Huang Yushi <huangyushi[at]lycos[dot]com> 

Published: Thursday 02 June 2005 - Updated: Wednesday 20 July 2005 - Current version: 15

This story was first written as a serialised work in Hong Kong's Ming Newspaper in 1961 and revised in the 1970s.

Original Article: HSDS - Original vs Revised
By Kwok

Edited by Huang Yushi for consistency in the use of Hanyu Pinyin (standard Mandarin romanisation) for names, conciseness and presentation.  Relevant details added in italics where necessary.

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I flipped through the original HSDS novel recently. The storyline is largely unchanged, though some details are different. As far as I can see, a few elements have been taken out of the revised version, but next to nothing has been added. Some of the changes are:

(1) The jade-faced fire monkey

This creature has been taken out of the 2nd edition completely.

(a) In the original, Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu were attacked by a bear when they first arrived at the cave that they later used as their home. They promptly killed the bear, but they were then pursued and chased up a tree by 13 other angry bears! Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu were eventually rescued by a cute-looking 3-foot-tall monkey with blood-red fur and a snow-white face. This monkey was the nemesis of the bears, for it liked eating the brain of bears. It would tear the heads of the bears apart and scoop out the brains in a blink.

After rescuing Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu, the jade-faced fire monkey displayed its head-tearing skills and offered the raw bear-brains that it obtained to the couple. Not wanting to offend the monkey, the couple ate the brains. It turned out to be quite tasty.

Ed: The couple actually found the bear-brains of tastier than those of the goat or the fish after they got over the initial disgust and apprehension towards them.

In the revised edition, Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu were attacked by only two bears, which they despatched by themselves.

(b) The monkey was immune to fire. When Zhang Cuishan came up with the idea of using the active volcano as a source of fire, they could not get close enough to it for their tinder to light up. The monkey had to carry the tinder all the way to the crater for them. After the fire was taken successfully back to the bear-cave, the monkey jumped into it and rolled playfully around.

In the revised edition, Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu gave up on the idea of obtaining fire from the volcano, and used a flint with their sword instead.

Ed: The couple picked up a lava-stone from the ground and struck their sword against it in a bid to obtain sparks.

(c) The monkey was Xie Xun's hunting partner for a short time. When it became too efficient at hunting bears, Xie Xun insisted that it play with young Zhang Wuji instead. 

(d) The monkey was eventually poisoned to death by Daiqisi (Taykis) -- who was also known as the Golden-Flower Granny and the Purple-Clothed Dragon King.

Ed: Daiqisi met the monkey when she went to Ice-Fire Island to see Xie Xun.

(2) The young Zhang Wuji

The young Zhang Wuji in the first edition strikes me as being generally less... nice, and more crafty.

(a) When Xie Xun told his tale, young Zhang Wuji vowed to seek Cheng Kun for revenge on his behalf.  Since Cheng Kun killed all of Xie Xun's family, Zhang Wuji wanted to do the same to Cheng Kun's family in return.  This earned him a harsh scolding from Zhang Cuishan. 

Ed: This exchange/scene did not exist in the revised edition.

(b) Young Zhang Wuji wanted revenge for his parents' deaths in the original story.  He carefully memorised his "enemies" appearances, and actively asked Zhang Sanfeng to teach him martial arts, so he could take his revenge.  At the same time, he was reluctant to learn the Shaolin Nine-Yang Technique due to the role that the Shaolin monks played in the tragedy.

In the revised edition, young Zhang Wuji never wanted revenge for his parents' deaths.

Ed: In a heart-wrenching scene towards the end of Chapter 10 (after Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu had committed suicide) in the revised edition, the young Zhang Wuji shouted: "I do not want redress!  I do not want redress!  I just want Father and Mother to come alive again.  Second Uncle, let us spare all those evil people and think of a way to rescue Father and Mother instead."

(3) The Nine-Yang and Nine-Yin Manuals

In the first edition, both Nine-Yang and Nine-Yin were written by Dharma (Da Mo). They were of equal power and complementary in use, yet each was capable of countering the other. The inner power of Nine-Yang was deeper than that of Nine-Yin, but lacked the latter's strange moves.  Zhang Sanfeng was apparently unaware of the Nine-Yin, but theorised about its existence from the large gaps he saw in the Nine-Yang. He developed his Taiji techniques in part to fill these gaps.  Ed: Please refer to the text excerpts below.

However, the complementary nature of the Nine-Yang and the Nine-Yin was contradicted later when Zhang Wuji tried to purge Zhou Zhiruo of poison.  Zhang Wuji said that the two forms of energy clashed.

