#jin yong wuxia universe

[morweneledhwen]

The second part of the first season of Jin Yong Wuxia Universe (aka The Legend of Heroes) will start airing tomorrow (July 26).

This is another adaptation of the popular Chinese wuxia novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong.

The first part (= Hot Blooded, main roles: Ci Sha & Bao Shangen) was released last year with 30 episodes. Personally, I greatly enjoyed watching it, though it wasn't a big hit in China, apparently. But it has many great fight scenes and an incredibly old-school wuxia vibe to it. Guo Jing was also Ci Sha's first main role in a drama, so of course I had to watch it. I'm predictable like that. 😌

The second part (= Duel on Mount Hua) is divided into 4 storylines, being released as follows:

- July 26: Nine Yin True Sutra (8 episodes, starring Meng Ziyi & He Yu)

- July 31: Eastern Heretic and Western Venom (8 episodes, starring Gao Weiguang, Zhou Yiwei & Chen Duling)

- August 5: Southern Emperor and Northern Beggar (8 episodes, starring Ming Dao, Peter Ho & Hankiz Omar)

- August 10: Five Great Masters (6 episodes, starring Gao Weiguang, Zhou Yiwei, Ming Dao & Peter Ho)

( @dangermousie this one's for you. I'll definitely be watching, too. 🥰)

[dangermousie]

This drops in less than 24 hours!!!

[atamascolily]

Lily watches: The Legend of Heroes, episode 3

This episode is a great example of how eavesdropping is one of the main ways exposition is delivered in C-dramas. (Other classics include flashbacks, lectures, and convenient but random conversations/rumors overheard in passing on the street.) by which I mean there's so much eavesdropping. So, so much eavesdropping.

Guo Jing: this place is huge, how are we going to find the herbs?

Huang Rong: i have my ways.

[Cut to her beating up a guy to find out while Guo Jing looks on, impressed.]

and it works! well, mostly.

I hadn't made the connection when I was reading the book, but wow, there are a lot of parallels between Yue Fei's martial treatise and the as-yet-unmentioned Nine Yin Manual, aren't there?

"There are no heroes here." "There are two." YESSSS GOOD.

The snake turned out better than I expected, though having it be both a constrictor and venomous is a bit overkill from a natural history perspective. Then again, this is a snake that's been living for the last ten years on mercury and ginseng, so realism is not really the goal here.

(for what it's worth, this will not be the most eyebrow-raising snake behavior in this story by a long shot)

In a brilliant and inspired move, Guo Jing decides to bite the snake first, thus triggering an unexpected power-up. I love the cosmic vision imagery and accompanying music to symbolize this.

SPIKED SOFT ARMOR ALERT!!

those guys from the last episode return solely so Guo Jing can show off his new snake power-up and wipe the floor with them.

gosh, that's a lot of cannibalism/vampire energy in that fight with the Ginseng Codger, lololol

More flashbacks, but I have to say, I prefer them in small chunks like this. Also it mirrors how the characters are finding out about a lot of these things, too.

Wanyan Kang got the rabbit thing from Wanyan Honglie, who did the same thing on a much larger scale to his mom. Poor Bao Xiruo was repaid for her kindness by having her entire life destroyed, sob.

can we talk about how creepy it would be to be wandering around a palace and discover your house just... there in the middle of it all. And not just a replica or a model, but your exact house, picked up and moved on site without your knowledge. That's like something straight out of a horror novel!

Ouyang Ke had a great entrance, and I love his entourage. He and Wanyan Kang occupy similar ecological niches in the narrative, so I'm pleased that this adaptation keeps them visually distinct.

love how Huang Rong just walks out on a technicality, lololol, she is the best

The pace is still incredibly fast, but tbh, I am relieved that the story is moving so quickly, because all the digressions into backstory and character introductions work better in a novel than it does in a visual medium. There have been so many adaptations of Legend of the Condor Heroes already that I think it's fair to assume that enough people know the story to plunge right in, kind of like how Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood rushes through the early parts of the manga covered by the 2003 adaptation so they can focus on the later stuff. Which is to say that it's working for me, anyway!

