Guo Jing's hometown is in Niu Family Village. His father,Guo Xiaotian,was from Shandong but moved to Lin'an (present-day Hangzhou) after the Jurchen-led Jin Empire conquered the northern part of the Song Empire in the Jin–Song Wars. Guo Xiaotian met Li Ping in Lin'an and married her. Two years after their marriage,Guo Xiaotian was killed by a group of soldiers led by Duan Tiande during a raid ordered by Wanyan Honglie. Li Ping,who was pregnant with Guo Jing then,was captured and held hostage by Duan Tiande,but managed to escape later. She fled north and arrived in Mongolia,where she gave birth to Guo Jing. Guo Jing and his mother are taken in by some nomads later and become part of Genghis Khan's tribe. Guo Jing befriends the Khan's children and followers,and becomes anda (sworn brothers) with the Khan's fourth son,Tolui. He later meets the "Seven Freaks of Jiangnan" and learns martial arts from them. During battles between the Khan and his rivals,Guo Jing demonstrates his loyalty to the Khan by helping to fend off the attackers. The Khan sees Guo Jing as a loyal subject,places great faith and trust in him,and betroths his daughter,Huazheng,to him.
At the age of 18,Guo Jing leaves Mongolia to meet Yang Kang,the son of his father's sworn brother,Yang Tiexin,for a contest arranged 18 years ago by the "Seven Freaks of Jiangnan" and Qiu Chuji. He encounters several extraordinary martial artists,who teach him some of their skills. By chance,he finds two prized texts:the Nine Yin Manual and the Book of Wumu. The knowledge he gained from the books turned him into a formidable martial artist and skilled tactician as he gradually matures in his beliefs and ideals. He also meets his future wife,Huang Rong,and they go on adventures together and are eventually married.
Guo Jing returns to Mongolia after his trip to the Song Empire and joins Genghis Khan in the Mongol campaign against the Khwarezmid Empire. He plays a significant role in the capture of the city of Samarkand and returns home in triumph. When he discovers later that the Mongols are planning to invade the Song Empire,he renounces his loyalty to the Khan and flees from Mongolia. Thereafter,he establishes a base of operations in the city of Xiangyang. Since then,Guo Jing has dedicated his life to defending his homeland from foreign invaders.
In The Return of the Condor Heroes
Guo Jing appears as a supporting character in the sequel,which is set several years after the end of the first novel. The adult Guo Jing is now a prominent figure in the wulin (martial artists' community) and a highly revered hero in Han Chinese society. He faces the arduous task of raising the orphaned son of his late sworn brother,Yang Kang,and guiding him on the path of goodness. He had previously named the boy 'Yang Guo' in the hope that the boy would redeem his family's honour,which had been tarnished by Yang Kang's villainy. Guo Jing and Huang Rong also raise Wu Dunru and Wu Xiuwen as their apprentices.
Guo Jing and Huang Rong play active roles in shaping Yang Guo's character. For example,Guo Jing's image as a fervently loyal and chivalrous hero inspires Yang Guo and serves as a role model for the boy to follow. However,Yang Guo also sees the couple as enemies because of the roles they played in his father's death,even though they did not kill him. He often harbours the intention of killing them. Yang Guo's anger and hatred gradually subsides when he discovers Guo Jing's humble and kind character,and when he learns the true details about his father's past from Ke Zhen'e.
Guo Jing becomes an active member in defending the city of Xiangyang from Mongol invaders. After successfully establishing a base of operations in the city,Guo Jing and Huang Rong work closely with Xiangyang's military forces and their wulin allies to defend the city. The couple have three children;elder daughter Guo Fu and the twins Guo Xiang (girl) and Guo Polu (boy). Guo Xiang's name is inspired by the "Xiang" in "Xiangyang" while "Polu" means "defeat and drive away barbarians" (the "barbarians" refer to the Mongol invaders in this context).
