text | Linghu Boguang
Recently, the latest remake of Jin Yong's drama " Jin Yong's Martial Arts World " is about to be broadcast, and another Jin Yong film and television work has been broadcast. If you pay attention, you will find that on the 6th anniversary of Jin Yong's death, the popularity of Jin Yong's martial arts remakes in domestic popular culture continues unabated.
In addition to this "Jin Yong's Martial Arts World", there is also the movie version of "The Condor" directed by Tsui Hark and starring Xiao Zhan.
At the same time, there is also an animated version of the martial arts animated film "The Swordsman Trilogy", as well as the game "To Jin Yong" and other works.
The 2020s have entered its fourth year. Among the Chinese martial arts masters Jin Liang Wenhuang, it seems that only Jin Yong is left, and even the equally famous Gu Long has obviously fallen behind. Liang Yusheng had almost fallen behind before 2010. In the past few years, there was only one "Wudang Yijian" that had been suppressed for a long time.
Wen Rui'an's only well-known IP remake is " Four Famous Catchers ", the last time was Deng Chao , Liu Yifei version of the movie (Playing Werewolf and Mind Control), and the most recent one two years ago was Zeng Shunxi 's "Speaking of Heroes, Who is hero". There are many well-known IPs of Huang Yi, but the only remakes of film and television dramas are probably the movie version of Louis Koo " Looking for Qin Ji ".
It is understandable that the other three masters are not popular. After all, it is recognized that they are not as good as Jin Yong Gulong. But compared with Jin Yong, why is Gu Long obviously lagging behind in film and television?
Compared with Jin Yong, why did Gu Long fall behind in film and television? If you look at Liu Cixin, you will know that
actually has the simplest answer. I personally think that the most fundamental answer has nothing to do with level, but the average level combined.
Jin Yong only had fifteen martial arts novels in his life: Shooting the White Deer in the Flying Snow, The Laughing Book of Heroes Relying on Biyuan, plus one "Yue Nu Sword".
Although Jin Yong’s writing career is also divided into periods, the overall level of his works is too high, especially several long novels that can be said to be masterpieces in martial arts literature. If you take out any of them, they will be at the level of masters, such as "The Desert Trilogy", "Shooting the Condor", "The Divine Condor", "Yitian", and then "Dragon", "Swordsman" and "The Deer and the Cauldron".
These works are all very powerful. They are truly half masterpieces, so they have the most remakes.
You see, several of Jin Yong’s novellas, such as "Book of Swords", "Flying Fox Gaiden", "Snow Mountain Flying Fox" and "Xia Ke Xing", are far inferior to several full-length novels. Are they not popular now, and there are fewer and fewer remakes? After all, It is the value that determines the level, and the level determines the popularity, and the popularity determines whether to remake it in the new era.
Due to his background and growth experience, Gu Long’s cultural heritage is far inferior to that of Jin Yong. He has created more martial arts novels, more than 70 in total. If the number is too large, the level will naturally vary, and human memory is limited, so only the well-known ones can be remembered.
Gu Long’s martial arts novels really took off around the time of “The Legend of the Banner Hero” and “Huanhua Swordsmanship”, and in “The History of the Martial Arts” and “ Peerless Two Prides ” (which are also in the imitation stage). There are ten in front of them. Many works cannot be said to be unknown, it can only be said that no one cares about them.
Among these four works, the one with the highest chance of being remade is also the most classic "The Two Proud Ones". After that, Gu Long officially became a celebrity, but his most famous works are obviously "Chu Liuxiang", "Lu Xiaofeng" and "Sentimental Swordsman". Other films such as "The End of the World", "Meteor Butterfly Sword", "Xiao Shiyilang" and "The Sword of the Third Young Master" are also very classic, and there are breakthroughs in writing. However, just like "The Two Prides", the chances of being remade are actually not that high.
After this, Gu Long has more than ten works. Regardless of the literary level, he tries to break through the martial arts, but from the perspective of film and television, it is relatively unsuccessful if you look at it. This is a combination of the number of works, the average level of the works and human memory.
The second situation is this kind of well-known epic-level novel. If it becomes the top of popular literature, you will find that it has a huge influence naturally, with various settings, background world view, character creation, storyline, and famous scenes. , including the metaphors behind it, are all very famous.
The more clearly the audience remembers it and the more it is discussed, the more out of the circle it will be, the more lasting it will be, and the more derivatives it will have.
For example, among the four great kings of Chinese science fiction, we don’t even mention that the other three great kings are Liu Cixin alone. If you have read all Liu Cixin's novels, you will find that his other short science fiction novels are also world-class, except for "The Wandering Earth", such as "Mountain", "Feeding God", "Feeding Humanity" and other works.
However, he has little public recognition. His long-form works include "Supernova Era", "Ball Lightning" and "Three Body Series". But the first two books are not the kind of science fiction novels that focus on the world view, setting, massive characters and famous scenes. Their popularity is simply a fraction of that of "The Three-Body Problem".
Jin Yong won, Gu Long lost? In the end, culture is still about heritage. Compared with Gu Long and Jin Yong, Jin Yong has two " Three Body " series (counting Xiaoao, Tianlong and The Deer and the Cauldron as one series). Gu Long's "Lu Xiaofeng", "Chu Liuxiang" and "Xiao Li Fei Dao" are his peak. The novels are also long, but the literary background is indeed not as profound as Jin Yong.