[add1ctedt0you]

Jin Yong Wuxia Universe: Jiu Yang Zhen Jing (2025): Nine Yin True Sutra | Episode 1

[admelioremvitam]

Nine Yin True Sutra 华山论剑之九阴真经 🗡️ (New Jin Yong Wuxia Universe: Duel on Mount Hua 新金庸武侠世界: 华山论剑) from 🐧 Tencent. 📺 Airing today, July 26, 2025 at 6:00 pm. Starring Zhou Yiwei, Meng Ziyi, He Yu and Chen Duling. New trailer.

Nine Yin True Sutra is the first story/unit out of four.

[lyselkatzfandomluvs]

Cî Sha 此沙

Wb update 2023.11.08 (1/2)

He looks so good in Yí 彜 traditional clothing, these are perfect for the Yí People New Year!

[chineseredcarpet]

Meng Ziyi shares new snap as she reunites with Chen Duling for the The Legend of Heroes (New Jin Yong Wuxia Universe) press conference event at 2024 FILMART

[tavina-writes]

MDZS Society! aka: there's a lot less killing than you'd expect

This follows from this post and also the recent translations of MXTX’s most recent interview (which I can now no longer bother to find bc this has been sitting in drafts for like, siiiix months? More? Oh god anyway.) which reminded me about my feelings regarding MDZS society and how different it is from the martial societies we see depicted in typical modern wuxia. (Small disclaimer, I am a wuxia genre fiend and I love like, thinking about fictional societies so this is like, “AHA! You’ve unlocked my trap card!”) 

For the purposes of this, I’m going to be looking at MDZS/CQL’s depiction of the jianghu (which I think is fairly similar! I don’t actually think the show writers made CQL’s jianghu/martial society more genre typical than it was in the book) and comparing that with modern classic wuxia (mostly Jin Yong and Gu Long works.) For this comparison, I’ll be looking at a Jin Yong book — Legend of the Condor Heroes (which is widely considered the starting point of modern wuxia as a genre) — and one Gu Long book — Dagger Li/Sentimental Swordsman, Ruthless Sword (widely considered his most popular work) — and seeing how their societies differ from MDZS society. 

This will likely come in two parts because this one was already getting long, and I don’t think we can fit “how often does nobility exist in a typical jianghu and what do bloodline sects look like normally versus what they look like in MDZS” in this post along with the main topic of “is MDZS society a particularly physically violent place?” 

This post discusses how often cultivators are socially expected to kill people. Like, actual living human beings instead of, say, monsters or ghosts which have been categorized differently than like, human beings. 

EDIT: I forgot to talk about Dagger Li but this was already much too long sorry. Feel free to hmu for more thoughts though.

Now, it might be easy to think that cultivators killing actual people is a really common thing in MDZS/CQL universe! After all, they do have martial arts training and one of the prominent things about the first life is just how many people die both in the Sunshot Campaign and the fallout afterwards. However, I would argue that a lot of the traumas and related issues and reactions that happen in MDZS happen because cultivators are, by training and education, not actually prepared for killing actual living breathing human beings! (And also that the morality of this world prevents it for the most part) 

Now, we do actually get a pretty good window into what the typical training is like for young cultivators in MDZS, because we get a fairly well defined schoolhouse scene where LQR is asking them questions about "how do you tell the difference between various different problems we have to solve?" and "how do you go about fixing this problem?" and none of those include the moral quandary of "if I, a young cultivator out in the Jianghu, see a guy who is doing something I morally disagree with, under what circumstances do I beat him up and/or kill him." This does not appear to enter the curriculum at any point, leading me to believe that the morally correct number of people not like, ghosts or ghouls or fierce corpses, a regular average MDZS cultivator is supposed to have killed is approximately 0.

