Legends of the Condor Heroes

Legends of the Condor Heroes begins in 1205, when the Southern Song court has lost northern China to the Jurchen Jin dynasty and Temüjin is uniting the Mongol steppe. Guo Jing, the son of a murdered Song patriot, grows up among the Mongols before returning south, where his friendship with the quick-witted Huang Rong draws him into rival martial schools, family vendettas and the struggle between Song, Jin and Mongol power.

The four-volume English edition combines a coming-of-age story, romance and martial-arts epic with the political geography of thirteenth-century China. Historical figures such as Genghis Khan and the Daoist Qiu Chuji stand beside Jin Yong’s fictional heroes, while questions of ancestry, filial duty and divided allegiance determine whether characters defend the country of their birth, the family that raised them or the ruler who rewards them.