Guo Jing has thick eyebrows,large eyes,a sturdy and strong stature,and a complexion somewhere between dark and fair. He is described to be "dumb",slow in learning and inarticulate. His most outstanding trait is his constant strife for moral rectitude,as seen when he faces a dilemma after Genghis Khan attempts to force him to lead the Mongol army to attack his native land.[1] Although he was born and raised in Mongolia,he is unwilling to side with the Mongols to attack the Song Empire.[1] In The Return of the Condor Heroes,the adult Guo Jing dedicates his life to defending the Song Empire from foreign invaders.[2]
Martial arts and skills
Guo Jing is the most powerful martial artist of his generation,and one of the most formidable in the wulin in his lifetime. His profound mastery of several different types of martial arts and skills surpasses that of many others in the wulin. Towards the end of The Return of the Condor Heroes,Huang Rong names him the "Northern Hero" (北俠;běi xiá) of the new generation of the Five Greats to replace his master,"Northern Beggar" Hong Qigong.[3] His repertoire of skills and martial arts are described in the following sections:
Mongolia
Guo Jing is one of the finest archers in Mongolia. He was trained in his early days by the legendary archer Jebe.[4] In his youth,he once shot down two eagles in the sky with a single arrow. The incident earned him fame and the admiration of Genghis Khan. In his childhood,he also played wrestling as a sport with the Khan's children and followers.
Seven Freaks of Jiangnan
Guo Jing was first introduced to Chinese martial arts by the "Seven Freaks of Jiangnan",a group of seven martial artists from Jiaxing. The Freaks find a six-year-old Guo Jing after a long search that brought them to Mongolia. They teach him all the skills they know to prepare him for an upcoming competition with Yang Kang.[4] The Freaks did not teach him any inner energy cultivation techniques at all.
The skills taught to Guo Jing by the Freaks include:
Demon Subduing Staff Skill (伏魔杖法;fúmózhàngfǎ)
Bare Handed Disarming Skill (空手奪白刃;kōngshǒu duóbáirèn)
Bone and Joint Dislocation Hand (分筋錯骨手;fēnjīn cuògúshǒu)
Ma Yu,Qiu Chuji and Wang Chuyi of the Quanzhen School teach Guo Jing some basics of their school's inner energy cultivation techniques. Guo Jing is able to understand the basis of Quanzhen's Big Dipper Formation (七星北斗陣;qīxīng béidǒu zhèn) after reading the Nine Yin Manual and observing the formation being deployed in actual combat.
Guo Jing meets Hong Qigong by chance while out on adventure with Huang Rong. Huang Rong,worrying that her father will look down on Guo Jing due to his unimpressive mastery of martial arts,uses this chance to incite Hong Qigong to teach Guo Jing his most powerful skill. Tempted by Huang Rong's culinary skill,Hong Qigong agrees to teach Guo Jing the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms (降龍十八掌;xiánglóng shíbāzhǎng) to repay Huang Rong's favours of preparing fine cuisine for him every day during the brief period of time he spent with them.
Zhou Botong
Guo Jing meets Zhou Botong on Peach Blossom Island and becomes sworn brothers with him. Zhou Botong teaches him the Seventy-two Styles Vacant Fist (七十二路空明拳;qīshíèrlùkōngmíng quán).
Zhou Botong also teaches him the Technique of Ambidexterity (雙手互搏;shuāngshǒu hùbó),which allows him to use two different sets of martial arts simultaneously.[5] Unexpectedly,the slow learning Guo manages to master this technique in a short period of time,whereas his more intelligent wife is unable to grasp it at all.[6]
Nine Yin Manual
Zhou Botong has with him a copy of the Nine Yin Manual,the most coveted martial arts manual of that era because of the incredible inner energy cultivation techniques and extraordinary skills it records. He has been forbidden by Wang Chongyang to learn the skills described in the book so he lets Guo Jing learn.
Military strategy
Guo Jing learnt military strategy and tactics from the Book of Wumu,a military treatise written by the Song general Yue Fei. The book is coveted by many,as it is widely believed that whoever possesses it will conquer the world. The Jurchens and Mongols are among those actively seeking the book.
