History Creator / JinYong

* AnAesop: People who desire ever greater power for selfish reasons will lose something dear, while those who didn't ends up acquiring more power than the former.
** Demi Gods And Semi Devils:
*** Duan Yu and Xu Zhu both became top-tier martial artists without ever wanting to be one.
*** Murong Fu was already a formidable fighter and wanted ever better skills to restore his former ancestors kingdom, but lost everything after his underhanded schemes failed at every turn.
** Legend of the Condor Heroes:
*** Kind and slow witted Guo Jing ended up with 18 Dragon Slaying Palms and unwittingly also had the all-coveted entire Nine Yin Manual committed to memory.
*** Similarly, the childlike innocent Zhou Botong became the strongest out of the second generation of the Five Greats despite not using any part of the Nine Yin Manual that Wang Chongyang has entrusted to him.
*** Huang Yaoshi wanted Nine Yin Manual and got the second half of it...But lost his wife after she memorized it by heart from the original manual from Zhou Botong and died out of sheer exhaustion after working to write a copy for 3 days straight.
*** Ouyang Feng wanted Nine Yin Manual too, but lost his sanity after being tempted into practicing the corrupted version.
*** Yideng refused to save Yinggu's child to preserve his internal power for the second Huashan martial tournament, ended up with Yinggu hating him for it and causing him a lifetime of regret. But as a karmic twist, he learned the powerful internal energy cultivation techniques of the Nine Yin Manual after selflessly expending his precious power to save Huang Rong.

Jin Yong (金庸, 6 February 1924 – 30 October 2018) was the PenName of Louis Cha Leung-yung (查良鏞, "Jin Yong" being the constituent radicals which made up the 'yung' part of his name), one of the most influential modern Chinese-language novelists and one of the best-selling Chinese authors, well known for his historical {{Wuxia}} fiction--he pretty much single-handedly raised the {{Wuxia}} to a "legitimate" art form ({{Wuxia}} novels having gained an unfair reputation as "things teenagers and immature adults read". While most widely known as a novelist, Cha also co-founded the Hong Kong daily newspaper ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_Pao Ming Pao]]'' in 1959 and served as its first editor-in-chief.) and is the standard against which all other {{Wuxia}} novelists are compared -- and a great many LiveActionAdaptation series have been made based on his books.

* AbsurdlySharpBlade: To the point where certain blades can cut pieces of hair falling on them. Prominent examples are the Heavenly Sword and the Dragon Sabre [[spoiler: which break upon clashing into each other]].

** Also, Shi Potian's mother, who literally called him "son of a bitch." [[spoiler: She wasn't his biological mother, she whisked him away from his parents when he was a baby because she was driven mad by jealousy, a Miss Haversham-sort.]]

** In ''Literature/TheLegendOfTheCondorHeroes'', Guo Jing is not normally being described as stout and muscular, and ''certainly'' not well known for being incredibly handsome or refined. However, the 2008 film casts teen heart throb Hu Ge, who is very {{Bishonen}}. It can be rather wince-worthy when characters mention how "manly" and "plain" Guo Jing is (including several instances where people compare his relationship with Huang Rong as being [[UglyGuyHotWife "A beautiful flower planted in cow dung"]] - yes, he was even being likened to ''cow dung''), when Guo Jing [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/U1735P28T3D1319149F326DT20061108153936.JPG can]] [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/200837173742479.jpg look]] [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/220H553P07_small.jpg prettier]] than some of the female cast. However, the 2008 modified the focus to be a contrast of minds; Guo Jing is now probably the slowest martial arts student ever (dung), while Huang Rong is a genius (flower).

%%* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Let's face it - Yang Guo's [[MrFanservice devilish good looks]] and bad boy attitude attracted him a ''huge'' harem of adorers. Also, this trope is the only plausible reason why Shi Zhongyu managed to attract so many women.