Which. Is a thing you get in a normal martial arts wuxia jianghu. There is generally the threat of "oh yeah this that or the other faction will be doing shitty things and thereby try to murder you." Instead, in MDZS/CQL most of the heirs of sects are...attending school together. Doing teenage things like partying and gossiping and attending classes.

And sure yes, there was a case of WWX and JZX trying to beat each other up. But the sects did sure let their kids stay at Lan summer camp for months on end (sometimes repeatedly, see NHS) without fearing for their lives or that anyone would steal another sect's techniques or otherwise causing real havoc or intersect warfare etc.

Which is infeasible in any other sort of Jianghu situation. For example, contrast this scenario with this scene from LOCH where Guo Jing's shifus are giving him advice since he is newly 17 and about to set out by himself into the great big world:

Guo Jing therefore bid farewell to his teachers. They had witnessed his battle against the Four Demons of the Yellow River, and were not too greatly worried. The young man had proved that he knew how to use the skills that they taught him. Therefore they let him leave alone. On one hand, the meeting of outlaws in Yanjing worried them greatly, so that they could not ignore it; and on the other hand, a youngster always had to travel the jianghu alone, in order to learn lessons that no teacher could pass on. At the moment of parting, each made their last recommendations. As usual when the Six spoke after one another, Nan Xiren was the last one to express himself. "If you cannot defeat the enemy," he said. "Flee!" He knew that given Guo Jing's dogged character, he would prefer to die rather than to surrender, if he met a master, he would certainly fight to the bitter end, even at the risk of death. That was the reason Nan Xiren gave him this common sense warning. " Martial arts have no limits," added Zhu Cong. " As the proverb says, 'For every peak there is one yet higher', so for every man there is one stronger. Whatever your power, you will always one day meet a foe stronger than you. A true man knows to retreat when necessary, when facing grave danger, it is necessary to contain one's impatience and anger. This what is meant by the adage, « If one preserves the earth and its forests, one does not fear to lack firewood ». It is not therefore not cowardly to take good advice! When the enemy is too numerous and that you cannot face them there, it is especially necessary to avoid being too reckless. Keep in mind Fourth Shifu's advice!"

Does this seem like the sort of advice that any Young MDZS Cultivator would get? "You're a good kid, but when you go out into the world, there will be people who straight up want you dead even though they met you 15 minutes ago, you cannot persist in fighting with these people because they will want you dead and you are a baby cultivator who needs to learn to run away when shit gets rough or you will be dead."

And again I come back to how MDZS cultivators are more like occupational ghostbusters because this really does inform how their society functions and runs and how everyone reacts so badly to the Sunshot Campaign beginning and its aftermaths and possibly explains how JGS could get his way after Sunshot.

Because what happens when you get a society that does train heavily in martial arts and have Able To Kill Real People Weapons who spends most of their time solving very black and white situations of "okay is this ghost whose eating people's livers good or bad? y/n?" and a clear hierarchy of "how do we get rid of the ghost eating people's livers in town x" instead of say "is it morally correct to kill this group of bandits who's been threatening the town" or "is it morally correct to kill this shitty businessman who's been holding people hostage and threatening to hack off their limbs" you have a reduced level of philosophical musing on like, "what is the purpose of martial arts, which is designed to kill people and what do I use martial arts for?" and "under what circumstances and situations would I personally find it morally correct to kill a man?" Which are all questions that Wuxia coming of age stories typically have, and I think MDZS does have, but expressed differently.

Again, it appears that the number of Real Live Human Beings that it is morally acceptable to have stabbed in your life is approximately 0 in this universe, and the expectation that you, personally, might have to fend off people trying to stab you over brunch is also approximately 0.

This also leads to a situation where like, questions of vengeance have very difficult escape hatches! If your parents are murdered on the job by an evil rampaging ghost, this is very sad and tragic and now you're an orphan and of course that's not good, but this is a occupational job hazard, not like, "Yeah Joe Bob from the sect down the street murdered my dad because #Reasons~, and now it's my legacy to grow up to murder Job Bob from the sect down the street to avenge my dad."

