History Literature / TheSmilingProudWanderer

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The Smiling, Proud Wanderer is the 13th novel of Creator/JinYong and often considered one of his best works. The setting of the novel takes place in medieval China, where the world of martial arts (Also known as "Jianghu") is sharply divided between the "orthodox" and "unorthodox" sects. The center of the conflict revolves around the self-declared "righteous" Five Swords Sects Alliance and the constantly vilified unorthodox sects, namely the Sun Moon sect. The novel focuses on Linghu Chong, a senior apprentice of the Mount Hua Sect in the Alliance. Two martial artists who belonged on the opposite sides of the Orthodox/Unorthodox divide had composed a musical score Xiao Ao Jianghu (It is also the name of the novel, which literally means laughing at the martial arts world). Before their deaths, they passed it on to Linghu Chong, hoping he can pass on their message of living a carefree world from the martial arts world. The MacGuffin of the story is the Bixie Swordplay manual, which if the skills within were mastered, allows the user to become a formidable martial artist that would give him a chance to dominate the Jianghu. Many among the orthodox sects schemed to get hold of the manual for themselves, while putting on a public appearance of dignity and heroism. The novel is often deemed as an allegory for real life politics, and power struggles are a recurring theme in the story. It has been adapted many times to movies, TV series, and even a video game.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Within South Mount Heng Sect: Mo Da shows that he is this during Liu Zhengfeng's last moments.

* OutOfFocus: [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters So many characters, so many sects with different cultures]]... Yet the novel only majorly focuses on Mount Hua and North Mount Heng Sects of the Five Swords Sects Alliance, and besides Linghu Chong its the sect leaders who get the most attention in the story.

** In the novel, with the exception of the North Hengshan sect, the rest of the sects in the Five Swords Sect Alliance are effectively wiped out after their seniors and leaders perished in a trap laid by Yue Buqun. In many of the adaptations, a successor was appointed to lead what remains of the Huashan sect after Yue Buqun's death. This deviation is in some sense considered an improvement on the novel, because other Jin Yong novels showed that the Huashan sect survived and are known for their swordplay skills, implying that either Linghu Chong or the "Sword" faction had a lasting influence on the sect's future.

** In the novel, with the exception of the North Hengshan sect, the rest of the sects in the Five Swords Sect Alliance are effectively wiped out after their seniors and leaders perished in a trap laid by Yue Buqun. In many of the adaptations, Linghu Chong appointed a successor (not himself) to what remains of the Huashan sect after Yue Buqun's death. This deviation is in some sense considered an improvement on the novel, because other Jin Yong novels actually showed that the Huashan sect survived and are known for their swordplay skills, implying that either Linghu Chong or the "Sword" faction had a lasting influence on the sect's future.

* AdaptationalBadass: The 2018 webseries' version of Lan Fenghuang, who is one of the main characters in the series too. The novel version, while still the leader of her own sect (Five Venom Sect), she's a subordinate to Ren Yingying, subservient to the Sun Moon sect, and doesn't feature much in terms of fighting. This adaptation gave her more fight scenes, portrayed her Five Venom Sect as a near-equal rival to the Sun Moon sect, and feature her involving in a power struggle with Ren Woxing even after joining the sect as an elder. She ends up as the only one who successfully killed Dongfang Bubai, [[TakingYouWithMe albeit via suicide]].
* AdaptationalHeroism: In the 2018 webseries, Dongfang Bubai appeared to be a loyal subject of Ren Woxing and with noble intentions too. Ultimately subverted as towards the end of the series, Dongfang Bubai revealed that he was only pretending to be a hero for the sake of getting close to and killing Ren Woxing, taking over the Sun Moon sect, and killing everyone who stands in his way of ambition. Arguably, he's portrayed as a bigger monster than Yue Buqun.

*** The 2018 web series is by far the least faithful adaptation and most reviled one thus far. Ignoring the criticism of the cast and choice of music, other criticisms leveled at changing some of the characterizations and the often unnecessary change of the sequence in events/flashbacks which also led to the occasional plot holes.

* AdaptationalHeroism: In the 2018 webseries, Dongfang Bubai appeared to be a loyal subject of Ren Woxing and with noble intentions too. Ultimately subverted as towards the end of the series, Dongfang Bubai revealed that he was only pretending to be a hero for the sake of getting close to and killing Ren Woxing, taking over the Sun Moon sect, and killing everyone who stands in his way of ambition. Arguably, he's portrayed as a bigger monster than Yue Buqun.
* AdaptationalNiceGuy:
** Ren Yingying in the Taiwanese TV series (2000) is more kind and compassionate as compared to her original novel version.
** Although still a jerk, post-castration Lin Pingzhi in the Taiwanese TV series (2000) is relatively less vicious towards his wife, and just before his rapture (his fate was actually ambiguous given the context of this story) he was shown to be in sorrow and regret over her death.
* AdaptationalJerkass:
** Ren Woxing in the Taiwanese TV series (2000) is significantly more unlikable and rude towards Linghu Chong.