Guo Jing finds the book by chance on Iron Palm Peak. He reads it thoroughly and employs some of the strategies during the Siege of Samarkand (1220),proving that he is not thick-witted as some believed,but actually smart if not having remarkable intellect like his partner Huang Rong because of his comprehension of the complexity of the art of war. Even his future father-in-law,Huang Yaoshi,notes that Guo,despite him not being well-verse in music,would improvise when playing instruments,acknowledging his overlooked intelligence,implies that Guo lacks confidence on his capabilities. As he gets older,the experience he gained from the Mongol campaigns and knowledge from the book turns him into a skilled military tactician,well-verse in critical thinking.
Legacy
Before leaving for good,Yang Guo and Xiaolongnü gave Guo Xiang their Gentleman and Lady Swords and the Heavy Iron Sword. In The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber,it is revealed that the swords were melted and reforged into the Heaven Reliant Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber.
Guo Jing wrote the Nine Yin Manual from memory during the siege of Xiangyang. He also wrote a martial arts manual for the 'Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms'. Guo Jing also recorded all his military experiences and knowledge from the Book of Wumu on a piece of cloth. Both the scroll and the cloth were hidden at Taohua Island,the home of Guo Jing and Huang Rong. The co-ordinates of Taohua Island and the map to pass the maze on Taohua Island were separately hidden inside the blade of the Dragon Slaying Saber. The Heaven Reliant Sword was brought out of Xiangyang by Guo Xiang before the city was conquered,while the Dragon Slaying Saber was lost and disappeared after Guo Polu's death. The heroic deeds of Guo Jing and Huang Rong became jianghu legends and were occasionally mentioned in The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber.
In other media
Statue of Guo Jing at the Hong Kong Avenue of Comic Stars,Kowloon Park,Hong Kong.
Yang Guo, courtesy name Gaizhi, is the fictional protagonist of the wuxia novel The Return of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong.
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.
The Legend of the Condor Heroes is a wuxia novel by Chinese writer Jin Yong. It is the first part of the Condor Trilogy and is followed by The Return of the Condor Heroes and The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. It was first serialised between 1 January 1957 and 19 May 1959 in Hong Kong Commercial Daily. Jin Yong revised the novel twice, first in the 1970s and later in the 2000s. The English title is imprecise since neither species of the condor, the Andean condor and Californian condor, is native to China.
Huang Rong is a fictional female protagonist in the wuxia novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong. She also appears as a supporting character in the sequel, The Return of the Condor Heroes.
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.
Huang Yaoshi is a fictional character in the wuxia novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes and its sequel, The Return of the Condor Heroes, by Jin Yong. He is one of the Five Greats of the wulin during the Song dynasty, alongside Wang Chongyang, Hong Qigong, Ouyang Feng and Duan Zhixing. He is nicknamed "Eastern Heretic" for being an unorthodox radical who behaves as he wishes without showing any regard for formalities or moral ethics. He loathes the dogma of traditional rites in Chinese society and admires only genuine honour and pure love. As such, he is often regarded by his contemporaries as a cultural heretic. His nickname may be translated to "Eastern Evil" because the character xié (邪) in his nickname also refers to "evil" and "unorthodoxy" in jianghu terminology.
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.
Hong Qi, better known as Hong Qigong, is a fictional character in the wuxia novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes and its sequel, The Return of the Condor Heroes, by Jin Yong. Best known for his most powerful martial arts, Hong Qigong is the chief of the Beggars' Gang and one of the Five Greats, the five most powerful martial artists in the jianghu of his time. He plays a significant role in the first novel by imparting his skills to the protagonists, Guo Jing and Huang Rong. Huang Rong also succeeds him as the Beggars' Gang's chief. In the second novel, he makes a brief appearance and teaches the protagonist Yang Guo the Dog Beating Staff Technique before dying together with his old rival Ouyang Feng.