%%* BrotherSisterIncest: What Duan Yu's relationships with his love interests keep turning out to be. Unfortunately for them, close incest like that wasn't well accepted in ancient China ([[KissingCousins cousins, on the other hand...]]) Of course, later on, it turns out that [[spoiler: they're all actually cousins, because of a very complicated mix up of who his father was]].

%%* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Of the Unlucky kind. Jin Yong apparently hates the idea of childhood friends getting together. In ''Legend of the Condor Heroes'', Guo Jing falls for the first girl he meets right after he leaves his childhood Hua Zheng. In ''A Deadly Secret'', Di Yun doesn't end up with Qi Fang, the student sister he grew up with - and Shui Sheng, the girl he ''does'' end up with, doesn't end up with her cousin whom she played with since childhood (and both of them harbored affection for each other that went into romantic territory before she got swept up into Di Yun's business). In ''The Smiling, Proud Wanderer'', Ling Hu Chong doesn't end up with his student sister since childhood, Yue Lingshan, and instead ends up with Ren Ying Ying. In ''Sword Stained with Royal Blood'', Yuang Chengzhi does not end up with Xiao Hui, whom he played with since he was young (although she was initially excited and infatuated with meeting him after all these years, she settles for her student brother). In ''Return of the Condor Heroes'', Yang Guo doesn't end up with Guo Fu (whom he played with when he was young), and instead ends up with his mentor and master figure, Xiao Long Nu. And in ''Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre'', Zhang Wuji not only doesn't end up with Zhiruo or Zhu Er, his idea of possibly marrying Yang Buhui is shot to hell when she reveals that she plans on marrying his ''student uncle''.

%%* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: There's at least one per novel, but the most infamous is probably the Sunflower Manual/Bixie Swordplay Technique, which requires its male adherents to [[spoiler: castrate themselves]].

%%** Yuan Chengzhi's attempt at assassinating Hong Taiji fails due to the intervention of Yuzhenzi. [[spoiler: Later, Hong Taiji witnesses an affair between his concubine and his half-brother Dorgon, causing the latter to kill him without hesitation.]]

* FaceHeelTurn: Hua Tiegan in ''A Deadly Secret''. He was part of the "Luohua Liushui" group of orthodox martial artists who wanted to rescue Shui Sheng from Grandmaster Xuedao. [[spoiler: However, his three companions are killed while pursuing Xuedao into an enclosed glacier, causing him to fear for his life and beg for mercy. After Xuedao's death at the hands of Di Yun, he realizes that his reputation will be ruined if his act of cowardice and disloyalty is spread by Di Yun and Shui Sheng and unsuccessfully attempt to kill them. After being rescued from the glacier, he accuses the duo of committing sexual acts while they were trapped in the glacier, causing Shui Sheng to fall out with her cousin/fiancé and Di Yun's reputation to sink even lower.]]

* HandicappedBadass: Yang Guo, [[spoiler: who lost an arm about halfway through ''Return of the Condor Heroes'']], grows into a badass who eventually learned to become a true BareFistedMonk by making his [[spoiler: one remaining arm]] so strong and cultivating enough internal energy that swords ''simply can't stand up to his palm strikes''. He eventually got badass enough that his power was considered equal to Guo Jing, protagonist of the prequel and considered the biggest badass of the period. He even got elected to join in the ranks of the Five Great Masters (North, East, South, Centre, he's the West Eccentric), inheriting his godfather Ouyang Feng's position (West Venom).

* HiddenVillain: Murong Bo from ''Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils''. He is basically directly and indirectly responsible for causing most of the conflict in the novel, including [[spoiler: the battle that lead to the death of Xiao Feng's mother, increasing tension between the Song and Liao Dynasty, and Jiumozi's attempt to conquer the wulin.]] However, the connection between him and the events are not revealed until he makes his first and only appearance in the later part of the novel.