* AdaptationalSexuality: Dongfang Bubai is portrayed as a male homosexual for almost all the adaptations, even if at many times the role is played by a female actor. In the Chinese TV series (2013), the Dongfang Bubai role was inexplicably shoehorned into a straight woman masquerading as a man in order to rise up in a misogynistic Sun Moon sect. Which is unexplained in later parts of the script as this same Dongfang Bubai had mastered the Sunflower manual, which is clearly mentioned to require male castration as a prerequisite. Although female genital mutilation do exist, the novel itself never clarified whether women can master the contents of the Sunflower manual.
* AdaptationalVillainy:
** Yue Buqun had always been the villain in the novel, but in a few adaptations he is upgraded into the final villain. For instance, he is significantly more ruthless in the Singaporean TV series (2000) version, having challenged and killed Ren Woxing, and is also the actual culprit who murdered Lin Pingzhi's parents.
** The 2018 webseries' version of Ping Yizhi inexplicably became Dongfang Bubai's sidekick.

* EnsembleCast: Downplayed trope for the Singaporean TV series (2000), but its there. Still not quite to the level of sharing equal screentime with the lead role Linghu Chong, but Dongfang Bubai, Tian Boguang, Lan Fenghuang, Ren Yingying, Lin Pingzhi, and Yue Lingshan are given significantly more screentime thanks to AdaptationExpansion, when compared to their original novel counterparts.

** The Hong Kong TV series (1996) is by far the most faithful adaptation of the novel and still generally regarded as the best one as of 2018. Some of the scenes are even adapted line for line, there are practically no changes in the characters' personality and motivation, and the number of significant deviations can be counted with one hand, namely changing the original anti-climatic ending, additional scenes for some characters and the "Six Immortals of the Peach Valley" was reduced to four instead. Not exactly a Near-Identical Adaptation, but this is the closest the novel ever got for an adaptation.
** The Chinese TV series (2013) is inspired by (or less charitably, ripped off from) the Hong Kong TV series (1996), but with its own major changes in favour of a romance-themed story. Most notably, Dongfang Bubai became a major protagonist and also Linghu Chong's one "true" love that displaces even Ren Yingying. Quite often the events do occur just like the older series/novel had shown, but different characters are involved and the motivations are different too. For example, how Ren Woxing is rescued from his decade-long imprisonment is largely the same, but instead of Xiang Wentian being the mastermind behind the rescue, it was Ren Yingying instead. Another example is Yang Lianting: He was basically Dongfang Bubai's lover who took over the Sun Moon sect chief's duties and ended up getting killed. This happened in the adaptation too, but his motivations and the circumstances of his death are different. Overall, one can call this a PragmaticAdaptation.
** The Taiwanese (2000) and Singaporean (2000) versions had the plot, events, and characters heavily altered, but the story's theme and aesops remained the same. Hovers between PragmaticAdaptation and AdaptationInspiration, and the Singaporean version is slightly more faithful compared to the Taiwanese version.

* AdaptationalHeroism: In the 2018 TV series, Dongfang Bubai appeared to be a loyal subject of Ren Woxing and with noble intentions too. Ultimately subverted as towards the end of the series, Dongfang Bubai revealed that he was only pretending to be a hero for the sake of getting close to and killing Ren Woxing, taking over the Sun Moon sect, and killing everyone who stands in his way of ambition. Arguably, he's portrayed as a bigger monster than Yue Buqun.

** The 2018 TV series' version of Ping Yizhi inexplicably became Dongfang Bubai's sidekick.

* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: Downplayed, but this is implied to be the current status of the Mount Hua sect by the events of the novel. Mount Hua Sect used to be the most powerful sect of the Five Mountains Sword Sects Alliance, before an internal power struggle happened between the "Qi" and "Sword" factions who had disagreements in their martial arts practices. The "Qi" faction used underhanded tactics to overthrow the "Sword" faction, forcing them into exile, but also effectively weakening Mount Hua Sect's numbers and hence allowing the Mount Song Sect to become the dominant sect in the alliance instead.