(I have a whole essay about how this pertains to both of the Nie Brothers, and how it pertains to JGY and also Jin Ling, and how this seems to routinely fuck people up in MDZS in a very specific way we don't typically see in other wuxias, but this is getting SO long as it is).

But yeah "the socially acceptable number of real living people (instead of ghosts or demons or fierce corpses or whatever) to have killed in your lifetime as a cultivator is approximately 0" means that the Sunshot Generation gets really really fucked up by all of this "killing real people" they did.

Which! might be why JFM was so slow to move on "yeah the Wen are threatening to kill your heirs." <- socially inconceivable behavior. Why society in general is so shocked by Xue Yang and the murder of the Chang <- which would be bad normally but not quite like this. And why no one did anything specific about JGS even if they felt he wasn't entirely correct. What are they going to threaten him with? Death???? A trial of his peers? Social Shunning??? Public shame???

"But Tav how does this relate to CQL!Su She's morality?" I hear you ask. Well you see, the question of "he should've been ready to die for his sect!" is utterly baffling in a society where nobody is expected to be ready to die for their sect on a regular basis because the idea that you should be ready for someone trying to stab you before brunch is utterly nonsensical in a world where most people expect that the baseline number of murders a cultivator does in their lifetimes is 0. That's the world he lives in.

On this regard CQL!Su She is utterly blameless. Nobody handed him a rulebook or expectations sheet for "the sect down the street will try to kill you" nor SHOULD they expect he'd be ready to die at a drop of a hat when no part of the education or social expectations include "ready to die for your sect because it's routine for people to try to kill you."

If you don't even expect to be stabbed and possibly die at a discussion conference where there are lots of cultivators from many sects why on EARTH would you expect to be facing down death in your own home when there's. cultivators here to kill you, this situation is so out of left field?

[tagamantra]

my ongoing bladepunk dharmacore new weird fantasy web serial THE KNIGHT VAGRANT just updated and it's got a good chunk of reading material to get through now. its slow going: the maximalist maritime asia inspired fantasy world system of WANDERING is filled with physics and concepts that must be unraveled, and i'm drip feeding info like an elden ring item description

check it out here!

here's the blurb if you're interested!

Death held them, once, for the quickest second. Until the Adamantine Path reaped its due.

Raxri Uttara the Once-Dead walks again, rejuvenated by the Medicine Awoken. Arisen, without memory, they must wander again this Wheel of Wandering. They must seek revelation from their past, understand again the vaunted world of the Utter Islands, and choose, ultimately, between vengeance or enlightenment.

And within that moment, let their enlightenment be that such a duality is delusion.

Follow now RAXRI UTTARA, a once swordgendered swordstress and mystic now shorn of their accumulations. Now they must needs wield the God-Dissolving Darkness to flense away the forgetting's dirt, so that they may arrive again at the truth. In so doing they must recover their lost magicks and martial arts... and attain yet more to enact vengeant enlightenment upon those that wronged them.

If they could remember who or what wronged them...

Upon that peak, will they choose the right blade? The Termagant Buddha watches closely.

Giant cats turned into apartment complexes, ghost horse steeds that tire not, walking giant mechanical armors turned into public transportation, charnel wizards summoning the long-dead, witches wielding the Pureflame of Creation, the Machine God beginning its slick advance into forever progress... the Age of Furor is upon us.

The Latter Day of the Law.

As you walk your Path, Kill God Yourself. Until all beings are free.

THE KNIGHT VAGRANT is a new weird progression fantasy web novel in the universe of WANDERING, a world wrought from Highest Fantasy, Esoteric Buddhism and Maritime Asia.

* Follow warriors who cultivate good merit and meditate upon deities so that they themselves can gain access to paranormal powers, ritual magics, and other means to exercise power over the phenomenal world through enlightenment to their Awoken Nature.

* Inspired by the likes of Abhorsen, Demigods and Semidevils, Return of the Blossoming Blade, Florante at Laura, Elden Ring, Breath of the Wild, Wuxia, Westerns, and Vagrant Story.

