Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain by Jin Yong

Fox Volant

of the Snowy Mountain

by JIN YONG

translated by Olivia Mok

Copyright information

Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain

By Jin Yong

Translated by Olivia Mok

© The Chinese University of Hong Kong
1993, 1996

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

ISBN 978-962-201-733-7

First edition　1993

Second edition　1996

Second printing　2004

Third printing　2010

THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY PRESS

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

SHA TIN, N.T., HONG KONG

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Title of Book : Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain

Author: Jin Yong

Edition: V1.0

Date Last Updated:　Day (10)　Month (01)　Year (2012)

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Foreword

Chinese martial arts must be as old as Chinese written history, may be even older, perhaps a lot older. Through the ages, martial arts and their practitioners have inspired many classical Chinese novels, notably The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin and Sanxia Wuyi. In more recent times, this great literary tradition has informed and inspired the works of Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng in Hong Kong and those of other wuxia fiction writers in Taiwan. Some of these contemporary works have been adapted for the cinema and television screens where they have come to be known as kung fu movies.

One of Jin Yong's most famous novels is Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain. First written in serialized form for the Ming Pao newspaper in 1959, Fox Volant has since gone through twelve editions and has been made into a television series as well as a feature film. This book is an attempt to translate and make accessible to the English reader this important work in Chinese wuxia fiction.

There are almost as many schools in Chinese martial arts as there are schools which teach the Chinese classics. But four major ones stand out in people's imagination because they have been romanticized by popular fiction. These are Shaolin, Omei, Kunlun and Wudang. Three of them feature in Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain.

In the martial arts tradition, when a young man decides to join a particular school of martial arts, he has to find a Master who will take him on as pupil. When he has found one, there will be an elaborate initiation ceremony. As a part of the ritual, he will need to swear unswerving allegiance to the school, kowtow to his Master, and pay his respects to his seniors, the so-called Uncles-at-arms and Brothers-at-arms who, together, constitute the martial brotherhood. The school has its own code of chivalry, its own jargons and gestures peculiar to the brotherhood and no one else. This facilitates recognition if the school is a particularly large one with many pupils scattered all over the country.

Once a pupil is admitted, he will be taught, in stages, to fight with his hands and feet, with knives and swords, and with some of the more esoteric weapons (See Fig. 2.1-2.2 for an illustration of these). Some schools may be famous for one or two specialties or feats in the art of combat. If so, these will be taught and handed down from generation to generation. Some schools may have a canon on pugilism and blade techniques. Such a canon is regarded as the heirloom of the school and is normally kept by the heir of the Grand Master or his star protégé.

Martial arts fiction often departs from the practice of martial arts in the extraordinary claims that are sometimes made about the prowess of the practitioners and what they do to achieve such extraordinary feats. It is generally believed, for instance, that martial arts Masters can fly or float through the air by virtue of their levitational skills. In Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain, the group that call themselves the Southern Branch of the Dragon Lodge are supposed to be Masters at this. They are supposed to be able to lift themselves and float in the air or fly in the air with great ease and facility, just like the main characters do in Peter Pan. The difference here is that many cognoscenti of the wuxia genre really believe this is physically possible whereas readers of Peter Pan know this to be never never land.

The second taken-for-granted and oft-repeated feat of martial arts Masters is their ability to stop a person in mid flight or in mid action by pressing a finger or poking a blade on that person's paralytic point. There are supposed to be 360 paralytic points in the human body. These are the points through which pneuma (or chi) circulates. Thirty six of these points are considered vital and if pneuma is prevented from circulating at one of these points by pique (the act of applying heavy pressure on a point), the body will feel sore, limp, numb or paralyzed. A person who is piqued will be unable to move; it is as if he had been stunned, although he can still breathe and his life is not in danger. However, if he is not revived within a short period of time, he may suffer permanent damage and may even die. Needless to say, this has never been demonstrated as being possible in real life.

In teaching a pupil the art of combat, the Master of a school will also teach him the vital points to attack on another person's body. Such areas of weakness are clearly marked in the illustration (Fig. 3.1-3.2). A pupil will be taught certain moves which dovetail into each other and follow logically one another. Many of these moves are given descriptive names such as

Dancing Dragon and Leaping Phoenix

Seagull Skimming the Lake

Worshipping Buddha cum Learning Sutra

Phoenix Facing the Sun

Stretching Claws in the Cloud

As might be surmised from such descriptions, many moves resemble the actions of animals or they are so attributed to facilitate learning and retention.