** ''The Book and the Sword'' - Emperor Qianlong, Fuk'anggan
** ''Sword Stained with Royal Blood'' - Emperor Chongzhen, Princess Changping, Li Zicheng, Hong Taiji, Dorgon
** ''Literature/TheLegendOfTheCondorHeroes'' - Genghis Khan, Tolui, Jebe, The Seven Disciples of Wang Chongyang
** ''Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain'' - Li Zicheng
** ''Literature/TheReturnOfTheCondorHeroes'' - Kublai Khan, The Seven Disciples of Wang Chongyang
** ''Other Tales of the Flying Fox'' - Fuk'anggan
** ''Literature/HeavenSwordAndDragonSabre'' - Zhu Yuanzhang, Xu Da, Chang Yuchun, Chen Youliang, Zhang Sanfeng
** ''Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils'' - Emperor Daozong, Wanyan Aguda, Duan Zhengchun
** ''Literature/TheDeerAndTheCauldron'' - Emperor Kangxi, Princess Changping, Oboi, Zheng Keshuang, Sophia Alekseyevna
** ''Sword of the Yue Maiden'' - Fan Li, King Goujian, Wen Zhong, Xi Shi

* HumansAreBastards: What ''A Deadly Secret'' revolves around. From disciples murdering their own master to cannibalism, even TheCynic would find the pessimistic mood to be disturbingly strong. A notable mention is Ling Tuisi, who [[spoiler: prematurely buries his daughter]] as a part of his scheme to gain the secret leading to a hidden treasure.
** Gongsun Zhi from ''Return of the Condor Heroes''. He was taught various martial arts techniques by his wife Qiu Qianchi, and repays her goodwill by cheating on her, causing an infuriated Qiu to poison him and his lover. Qiu claims to have only one dose of antidote to the poison, leading Gongsun Zhi to [[spoiler: quickly killing his lover so he can have the antidote]]. In revenge, he [[spoiler: severs Qiu's tendons and imprisons her]], hiding the secret from his own daughter.
* HumiliationConga: Murong Fu succeeds in teaming up with Duan Yuan Qing, a bitter, psychotically murderous man who promises him that he'd be able to become emperor; in exchange, he fatally stabs Duan Yu's parents, but before he can murder Duan Yu himself his mother reveals that [[spoiler: Duan Yu is Duan Yuan Qing's biological son]], and Duan Yuan Qing relents of the order. By now the BigDamnHeroes have shown up at which point they completely waste Murong Fu. He spends the rest of his life a broken shell of a man who, in his insanity, believes himself to be emperor and appoints the neighborhood children and local wildlife the "officers" of his "court". You almost feel sorry for the guy...
* IfICantHaveYou: Guo Fu with Yang Guo, even going so far as to [[spoiler: cut his arm off]] out of rage and spite. Also, Zhou Zhiruo becomes hellbent on destroying Zhang Wuji after he ditches her during their wedding.

* LoveDodecahedron

* LukeYouAreMyFather: All the time. The three biggest come in Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, where the true lineage of three of the main protagonists all represent major turning points in their lives - Xiao Feng [[spoiler:is revealed to be a foreign prince, causing him to spend the rest of his life torn between the duties to his biological family and his bonds with his former friends, whom he still feels obligated towards despite being forsaken by all but a few]]; Duan Yu [[spoiler: turns out to be the result of a one night stand between Duan Yan Qing and Duan Yu's mother, who was pissed at her husband for being such a playboy]], and Xu Zhu [[spoiler: is revealed to be the product of an affair between the head monk of his temple and a woman who became a serial baby kidnapper/killer because of this event]].
* MacGuffin: Most of the time, it comes in the form of a [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique secret kung fu manual]]. In ''The Deer and the Cauldron'', an interesting example would be the eight volumes of the "Sutra of Forty-two Chapters." In the books, despite being a ''huge'' driving force of the plot, [[spoiler: the treasure map found in all eight books never ends up being used to find the treasure]].

* MeaninglessVillainVictory: Ling Tuisi and Qi Changfa achieves this in ''A Deadly Secret'', as both of them sacrificed their daughter before arriving at their goal. [[spoiler: They are hit with karma after touching the poison smeared on the treasure they were after all along, causing them to become insane.]]

