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The Emei Menpai is a fictional martial arts school mentioned in several works of wuxia fiction. It is commonly featured as one of the leading orthodox schools in the jianghu (martial artists' community). It is named after the place where it is based,Mount Emei.
In Jin Yong's The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber ,the Emei School is founded during the early Yuan dynasty by Guo Xiang around the same time as when the Wudang School is established. [1] Guo Xiang is the sole surviving member of the Guo family from The Return of the Condor Heroes . She escapes during the Battle of Xiangyang with the Heaven Reliant Sword (倚天劍),becomes a powerful martial artist,and roams the jianghu as a youxia . At the age of 40,she becomes a Buddhist nun and establishes the Emei School on Mount Emei. Her apprentice,Abbess Fengling,succeeds her as the leader of the Emei School. Fengling is later,in turn,succeeded by Abbess Miejue. [1]
In Jin Yong's works,the school's members are predominantly women and its leaders are Buddhist or Taoist nuns. In wuxia stories by other writers,the Emei School has members of both sexes,who play equally important roles in the school.[ citation needed ]
In Sword Stained with Royal Blood ,set in the late Ming dynasty,the Emei School is briefly mentioned as one of the Four Great Sword Schools and has male members in its ranks. [2] In Gu Long's The Kingdom of the Golden Bird of the Lu Xiaofeng Series,the Emei School is led by Dugu Yihe,who is slain by Ximen Chuixue. [3]
In Jin Yong's novels,Emei's martial arts are the best among those suited for women. The origins of Emei's martial arts come from its founder,Guo Xiang. [1] Guo Xiang's martial arts were mostly inherited from her family,including her maternal grandfather Huang Yaoshi. [4] She also learnt part of the Nine Yang Manual from Jueyuan in her younger days. [1] However,it does have some elements of "unorthodoxy",as exhibited by Zhou Zhiruo when she uses the "Nine Yin White Bone Claw" (九陰白骨爪) after finding the Nine Yin Manual . [1]
Emei's martial arts range from powerful inner energy cultivation techniques to the use of weapons and unarmed combat. They encompass the Twelve Movements (動功十二桩) and the Six Specially Mastered Skills (靜功六大專修功). Emei's members primarily use the sword. They also use needles and hairpins,called the "Prick of Emei" (峨嵋刺) or "Jade Maiden Hairpin" (玉女簪),as projectile weapons to be thrown at enemies. The most powerful of Emei's skills are the Emei Swordplay and the 36 styles of dianxue (三十六式天罡指穴法).
Like Wudang,Emei's skills have two sides to them,encompassing elements of "softness" and "roughness" and "long range" and "short range" attacks,all in the same style of fighting. They rotate between deceptive and direct attacks and can be used effectively by women to overcome opponents who are physically stronger than them. Some movements in Emei's swordplays are feminine in nature and are named after beauties in Chinese history and Chinese idioms used to describe feminine beauty.
Louis Cha Leung-yung, better known by his pen name Jin Yong, was a Chinese wuxia novelist and essayist who co-founded the Hong Kong daily newspaper Ming Pao in 1959 and served as its first editor-in-chief. He was Hong Kong's most famous writer, and is named along with Gu Long and Liang Yusheng as the "Three Legs of the Tripod of Wuxia". He is also known as one of the "Four Great Talents of Hong Kong".
The Return of the Condor Heroes, also called The Giant Eagle and Its Companion, is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong. It is the second part of the Condor Trilogy and was preceded by The Legend of the Condor Heroes and followed by The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. It was first serialised between 20 May 1959 and 5 July 1961 in the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao.
Guo Jing is the fictional protagonist of the wuxia novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong. He also appears as a supporting character in the sequel, The Return of the Condor Heroes, and is mentioned by name in The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. He is a descendant of Guo Sheng, one of the 108 outlaws from Mount Liang in the classical novel Water Margin. Guo Jing and Yang Kang were both named by Qiu Chuji, who urges them to remember the Jingkang Incident and be loyal towards their native land, the Song Empire. Guo Jing is killed during the Battle of Xiangyang along with the rest of his family except his younger daughter, Guo Xiang.
The Smiling, Proud Wanderer is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong. It was first serialised in Hong Kong in the newspaper Ming Pao from 20 April 1967 to 12 October 1969. The Chinese title of the novel, Xiao Ao Jiang Hu, literally means to live a carefree life in a mundane world of strife. Alternate English translations of the title include The Wandering Swordsman, Laughing in the Wind, The Peerless Gallant Errant, and The Proud and Gallant Wanderer. Another alternative title, State of Divinity, is used for some of the novel's adaptations.
