Huang Rong | |
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Condor Trilogy character | |
![]() Huang Rong, as she appeared in The Legend of the Condor Heroes manhua #22 (July 2000 Ming Ho Press). Art by Lee Chi Ching | |
Created by | Jin Yong |
In-universe information | |
Gender | Female |
Affiliation | Peach Blossom Island, Beggars' Gang |
Family |
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Spouse | Guo Jing |
Children |
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Masters |
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Apprentices |
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Huang Rong | |||||||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 黃蓉 | ||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 黄蓉 | ||||||||||
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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 .
Huang Rong was born to Huang Yaoshi and Feng Heng. Her mother died shortly after she was born and her father raised her all by himself on Peach Blossom Island. She was an intelligent child and quick learner,so her father imparted her with all his skills and knowledge. She flees from home after a quarrel with her father and disguises herself as a beggar by donning filthy rags.
Huang Rong meets Guo Jing for the first time in an inn while she was arguing with a waiter. Guo Jing feels sorry for her and decides to pay for her meal. Huang Rong finds him interesting and she orders all kinds of fine cuisine and shares with him. Guo Jing even gives her some gold ingots he received from Genghis Khan. When she asks,he offers her his prized Ferghana horse,a rare Central Asian breed. Since then,Huang Rong is attracted to Guo Jing as she sees that he is a simple,honest and innocent young lad.
Guo Jing and Huang Rong embark on adventure together even though Guo's teachers,the "Seven Freaks of Jiangnan",dislike Huang and oppose Guo's decision to be with her. They meet Hong Qigong,who teaches Guo Jing the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms (降龍十八掌) to repay Huang Rong's favours of preparing fine cuisine for him every day during the brief period of time he spent with them.
Hong Qigong initially refuses to teach Huang Rong any skills when he learns that she is the daughter of his friendly rival,Huang Yaoshi. However,he starts to like her for her adorable nature,and especially after she and Guo Jing saved him from Ouyang Feng. He fought with Ouyang Feng and won but was bitten by the latter's poisonous serpent,and lost all his inner energy while purging the venom from his body. He teaches Huang Rong his Dog Beating Staff Technique after deciding to pass on his position as the chief of the Beggars' Gang to her.
Huang Rong plays a significant role in Yang Kang's death although she does not kill him directly. Yang Kang attacks her with a palm strike in an attempt to prevent her from revealing the truth behind the murders he committed. However,instead,he hits the spikes on the soft armour she is wearing. The armour was incidentally stained with venom from a rare snake bred by Ouyang Feng and the poison seeps through Yang Kang's wounds into his body and kills him eventually.
Towards the end of the novel,on the summit of Mount Hua,Huang Yaoshi finally consents to his daughter's marriage to Guo Jing.
Guo Jing and Huang Rong play supporting roles in the character development of the protagonist Yang Guo in the sequel. The couple have three children (Guo Fu,Guo Xiang,and Guo Polu) and have also accepted the brothers Wu Xiuwen and Wu Dunru as their students.
During their first meeting with Yang Guo,Guo Jing accepts the boy immediately and wants to raise him like a son and groom him to become a young hero. However,Huang Rong has reservations over her husband's decision. She feels that Yang Guo bears an uncanny resemblance to his late father in his attitude and behaviour,and does not fully trust the boy. Yang was taught only literary arts and Confucian values during the brief period of time he spent with the couple. This prejudice was reinforced when Huang always place the blame on Yang Guo whenever her daughter did something wrong to him,notably shown when she supports Guo Fu for slicing off Yang Guo's arm due to her believing that Yang Guo kidnapped her daughter and used her life to exchange for an antidote to a poison he suffers from due to an earlier incident with Gongsun Zhi (until she knows the truth and became regretful for blaming him).
Huang Rong is responsible for the split of Xiaolongnüand Yang Guo many times. Huang Rong's attitude towards Yang Guo changes over time as her husband shows high regard for the boy and especially after Yang Guo selflessly saved their family from danger again and again. At one point,she fears for Guo Fu's life,after her daughter sliced off Yang Guo's arm in a heated quarrel,but Yang Guo forgives Guo Fu and saves her life later. Huang Rong only fully trusts Yang Guo after he saved Guo Xiang from the Mongols in a later chapter.
Huang Rong joins her husband in defending Xiangyang and provides him with all the support to resist the Mongol invaders. They eventually defeated the Mongols and prolonged Xiangyang's existence as a Song territory for another 13 years before it finally fell to Kublai Khan's army prior to the events of the sequel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber.