* MurderTheHypotenuse: Zhou Zhiruo made a ''huge'' effort to secure her position in Wuji's heart - including attempting to murder any and every woman that got in the way. And then there's Ah Zhi with Xiao Feng... let's face it, ''anyone'' who looks to be a nuisance or gets in the way of her and her brother-in-law must die.

** Xiao Feng of ''Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils'' is the epitome of this simply because of his [[spoiler: Khitan heritage]].
** Di Yun from ''A Deadly Secret'' bears this for almost the entirety of the novel. [[spoiler: It wasn't until Shui Sheng began doing good deeds under his name that his reputation began to improve.]]

* OvershadowedByAwesome: Guo Polu from ''Return of the Condor Heroes''. Despite being the only son of the Guo family (which meant a lot in traditional Chinese culture), he is constantly cast aside in favour of his infinitely more vibrant twin sister Guo Xiang. His only significant role was [[spoiler: being the first person to wield the "Dragon Sabre", one of the coveted weapons in ''Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre''.]]
* {{Parody}}: ''The Deer and The Cauldron'' to the rest of Jin Yong's works. Wei Xiaobao does everything that no one would ever expect a hero to do, most notably [[spoiler: ''raping his future wives''.]]
* PassingTheTorch: Near the end of ''Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre'', Zhang Wuji felt that his leadership of the Ming Cult was constantly being challenged, especially by Zhu Yuanzhang. [[spoiler: He ultimately decides to transfer his position to Zhu and live a secluded life with Zhao Min.]]

** Ah Zi had a big one on Xiao Feng, who was her [[spoiler: dead]] twin sister's boyfriend. She also constantly manipulates him into staying by her side to protect her, using her sister as her trump card. Unfortunately for Ah Zi, Xiao Feng is not into AxCrazy {{Spoiled Brat}}s. It's probably worth mentioning that Xiao Feng is also ''much'' older than her.
* ThePromise: Xiao Feng promising Ah Zhu that he'll take care of Ah Zi for the rest of his life. God, he would regret that so much in the future. To the point where his only escape was [[spoiler: in death]].

** The false accusation that befell [[Literature/ADeadlySecret Di Yun]] is based on what happened to a family servant (he was similarly accused as a plot to MurderTheHypotenuse and Jin Yong's grandfather--a judge--realized the clues didn't add up and so had the man freed; in gratitude, the servant dedicated himself to the grandfather).

* ReconcileTheBitterFoes: During the reign of Ren Woxing and Dongfang Bubai in ''The Smiling, Prooud Wanderer'', there was constant war between the Sun Moon Holy Cult and the orthodox sects. [[spoiler: When Ren Woxing's daughter Ren Yingying came to power, a truce was successfully negotiated between the two sides.]]

* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Huang Rong towards Guo Jing - as a matter of fact, a huge reason why she decided to start following him and chasing him was because he was just ''such'' a nice guy to her, regardless of whether she was dressed as a beggar. And then there's Ah Shiu towards Shi Potian, who is attracted to his kind, naive personality (in contrast to his [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys bad boy]], rapist EvilTwin brother).

* SoBeautifulItsACurse: The ''most'' beautiful women in the Jin Yong universe tend to have the unfortunate fate of getting raped. The most obvious examples being [[spoiler: Xiao Long Nu]] and [[spoiler: Ah Ke]]. And then there's what happened to Princess Fragrance, whose beauty ended up catching the unfortunate attention of the Emperor, which later caused her to [[spoiler: commit suicide]].

* StalkerWithACrush: No matter how you look at it, Duan Yu ''was'' a stalker towards Wang Yuyan. A more sinister example would be Yin Zhiping, who keeps the antidote bottle Xiao Long Nu gave him, constantly tries to stalk and watch her, and eventually out-and-out [[spoiler: rapes her]].

** And then there's Yang Guo and Xiao Long Nu's romance. StarCrossedLovers pretty much describes what most of that series consists of. [[spoiler: Heck, it took more than a decade to finally resolve the situation.]]

