Jin Yong’s novels： culture is the foundation and humanity is the soul.

　　Jin Yong combined chivalrous culture with Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism, Buddhism and national culture of China traditional culture, and wrote chivalrous figures with diverse values and different cultural forms. The picture shows the permanent exhibition hall "Jinyong Pavilion" of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Xinhua news agency

　　[literature and art watching tide]

　　October 30th is the first anniversary of the death of Mr. Jin Yong. I remember when people from all walks of life bid him farewell last year, there was a couplet with the horizontal couplet "A View of All Living Beings". "Looking at all sentient beings" has Zen meaning, which means that Jin Yong looks up to all sentient beings in the world. "A glimpse of all living beings" comes from "a glimpse of all mountains", which means that Mr. Jin Yong’s martial arts novels are an incomparable peak. This evaluation is appropriate. Martial arts novels are the quintessence of China, and there are many writers and works. Jin Yong’s novels are respected because of their higher contribution than their predecessors, and they have more inspiration for the creation of China literature at present.

　　Works are stable and far-reaching because of culture.

　　Chivalrous novels are literary readings of China’s chivalrous culture. Jin Yong’s contribution lies in the integration of chivalrous culture with Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism, Buddhism and national culture of China, and the writing of chivalrous figures with diverse values and different cultural forms.

　　Chen Jialuo’s self-cultivation, knowing that he can’t do it, shows the Confucian style ("Book Sword, Love and Hatred"); Guo Jing loves not to attack, is practical and has the demeanor of an ink man (Legend of the Condor Heroes); Yang Guo is a Taoist chivalrous man (The Condor Heroes), who goes with the flow and is affectionate. Ling Huchong is a prodigal son ("the legendary swordsman") who is chic and happy, but does not lose his principles. As for Wei Xiaobao, the interpretation of his image has more reflections on national culture (The Duke Of Mount Deer). At the beginning of his creation, Jin Yong probably didn’t expect to show China’s traditional culture in such an orderly way. However, it is naturally the best choice to find innovative paths in cultural space and deduce different cultures.

　　Martial arts novels originated from Historical Records, in which Biography of Assassin and Biography of Ranger recorded chivalrous men who worked for their masters and chivalrous men who advocated their own spirit respectively, which were the two most common types of chivalrous men in later martial arts novels. After that, China’s martial arts novels experienced three changes. "The Water Margin" is the peak of China’s ancient martial arts novels. When the chivalrous man is bound to the imperial court, the chivalrous man can only counter-insurgency and arrest thieves behind some officials, which is particularly obvious in the case-solving martial arts novels. In 1923, Xiang Kairan (Pingjiang Buxiaosheng) wrote The Legend of the Wonder Man in the Jianghu, which constructed the Jianghu world of martial arts novels. Since then, there have been various schools of martial arts novels, such as Shaolin, Wudang, Emei and Qingcheng, and the chivalrous people have their own activity space. The Jianghu world seems to be far away from the earthly world, but the chivalrous people’s personality and style can be displayed in that mysterious world full of charm, and the martial arts novels are good-looking. Jin Yong’s novels are the third change in the development of China’s martial arts novels. He created the cultural space of martial arts novels and created a model of "cultural martial arts". Martial arts novels, as genre novels, have rich connotations and profound charm, and their pattern and style have been obviously improved.

　　Literature is stable and far-reaching because of culture. Whether it is an elite novel or a popular novel, constructing a cultural space will inevitably bring rich connotations to the works. However, it is rare for Jin Yong to dabble in multiple forms of China traditional culture. More importantly, the chivalrous novels highlight the chivalrous culture. Chivalrous culture and China’s different forms of traditional culture are not only in harmony, but also have many differences in principle. However, Jin Yong can blend them together, thus showing different cultural heroes, and they are so vivid and vivid, showing that Jin Yong not only has a profound understanding and unique thinking on the values of China traditional culture, but also has superb literary accomplishment. The perfect integration of knowledge, thinking and cultivation is the only way to form classic works.

　　Ideas are lofty and profound because of choices.

