Preface
When Mr. Jin Yong wrote "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", he not only wrote about heroes like Guo Jing who fought to defend their home and country, but also showed a martial arts world full of heroes, a grand masterpiece of competing for the deer.
So, what exactly qualifies as a hero?
Genghis Khan, a generation of Tianjiao, fought all his life and laid down thousands of miles of rivers and mountains.
Looking back on his life's exploits, is he a hero?
Image of Genghis Khan Temujin
"The Legend of the Condor Heroes" describes Temujin's upbringing, involving several Mongolian tribes, but most of them are based on historical facts, and there is no positive characterization, and the main characters who appear as characters in the novel are the Genghis Khan family, including Temujin, Temujin's children, Temujin's mother and wife.
As a tribal leader, Temujin was also a representative of a new rising ethnic group, showing his military talents and leadership demeanor in the course of his interactions and struggles with other tribes and ethnic groups, and at the same time showing his emotions and emotions as an ordinary person in the process of dealing with family and friend relationships.
Temujin was the character the author focused on, and as the leader of the Mongols, Temujin displayed amazing military talent and charisma. For the protagonist Guo Jing, who lost his father at a young age, Temujin acted as his spiritual "father" to a certain extent.
First of all, Temujin was most notable for his military prowess. The story of "Eagle" takes place in the Southern Song Dynasty, when the most powerful regime in the north was the Jin State established by the Jurchens, and the Mongolian tribes had not yet been unified and were enslaved by the Jin State to a certain extent.
Temujin, who appears in the story, has escaped the life of his childhood and has a certain military strength, but he is not satisfied with the status quo of self-preservation, and is expanding his power through continuous conquest.
As a natural military strategist, the novel demonstrates the true military literacy of iron art through a series of battles in which the weak defeat the strong and the few win the more. The novel describes how Tie Shuzhen led a team of 5,000 people to encounter the 30,000 army of the Naibarians, and finally "killed 1,000 enemy soldiers and captured 2,000 prisoners" at the cost of more than 100 people, defeating the Naibarians.
In the distribution of prisoners after the war, as a leader, Temujin did not put profit first and took care of him, and he paid more attention to the Mongol soldiers who died in battle, which effectively strengthened the centripetal force of the Mongol army. "Divide the 2,000 soldiers and men and horses into four parts, give one to the Wanyan brothers, one to the stepfather Wang Han, and one to the righteous brother Zhamuhe, and ask for one for yourself. For all Mongol soldiers who died in battle, each family was given five horses and five captives as slaves.
Secondly, as a generation of heroes, Temujin showed an admirable personality. Demonstrated far-sighted insight in political life. From his dialogue with his sworn brother Zamuhe, it shows his outstanding views and ambition to dominate the world.
While Wang Han, Zamuhe and others were content with the title given by the Jin Dynasty and were content to become the leader of a tribe, Temujin's ambition was to unite all the tribes and overthrow the Jin Dynasty, which had been oppressing the Mongols. He was not satisfied with the wealth of one person or one family, but relied on the combined power for the benefit of all the people.
In family life, he has both parental authority and a generous mind, and he loves the young son to drag the thunder without losing the principle" Temujin walked according to the police, and suddenly saw that there was no one on the saddle of the fourth son's mount, and said angrily, "What about the mine, whether Temujin trains the army, it is extremely severe, and the offender will never be lenient." ”
For Jochi, who is not related by blood, he gives the same trust as his own son. For the conflicts and disputes between sons, there is not only the helplessness and sadness of ordinary fathers, but also the calmness and decisiveness of an excellent politician.
For the young daughter Hua Zheng, although she is pampered and indulgent, she does not hesitate to use her daughter's marriage as a political bargaining chip when she needs to." Hua Zheng suddenly lost his voice and cried, jumped on his horse, and galloped away. Temu's heart is as good as iron, but seeing his daughter so sad, he couldn't help but feel soft in his heart and sighed slightly. ”
The duplicity of the politician father is shown. In political life, Temujin showed a well-informed attitude toward the generals and capable ministers under his seat, who were trustworthy in his word, who loved talents as his life, and who were eager to seek talent, and quickly won everyone's support and support. Even for the enemy general who shot and injured himself, Jebe did not care about his previous suspicions, and gave it a heavy use.
Thirdly, as the founder of a vast empire, Temujin's tolerant mentality of heterogeneous culture in the novel freed him from the stereotype of "only knowing how to bend the bow and shoot the eagle".
As an emerging political force, Temujin's ranks were full of vitality and vitality, but culturally speaking, the Mongolian tribes at that time still had some remnants of slavery and customs, and were in a relatively backward stage.
In the process of expanding his own power, Temujin did not reject the cultures of other nationalities, but fully respected these cultural forms, and was even more courteous and respectful to the representatives of advanced cultures.