If a pupil is conscientious and has the right disposition towards the martial arts, he will soon make a name for himself in the world of convoys, bodyguards, and underground societies. In time he will become a Master or a Grand Master. If he is revered and respected, he will probably have acquired a sobriquet like Valour Ruan the Seven Stars Hand. The two protagonists in this book are popularly known as Phoenix Miao the Gilt-faced Buddha and Fox Hu the Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain.

T. L. Tsim

Preface

Jin Yong was a prolific writer possibly driven by economic need more than by creative impulse. His twelve major works and three short works in the wuxia fiction genre were completed within the short span of 15 years from 1959 to about 1974. This more or less coincided with the period when he founded and struggled to establish the Ming Pao Daily News, without doubt one of the most important newspapers, culturally and politically, in Hong Kong's history. These works were first published in serial form everyday, and from the start drew numerous readers whose loyalty to the Ming Pao and the ideals it stood for have remained.

For, in spite of their fanciful and escapist nature, in addition to their pot-boiler intent, these works contained more than a modicum of ideal. Jin Yong has always been a man of large visions, even from the early days. His intellectual playing field is the unfolding of the Chinese culture in all its splendour through history, reaching out from the mystic past, far into the unknown future. His "kung fu novels", as the superficial often regard them, may appear to tell improbable tales of adventure and love between unbelievably lovely maidens and pure-minded knights. In reality, they are exhibition cases fashioned in homage of everything that the Chinese in diaspora (so to speak) are most proud of: China's history, literature, art, thought, social order, traditions and moral values. They are what is dearest to the Chinese identity, what they would preserve in a golden Ark in the tabernacle of their souls, until China comes to her rightful place in the world again.

That Jin Yong took these works seriously can be seen in the infinite pains he took over their revision: a task which occupied nearly ten years, resulting in an extensively and meticulously revised, and beautifully printed 36-volume edition. Each volume is lavishly illustrated with colour plates showing not only Chinese paintings, calligraphy, objet d'art, but also China's fabulous mountains and landscape, and scenes of historical interest.

It is impossible to over-estimate the influence of these works on an entire generation of Chinese, particularly in Hong Kong, but now spread to all corners of the world. It matters not their job or profession, sex or interest; they grew up avidly devouring Jin Yong, and in this pleasurable process, imbued themselves with the cultural pride and identity which breathe through every line of these works.

Moreover, for those who love the Chinese language, Jin Yong's language is intoxicating. It is a style all created by him to suit both the historical background of his tales, and what his modern readers can comprehend without too much effort. He is a past master of language, and the mastery that shows powerfully in these works, also shows in his editorials, commentaries—indeed anything he cares to write.

He is also a great transposer. Avid reader that he has always been, from the History of Twenty-four [Chinese] Dynasties to the complete works of Shakespeare, of Freud, of every major English and French writer, he has skilfully used elements of foreign culture—including Greek mythology and the great Greek tragedies—and blended them into his vast canvas of heroes and goddesses, where they miraculously take on a Chinese look. Unravelling the strands and strains and tracing them to their origin is always an instructive experience, and always ends in increasing one's respect for this unique writer.

For, in Jin Yong's readiness to take from the vast outside world and convert to its own use, is demonstrated the inner strength of Chinese culture at its most lively and fertile. The greatness of the Tang Dynasty, for example, was characterized by its open-mindedness and easy acceptance of the culture of India and the Near East—to the Chinese, of course, this meant the "Near West."

All this makes Jin Yong nearly impossible to translate. The longer works are so complex that they would represent a challenge no smaller than The Dream of the Red Chamber. The shorter works are more manageable. To the devout Jin Yong reader, they do not give the satisfaction of the full-length works, but hopefully translations such as the present would whet the appetite of English readers enough to induce them to ask for more.

Margaret Ng

Hong Kong

5 February 1996

Acknowledgements

The translator wishes to thank all her friends for the support rendered throughout the years, especially those in Hong Kong, San Francisco, Toronto, Auckland, and New York City.

Among the numerous people that have helped in the production of this volume, I wish to thank the editorial staff of The Chinese University Press for their incredible patience with my clumsy attempts at turning a draft into a manuscript.

Illustrations

The Qing Empire (Fig. 1)