Or rather, Gu Long's basic skills in literature and history are even worse. The so-called fictional history is actually just to make a picture to justify himself. The heroes in Gu Long's works basically have no historical background or feelings about family and country, because they don't even have a historical background. If you ask Li Xunhuan to serve the country and the people, Gu Long himself doesn't even know which country Li Xunhuan is from. For which people.
So if you turn it upside down, it’s still about your own affairs. For example, Li Xunhuan has always been worried about his cousin and other people. Chu Liuxiang is an imaginary detective. Even if he is like White Jade Tiger, in the final analysis, he still wants to avenge his father’s murder.
also writes about personal vendettas. Just look at Zhao Wuji written by Gu Long and Xiao Feng written by Jin Yong. You will know that there is still a big gap between Jin and Gu in terms of their literary and historical backgrounds and writing skills. Gu Long's victory lies in a strange word, which is only limited to some small chapters. On the whole, it is still worse than Jin Yong.
Gu Long has no so-called view of history at all. The two have different levels of education. Jin Yong is a person who is proficient in both old and new learning in a real sense. He can write an article about Genghis Khan's family after "The Condor", and he is very professional, so Jin Yong can write about historical figures and Fictional characters are interspersed in the writing, and they can explain themselves.
Gu Long himself has an average education level. To put it bluntly, he has a lot of talent. However, in the field of literature and history, he can't write it if you ask him to write it. Therefore, Gu Long only writes about the world he imagined, and there is no real court. In fact, it is very difficult to truly write novels like Jin Yong.
If you are an online writer, you will know that. I also write novels myself. If you ask me to write like Jin Yong, I can’t write it. If I don’t play well, it will be very deliberate and fake. But like the characters in Jin Yong’s works, I It is easy to believe that Guo Jing is the great hero guarding Xiangyang, Zhang Wuji is related to Zhu Yuanzhang, and where is Jin Yong's cultural foundation.
As for the social environment in mainland China in the new era, although the situation in the United States and the West is different, Chinese audiences still focus on macro narratives. Once it comes to this, he is still a great hero who serves the country and the people, then Jin Yong will naturally have a market because it fits the audience's thoughts and expressions.
There are no "heroes" in the past, and there are no "jianghu" in the future? It is understandable that Gu Long has passed away.
Gu Long did not place his heroes above all living beings. Compared with Jin Yong, the protagonists of the Gu Long series are generally closer to mortals. Ah Fei does not have the moral values of normal society, Li Xunhuan is an alcoholic, Lu Xiaofeng and Chu Liuxiang are lustful, and Xiao Yuer is a cologne version of Wei Xiaobao, not to mention.
Fu Hongxue killed a lot of people for revenge in his heart. It turned out that most of those enemies were not bad people. Instead, it was his father who was the bad guy back then. Moreover, he was not his biological child but was picked up by the river. In the end, his beloved also left him.
In some places, Jin and Gu actually have the same thing in common. For example, Gu Long's two novels "Border Town Prodigal Son" and "White Jade Tiger" and Jin Yong's "Tian Long Ba Bu" are similar in that they are both protagonists who want revenge and end up missing forever. Beloved. The difference is that Xiao Feng died in the end, and neither Zhao Wuji nor Fu Hongxue died (if you want to say that the real protagonist of Tianlong is Duan Yu, of course it is okay)
Especially Fu Hongxue, after all, Gu Long still has to write the follow-up "The End of the World", but even if it is In "The Moon Sword at the End of the World", Fu Hongxue is still a loner, a cripple, a broken sword, and a broken heart. What did he get? He got nothing.
He had long been tired of fighting and killing, but because of Gong Ziyu, he had to come back to the world.
Gu Long Many of the protagonists have nothing but good kung fu (of course Shen Lang is an exception, but Shen Lang is a rare Long Aotian type protagonist). Although Li Xunhuan appears to be glamorous on the surface, in the end they often become a loner, wanting to withdraw from the world but unable to do so.
We all say that Jin Yong is a martial arts epic (macro narrative), while Gu Long writes about people (jianghu).
However, the most critical problem is that the social environment in the Mainland has led to the afterglow of the old society and the ancient world of Taiwanese society filled with gangs. It is completely different from the Mainland society. Mainland society is more of a society characterized by a wave of industrialization, the rise of urbanization, the decline of rural areas, and high competition between college entrance examinations and cities.
netizens described the rise of immortals after 2000, cultivation, and fantasy as expressions that are most in line with mainland society.
It makes sense if you think about it carefully. The protagonist starts from a small mountain village or is in despair. He goes outside to secretly develop and become stronger, and then competes with countless geniuses. The result is to defeat the opponent and pretend to be bad, slap him in the face and change the map to pick up girls. This is a kind of high intensity. On the road to becoming stronger under competition, Gu Long's method is not very suitable.
A great hero serves the country and the people. Gu Long is just a writer who writes about rivers and lakes. How can he compare with Jin Yong in terms of style and style? The old argument is that Jin Yong writes about heroes, while Gu Long writes about prodigal sons. They are not the same genre and do not necessarily have to be ranked higher or lower.
is outdated. As long as it talks about martial arts, Gu Long can never be avoided.
