Chapter 1 New Preface to "Collected Works of Jin Yong"
This set of thirty-six volumes of "Collected Works" was written from 1955 to 1972, about thirteen or four years before and after, including twelve novels, two novellas, and one Short stories, a biography of historical figures, and several historical texts.The publishing process is very strange. No matter in Hong Kong, Taiwan, overseas regions, or mainland China, all kinds of pirated copies are published first, and then the original version edited and authorized by me is published.In mainland China, before the "triple edition" was published, only Tianjin Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House published it with my authorization.They proofread carefully and pay royalties according to the contract.I paid income tax in accordance with the law, and donated the remainder to several cultural institutions and supported Go activities.It was a pleasant experience.Other than that, it is completely unauthorized until it is officially authorized to be published by Beijing Joint Publishing. The copyright contract for the "triple edition" expires at the end of 2001, and the mainland China edition will be published by another publishing house. No royalties are paid for the reprint, which is the second.Many editions are shoddy and full of mistakes.Some people borrowed the name of "Jin Yong" to write and publish martial arts novels.Well-written, I dare not rob beauty; as for works full of boring fights and pornographic descriptions, it is unavoidable.There are also some publishing houses that reprint the works of other writers in Hong Kong and Taiwan and publish them under my pseudonym.I have received countless letters from readers exposing and expressing their indignation.There are also people who made their own comments without my authorization. Except for Feng Qiyong, Yan Jiayan, and Chen Mo, who have profound skills and are serious about their work, and I deeply appreciate them, most of the rest of the comments are far from the author's original intention.Fortunately, publication has now ceased, the publisher has formally apologized, and the dispute is over. In some reprints, it is said that Gu Long, Ni Kuang and I collaborated in a first couplet titled "Ice is better than ice and water", which is really a big joke.Chinese couplets have certain rules. The last character of the first couplet is usually in a flat tone, so that the second couplet ends in a flat tone, but the word "bing" belongs to steaming rhyme and is in a flat tone.We will not produce such a couplet.Many readers in mainland China have sent me the next couplet, and everyone wasted their time and effort. In order to make it easy for readers to distinguish, I put together a couplet with the first characters of the titles of my fourteen novels and novellas: "Flying snow shoots white deer in the sky, and the laughing book hero leans on Biyuan". (Short stories are not included, but my Go teacher Mr. Chen Zude said he likes this one the most.) When I wrote the first novel, I didn’t know whether I would write the second one; I didn't expect what subject matter the third novel would use, let alone what title it would use.So this couplet is of course not neat, "Feixue" can't be to "Xiaoshu", "Liantian" can't be to "Shenxia", "Bai" and "Bi" are both humming.But if you come up with a couplet, you can use the words completely freely, and you will always choose a few more interesting and regular words. Many readers wrote to ask the same question: "Among the novels you have written, which one do you think is the best? Which one is your favourite?" This question cannot be answered.When I was creating these novels, I had a wish: "Don't repeat the characters, plots, emotions, and even details that have already been written." Limited by talent, this wish may not be achieved, but I always work towards this direction. Generally speaking , these 15 novels are different, and they are respectively infused with my feelings and thoughts at that time, mainly feelings.I love the positive characters in every novel, happy or melancholy, sad, sometimes very sad because of what happened to them.As for writing skills, there has been some improvement in the later period.But skills are not the most important, what is important is personality and feelings. These novels have been filmed in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, and Singapore as film and TV series, and some have been filmed in three or four different versions. In addition, there are dramas, Peking opera, Cantonese opera, and musicals.Then came the second question: "Which movie or TV series do you think is the most successful adaptation? Which one of the male and female protagonists in the play is the most suitable for the characters in the original book?" The representation forms of movies and TV are fundamentally different from novels, It's hard to compare.Television is longer and easier to play; movies are more restricted.Furthermore, reading a novel involves a process in which the author and the reader visualize the characters together. Many people read the same novel, but