Record of United Swords and Storms.

Author: Liang Yusheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Liang Yusheng's martial arts novels connect the heroic tales following The Story of the Heroic Parents and the old martial arts fiction of the Republican era, pioneering a new school of martial arts literature. They also paved the way for Jin Yong and Gu Long's literary world. He once described his own position in the realm of martial arts fiction: "The pioneer of this trend is Liang Yusheng; the one who brought it to its full glory is Jin Yong." In the 1960s and 1970s, he and Jin Yong together carried the banner of the new school of martial arts fiction, earning the reputation of "Jin and Liang, rivals of their time." During their era, Liang Yusheng advocated that "the hero is the embodiment of the wisdom and virtue of the lower laboring classes," grounding heroism in justice, dignity, and love for the people, while discarding the old school's tendency toward revenge and bloodlust. Jin Yong further elevated this to "For the nation and the people—this is the greatest essence of heroism."
Liang Yusheng's novels are renowned for their rich historical and literary knowledge, as well as their incorporation of classical poetry and folk sayings. His writing is elegant and imbued with a strong scholarly atmosphere, often interspersed with poetic verses and folk expressions. His narrative techniques primarily draw from tradition, frequently employing the chapter-based structure of classical novels. The chapter titles are profound in meaning and skillfully balanced in parallelism, with the plot unfolding in a rhythmically harmonious manner. His storytelling also carries a distinct tone of a storyteller. The characters in his martial arts novels are deeply moralized, with clear distinctions between heroes and villains. Each of his works is set against a specific historical backdrop, with plots meticulously crafted and steady in depth. Some critics argue that the flaw in Liang Yusheng's novels lies in their "tedium," likely because he consistently maintained a "conventional" scholarly demeanor. Liang himself once said, "I may have also been guilty of being 'far-fetched.' But in my works, 'far-fetched' is not the mainstream—it is not my style."