Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Photography major - Jin Yong’s death marks the end of a generation of heroes

Jin Yong’s death marks the end of a generation of heroes

Issue 2155 Cultural Industry Review

Text*** 3033 words | Estimated reading time 8 minutes

Jin Yong.

A name that carries the dreams of countless teenagers. "The flying snow shoots down the white deer, and the comic book hero relies on the blue mandarin duck." He wrote throughout his life, and the fourteen classic martial arts novels he left behind are not only poetic and picturesque to read, but also brought great joy to those born in the 1980s and 1990s. Infinite memories and dreams. However, on October 30, 2018, it was reported that Jin Yong passed away at the age of 94.

Here, Cultural Industry Review only uses this article to mourn the passing of a generation of masters and miss the end of an era.

Martial arts: the most popular culture with Chinese characteristics

In China, even among the Chinese community, if we talk about the most influential popular culture with Chinese characteristics, martial arts culture is undoubtedly the most influential.

The Chinese martial arts spirit may need to be traced back to the Tao of Lao and Zhuang and the theory of Mo Zhai. The Taoist wandering thought and the "universal love" thought advocated by Mozi can be said to be the germination of the martial arts spirit. The "Biography of the Knight" in "Historical Records" for the first time showed the charm of "chivalry" in a literary and artistic image: " He must be true to his words, his deeds must be true, he must be true to his promises, he will not love his body, and he will face the hardships of a scholar... He will not be proud of his abilities, and he will not undermine his virtues." In the late Qing Dynasty, "Three Heroes and Five Righteousnesses". Chivalrous public case novels such as "The Heroes of Sons and Daughters" began to become popular, laying the foundation for the modern "Eight Righteousnesses of Ming and Qing Dynasties", "Three Heroic Swords" and "Yongzheng Swordsman Pictures". These martial arts novels are collectively referred to as old school martial arts novels.

The new style of martial arts novels was born in Hong Kong in the mid-1950s. Mr. Liang Yusheng's "Dragon and Tiger Fighting Beijing" was the first work. Later, Jin Yong and Gu Long came on stage to start a moving martial arts novel. era. In 1955, Cha Liangyong used Jin Yong as his pen name and, following Liang Yusheng, published a serialized martial arts novel "Book and Sword Enmity" in "New Evening News".

Looking at the works of the three great martial arts masters of Liang, Jin and Gu, we can find that Mr. Liang’s writing style is more elegant and has a strong literary foundation; Mr. Gu Long’s ink is unrestrained, elegant and unrestrained; and Mr. Jin Yong’s He is recognized as a master of martial arts culture.

Jin Yong’s martial arts works have three major charms: first, the traditional culture of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism are organically combined; second, they escape from the subject matter and eliminate violence; third, they analyze human nature.

We mentioned above that the origin of the martial arts spirit comes more from Mohism and Taoism. Freedom, uninhibition, and universal love for the world are the original meaning of knights. This is more like Mr. Gu Long’s martial arts; and Mr. Jin Yong The martial arts seems to be a lot heavier - the great chivalrous person serves the country and the people. This is Mr. Jin Yong’s early interpretation of the chivalrous spirit in his works, with the image of Guo Jing in “The Legend of the Condor Heroes” as a typical example. This idea of ??"the world is for the common good" is actually closer to the Confucian "benevolence". The artistic image of a strong worldly spirit and a sense of moral responsibility frequently appears in Mr. Jin Yong's works. In the middle and late period, especially represented by "The Eight Parts of the Dragon", Mr. Jin Yong's works integrated Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Xiao Feng served the country and the people, and the great chivalrous man, although he was of the blood of the Huns, was quite Confucian; Duan He is unrestrained, innocent and romantic. Although he has learned the teachings of Tianlong Temple, he has a Taoist style; Xu Zhu is honest, diligent and compassionate. Although he has become the leader of the Xiaoyao Sect, he is still a loyal little monk in his heart. In Mr. Jin Yong's later period, we can obviously see him trying to get rid of the "burden of chivalry" and let the spirit of "you" in the martial arts spirit return. Linghu Chong in "The Swordsman" is an example. In the end, Wei Xiaobao in "The Deer and the Cauldron" can be said to have completely completed the deconstruction and reinterpretation of the spirit of "the great chivalrous man serves the country and the people", and Jin Yong sealed the pen.

The biggest talking point of martial arts culture is violence. Heroes are bohemian and enjoy life, but the solution is fighting and violence. If this kind of subject matter is not mastered well, it is easy to fall into the shackles of bloody cruelty and exaggerating hatred. Jin Yong's novels use morality and literary aesthetics to eliminate the violent elements in the subject matter. In his works, what we see is always the victory of truth, goodness and beauty. Although there are twists and turns (or imperfection), ugliness will eventually end. In Jin Yong's writings, there are various martial arts moves, coupled with the old man's smooth brushwork, martial arts fighting is no longer ugly violence, but as pleasing to the eye as dance.