the hero and heroine that appear in their minds may not be the same, because in addition to the text in the book, the reader himself experience, personality, emotions, likes and dislikes.You will integrate the hero and heroine of the book with yourself or your lover in your heart, and every different reader and his lover must be different from yours.Movies and television have fixed the image of the characters, and the audience has no room for free imagination.I can't say which one is the best, but I can say: the one that changes the original beyond recognition is the worst, the most self-righteous, and looks down on the original author and readers. Wuxia novels continue the long tradition of Chinese classical novels.The earliest martial arts novels in China should be wonderful literary works such as "The Legend of the Curly Beard", "Nie Yinniang" and "Kunlun Slaves" in the legends of the Tang Dynasty.Followed by,,, and so on.Modern serious martial arts novels pay more attention to justice, integrity, self-sacrifice, eliminating the strong and helping the weak, national spirit, and traditional Chinese ethical concepts.Readers don't need to speculate too much about some of the exaggerated martial arts descriptions, some of them are actually impossible, but they are just the tradition of Chinese martial arts novels.Nie Yinniang shrinks her body and sneaks into someone's stomach, and then jumps out of his mouth. No one will believe it is true. However, the story of Nie Yinniang has been loved by people for more than a thousand years. In the novels I wrote in the early days, the orthodoxy of the Han Dynasty was very strong.In the later period, the concept of equal treatment of all ethnic groups in the Chinese nation became the keynote, which is why my view of history has improved somewhat.This is particularly evident in .Wei Xiaobao's father may be from Han, Manchu, Mongolian, Hui, or Tibetan.Even in the first novel, the main character, Chen Jialuo, later became more knowledgeable and fond of Islam.In every race, in every religion, in every profession there are good and bad people.There are bad emperors and good emperors; there are bad officials and good officials who truly love the people.In the book, Han people, Manchus, Khitans, Mongols, Tibetans... all have good and bad people.Among monks, Taoists, lamas, scholars, and warriors, there are also various personalities and qualities.Some readers like to divide people into two, distinguish between good and bad, and at the same time infer from the individual to the whole group, which is by no means the author's original intention. Events and figures in history should be seen in the historical environment at that time.During the Song and Liao Dynasties, the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were fierce struggles between the Han nationality and the Khitan, Mongolian, Manchu and other ethnic groups; the Mongolian and Manchu people used religion as a political tool.What the novel wants to describe is the concept and mentality of the people at that time, which cannot be measured by the concepts of later generations or modern people.When I write novels, I aim to portray my personality and express the joys and sorrows in human nature.The novel does not insinuate anything, if there is any reprimand, it is the despicable and dark quality of human nature.Political views and popular ideas in society change from time to time, but human nature changes very little. In the "Father and Daughter Two Lands Book" (Together Enlightenment of the World) written by Mr. Liu Zaifu and his daughter Liu Jianmei, Ms. Jianmei mentioned a conversation she had with Mr. Li Tuo. Mr. Li said that writing novels is like playing the piano , there is no shortcut at all, it is improved level by level, it needs to go through daily hard practice and accumulation, and it will not work if you don't read enough.I very much agree with this point of view.I read at least four or five hours a day without interruption. After retiring from the newspaper office, I continued to study hard in Chinese and foreign universities.Over the years, although learning, knowledge, and insights have improved, talents have not. Therefore, although these novels have been revised three times, I believe many people still sigh after reading them.Just like a pianist who practices the piano for twenty hours a day, if he is not talented enough, he will never be able to do Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Badruski, even Rubinstein, Horowitz, Ashken Na Ji, Liu Shikun, and Fu Cong couldn't do it either. This third revision has corrected many typos and omissions, most of which have been corrected by readers.There are several longer paragraphs with corrections and rewrites that incorporate the results of reviewers and discussions in the workshop.There are still many obvious defects which cannot be remedied, beyond the power of the author.Readers hope to write to me about the mistakes and deficiencies that still exist in the book.I regard every reader as a friend, and the advice and care of friends are always welcome. April 2002 in Hong Kong