发信人: yerk()
整理人: yerk(2000-03-07 10:21:11), 站内信件
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SWORD OF THE YUEH MAIDEN
This is the only short story wrote by Jin Yong. Because of its short l
ength, you can't really see Jin Yong's full talent at story-telling. H
owever, this translation can give you some idea of what a martial arts
story is like. My clumsy translation can't really do the original jus
tice, but I hope I have stirred your interest enough that you will go
out there and find out more about Chinese culture, history and legend.
The process of finding out will not be easy, but I assure you, what y
ou will find will never be dull.
Background:
This story is based on real historical events that occurred during the
5th century B.C. It 's a period between what's known as the Spring an
d Autumn period and the Warring Kingdoms period. China was yet to be u
nited under the First Emperor. The so-called Han race didn't exist yet
. China was divided into big and small kingdoms, dukedoms and counties
which warred with each other constantly.
It all started when the king of Chuh slept with his son's fiancee. Bad
move, for any era. The king now feared that his son will turn against
him. The fear was fanned into action by the allegations of an ambitio
us minister who wanted to destroy the crown prince's faction. The resu
lting purge destroyed many clans and families. One of the family, almo
st peripheral to the whole thing, was the House of Wu. The youngest so
n, Wu Tzu-Shi, escaped and vowed bloody vengeance.
After a long and dangerous journey through several kingdoms unwilling
to help, he arrived at the newly founded kingdom of Wu (No, the Chines
e characters for the Wu in Wu Tzu-Shi is actually different from the c
haracter Wu in the Wu kingdom). He helped Prince Ho Lu to assassinate
his cousin the king in a convoluted power struggle. Then he built up t
he kingdom of Wu from a barely civilized kingdom to a modern kingdom w
ith the best trained army in the known world. Sun Tzu, who wrote the i
mmortal Art of War, served in Wu at this time.
When Wu Tzu-Shi was ready, he managed to convince King Ho Lu to invade
Chuh. At the time Chuh was a superpower and Wu was an upstart kingdom
, but the upstart kingdom managed to destroy Chuh's army utterly. Unfo
rtunately, Wu Tzu-shi's vengeance was hollow. The object of his vengea
nce had already died several years ago. In his rage, Wu Tzu-Shi exhume
d the body of the dead king and flogged it until it fell to pieces.
The kingdom of Wu proved itself incapable of absorbing the far larger
kingdom of Chuh, so Wu Tzu-Shi had to take his army back to Wu. Then,
Ho Lu began a series of wars to establish hegemony over the rest of Ch
ina. It's in one of those wars when he ran into the kingdom of Yueh. T
he Yueh people was then even more primitive then Wu was a few decades
ago, but they were great fighters. They were ruled by King Kou Chiang.
In a pitch battle, King Ho Lu was struck by a poison arrow and died.
Ho Lu's son Fu Chai became king. He was intent on avenging his father.
A personal guard was ordered to remind him of this fact periodically
by saying "Fu Chai, did you forget to avenge the death of your father?
" Fu Chai then rallied his army and destroyed the army of Yueh. King K
ou Chiang became a prisoner of Fu Chai for several years. However, Fu
Chai was not a brutal man. Instead of annexing the kingdom of Yueh and
turning Kou Chiang into a slave, he released Kou Chiang after extract
ing an oath of fealty from the king of Yueh. Unfortunately, that gestu
re of mercy was completely lost on King Kou Chiang. Kou Chiang, like W
u Tzu-Shi and Fu Chai before him, was possessed by the burning desire
to avenge the wrongs done him.
Kou Chiang hired two wise men from the kingdom of Chuh. One of them wa
s Feng Li, the other was Wen Chung. The two began to build up the barb
aric kingdom of Yueh so one day their king could challenge the power o
f Wu. Many legends are associated with this period of history. One of
the legends was the legend of the Yueh Maiden.
--
难忘武侠情，
又念讽刺经，
笑傲江湖走一遭，
不行，不行！
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