Treat people of different races such as the Eight Monsters of Jiangnan and Qiu Chuji equally. "Jin Yong's idea of national equality and integration is very obvious. ”
Temujin's image acts as the spiritual father of the protagonist Guo Jing in the work, and the author unconsciously pours his idealized imagination into the character when creating this character.
The image of Temujin in the novel not only has the innate military talent and leadership style of a generation of Tianjiao, but also shows that he appears as a resolute and affectionate hero in the face of choices in the handling of family relations and friendships, and is basically in a state of "aphasia", mainly as a plot of Temujin's story, and as an independent image, it does not leave a particularly deep impression on readers.
Unlike other characters in Genghis Khan's family, Hua Zheng is a fictional character, who is Guo Jing's fiancée, and will appear more often in the novel as a competitor to the heroine Huang Rong.
Her character has also developed to a certain extent, she was pampered and proud when she was a teenager, and she was sincere to Guo Jing when she grew up. Before marrying Guo Jing, he expressed his heart to Guo Jing, and he could abandon his identity and status for love:
Hua Zheng said, "What do you know? I'm telling you that I'm not the daughter of the Great Khan. Guo Yuqi said, "What?"
Hua Zheng looked up at the rising eyebrow moon in the sky, and said slowly, "After I married you, I forgot that I was the daughter of Genghis Khan, and I was just Guo Jing's wife." If you want to beat me and scold me, you will beat and scold me. Don't think that my father is a big sweater, you have wronged yourself. ”
Even when Guo Jing made it clear that she wanted to repent of her marriage and went to find Huang Rong, she still didn't change her mind: "You don't have to say that, you know that I always want to marry you, you go to her, look for ten years, look for twenty years, as long as I live, I will always wait for you on this grassland." ”
In the end, in order to fulfill the generosity and kindness of Guo Jing and Huang Rong who went to the desperate region, it reflects the sincerity, straightforwardness and loyalty of Mongolian women for love and marriage.
The image of Genghis Khan's sons
Temujin's original wife gave birth to four sons: Jochi, Chagatai, Ogedai, and Tulei. The four characters are all created by Jin Yong, who is indeed a person in history, according to historical records, and basically respect historical records or folklore in terms of character behavior and the events that occur around them.
Jochi's controversial life story, for example, recurs several times as an important plot in the novel.
The author focuses on the dispute between Jochi and Chagatai over the succession to the throne, and how Ogedai profited from the struggle between the two brothers to gain the right to inherit: the depictions of these three characters are based on historical facts and are not too fictional.
The language of the characters is created by the author in the shoes of the author, but from the perspective of the effect, the speech and behavior are in line with the character and situation, and are vivid and credible.
Among the four brothers, Tuo Lei is the sworn brother of the protagonist Guo Jing, and when Guo Jing was growing up as a teenager, Tuo Lei, as his partner, is a character who has a great influence on him, and he also appears many times in the later episodes, so the image of Tuo Lei is relatively rich.
As the youngest son of Genghis Khan, Tuo Lei has outstanding military achievements in history and is an outstanding military strategist, but the novel does not focus on the description of his military talent, but focuses on a series of events when he grew up with Guo Jing in his childhood.
In the novel, Tuo Lei's first appearance is to "settle down" with Guo Jing, Guo Jing gives him a red sweat towel made by his mother, and he gives him a gold collar in return.
First of all, in the face of Dushi's provocation, Tuo Lei was not afraid of power, insisted on asking for his own spoils and maintaining his dignity, and in the face of an opponent who was obviously stronger than himself, he did not show weakness, showing his heroic spirit.
Second, under the teaching of the Seven Monsters of Jiangnan, Tuo Lei showed his strong understanding and learning ability, and mastered the knack of martial arts.
Third, attending the meeting alone showed the courage and courage of towing mines.
When Guo Jing's mother committed suicide and he broke through from the Mongolian army, he firmly stood on the side of the righteous brothers, rushed to the rescue, and gave him a thousand taels of gold to escort him out of the Mongolian army.
In the novel, it is written, "Tuo Lei watched Guo Jing's back gradually shrink, shrinking into a black spot in the desert, and finally disappeared, looking at the southern sky, quietly for a long time, and then returned depressed." It shows a deep friendship with Guo Jing.
In the end, after being forced to become an opponent with Guo Jing, Tuo Lei still showed great goodwill towards Guo Jing.
The Legend of the Condor Heroes uses a lot of pen and ink to portray the characters of Genghis Khan's family, and to a certain extent, Temujin himself and his family members are closer to the author's ideal personality than the protagonist Guo Jing, which shows the author's appreciation for some of the excellent qualities of the Mongol ethnic groups that rose during the Song and Jin dynasties.
Although the characters in Genghis Khan's family also had various shortcomings and weaknesses, they were united, aggressive, and had a high sense of honor and sincerity, which filled the whole family with high fighting spirit and pride.
Since the author himself has not been to Mongolia, nor has he had close contact with this ethnic group, his understanding of the Genghis Khan family is mainly based on historical books and legends, and the character creation on the basis of historical records.