Ed: In the first edition, Yu Lianzhou told Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu: "According to our teacher, the martial arts techniques of our Wudang School are founded primarily on a book known as 'The Nine-Yang Manual'.  However, our teacher was too young when he heard Grandteacher Jue Yuan recite the book.  The process was also too rushed for him to remember everything, so the resultant marital arts techniques used in our school do indeed have their shortfalls.  The Nine-Yang Manual originated from the venerated Dharma, but as our teacher delved deeper into it, he found an increasing number of gaps in the text, as if the manual was only half of a whole.  There should be another volume called 'The Nine-Yin Manual' to complement it.  But where could our teacher start looking for the Nine-Yin Manual, when he has not even learnt the Nine-Yang in its entirety?  Besides, no one knows whether the Nine-Yin actually exists or not.  Elder Dharma was a rare and talented man from India, but our teacher is not necessarily beneath him in intelligence and resourcefulness.  Since he is unable to obtain these manuals, could he not re-create them himself?  Hence, he spends time in closed-door meditation every year with the desire to bring honour to our ancestors and prosperity to our descendants, as the eastern reflection of Dharma in the west ..."

In Chapter 9 of the revised edition, this passage has been replaced with the following:

Yu Lianzhou said, "According to our teacher, the martial arts techniques of our Wudang School are founded primarly on a book known as 'The Nine-Yang Manual'. However, he was very young when our Grandteacher Jue Yuan passed the passages in the book on to him. Furthermore, he did not know any martial arts. On his part, Grandteacher Jue Yuan did not deliberately set out to instruct our teacher in anything, for he just repeated the things that he had read in the book. As a result, there have always been defects in the pugilistic techniques of our school. According to Grandteacher Jue Yuan, the Nine-Yang Manual originated from the venerated Dharma, the founder of the Shaolin Clan. However, our teacher has found this statement increasingly untrue as he delves deeper into the passages. Firstly, the essence of the passages are very different from the martial arts foundations of Shaolin. In fact, it seems closer to our Taoist school of pugilistic arts. Secondly, the Nine-Yang was not written in Sanskrit, but in Chinese characters sandwiched between the lines of the Sanskrit Lankavatara Sutra. Elder Dharma might have been an extremely learned man, but coming from India, it was very unlikely that he had a thorough understanding of Chinese characters. Therefore, he could not have written such an important book on martial arts. Even if he did, why did he squeeze the work between the lines of another book, instead of using a separate set of paper?"

Nodding in agreement, Zhang Cuishan asked, "So what has our tecaher concluded from this?"

"Nothing much actually," answered Yu Lianzhou. "All he says is that the Nine-Yang Manual might have been ghost-written in Elder Dharma's name, by a distinguished Shaolin monk of a later generation. Our teacher does not have a full and complete copy of the Nine-Yang, but he thinks that it is possible to fill the gaps in himself. Hence, he spends a lot of time behind closed doors every year to develop a school of pugilistic studies that is totally different from those of the other clans and organisations."

The paragraph about Dharma being the writer of the Nine-Yang Manual was also removed from Chapter 16 of the revised edition, where Zhang Wuji discovers the text in the abdomen of an ancient white ape.

Consequently, there was no contradiction when Zhang Wuji's Nine-Yang clashed against Zhou Zhiruo's Nine-Yin in Chapter 31.

(4) The 18 Dragon-Defeating Palms (Xianglong Shiba Zhang)

In the revised edition, when young Zhang Wuji was grabbed by a beggar wielding a poisonous snake, he was rescued by Yin Susu providing a distraction (slapping Zhang Cuishan, tossing sailors overboard, etc) and Yu Lianzhou taking advantage of it.

In the original edition, things were played out in considerably different way. The young Zhang Wuji lashed backwards with a palm, which struck the beggar in the back and paralysed him. Yu Lianzhou's attempts to free the beggar left him (the beggar) screaming in pain. When questioned about the move, Zhang Wuji said that it was 'Shen Long Bai Wei', or 'The Mystical Dragon Swings its Tail' from the 18 Dragon-Defeating Palms!  Zhang Wuji's strike was supposed to be fatal within two hours, but Yu Lianzhou and Zhang Cuishan spent all night saving the beggar's life.  But the beggar's martial arts were ruined.

It turned out that Zhang Wuji learnt the technique from Xie Xun, who picked it up from 'an old man' (Ed: 'a recluse of the lakes and the rivers', to be exact).  Zhang Wuji knew only three moves: Shen Long Bai Wei (The Mystical Dragon Swings its Tail), Jian Long Zai Tian (Watching the Dragon in the Fields) and Kang Long You Hui (The Proud Dragon Has Regrets).  When Zhang Wuji sparred briefly with Zhang Sanfeng, the latter praised the first two moves as 'good', but the last one as 'inadequate'.  Apparently, the 'old man' who taught Xie Xun did not fully understand how to use these palm techniques.  Zhang Wuji used the palms extensively during his youth. 

