Liang Yusheng
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| Chen Wentong | |
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| Born | 5 April 1926 Mengshan, Guangxi, China |
| Died | January 22, 2009 (aged 82) Sydney, Australia |
| Pen name | Liang Yusheng (Chinese: 梁羽生) |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Genres | Wuxia |
| Liang Yusheng | |||||||||||
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| Chinese | 梁羽生 | ||||||||||
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| Chen Wentong | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 陳文統 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 陈文统 | ||||||||||
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Chen Wentong (5 April 1926 – 22 January 2009), better known by his pen name Liang Yusheng, is a Chinese wuxia writer. Chen is credited as the pioneer of the "New School" (新派) of the wuxia genre in the 20th century, as well as one of the three best known wuxia writers in the second half of the century (the other two are Jin Yong and Gu Long).
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[edit] Biography
Chen was born in Mengshan, Guangxi, China in 1926. He came from a family of scholars and was versed in ancient Chinese classics and duilian. He could recite the Three Hundred Tang Poems at the age of seven. He started writing poems when he was attending Guilin High School in Guangxi. He went to Mengshan during the Second Sino-Japanese War. He was tutored by Jian Youwen, who specialised in the history of the Taiping Rebellion, and Rao Zongyi, who was well read in poetry, humanities, art and the history of Dunhuang. Chen learnt history and literature from both of them and accepted into Lingnan University in Guangzhou later. In 1949 he settled in Hong Kong and became an editor for the newspaper Ta Kung Pao and a member of the executive committee through the principal's recommendation. The following year he worked as a copy editor for another newspaper Sin Wun Pao.
In 1954 Chen made a breakthrough in his career when he wrote his first wuxia novel Longhu Dou Jinghua to entertain readers due to an ongoing contest between two martial arts schools, which was the talk of the town that year. This marked the start of a new generation of the wuxia genre, with Chen as its pioneer and the emergence of other wuxia writers such as Jin Yong and Gu Long. Over his writing career, Chen wrote a total of 33 novels, of which Baifa Monü Zhuan (白髮魔女傳) and Yunhai Yugong Yuan (雲海玉弓緣) are some of the more well known ones. Many of his novels have been adapted into television series and films. As Chen was interested in history and literature, he also wrote columns, critiques and essays under different names, including "Liang Hueru" and "Fong Yuning".
In the 1980s Chen retired to Sydney, Australia with his family.[1] In August 2004 he was granted an Honorary Doctorate by Hong Kong's Lingnan University, where he graduated from in 1948 with a degree in economics.[1].
In 2005 producer Tsui Hark adapted Chen's novel Qijian Xia Tianshan (七劍下天山) into the film Seven Swords and its derived television series counterpart Seven Swordsmen. The 1993 film The Bride with White Hair is an adaptation of Chen's Baifa Monü Zhuan.
After suffering a stroke during a visit to Hong Kong in 2007, Chen died in Sydney on January 22, 2009 of natural causes.[2]
[edit] Style of writing
The opening of Chen's novels are always marked with a poem, which indicated his interest in poetry. The protagonists of his novels are also talented in several aspects, versatile, and interested in literature. Chen also infuses historical elements into his stories, a style which was later followed by other wuxia writers such as Jin Yong. Unlike many wuxia writers, Chen does not regard Shaolin and Wudang as the major orthodox sects in the wulin (martial artists' community). Instead, he features the Mount Heaven Sect as the leading school.[3]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Seven Swords novelist dies". Straits Times (Singapore): p. C7. 28 January 2009.
- ^ Martial arts novelist Liang Yusheng dies. Danwei. 27 January 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
- ^ 梁羽生 (Liang Yusheng). Chinese Wusia Knight Errant. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
[edit] External links
- Liang Yusheng
- Liang Yusheng - The Pioneer
- The Wanderer Chronicles (萍踪侠影录) - Read a chapter-by-chapter English summary of Liang Yusheng's Pingzong Xiaying Lu (via WuxiaSociety.org - formerly known as wuxiamania.phorumz.com)
- Seven Swords Novel Translation English summary translation of Qijian Xia Tianshan (updated August 27, 2007) done by Yenchin of Wuxiasociety.org
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