* The web novel explores themes of vengeance, memory, being, violence, peace, forgiveness, and emptiness in the face of betrayal, wrath, and war.

* If you liked Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, Jin Yong, China Mieville, Return of the Blossoming Blade or Thousand Autumns, you might enjoy this!

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

Hello!

"No honestly, they act like the only way to be able to engage with Chinese works is to comprehend it only by what western story arcs and thematics are! Like what the hell, it is audaciously xenophobic and racist to deny that these works do and can be on a separate sphere of what philosophy is in other cultures. And it's just demeaning especially with how forceful they are when they post things that say anything about "being sinful" when Buddhism doesn't even have a concept close to sin! Even what are considered crimes and a rejection of dharma is the concept of a rejection of refusing the natural law of the universe which in itself is not at all comparable to the idea of the guilt usually meant to be associated with sin."

I agreed with this.

So I want to ask, do you know where can I find more about types of Chinese story arcs and thematics in various genres?(not only wuxia/xianxia)

The sin comparisons are ODD. How to explain that WWX's YLLZ actions don't really contradict him being a moral ideal?(everyone says they do...)

I also read some comments about how WWX's story arc felt unsatisfying. For me it was perfectly satisfying,but I don't know how to explain WHY.

Hello anon.

So I want to ask, do you know where can I find more about types of Chinese story arcs and thematics in various genres?(not only wuxia/xianxia)

Mmmm, depends on what sort you may want, for outside of Wuxia/Xianxia that are translated main stream to English or English Diaspora I would recommend the following:

THE WEDDING PARTY BY LIU XINWU: Auntie Xue’s son, Jiyue, is getting married in December of 1982 after the Bei Jing Revolution. Takes place in several different points of view from the groom, bride, chef and party attendants.

TO LIVE BY YU HUA: The spoiled son of a landlord, Xu Fugui, squanders his family’s entire fortune. Xu Fugui lives throughout the years spanning the revolutionary changes and japanese-sino wars of 1930s-1960's.

HERO BORN BY JIN YONG: The very first book out of 12 for Legend of the Condors and from one of the most well known wuxia writers from when the genre took off in the 1950's

I LIVE IN THE SLUMS BY CAN XUE: Collection of short stories from different character perspectives about urban life that approaches chinese life and tradition from what is considered radical than the norm

THE RADIANT EMPEROR DUALOGY BY SHELLEY PARK-CHAN: Historical fantasy of 14th century China, the mandate of heaven is a literal flame granted to the next emperor. Two children, Zhu Chongba and Ouyang become embroiled within the political backdrop of the Ming dynasty and touches on heavy themes of gender identity and sexuality.

As for the idea Wei Wuxian's story arc was unsatisfying, don't know what to say, most xianxia and wuxia protagonists/heroes do get their happy ends unless it is meant to be tragic, but these usually as a genre are not meant to be tragic endings for the leads. It's kind of like expecting Lord of The Rings to be tragic in end for Frodo who was left to his own peace by leaving Middle Earth. Sometimes you'll be personally unhappy with a arc end. This does not mean execution of storytelling was lacking or weak on author part. If it cleanly and thematically reflects that end, it's a personal problem unfortunately and not a work or genre for you perhaps.

These are not written with the concept of sin or the traditional idea of redemption exposed to within western texts. Doaist Buddhism is not on the same philosophical standing as Christian redemption or tellings. Samsara are able to be a complete new start, Sin does not follow in after life or new life within samsara cycles, the point is that you can always remove the self from the suffering of human vice and obsession to ascend above what humanity is.

[morweneledhwen]

Do you lot think you can kill me?

I'm Huang Yaoshi!

[dangermousie]

New Jin Yong Wuxia Universe got licensed and it’s gonna be a daddy fest.

Going once…

Going twice…

Going thrice….

