Chasing dreams with a sword (Wen Shiren)

Since I was a child, I have loved listening to adults tell stories about martial arts, and after entering elementary school, reading martial arts comics was the main pastime. At the beginning of 1960, when I entered junior high school, most of my classmates began to read martial arts novels, and Taiwan was at the peak of martial arts novels, and there were countless writers and works of martial arts novels. At first, after class or at the beginning of the holiday, everyone immediately reported to the martial arts novel rental store, and then I was fascinated, and even put a lot of martial arts novels in my schoolbag when I went to school, and brought them to the classroom to read, I remember that I was found by the teacher once, and I was punished for standing for an afternoon.

At that time, there were many writers of martial arts novels, such as Sima Ling, Wo Longsheng, Zhuge Qingyun, Shangguan Ding, Xiao Yi, Murong Mei, etc., most of which we read more often.

In the early 70s, Jin Yong did not write new martial arts novels, but began to sort out and revise the fifteen martial arts masterpieces that had been completed. At that time, the television media gradually became the mainstream of people's entertainment, the craze for novels was not as good as before, the number of new readers reading martial arts novels was gradually decreasing, and the development of traditional and new martial arts novels had come to an end, so it was understandable to call Jin Yong's martial arts works "unprecedented".

In those days, there was also an unforgettable writer, Gu Long. Gu Long's early martial arts works were lackluster, but around the years before and after Jin Yong's pen, Gu Long's writing changed and made a major breakthrough, and he integrated the techniques of detective fiction into the martial arts world. Gu Long's famous novel "Xiao Li Flying Knife" system story has used the techniques of detective novels, and later Gu Long's protagonists such as Chu Liuxiang, Lu Xiaofeng, and Liu Changjie are essentially heroes and detectives. In Gu Long's martial arts detective novels (I describe them as such), usually when the protagonist appears, he has a high level of martial arts and wisdom, and in the ancient time and space background, he confronts the evil forces in the rivers and lakes and solves many puzzling and strange cases. Martial arts novels depict distinct characters, while detective novels value the layout of suspense and the development of the story. Gu Long's novels in the middle of the period integrate these two characteristics very well, writing a very wonderful novel, Gu Long is Jin Yong reached the peak of traditional and new martial arts novels, the first writer to make a breakthrough in martial arts novels, especially in dealing with emotions and dialogues between characters, Gu Long obviously has his own unique style, but unfortunately Gu Long died young.

In the 13 or 4 years since Gu Long's death, due to the vigorous development of various media, especially the far-reaching spread of electronic media, which has crossed national borders and crossed cultures, the development of novels has become more difficult, and the creation of new martial arts novels has surpassed the two great heroes of Jin and Gu. Although several cutting-edge martial arts novel writers headed by Wen Ruian are still working hard, it is difficult for martial arts novels to return to the grand occasion and glory of those years.

Since the establishment of Tomorrow Studio, I have always wanted to write martial arts novels, on the one hand, it is my own interest, on the other hand, martial arts novels are indeed a kind of quintessence of China, and recently (2003) I am working on a martial arts novel "Qin Shi Mingyue" is expected to be divided into eight parts, the main historical background is in the Qin Dynasty, I spent a lot of time first for historical reading, research and plot layout, starting from Jing Ke's assassination of Qin, integrating Confucianism and Taoism and the hundred schools of thought of Zhuzi into it, and writing until the death of Qin. This is a major attempt, and I have always believed that martial arts is the common language of Chinese people all over the world, and it deserves to be carried forward.