* ThroughHisStomach: Xie Yanke warmed up a lot more to Shi Potian after eating his delicious food. Unfortunately, not ''quite'' enough to [[spoiler: give up his original plan of killing him]], but... hey, it helped. Also, Huang Rong managed to get Hong Qigong to take both her and Guo Jing as his disciples by cooking cuisines fit for the Emperor for him.

* {{Tsundere}}: Zhou Qi in ''The Book and The Sword''. Especially around [[spoiler: Xu Tianhong]].
* UnwantedHarem: Duan Yu, Linghu Chong.
* ValuesDissonance: The attitudes towards women, the borderline jingoistic nationalism, the whole HonorBeforeReason thing...though some of it is probably invoked on purpose.
** Fans have also noted a common trend to the fate of female characters in Jin Yong's novels. Most of the female characters that do fall in love with the protagonist but doesn't end up with him (or knows that there's no way he can reciprocate the love) either remains celibate or encounters a tragic end. The most prominent example of this is Gongsun Lü'e, [[spoiler: who dies at the hands of her dad while attempting to save her romantic interest Yang Guo.]]

* WithGreatpowerComesGreatInsanity: Quite a few masters gain attain a great level of power at the cost of going completely insane and forgetting most of their skills. They are still very dangerous if the right buttons are pushed, either accidentally using their skills due to muscle memory, or having moments of lucidity that allows them to access their powers.

Jin Yong (金庸, 6 February 1924 – 30 October 2018) was the PenName of Louis Cha Leung-yung (查良鏞, "Jin Yong" being the constituent radicals which made up the "yung" part of his name), one of the most influential modern Chinese-language novelists and one of the best-selling Chinese authors, well known for his historical {{Wuxia}} fiction--he pretty much single-handedly raised the {{Wuxia}} to a "legitimate" art form ({{Wuxia}} novels having gained an unfair reputation as "things teenagers and immature adults read". While most widely known as a novelist, Cha also co-founded the Hong Kong daily newspaper ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_Pao Ming Pao]]'' in 1959 and served as its first editor-in-chief.) and is the standard against which all other {{Wuxia}} novelists are compared--and a great many LiveActionAdaptation series have been made based on his books.

* SmugSnake: Yue Buqun. Would have been a MagnificentBastard, if he hadn't taken the "bastard" part [[MoralEventHorizon too far]], and in the end all of his plots came tumbling down. Ditto Murong Fu (and he ultimately failed, too, very, ''very'' badly).

* BornLucky: ''Literature/DemiGodsAndSemiDevils'': Xu Zhu accidentally solves a Weiqi game and he is bestowed with [[spoiler:70 years worth of martial arts]] by Wuyazi as a reward. He runs into more luck after rescuing Tianshan Tonglao (a student sister of Wuyazi), who teaches him her techniques in return. As if his luck couldn't get any better, Tianshan Tonglao's nemesis and student sister Li Qiushui unintentionally transfers some of her power to Xu Zhu when the latter tries to stop the two from fighting each other. By the end of the novel, his prowess in martial arts is arguably only second to the Sweeper Monk.

* AbusiveParents: Xiao Feng's dad. Look, admit it - he sucked. [[spoiler:Although he didn't really abuse his son in any way and what trouble he caused for Xiao Feng was not collateral damage to his true purpose.]]

* KillEmAll: ''Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils''; implied in ''A Deadly Secret''

!!!His novels, in order of release:

* ''The Book And The Sword'' (書劍恩仇錄/书剑恩仇录)
* ''Film/TheSwordStainedWithRoyalBlood'' (碧血劍/碧血剑)
* ''Literature/TheLegendOfTheCondorHeroes'' (射雕英雄傳/射雕英雄传) -- Part 1 of the Condor Trilogy
* ''Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain'' (雪山飛狐/雪山飞狐)
* ''Literature/TheReturnOfTheCondorHeroes'' (神雕俠侶/神雕侠侣) -- Part 2 of the Condor Trilogy
* ''Other Tales of the Flying Fox'' (飛狐外傳/飞狐外传)
* ''Swordswoman Riding West On White Horse'' (白馬嘯西風/白马啸西风)
* ''Blade-dance of the Two Lovers'' (鴛鴦刀/鸳鸯刀)
* ''Literature/HeavenSwordAndDragonSabre'' (倚天屠龍記/倚天屠龙记) -- Part 3 of the Condor Trilogy
* ''Literature/ADeadlySecret'' (連城訣/连城诀)
* ''Literature/DemiGodsAndSemiDevils'' (天龍八部/天龙八部)
* ''Film/OdeToGallantry'' (俠客行/侠客行)
* ''Literature/TheSmilingProudWanderer'' (笑傲江湖)
* ''Literature/TheDeerAndTheCauldron'' (鹿鼎記/鹿鼎记)
* ''Sword of the Yue Maiden'' (越女劍/越女剑)

!!Examples Of Tropes Found In His Work:

Jin Yong (金庸, 6 February 1924 – 30 October 2018) was the PenName of Louis Cha Leung-yung (查良鏞, "Jin Yong" being the constituent radicals which made up the "yung" part of his name), one of the most influential modern Chinese-language novelists and one of the best-selling Chinese authors, well known for his historical {{Wuxia}} fiction--he pretty much single-handedly raised the {{Wuxia}} to a "legitimate" art form ({{Wuxia}} novels having gained an unfair reputation as "things teenagers and immature adults read". While most widely known as a novelist, Cha also co-founded the Hong Kong daily newspaper ''Ming Pao'' in 1959 and served as its first editor-in-chief.) and is the standard against which all other {{Wuxia}} novelists are compared--and a great many LiveActionAdaptation series have been made based on his books.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: And he devotes paragraphs upon paragraphs lovingly fleshing out even the tiniest of bit characters.

* ''The Book And The Sword'' (书剑恩仇录)
* ''Film/TheSwordStainedWithRoyalBlood'' (碧血剑)
* ''Literature/TheLegendOfTheCondorHeroes'' (射雕英雄传) -- Part 1 of the Condor Trilogy
* ''Flying Fox Of Snowy Mountain'' (雪山飞狐)
* ''Literature/TheReturnOfTheCondorHeroes'' (神雕侠侣) -- Part 2 of the Condor Trilogy
* ''Other Tales Of The Flying Fox'' (飞狐外传)
* ''Swordswoman Riding West On White Horse'' (白马啸西风)
* ''Bladedance Of The Two Lovers'' (鸳鸯刀)
* ''Literature/HeavenSwordAndDragonSabre'' (倚天屠龙记) -- Part 3 of the Condor Trilogy
* ''Literature/ADeadlySecret'' (连城诀)
* ''Literature/DemiGodsAndSemiDevils'' (天龙八部)
* ''Film/OdeToGallantry'' (侠客行)

* ''Literature/TheDeerAndTheCauldron'' (鹿鼎记)
* ''Sword Of The Yue Maiden'' (越女剑)

* BannedInChina: Initially, his works were banned in Taiwan.

Jin Yong (6 February 1924 – 30 October 2018) was the PenName of Louis Cha Leung-yung ("Jin Yong", 金庸 being the constituent radicals which made up the "yung" part of his name), one of the most influential modern Chinese-language novelists and one of the best-selling Chinese authors, well known for his historical {{Wuxia}} fiction--he pretty much single-handedly raised the {{Wuxia}} to a "legitimate" art form ({{Wuxia}} novels having gained an unfair reputation as "things teenagers and immature adults read". While most widely known as a novelist, Cha also co-founded the Hong Kong daily newspaper ''Ming Pao'' in 1959 and served as its first editor-in-chief.) and is the standard against which all other {{Wuxia}} novelists are compared--and a great many LiveActionAdaptation series have been made based on his books.