*** [[spoiler:Yue Buqun in particular is the biggest hypocrite among the Alliance, only revealed to be so late in the novel. Puts up an appearance of a gentleman, yet doesn't aid the North Hengshan sect when they are in trouble. Condemns the act of learning other sects' martial arts without permission, yet steals the Bixie Swordplay manual for himself and had his daughter learn the skills of other sects' martial arts. Waxes lyrical about heroism and how good and evil cannot reconcile, yet secretly kills people to remove obstacles or to further his ambition, regardless of his victims' innocence.]].

*** [[spoiler:Yue Buqun was revealed to be the biggest example of a hypocrite among the Alliance late in the novel]].

** What the purportedly heroic Five Mountains Sword Sects Alliance are portrayed as, and Linghu Chong gradually found that out for himself as the story goes on.

** What the novel is overall implying about the political allegory of the story. Politics dictate the rules for engaging with people who are not part of the "orthodox" side of the Jianghu, but there will be people who hate that inflexibility and at times break these rules.

* TakeAThirdOption: What the title of the novel suggests: Instead of supporting one side over another, and instead of politicking/fighting over power, some simply choose to completely wash their hands of Wuxia politics and retire. While its actually a seemingly common sense and even tempting idea, it is still easier said than done, as friends on opposing sides Liu Zhengfeng and Qu Yang can attest to.

The Smiling, Proud Wanderer is the 13th novel of Creator/JinYong and often considered one of his best works. The settings of the novel takes place in medieval China, where the world of martial arts (Also known as "Jianghu") is sharply divided between the "orthodox" and "unorthodox" sects. The center of the conflict revolves around the self-declared "righteous" Five Swords Sects Alliance and the constantly vilified unorthodox sects, namely the Sun Moon sect. The novel focuses on Linghu Chong, a senior apprentice of the Mount Hua Sect in the Alliance. Two martial artists who belonged on the opposite sides of the Orthodox/Unorthodox divide had composed a musical score Xiao Ao Jianghu (It is also the name of the novel, which literally means laughing at the martial arts world). Before their deaths, they passed it on to Linghu Chong, hoping he can pass on their message of living a carefree world from the martial arts world. The MacGuffin of the story is the Bixie Swordplay manual, which if the skills within were mastered, allows the user to become a formidable martial artist that would give him a chance to dominate the Jianghu. Many among the orthodox sects schemed to get hold of the manual for themselves, while putting on a public appearance of dignity and heroism. The novel is often deemed as an allegory for real life politics, and power struggles are a recurring theme in the story. It has been adapted many times to movies, TV series, and even a video game.

* WorfHadTheFlu: In the novel, Ren Woxing never actually fought Yue Buqun and took over as the final BigBad. For a few separate adaptations, Ren Woxing met his end at the hands of Yue Buqun instead. This namely happened in the Taiwanese TV series (1985), Singaporean TV series (2000), and Chinese TV series (2001). Also in the Taiwanese TV series (2000), Ren Woxing lost to Fangzheng. Interestingly, in many of these instances, Ren Woxing lost partly due to his body's Qi acting up from constant usage of the Star Absorbing Power. Quite possibly an instance of one older adaptation influencing/inspiring another.

* TheCasanova: Sort of... The Chinese TV series (2013) re-interpreted the character of Lin Pingzhi as a manipulative man who deliberately and successfully courted Yue Lingshan - initially with a goal of quickly attaining skills for his revenge quest and much later on for his own survival. It is actually not a huge deviation from the novel version, but the novel version is only undeniably manipulative when his own survival is at stake.

** The long-forgotten Taiwanese TV series (1985) completely omits Mu Gaofeng, making Yu Canghai the only one responsible for deaths of Lin Pingzhi's parents and also the one who blinded Lin Pingzhi before his death.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: How Lin Pingzhi is portrayed as when he finally killed Yu Changhai and Mu Gaofeng.

* UnexpectedSuccessor: [[spoiler:Out of options after the remaining elder nuns in the North Mount Heng Sect were killed off, a dying Dingxian hastily passed on the sect leader role to fellow ally Linghu Chong, making him the only male member of the sect in history. Despite the lack of experience, Linghu Chong did relatively well but still handed over leadership to another member of the sect at the end of the novel]].

* WomenAreWiser: The all-female North Mount Heng Sect is the only sect in the Five Swords Sects Alliance with [[TokenGoodTeammate morally decent leaders]] who showed no ambition of dominating the Jianghu. Compared to the others sects in the Alliance, they are mostly humble and magnanimous. It is the only sect in the alliance whose seniors ''dislikes'' leadership and see the role as a burden, and actually had a failed attempt to push the chief role to Yilin. It is also the only sect of the Alliance that survived the events of the novel.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Ping Yizhi, the talented but insane doctor, killed himself early in the novel, but survived the events in both the Hong Kong TV series (1996) and Chinese TV series (2013) adaptations.