In The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber ,it is revealed that the couple realise that the eventual fall of Xiangyang is inevitable,so they wrote their knowledge of martial arts and military strategy on scrolls and hid them separately in the blades of the Heaven Reliant Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber,in the hope that future generations would inherit their legacy. Huang Rong was killed along with the rest of her family (excluding Guo Xiang) after Xiangyang fell to the Mongols.
Huang Rong is described as a young beggar dressed in filthy clothing during her first appearance in The Legend of the Condor Heroes. Her face is stained with mud and her clothes are covered in dust. [1] When Guo Jing agrees to meet her on the riverbank,she looks completely different from her earlier image,now that she is clean and dressed in beautiful clothes. Her appearance is described as "with skin whiter than snow,charm unrivalled by any,and a presence so stunning,one would almost blush from staring at her too intently". Guo Jing is taken aback by her new look. [2]
Huang Rong learnt most of her martial arts and skills from her father. Guo Jing is unable to fully grasp all these skills. Some of them are listed below.
Huang Rong meets Hong Qigong while out on adventure with Guo Jing. Hong Qigong teaches them his skills to repay Huang Rong's favours of preparing fine cuisine for him. The skills Huang Rong learnt from Hong Qigong are as follows:
The Nine Yin Manual is the most coveted martial arts manual of its time because of the incredible inner energy cultivation techniques and extraordinary skills it records. Guo Jing shares with Huang Rong after memorising and learning the skills in the book. Mastering the manual's skills allows both of them to maximise the potential of the various skills they had learnt earlier. [3]
Huang Rong acquired most of her knowledge of geography,medicine,strategy,mathematics,music,literature,etc. from her father. She also inherited her mother's eidetic memory.
She is also versed in the art of laying formations,such as the Eight Trigrams Formation,to counter enemies' advances. She uses her powers to make huge rocks and boulders form an array and maze to confuse enemies and force them to retreat.
Huang Rong is an excellent cook. She prepared several fine dishes for Hong Qigong to ask him to teach Guo Jing martial arts. Hong Qigong has a penchant for fine cuisine and could not resist the temptation that he has no choice but to keep his promise and teach Guo Jing.
Notable actresses who have portrayed Huang Rong in films and television series include Yung Siu-yee (1958),Michelle Yim (1976),Barbara Yung (1983),Susanna Au-yeung (1983),Idy Chan (1988),Athena Chu (1994),Bonnie Ngai (1995),Zhou Xun (2003),Kong Lin (2006),Ariel Lin (2008),Yang Mingna (2014),Li Yitong (2017),Lin Yanrou (2021),and Gong Beibi (2022).
Huang Rong is a main character in the 2000 role-playing video game Shachou Eiyuuden:The Eagle Shooting Heroes,released by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation.
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Notes: |
Yang Guo, courtesy name Gaizhi, is the fictional protagonist of the wuxia novel The Return of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong.
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 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 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.
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 Legend of the Condor Heroes is a 2008 Chinese television series adapted from Louis Cha's novel of the same title. The series was produced by Chinese Entertainment Shanghai, and stars Hu Ge, Ariel Lin, Justin Yuan and Cecilia Liu. The series was first broadcast on KMTV-1 in China in July 2008, This is the version with the most plot changes.
The Return of the Condor Heroes is a Taiwanese television series adapted from Louis Cha's novel of the same name. It was first broadcast on CTV in 1984 in Taiwan.
The Brave Archer and His Mate, also known as The Brave Archer 4 and Mysterious Island, is a 1982 Hong Kong film adapted from Louis Cha's novels The Legend of the Condor Heroes and The Return of the Condor Heroes, the first two books in he Condor Heroes Trilogy of novels. The Brave Archer and His Mate is a direct sequel to The Brave Archer, The Brave Archer 2 and The Brave Archer 3, being an adaptation of the final part of the Legend of the Condor Heroes novel and the first part of The Return of the Condor Heroes novel, with the same director, writer, and cast. Little Dragon Maiden (1983) unofficially continues the story where The Brave Archer and His Mate leaves off, though everyone behind and in front of the camera is different.
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 Legend of the Condor Heroes is a two-part Taiwanese television series adapted from Louis Cha's novel of the same title. The series was first broadcast on CTV in Taiwan in 1988.
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.