Ed: In the revised edition, young Zhang Wuji did not know any of the 18 Dragon-Defeating Palms.  In fact, Xie Xun hardly taught him any practical moves, preferring instead to concentrate on getting him to memorise as many steps and mnemonics as he could.  The only set of techniques that Zhang Wuji could execute to satisfactory effect was the 'Wudang Long Fist', which he learnt briefly from his father on the raft to China from Ice-Fire Island. 

It was also explained that the 18 Palms were said to be lost since Guo Jing had no talented successors except the one-armed Yang Guo, who could not learn the technique because it required the use both palms. Zhang Sanfeng also said the palm techniques were lost when Zhang Wuji asked to learn the 'Kang Long You Hui' properly. Later, we see the Elder for Martial Arts Instruction (Ed: 'Chuanggong Zhanglao') of the Beggars' Union, using 12 of the 18 Palms...

Ed: Since Zhang Wuji did not know the 18 Palms in the revised edition, the related paragraphs were deleted.

(5) The visit to Shaolin by Zhang Sanfeng and the young Zhang Wuji

In the original edition, the leader of the Wushan Gang appeared during the visit and asked for Xie Xun's whereabouts. The monks pointed to Zhang Wuji, and in the confrontation that followed, the leader attacked the boy. With Zhang Sanfeng's assistance, Zhang Wuji sent the Wushan leader flying into the upper branches of a tree and knocked him down with a stone.  Then, the boy caught the man as he hurtled downwards and set him down on his feet, only to slam him to the ground again.

Impressed, the monks agreed to trade the Shaolin Nine-Yang for the Wudang Nine-Yang AND the Thirteen Stances of Taiji. Furthermore, they made Zhang Wuji vow not to teach the Shaolin Nine-Yang to anyone or use it against Shaolin disciples. Zhang Wuji was reluctant at first, as it was an unfair exchange that would prevent him from taking revenge.  But Zhang Sanfeng pointed out that he (Zhang Wuji) would die without taking revenge anyway, if he did not agree to the terms of the trade.  Then, Zhang Wuji reasoned that he could easily use other martial arts techniques to kill Shaolin disciples when the time came.

Subsequently, Zhang Wuji was sent to the monk Yuan Zhen (i.e. the man Cheng Kun), who was the only one who knew the Shaolin Nine-Yang technique. Cheng Kun hid behind a veil, and recited the words of the Shaolin Nine-Yang in a rapid gush.  He did not expect Zhang Wuji to remember much, but the boy had developed (Ed:) an extremely keen auditory memory after memorising a variety of martial arts mnemonics from Xie Xun.

Surprised, Cheng Kun 'helped' Zhang Wuji to unblock the Eight Extraordinary Channels ('Qi Jing Ba Mai') in his body.  This would normally be very beneficial, but by clearing them out, Cheng Kun allowed the icy toxins from the Xuan Ming Palms to seep deeply into the boy's body. Later, Zhang Sanfeng indicated that he was not sure whether the act was unintentional or malicious.  However, Hu Qingniu (Ed: the Healing Sage of Butterfly Valley) pointed out that an expert in internal energy would be able to sense the toxins easily, so the act should be a purely malicious one.

After Zhang Sanfeng had finished writing out a copy of the Wudang Nine-Yang and the Thirteen Stances of Taiji, he handed the manuscript to Kong Wen, the abbot, who in turn passed it to a young secular student of Kong Zhi.  This student turned out to be Chen Youliang!  Chen Youliang read through the manuscript and proclaimed the contents to be Shaolin tehcniques.  He recited it from memory as 'evidence' because the Shaolin monks intended to deny having learnt anything from Wudang!  When the monks returned to manuscript, Zhang Sanfeng gave Kong Zhi a jolt that sent him staggering backwards and knocked Chen Youliang out of the pavilion.  Then, he tore the paper to shreds.  Having witnessed the power of Zhang Sanfeng's martial arts, the monks naturally hoped that Chen Youliang correctly remembered everything that was written!

Ed: All the scenes described above were deleted from the revised edition.  In their place was a brief passage on the Shaolin monks' refusal to exchange the Shaolin Nine-Yang for the Wudang Nine-Yang offered by Zhang Sanfeng.

Also, Taiji (in any form or stance) was not mentioned or displayed until Chapter 24 of revised edition.  Chen Youliang did not appear until Chapter 31.  His position was also changed from being a student of Kong Zhi to that of Yuan Zhen (i.e. Cheng Kun).

