyes:
• She betrayed me.
His second wife, Zhu Mei, was 11 years younger than Jin Yong and was the only reporter in the early days of Ming Pao. Zhu Mei is very capable and serious about her work, and the two often quarrel because of work. Zhu Mei not only works as a reporter for Ming Pao, but also takes care of their children. Not only that, Zhu Mei has to cook at home every day and send Jin Yong to the office, for a few years, rain or shine.
In October 1976, Jin Yong's 19-year-old eldest son Zha Chuanxia committed suicide in the United States because of a quarrel with his girlfriend. He painfully recalled:
• I remember being so discouraged and sad when I received the news that my eldest son had passed away in the United States, but I still had to write editorials in the newspaper that day, and I cried while writing.
He personally went to the United States to bring his son's ashes back to Hong Kong for burial. From there, he converted to Buddhism.
One day, Jin Yong, who was dejected, walked into the Retiro Bar in Zha Kok, Hong Kong, and drank alone against the wall. Lin Leyi, a waitress, plucked up the courage to walk over and said to Jin Yong: "Mr. Jin Yong, I like your martial arts novels very much, especially "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", I have read it several times. Drinking too much alcohol hurts your body, and we are all waiting for you to write a new work. Hearing such warm words when he was frustrated, Jin Yong was very moved, and felt that this young girl had a trustworthy quality, so he poured out his pain and troubles to her. She is Jin Yong's third wife, Lin Leyi.
He wrote these words in the afterword of "Heaven and Dragon Slayer":
• The emotional focus of this book is not the love between men and women, but the love between men and men, the brotherly feelings of the Wudang Seven Heroes, Zhang Sanfeng's love for Zhang Cuishan, Xie Xun's love for Zhang Wuji's father and son. However, Zhang Sanfeng's grief when he saw Zhang Cuishan kill himself, and Xie Xun's sadness when he heard the news of Zhang Wuji's death, the book is too superficial, and this is not the case in real life. Because I didn't understand it at the time.
07
The four directions of heaven and earth are rivers and lakes, and the people of the world are smart and confused. There are storms in Vanity Fair, but in the end, you will lose. - "Knight's Journey"
Someone once asked Jin Yong how he should spend his life? The old gentleman replied:
• Make a big fuss and leave quietly.
If he chooses a character in his novel, he says that he would like to be Duan Yu in "Dragon Babu":
• He does not have the domineering of power, and always leaves room for others.
08
Jin Yong will never leave, because he has melted into everyone's spiritual world. When I was writing Trump's trade war article, the sentence of Jin Yong's "Heaven and Dragon Slayer" jumped into my mind:
• He is strong, he is strong, the breeze blows the hills, he crosses by him, and the moon shines on the river.
Jin Yong is not only a novelist, but also a thinker. Today, in the 21st century, Jin Yong's 1994 speech at Peking University is still full of historical echoes:
• In the Tang Dynasty, there were 2 or 3 foreigners who were "premiers of the State Council", which shows that the Tang Dynasty did not discriminate against foreigners at all. Speaking of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was at war with the Xiongnu, and the Xiongnu split and surrendered. One of the Xiongnu princes was called Jin Rishidan, who was very popular with Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. After the death of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the major affairs of his death were handed over to two people, one was Huo Guang, and the other was Jin Rishidan. It can be seen from this that an important reason for the growth of our nation is that it is very open.
• Don't think that our nation is not good when you think of history, in fact, our nation is really not good, it is only a matter of three or four hundred years after the 16th century. It should be said that by the Ming Dynasty, China began to lag behind. One of the reasons is political autocracy, which has a very strict control over the people's thoughts, is not free and open at all, and is copied and beheaded at every turn, connecting the nine clans, so that people dare not talk nonsense, and all power is controlled by the emperor alone. Another reason was that the Ming Dynasty could not deal with the invasion of the Japanese pirates, so they whimsically implemented the so-called sea ban and burned all the ships that sailed, thinking that in this way they could cut off contact with the Japanese and starve to death. This kind of stupid ban is, of course, after Emperor Yongle and after Zheng He went to the West. As soon as the Ming Dynasty imposed a blockade, the entire national power began to decline. By the 16th century, Europe was free and open, and scientific invention began, but China was locked down for a long time. This is the greatest lesson of history.
• The reason why the Chinese nation has grown so strong is because of reform and opening up. When we encounter difficulties, we should actively carry out internal reforms and strive to overcome difficulties. At the same time, it is even more important that we open up to the outside world.
Good Jin Yong! The bones of the arson are fragrant, and he is not ashamed of the world!
Liu Shengjun @ Tiger Leaping Gorge
Economists who insist on telling the truth
Political Economy + Big Historical View
In 2014, he participated in the Prime Minister's Economic Symposium
Liu Shengjun is the founder of Micro Finance
Member of the Shanghai Economic Committee of the Zhi Gong Party
Chief expert of Shandong Provincial Human Resources Development Promotion Association
Author of "The Next Decade"
Shandong Heze Dingtao people