* WomenAreWiser: The all-female North Mount Heng Sect is the only sect in the Five Swords Sects Alliance with [[TokenGoodTeammate morally decent leaders]] who had little to no ambition of dominating the Jianghu. It is also the only other sect of the Alliance besides Mount Hua Sect that survived the events of the novel due to their members' less ambitious and more cautious nature.

* UnwittingPawn: What Linghu Chong, Yue Lingshan, and Lin Pingzhi are to [[spoiler:Yue Buqun. He patiently let the massacre of Fuwei Security Service play to their logical conclusion, brought Lin Pingzhi under his protection and even let him join the Huashan sect so as to keep tabs on where the Bixie Swordplay manual could possibly be. After Linghu Chong found the manual and took it for safekeeping, he passed out from his injuries, giving Yue Buqun an opportunity to steal it and shift the blame onto Linghu Chong. He convinced his daughter to learn the Anti-Alliance countermoves created by the Sun Moon sect so she can put on a show of besting the rest of the leaders in a contest and allow him to focus on defeating Zuo Lengchan to become the new chief of the Alliance]].

** Eight lowlifes allied with the Sun Moon sect were commanded by Yue Buqun (Who at the time was holding the Sun Moon Sect's authority sign) to capture the North Hengshan nuns, with the promise of gaining access to the Bixie Swordplay manual. They encountered an incapacitated Linghu Chong and Ren Yingying by chance, and agreed to kill the pair to keep their own treachery a secret. The problem is these lowlifes feared that anyone killing Yingying would receive the full wrath of the Sun Moon sect, they couldn't trust each other to keep the murder a secret, and also couldn't trust each other to not keep the Bixie Swordplay manual for themselves. Linghu stalled for time while letting them kill each other over trust and greed issues. By the time he freed himself and Yingying, only three crooks were left alive for them to fight...

** Tian Boguang is probably the most extreme example in this novel, which seemed to be a deliberate decision by Jinyong to contrast him with the purported "heroes" of the novel. He is a bandit and serial rapist. However, while the character [[OffstageVillainy expressed utterly irredeemable villainous traits]], he had also shown inexplicably honourable traits, such as keeping to his promise albeit grudgingly, and showing respect to Linghu Chong who stopped him from raping Yilin.

** [[spoiler:Ning Zhongze killed herself [[BrokenPedestal over shame]] after realizing that her husband Yue Buqun is an unrepentant and hypocritical powermonger]].

* GoodIsNotSoft: Fangzheng of Shaolin and Chong Xu of Wudang may be the BigGood of the story, but they had no pretension of being squeaky clean faultless heroes, and actually do perceive and act on the lesser of two evils. In the ending of the novel, they planned to assassinate Ren Woxing, although that plan never materialized due to Ren Woxing's [[spoiler:untimely death]].
* GuileHero: Linghu Chong. When outmatched in martial arts skills, he resorted to outwitting his opponents to achieve his objective. Linghu has also explicitly expressed he had no qualms with using underhanded tactics to defeat his opponent. Feng Qingyang praised that Linghu's honest self-admission of being dishonourable makes him better than the hypocrites in the Five Swords Sects Alliance. Also notable that in the ending of the novel, Linghu Chong had no issues with Fangzheng and Chongxu's plan to assassinate Ren Woxing with hidden explosives in a chair, agreeing with them that it is for the greater good.

* HappilyEverAfter: [[spoiler:The novel ended with improved relations between the orthodox and unorthodox sects, the friendlier and more moderate Xiang Wentian becoming the new leader of the Sun Moon sect, Linghu Chong's internal energy injuries finally healing, marrying Ren Yingying, and the couple subsequently retired from Jianghu. Some adaptations found this original ending too dull and added an additional stake where Ren Yingying is revealed to be dying from Dongfang Bubai's time-based CyanidePill and Linghu Chong had to find an antidote to rescue her]].

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: How Lin Pingzhi is portrayed as after mastering the Bixie Swordplay.

* TheMole: [[spoiler:Lao Denuo, the 2nd senior disciple of Yue Buqun, is actually the 3rd senior disciple of Zuo Lengchan who was sent to Mount Hua Sect to spy on the sect's activities]].

* PoorCommunicationKills: Yue Buqun and Ning Zhongze's speculated that their disciple Linghu Chong's Qi injuries could have been deliberately arranged by their enemies in hopes that Buqun would expend his strength by using the Violet Mist Divine Skill to heal Linghu. There is actually no conspiracy of that sort, and this speculation highlights how in real life observers with their own framework of thought can misinterpret events.