(6) Ending

In the original edition, Zhou Zhiruo accompanied Zhang Wuji to Wudang, where Zhang Sanfeng confronted her with a sword and declared that he could not allow Guo Xiang's legacy to end in such a disastrous manner, especially after Zhou Zhiruo had so flamboyantly displayed her cruel martial arts techniques in a bid for supremacy.  Zhou Zhiruo then turned and asked Zhang Wuji which clan he belonged to.  Zhang Wuji admitted having learnt martial arts from many sources, but he did not really belong to any clan.  So Zhou Zhiruo invoked the single wish that Zhang Wuji owed her, and asked him to take over the leadership of the E-mei School.

After Zhang Wuji agreed, he received a manual of Guo Xiang's martial arts techniques and the two broken halves of the Heaven Sword.  Then, he moved to Mount E-mei and resigned from the leadership of the Ming Sect.  Zhou Zhiruo became a nun.  The story ended with Zhao Ming (Ed: see item #7 below) invoking her third and last wish, i.e. to have Zhang Wuji draw her eyebrows.

Ed: In the revised edition, Zhou Zhiruo did not give up her leadership of the E-mei School.  Zhang Wuji resigned from the leadership of the Ming Sect after being tricked by Zhu Yuanzhang (the alleged Ming Sect freedom-fighter who eventually became the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty).  As Zhao Min (Ed: see item #7 below) invoked her third and last wish of having her eyebrows drawn, Zhou Zhiruo appeared and told them that she would use her single wish on the day of Zhang Wuji's wedding with Zhao Min.

(7) Miscellaneous

(a) The (Ed:) female Mongolian prefect who fell for Zhang Wuji was named Zhao Ming (meaning "bright/clear") in the original work.  Her name was changed to Zhao Min (meaning "quick/intelligent") in the revised edition.

(b) Zhou Zhiruo was the daughter of failed Ming Sect revolutionary, Zhou Ziwang, in the original.  Ed: In the revised edition, she was the daughter of a hapless boatman on the River Han.

(c) Ed: The sixth disciple of Zhang Sanfeng was named Yin Liheng in the original, but Yin Liting in the revised. 'Liheng' came from a phrase in the Book of Changes ('Yi Jing' or 'I-Ching'), which roughly meant "smooth profits". During a revision of the text, Jin Yong changed the name to 'Liting' (meaning "Pear Pavilion") to match the poetic names of the other Wudang disciples (Yuanqiao - "Faraway Bridge"; Lianzhou - "Lotus Boat"; Daiyan - "Formidable Rock"; Songxi - "Pine Stream"; Cuishan - "Emerald Mountain" and Shenggu - "Sounding Valley").

(d) The "Thousand-Spider and Ten-Thousand-Poison Hand" (Ed: 'Qianzhu Wandu Shou' used by Yin Li) in the revised edition was originally called the "Thousand-Spider Household-Terminating Hand" (Ed: 'Qianzhu Juehu Shou').

(e) Ed: The "Dark Yin Finger" (or 'Xuan Yin Zhi') used by Yuan Zhen in Chapter 19 of the revised edition was originally called "Illusionary Yin Finger" (or 'Huan Yin Zhi').

(f) Yang Dingtian (Ed: the 33rd leader of the Ming Sect) in the revision edition was originally named Yang Potian.

(g) The name originally assigned to Zhang Wuji by Zhang Cuishan was "Zhang Nianci", the same "Nianci" as Mu Nianci, the wife of Yang Kang and mother of Yang Guo in LOCH and ROCH respectively.  Ed: In the revised edition, Zhang Cuishan did not name his son at all.  Instead, he requested Xie Xun to name the child.

(h) Ed: In the first edition, Yin Susu called her son "little hero Xie Wuji" after the boy struck the beggar who tried to threaten him with a poisonous snake.  As a result, Zhang Cuishan had to explain to Yu Lianzhou that his son had taken Xie Xun's surname after being adopted. 

This passage was removed in the revised edition.  Instead, Xie Xun uttered these words to the boy before he and his family left Ice-Fire Island:  "Wuji, when you get home, remember to call yourself 'Zhang Wuji'. The name Xie Wuji is only to be kept in your heart, and you must never ever say it with your mouth."

(i) Ed: In the first edition, Zhang Wuji caught and ate red frogs from the pond in the nameless valley.  These frogs helped to reduce the toxicity of the Xuan Ming Palms in his body before he found a complete cure in the Nine-Yang Manual.  In the revised edition, there were no red frogs.  Instead, the boy caught and ate an ordinary type of white-coloured fish from the pond.

(j) Ed: The first edition was titled "Tian Jian Long Dao", or "The Heaven Sword and the Dragon Sabre".  It contained 112 chapters in 28 volumes of 4 chapters each.  The revised edition was called "Yi Tian Tu Long Ji", or literally "Relying on Heaven for the Slaughter of the Dragon".  The content was re-arranged into 40 chapters in 4 volumes of 10 chapters each.