The Return of the Condor Heroes is a 2006 Chinese television series adapted from Louis Cha's novel of the same title. It is the second instalment of a trilogy produced by Zhang Jizhong, preceded by The Legend of the Condor Heroes (2003) and followed by The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber (2009). It was first broadcast on 17 March 2006 in China and subsequently broadcast in other Asian countries such as South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore.
Zhou Botong is a fictional character in the wuxia novels The Legend of the Condor Heroes and The Return of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong. A member of the Quanzhen School, he is highly-skilled in martial arts, having been trained by his senior, Wang Chongyang, the school's founder. Although he is already in his old age, he is still known for behaving childishly and constantly seeking fun, hence he is nicknamed "Old Imp". At the end of the second novel, he takes the central position of the Five Greats, the five most powerful martial artists in the jianghu, to replace his deceased senior.
Duan Zhixing, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Xuanzong of Dali, was the 18th emperor of the Dali Kingdom between 1172 and 1200. Duan Zhixing's reign was marred by the power struggles within the influential Gao family, whose power had long eclipsed the ruling Duan family.
Ouyang Feng is a fictional character in the wuxia novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes and its sequel, The Return of the Condor Heroes, by Jin Yong. He is the "Western Venom" of the Five Greats of the wulin during the Song dynasty, alongside Wang Chongyang, Hong Qigong, Huang Yaoshi and Duan Zhixing. Ouyang Feng is best known for his signature martial arts technique, the Toad Skill, and his expertise in toxicology. In the first novel, he is depicted as a ruthless villain who resorts to all sorts of unscrupulous means to achieve his goal of becoming the most powerful martial artist in the jianghu. He attempts to seize the Nine Yin Manual, a book detailing powerful martial arts and inner energy techniques, but is tricked into practising skills based on a corrupted version of the manual. He becomes insane eventually as a consequence, but his prowess in martial arts also increases tremendously in an unorthodox manner. In the sequel, Ouyang Feng accepts Yang Guo as his godson and teaches him the Toad Skill. Later in the novel, he dies in the midst of laughter and forgotten past feuds alongside his rival, Hong Qigong. He is buried on Mount Hua beside Hong Qigong by Yang Guo, who succeeds him as the "Western Eccentric" of the new Five Greats.
The Brave Archer, also known as Kungfu Warlord, is a 1977 Hong Kong film adapted from Louis Cha's novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes. The film was produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio and directed by Chang Cheh, starring Alexander Fu Sheng and Tien Niu in the lead roles. The film is the first part of a trilogy and was followed by The Brave Archer 2 (1978) and The Brave Archer 3 (1981). The trilogy has two unofficial sequels, The Brave Archer and His Mate (1982) and Little Dragon Maiden (1983).
The Legend of the Condor Heroes, also released as Legend of Eagle Shooting Hero and Legend of the Arching Hero, is a Chinese television series adapted from Louis Cha's novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes. It is the first instalment of a trilogy produced by Zhang Jizhong, followed by The Return of the Condor Heroes (2006) and The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber (2009). It was first broadcast on CCTV in China in 2003.
The Brave Archer 2, also known as Kungfu Warlord 2, is a 1978 Hong Kong film adapted from Louis Cha's novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes. The film was produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio and directed by Chang Cheh, starring Alexander Fu Sheng and Niu-niu in the lead roles. The film is the second part of a trilogy and was preceded by The Brave Archer (1977) and followed by The Brave Archer 3 (1981). The trilogy has two unofficial sequels, The Brave Archer and His Mate (1982) and Little Dragon Maiden (1983).
The Romance of the Condor Heroes is a 2014–15 Chinese television series produced by Yu Zheng and adapted from Jin Yong's novel The Return of the Condor Heroes, with additional material from the preceding novel, The Legend of the Condor Heroes. It stars Chen Xiao and Michelle Chen in the lead roles. The series was first broadcast on Hunan TV from 3 December 2014 to 11 March 2015.
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