　　For the country and the people, being a chivalrous person is a high evaluation of chivalrous people’s social responsibility and mission consciousness. This sense of mission is not unique to Jin Yong’s novels, but it is fully manifested in his novels.

　　Guo Jing in The Legend of the Condor Heroes led an army to attack Samarkand because Genghis Khan promised to grant him a request. He was going to propose to dissolve his engagement with Hua Zheng and marry Huang Rong, but when he saw Mongolian soldiers killing people, he put forward the request that Mongolian soldiers stop the massacre. He made a choice, saved the lives of ordinary people and gave up his personal interests. Xiao Feng in "Tian Long Ba Bu" ended his life in front of the two armies for the peace of Da Song and Da Liao.

　　The social responsibility spirit of chivalrous men in Jin Yong’s novels is not a direct deduction of ideas, but is embodied in the choice of behavior. Where there is a choice, there is a sacrifice, and the sacrifice is family hatred, happiness, and even life. The choice is always difficult, hesitant and painful. Similarly, the behavior after the choice is very real, and the concept of home and country is particularly glorious and noble. The expression of ideas comes from the inner call of characters, and the establishment of behavior comes from the final choice of rationality. This is the reason why Jin Yong’s novels are noble and unpretentious.

　　Elegance and vulgarity innovate and surpass because of confluence.

　　Martial arts novels are genre novels, and patterning is the basic form of creation. Hegemony, revenge, chivalry, treasure-grabbing and love-changing … … These patterns are essential for all martial arts novels. Mode is not a shortcoming, but a feature, which is an effective way of creation accumulated over a long period of time. Without these patterns, genre novels cannot exist. The creation of Jin Yong’s novels lies in endowing these models with souls and giving them fresh life consciousness. This soul is the "human literature" practiced by new literature writers since the May 4th Movement.

　　New literature writers focus on human nature and describe life and life value in social descriptions. Jin Yong’s novels also focus on human nature and write life and life value in the experience of Jianghu world, thus constructing a "growth model" of martial arts novels. Chen Jialuo, Yuan Chengzhi, Guo Jing, Yang Guo, Xiao Feng, Ling Huchong, Wei Xiaobao … … These characters are all types of people in the Jianghu. However, these characters are vivid and distinct, showing a wonderful life in the Jianghu. The reason for this is that Jin Yong established their human nature description and life growth as the narrative center of the novel. These types of martial arts novels have also become the story expression space to show humanity and life. Another change brought by the "growth model" with human nature and life as the narrative center is that the structure of the novel is complete. The loose ending of China’s traditional novels is an old problem, which is due to the lack of main characters throughout the novel. From ignorant teenagers to mature heroes, character growth is the main line in Jin Yong’s novels, and the process of character growth is the process of story development. The character image is successfully formed, the story is naturally complete and the structure is naturally compact.

　　The traditional aesthetic construction of novels with chapters and chapters has been modernized by Jin Yong, which is in line with reality. This is a new literary realm created by the confluence of elegance and popularity. If we think about the traditional culture highlighted in Jin Yong’s novels together, we will have a deeper understanding of the aesthetic contribution of Jin Yong’s novels. In Zhang Hui’s novels, the earliest explorer is Zhang Henshui, and the expression of human nature in his "Crying and Laughing" is still the popular mode of western human nature liberation and publicity since the May 4th Movement. Jin Yong’s novels mainly show the traditional culture of China. China’s traditional culture is a norm and an existing existence. Can we write a distinctive human nature and a wonderful life in the norm and existence? Jin Yong used practice to tell people that it is possible.

　　Skills are meaningful and lasting because of integration.

　　The skills mentioned here are divided into two parts. First, knowledge skills, such as piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, poetry, tea, wine and food, fishing and reading, etc. First, professional skills, such as academics, art, martial arts and so on. Jin Yong described these skills as a few treasures, and anyone who has read Jin Yong’s novels is deeply impressed by them. This has a lot to do with Jin Yong’s accumulation of knowledge when he was a supplement editor for a long time. The skill of writing martial arts novels is not special, and other writers also write them. Jin Yong’s novels are just more extensive. Jin Yong’s contribution lies in putting these skills into plot setting, text writing and expression of life value, which has created another interest.