Zhang Wuji is the fictional protagonist of the wuxia novel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber by Jin Yong.
The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber, also translated as The Sword and the Knife, is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong and the third part of the Condor Trilogy, preceded by The Legend of the Condor Heroes and The Return of the Condor Heroes. It was first serialised from 6 July 1961 to 2 September 1963 in the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao.
The Jiuyin Zhenjing, also known as the Nine Yin Manual, is a fictional martial arts manual in Jin Yong's Condor Trilogy.
The Ming Cult is a fictional cult and martial arts school featured in the wuxia novel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber by Jin Yong, first published in serial form from 1961 to 1963. It is also briefly mentioned in The Legend of the Condor Heroes, another novel also by Jin Yong. It is loosely based on Manichaeism, an actual gnostic religion which originated in Persia in the 3rd century CE and later spread to other parts of the world, including China. The cult's headquarters is at Bright Peak in the Kunlun Mountains and it has several other bases spread throughout China. Its most powerful skills are the "Heaven and Earth Great Shift" and the "Martial Arts of the Holy Flame Tablets".
Dugu Qiubai is a fictional character who is mentioned by name in three wuxia novels by Jin Yong. He does not appear directly in any of the novels because he lived in an era long before the events of the novels took place. Nicknamed "Sword Devil" to reflect his prowess in and devotion to the practice of swordplay, he attains the philosophical level of "swordsmanship without a sword", which means that he uses swordplay techniques in combat without the physical existence of a sword.
The Condor Trilogy (射鵰三部曲) is a series of three wuxia novels written by Hong Kong-based Chinese writer Jin Yong. The series is amongst the most popular of Jin Yong's works.
The Jiuyang Zhenjing, also known as the Nine Yang Manual, is a fictional martial arts manual in Jin Yong's Condor Trilogy. It was first introduced briefly at the end of the second novel The Return of the Condor Heroes. It plays a significant role in the third novel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber after Zhang Wuji discovers it and masters the skills in the book.
The Gaibang (丐幫) is a fictional martial arts organisation featured prominently in works of wuxia fiction by writers such as Jin Yong, Gu Long and Wolong Sheng. The gang has also found its way into martial arts films such as King of Beggars and video games such as Age of Wushu. The gang's members are mostly beggars as its name suggests, but some of them are from other walks of life. They are noticeable in public for their dress code and behaviour. The members adhere to a strict code of conduct and maintain the utmost respect for rank and hierarchy. They uphold justice and help those in need through acts of chivalry. The Beggars' Gang is also one of the supporting pillars in the defence of Han Chinese society from foreign invaders. The gang has a wide network of communications and the members are reputed for their excellent information gathering skills. This is due to the gang's large size and the nature of its members, which allows them to easily blend into different segments of society.
Zhou Zhiruo is one of the two female lead characters in the wuxia novel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber by Jin Yong. Jin Yong describes Zhou Zhiruo's physical appearance as "beautiful, pure and free of worldly traits".
The Wudang School, sometimes also referred to as the Wu-Tang Clan, is a fictional martial arts school mentioned in several works of wuxia fiction. It is commonly featured as one of the leading orthodox schools in the wulin. It is named after the place it is based, the Wudang Mountains.
The Ancient Tomb School is a fictional martial arts school in the wuxia novel The Return of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong. It plays a significant role in the early development of the protagonists, Yang Guo and Xiaolongnü. It was named after its base, the Ancient Tomb (古墓) in Mount Zhongnan.
The Kunlun School is a mostly fictional martial arts school mentioned in several works of wuxia fiction. It is usually featured as a leading orthodox school in the jianghu / wulin. It is named after the place where it is based, the Kunlun Mountains in western China, near modern Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces. Due to its geographical location, it was hardly known to martial artists in the jianghu before its rise to prominence.
The Mount Hua Sect, also known as the Huashan Sect, is a non fictional martial arts sect mentioned in several works of wuxia fiction. It is commonly featured as one of the leading orthodox sects in the wulin. It is named after the place where it is based, Mount Hua. The sect appears in three of Jin Yong's novels.
The Kongtong School is a martial arts school mentioned in several works of wuxia fiction. It is commonly featured as a leading orthodox school in the jianghu. It is named after the place where it is based, the Kongtong Mountains.
The Mount Heaven School, also known as the Tianshan School, is a fictional martial arts school mentioned in works of wuxia fiction, most notably Liang Yusheng's Qijian Xia Tianshan. It also appears in Jin Yong's Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils as a minor school that plays an important role in the story line of one of the three protagonists, Xuzhu. The school is named after the place where it is based, the Tian Shan mountain range in western China.