Jin Yong

Jin Yong was the pen name of Louis Cha Leung-yung, a Chinese-language novelist, journalist and publisher born in Zhejiang in 1924. He moved to Hong Kong in 1948 and co-founded the newspaper Ming Pao in 1959, building an influential career in both literature and public commentary. Across fifteen wuxia novels, Jin Yong combined martial-arts adventure with Chinese history, philosophy, religion, political conflict and questions of loyalty, identity and legitimate rule. His novels became central works of modern Chinese popular culture and have been repeatedly adapted for television, film, comics and video games. He died in 2018.

His best-known works include The Legend of the Condor Heroes, The Return of the Condor Heroes and The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber, together forming the Condor Trilogy; other major novels include Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, The Book and the Sword, The Smiling, Proud Wanderer and The Deer and the Cauldron. These stories range from the Song and Yuan dynasties to the Ming–Qing transition and the reign of the Kangxi Emperor, placing fictional martial heroes alongside wars, dynastic rivalries, ethnic conflict and historical rulers. Although the extraordinary combat and secret societies belong to the conventions of wuxia, Jin Yong’s extensive use of real periods and political events makes his work highly relevant to readers of historical fiction, particularly those interested in imperial China and Chinese ideas of honour, justice and resistance.