　　Martial arts novels are Zhang Hui novels, and Zhang Hui in Zhang Hui’s novels is the two eyebrows of the novel. Draw these two "eyebrows" well, and the eyes below will be more divine. Jin Yong’s method is to write back his eyes with poems. The target of "Eternal Dragon Slayer" is one sentence per sentence, 7 words per sentence, and the whole book is 40 times, which together is an ancient poem. "Tian Long Ba Bu" is a lyric, and the book is divided into five volumes. Together, the titles of each volume are five words, which are five epigrams: Youth Tour, Su Muqi, Broken Array, Song of the Fairy and Shui Long Yin. It takes talent to write poems according to the connotation of the novel and to cover the content of the novel. The Duke Of Mount Deer embodies the author’s talent. It is completed by taking the couplet in the collection of poems by Cha Shenxing, the ancestor of Jin Yong. From this collection of poems, Jin Yong selected 50 conjunctions to form the 50 chapters of the novel. This is more difficult, which means that the reply was written by someone else, and you should make up stories according to the requirements of the reply. There is not necessarily a connection between returning to the eye and returning to the eye, but the whole story is closely related to causality. However, it should be noted that the original version of Jin Yong’s novels is not so exquisite. Many replies were later revised when the novel was revised. But we can also see Jin Yong’s intentions.

　　The use of poetry only shows talent. The charm of Jin Yong’s novels lies in the integration of skills to achieve the realm of transformation. Art can be turned into martial arts, so there is a "martial arts supreme, treasure knife to kill dragons." Don’t dare to disobey orders from the world. The calligraphy martial arts of "who can’t rely on heaven, who can compete with the front" has the musical martial arts of Huang Laoxie’s "Blue Ocean Tide". Academics can also be turned into martial arts. Zhang Sanfeng taught Zhang Wuji three tricks in "Eternal Dragon Slayer". After Zhang Wuji learned each trick, Zhang Sanfeng asked not "Did you remember" but "Did you forget?" Only when he forgot the tricks could he continue to learn. Forgetting is not nothing, but turning tangible into intangible, that is, Taoism’s "returning to the ID" and the highest realm of learning: infinity.

　　Such integration is still tangible. The most wonderful skill fusion is still invisible. In "Heroes of the Condor", Brother Diao took Yang Guo to the cave where his original owner lived in solitary pursuit of defeat, and showed Yang Guo the sword tomb of solitary pursuit of defeat. There is a monument on each sword grave with words inscribed on it. There are several swords he used in the sword grave, such as Qingfeng Sword, Xuantie Sword and wood blade. The inscription on it is like this:

　　It is fierce and invincible, and it is used to compete with Heshuo before it is weak.

　　Ziwei soft sword, used before the age of 30, was unlucky to accidentally injure the righteous, but it was abandoned.

　　The epee has no front, and the ingenuity does not work. Before the age of forty, I relied on it to run wild all over the world.

　　After forty years old, you can be a sword if you don’t stay in things. Since then, intensive training has gradually become better than having a sword without a sword.

　　These are the five stages of talking about martial arts, but if you think about it carefully, where are you talking about martial arts? Obviously, you are talking about life. Aren’t these five stages the five realms of life? In this novel, I also wrote that Yang Guo practiced "ecstasy". Seventeen tricks of a set of palm techniques: jumpy, out of thin air, dragging its feet, worrying alarmingly, wandering in an empty valley, unable to cope with one’s strength, walking dead, making much ado about nothing, acting perversely, forgetting to eat and sleep, being alone, eating and drinking, being restless, being at the end of the road, being pale, dreaming and being stupefied &hellip … All the tricks are heartfelt wishes, and it is Yang Guo’s longing and pain of waiting for the little dragon girl’s 16-year contract. It is a "ecstasy". Martial arts has been integrated with the mood, thinking and feeling of the characters, and it is the martial arts of the mind.

　　The fusion of skills gives life to boring knowledge, which is full of humor and agility, and is meaningful and lasting. The writer shows talent, wisdom and a unique understanding.

　　　(Author: Tang Zhesheng, distinguished professor, Soochow University)