For those who like your men a bit younger:

And

[atamascolily]

Lily watches: The Legend of Heroes, episode 1

love how this adaptation completely dispensed with hundreds of pages of novel backstory in less than five minutes (saving it for a different series, I think) so we could get to the main story right away.

that moment when the Seven Freaks of the South showed up was A++++, iconic

(the fact that they put in all this work and effort for what is essentially a bar bet really brings home how important one's word is in the jianghu)

shout-out to Zhu Cong and Han Xiaoying, my faves of Guo Jing's seven shifu

MENG ZIYI OUT THERE KILLING IT (literally) AS MEI CHAOFENG, LET THIS WOMAN BE KICK ASS AND BE EVIL, I'M SO HERE FOR IT.

HUANG RONG'S ESTABLISHING CHARACTER MOMENT IS A MARTIAL ARTS CHASE SEQUENCE IN A WOOL WORKSHOP, I LOVE IT

Guo Jing is such a himbo, full stop. You can SEE Huang Rong falling for him in real time because she correctly identifies that he is a Good Boy.

good job contrasting Guo Jing and Huang Rong's meet-cute with Wanyan Kang and Mu Nianci's.... everything.

that moment where Wanyan Kang and Mu Nianci are leaping on the spectators' shoulders YES GOOD.

aesthetics? gorgeous. characters? fun. martial arts? fantastic.

I have no idea if this episode will make sense to anyone who hasn't read Legend of the Condor Heroes because we blow through so much so fast, but I'm loving it.

[add1ctedt0you]

Meng ZiYi as Mei ChaoFeng | New Jin Yong Wuxia Universe: The legend of heroes (2024) | Trailer

[admelioremvitam]

New Jin Yong Wuxia Universe: Duel on Mount Hua 新金庸武侠世界: 华山论剑 🗡️ from 🐧 Tencent. 📣🗓️ Airing on July 26, 2025 at 6:00 pm. Starring Zhou Yiwei, Vengo Gao Weiguang, Peter Ho, Ming Dao, and Yu Jinwei. New trailer.

Update: Nine Yin True Sutra is the official English title.

Nine Yin True Sutra is the first story/unit out of four.

Several hours ago, the production team announced the release date and dropped a new trailer.

They seemed to have rearranged the four stories (compared to their previous announcement of the directors according to the plotline) in terms of the airing schedule. It is as follows:

Note: These may not be the official English titles. I listed below following the MDL titles to match the Chinese titles. Battle of the Five Greats 五绝争锋 is loosely translated.

July 26, 6:00 pm

* Nine Yin True Sutra 九阴真经

* Characters: Huang Yaoshi (Zhou Yiwei), Mei Chaofeng (Meng Ziyi), Chen Xuanfeng (He Yu), Feng Heng (Chen Duling)

* Location: Tao Hua Dao (Peach Blossom Island), Mo Bei

July 31, 6:00 pm

* Eastern Heretic and Western Venom 东邪西毒

* Characters: Huang Yaoshi (Zhou Yiwei), Ouyang Feng (Vengo Gao Weiguang), Feng Heng (Chen Duling), Dan Min (Luo Qiuyun)

* Location: Ba Zhou, Yun Shui Zhuang

August 5, 6:00 pm

* Southern Emperor and Northern Beggar 南帝北丐

* Characters: Duan Zhixing (Peter Ho), Yi Huo (Hankiz Omar), Hong Qi/Hong Qigong (Ming Dao)

* Location: Dali, Headquarters of the Beggers’ Sect

August 10, 6:00 pm

* Battle of the Five Greats 五绝争锋

* Characters: Huang Yaoshi (Zhou Yiwei), Ouyang Feng (Vengo Gao Weiguang), Duan Zhixing (Peter Ho), Hong Qi/Hong Qigong (Ming Dao), Wang Chongyang (Yu Jinwei)

* Location: Hua Shan (Mount Hua)

[lyselkatzfandomluvs]

Cî Sha 此沙

Wb update 2023.11.08 (2/2)

He looks so good in Yí 彜 traditional clothing, these are perfect for the Yí People New Year!