Deng Xiaoping met with Jin Yong in 1981

However, there are two exceptions, "The Swordsman" and "Dragon". We will talk about the former below, and the latter is a typical " "Imperfect comedy ending", the villains were finally put to an end, and the world returned to peace, but the price was that no one could ask for it (even in the new revision, Duan Yu didn't even get Wang Yuyan in the end.)

< p> This Spring and Autumn style of writing is the result of Mr. Jin Yong’s bitter experience of human nature and life. For example, Mr. Jin Yong said in the postscript of "The Legend of Heaven and the Dragon Slayer", "However, Zhang Sanfeng's grief when he saw Zhang Cuishan committing suicide, and Xie Xun's sadness when he heard the news of Zhang Wuji's death were written too superficially in the book. They are not like this in real life. Because I didn't understand it at that time.

"Later works, with "The Swordsman" as a typical example, the novels still write about martial arts, but behind them are deep thoughts on politics and power. On the paper - the fall of the gentleman Jian Yue Buqun, the dissatisfaction of the East. The corrupt pervert, Zuo Lengchan's insidiousness, Ren Woxing's ambition to seize power, and even characters such as Lin Pingzhi. Compared with the protagonist Linghu Chong, we see people who have been alienated by reputation, hatred, interest and power. Compared with previous works, the intrigues in the martial arts world in "The Swordsman" have reached a peak.

It is these three charms in Jin Yong's literature that have created a comprehensive martial arts culture that is recognized as the "Kung Fu". Classic martial arts culture, a martial arts culture that has been popular for nearly 70 years and still has undiminished charm.

A unique cultural gene that belongs to all Chinese people.

Jin Yong IP and cultural memes.

Cultural memes (memo) refer to thoughts or ideas that are imitated and spread among people in the cultural field, and are passed down from generation to generation. It was coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976. In "The Selfish Gene". This concept explains the propositions of national culture, cultural circles, cultural barriers, and cultural inheritance to a certain extent. The concept of memes answers cultural inheritance in another way: culture is like. Genes are the same, and they are imprinted from generation to generation and become the same characteristics of a person or a group of people.

We used it for a long time in the previous part. This chapter talks about the inheritance and transformation of martial arts culture and martial arts spirit. I just want to say that martial arts culture has become a meme, a cultural memory, and a cultural spirit that will be passed down to our generation in a large sense.

< p> And this is why we should commemorate Mr. Jin Yong, because he promoted and magnified this cultural meme called "Xia"

In the recently released "2017-2018". "IP Evaluation Report", the think tank selected the most valuable Chinese IP from six fields, including movies, TV series, online games, online literature, animation, and comics, 300 cultural products, and 274 IPs. Jin Yong's "Dragon" Beginning in the 1950s, Jin Yong's novels nourished a generation of Hong Kong people; from the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jin Yong's works began to be quietly circulated in mainland China; in 1979, research The first promotion of Jin Yong's works was initiated by Xiamen University; in the same year, Taiwan's Vision Publishing House officially authorized the publication of "The Collection of Jin Yong's Works"; in 1980, Jin Yong's novels (triple edition) were published in mainland China. In 1985, the first Jin Yong research paper appeared in mainland China; after 1988 , "Jin Studies" became popular; in 1994, Beijing Sanlian Bookstore launched the mainland simplified Chinese version of "Jin Yong's Works"; in 2002, Guangzhou Publishing House and Huacheng Publishing House published a newly revised edition of Jin Yong's novels. It can be said that it has provided rich nourishment for China's cultural industry. According to statistics, there are nearly a hundred film and television works adapted from Jin Yong's novels. For example, the first one was released in 1964, produced by Emei Film Company, directed by Li Huawei, Jiang Han, Ou Jiahui, "Flying Fox in the Snow Mountain" starring Shangguan Yu and others, "East to West" directed by Liu Zhenwei in 1993; the 1982 version of "Dragon" produced by Hong Kong Wireless; and even last year's "The Condor Heroes" directed by Jiang Jiajun and starring Yang Xuwen and Li Yitong pass".

In the game industry, the "Dragon Online" online client game and mobile game developed and operated by Sohu Changyou has become the most successful example of Jin Yong IP adaptation of online games; and in 1996, it was developed by Taiwan Heluo The martial arts RPG game "Jin Yong's Legend of Heroes" developed by the studio is the memory of a generation of players; as well as "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "The Legend of the Legend of the Condor Heroes" released by Zhiguan Technology in 1997, and "The Legend of Heaven and the Dragon Slayer" released by Sohu Changyou in 2011 "The Deer and the Cauldron Online", "The Legend of Condor Heroes Online" released by Qilin Games, "The Legend of Condor Heroes Online" released by Perfect World in 2012, etc.

These cultural products not only represent the charm and derivatives of Jin Yong's martial arts culture, but will also become the footnotes of Jin Yong's martial arts culture, making chivalrous culture and martial arts culture become memes imprinted on Chinese culture and passed down from generation to generation. .

Conclusion

After Liang Yusheng and Gu Long, Jin Yong also left. What he took away was the memory of an era, a memory full of chivalry, freedom, responsibility and romance. Although Jin Yong is gone, this martial arts world of unlimited reverie and unlimited supplies will be passed down forever.

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