Ride the Sword through the Jianghu (Part 1, 2, and 3)

Author: Liang Yusheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1996-03-01
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 the 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 heroic actions in justice, dignity, and love for the people, while discarding the tendency of old martial arts fiction to glorify revenge and bloodshed. Jin Yong further elevated this to "serving the nation and its people—this is the true essence of a hero." 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 air, often interweaving poetry, folk songs, and colloquial expressions into the narrative. His storytelling 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 engaging manner. His narrative style also carries a distinct tone of storytelling. 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 their complexity. Some critics argue that the flaw in Liang Yusheng's novels lies in their "tedium," a perception likely rooted in his persistent adherence to a "conventional" scholarly demeanor. Liang Yusheng himself once remarked, "Perhaps I have also been guilty of being 'far-fetched.' But in my works, 'far-fetched' is not the mainstream—it is not my style."