* ''Literature/TheLegendOfTheCondorHeroes'' (射雕英雄传)

* ''Literature/TheReturnOfTheCondorHeroes'' (神雕侠侣)

* ''Literature/HeavenSwordAndDragonSabre'' (倚天屠龙记)

* ''Literature/SwordStainedWithRoyalBlood'' (碧血剑)

* ''Literature/OdeToGallantry'' (侠客行)

* ''Sword Stained With Royal Blood'' (碧血剑)

* ''Ode To Gallantry'' (侠客行)

* RealitySubtext: In the 1983 adaptation of ''Return of the Condor Heroes'', numerous people applauded the performance of how love-struck and romantic Andy Lau (who played Yang Guo) was towards Idy Chan (who played the character's love, Xiao Long Nu). Apparently, Andy Lau has since admitted that he harbored a huge crush on Idy Chan. To quote him, "When I collaborated in ''Return of the Condor Heroes'' with her, I really felt that she's my girlfriend. When we go home after work, I would be worried about her and think of her. Then when we collaborated again in ''Casino Raiders'' where she played Alan Tam's girlfriend, I felt unhappy about it."

* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery: Ying Gu's affair with Zhou Botong is shown from her point of view and is very much a product of love rather than lust. None of the other characters, not even her ex-husband, blame her for the affair either.
** Her ex-husband did blame her initially as seen [[spoiler: from his decision to not save the child born from the affair. He later blames himself for the death of the child and seeks Ying Gu's forgiveness.]]

* ''The Smiling Proud Wanderer'' (笑傲江湖)

Jin Yong (6 February 1924 – 30 October 2018) was the PenName of Louis Cha Leung-yung ("Jin Yong" being the constituent radicals which made up the "yung" part of his name), one of the most influential modern Chinese-language novelists and one of the best-selling Chinese authors, well known for his historical {{Wuxia}} fiction--he pretty much single-handedly raised the {{Wuxia}} to a "legitimate" art form ({{Wuxia}} novels having gained an unfair reputation as "things teenagers and immature adults read". While most widely known as a novelist, Cha also co-founded the Hong Kong daily newspaper ''Ming Pao'' in 1959 and served as its first editor-in-chief.) and is the standard against which all other {{Wuxia}} novelists are compared--and a great many LiveActionAdaptation series have been made based on his books.

* TheGift: Zhang Wuji and Shi Potian, who are shown to be very quick in learning martial arts.

** Dongfang Bubai translates roughly to "Invincible East", illustrating the character's supremacy in martial arts.

** well, that's one interpretation of Guo Fu, it's hard to say if she really did that because she couldn't have Yang Guo. She was angry because Yang Guo convinced the Wu brothers to stop fighting for her affections and basically to give her the cold shoulder. And then she told him about that thing with his master/lover and etc.

* SheCleansUpNicely: A notable example includes Sha Gu (from ''Legend of the Condor Heroes''). Although she's crazy and retarded, it's revealed that after they cleaned her up, she was actually quite pretty. Yang Guo deliberately invokes this in his later years by always wearing an ugly mask to hide his face given how many girls' hearts he unwittingly broke over the years. Given what happened to Guo Xiang after she saw him...it may not be such a bad idea.

* ''The Book And The Sword''
* ''Sword Stained With Royal Blood''
* ''Literature/TheLegendOfTheCondorHeroes''
* ''Flying Fox Of Snowy Mountain''
* ''Literature/TheReturnOfTheCondorHeroes''
* ''Other Tales Of The Flying Fox''
* ''Swordswoman Riding West On White Horse''
* ''Bladedance Of The Two Lovers''
* ''Literature/HeavenSwordAndDragonSabre''
* ''Literature/ADeadlySecret''
* ''Literature/DemiGodsAndSemiDevils''
* ''Ode To Gallantry''
* ''The Smiling Proud Wanderer''
* ''Literature/TheDeerAndTheCauldron''
* ''Sword Of The Yue Maiden''

** Guo Jing and Yang Kang's given names combine to form Jingkang, which was used for reminding the duo of the era where the Northern Song Dynasty was toppled.