Pei Yan: A true, heroic man, filled with passion and vigour. Upon his waist is his long sword, while from his hand comes forth poetries and scrolls. Time and again his sword’s blade has been tested, but who possibly could be a worthy match? When love very furtively arrives, he can use only pride as his shield of resistance. But though he may have calculated out every move, every possibility, the sole things he forgets to factor in are his own heart and his own feelings. The wind and smoke may have passed, but seared over his heart is the most beautiful mark.
San Lang: A blood-soaked phoenix, a precious pearl covered in dust. What sort of heart is hidden beneath his devastatingly beautiful face? When sunlight manages to at last shine into his heart, and when the door of his heart opens by a thread, like water that has spilled to the ground, these cannot be undone. Unforgettable is that brilliance he saw during the season when the peach blossoms bloomed, that seemed to burn his eyes, and even more unforgettable is that single unrivallable song that had been sung out upon that snowy bridge over the frozen river.
Xiao Ci [Little Ci]: Lithe like the waves, pure and attractive like the lotus. She is like a fairy of the mountains who flutters her wings, stirring up the most perfect storm within their worlds. She warmed those icy fingers, she embroidered that one twig of peach blossoms. In this complicated society of worldly affairs, a single statement of “understanding” [being understood, being told you are understood] is worth more than a thousand words.
Who shall win, and who shall lose? Who has lost, and who has gained? Who achieved, and who had to sacrifice? None of these are important. This story of legends will one day, when one has seen past the surrounding scenery, become one with the indistinct green, rolling hills and the forever flowing waters.
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Another post on a “classic” romance c-novels.
My foray into Chinese novels was actually through the more classic wuxia novels, so when I first started reading this one, a sense of familiarity struck me. Naive, kind Jiang Ci has snuck out from her isolated home with her shifu to get a glimpse of the world. With her mediocre martial arts skills, she sneaks in to watch the wulin-wide martial arts tournament that is being held to select the next leaders of the pugilists’ world. Little does she know that her curiosity ends up drawing her into the worlds of two top martial artists. Initially, both only intended to use her to accomplish what they wanted, but her kindness, innocence, and pureness touch the hearts of these two men who had witnessed much bloodshed in their lives. The first 1/3 to 1/2 actually feels Jin Yong-esque. A martial arts tournament in wulin, fighting to be the ultimate leaders of wulin, a demon cult with its mysterious leader operating in the borderlands, etc. We come to realize, though, that the pugilists’ world is actually intimately tied to the political situation of the realm and towards the latter part of the story, it does shift to more political themes, although overall, this is still ultimately a romance novel.
However, this novel is never a “palace” novel. Because of the set-up, the novel takes place mainly outside of the palace walls and even outside of the capital, with a half-wulin setting. Through Jiang Ci’s eyes, we experience the pain of the ethnic minority of the borderland that is struggling to free itself from the brutal rule of the empire and the cruel tribute it must pay of offering up its young women into slavery and young men into sexual slavery. Through her eyes, we see plotting to bring down an incompetent ruler. Through her eyes, we get to see the war and bloodshed in the land.
Jiang Ci starts off as a young, innocent, and tender-hearted girl and that is what draws two men, whose hearts should have been calloused, to her. She’s very Mary Sue-ish, actually, but because of the wuxia setting and the fact that this sort of female character is often used in wuxia stories, it didn’t bother me. She does grow up and lose that innocence as she realizes how merciless people can be to other people, but she never loses her kindness.
Pei Yan and Wei Zhao (San Lang in the summary above) share equal importance in the novel, and if you look on Chinese forums, it’s a pretty even split between their camps. My heart favours the one whose life was never his own to begin with, who bears the weight of too many people’s lives on his shoulders, who sacrificed everything about himself, including his own dignity, for his people, and who was torn between getting close to Jiang Ci and the warmth that she brought to his life or pushing her far away for the darkness in him was just not worthy of her. But, that meant my heart was simply torn to shreds by the ending…
Please be forewarned, your heart needs to be very, very strong to read this (or at least, stronger than mine). It’s not just the ending that gets to you. And no, it’s not about individual scenes of angst but rather, the story and characters bring to the readers the cruelty that people can inflict on other people and the sufferings people have to go through just to struggle to survive under a tyrant ruler. Who can rise above all this and make the terrible sacrifices that sometimes have to be made for the hope of freedom? The first half with the wuxia theme lulls you into thinking it’s another Legend of the Condor Heroes, but the second half… I used to have a strong heart (if you want to gauge, I actually thought BBJX, sure, was sad, but well within tolerance levels), but this novel completely did me in. It took me a long, long time to recover from it. However, the BE, while terribly sad, really was necessary for the novel. A HE would have just taken away from the significance of everything that was done and would have seemed forced and unrealistic.
Overall, I’ve read many, many people who absolutely love this story and many people who don’t. There’s not many in the middle who think it’s average. Do I like this one? It’s a hesitant yes, partly because I was demonstrated in this novel that I really can’t handle such heartache … I remember whizzing through the beginning, captured by the original lighter, wuxia tone but mixed with the political scheming, but as I reached the middle parts all the way to the end, my speed slowed down because I needed to steel myself for what was coming. The two male leads are the show-stealers (and still make it on “top male” lists), while the kind, gentle female lead seems almost like a plot device at times to showcase them. I’ve never gone back to read the story again in its entirety, but sometimes, I find myself reflecting upon some scenes that have seeped into my mind. So, I can at least say, it has impacted me.
Hoju, you’ve left me intrigued by this story… As I continue to read more and more C-novels, I’ve come to acknowledge that I favor these types of stories (as they make your heart tug. >_<)… Anyway, this sounds very interesting and I would like to know more about it!!! I'm a fan of spoilers! Lol.
Me too hahaha. I don’t want to board the wrong ship if I read this… who is the male lead?s
Hmm… When I first started reading, I was like “Two men!!!” :DDD. Then, I scrolled down a little more and was shocked.
I’ve been corrupted O_O.
Hoju, your review is soooo beautiful! I can’t take bad ending novels (yet), so I will avoid this. But, your writing of this book is perfectly dreamy <3
Sorry, I completely missed your comments, guys. *hangs head in shame*
@ unforgetableme and sparklingdawn
Um, I guess no matter which ship you board, your heart will be broken. If you want to know who Xiao Ci eventually falls for, it’s
SPOILER:
….
….
Wei Zhao, i.e. San Lang in the summary.
….
END SPOILER
@booksqy,
Was the “Two men!!!” a cry of excitement or surprise? LOL
@decembi,
Thank you. 🙂 If your heart is as frail as mine has become, you probably should stay away from this novel. It left me quite saddened for a long, long time.
This one is one of the best Chinese Romantic novels I’ve read so far. Even though Xiao Lou partially fails to portray one of the main idea of this novel（不如归去，看青山隐隐，流水迢迢）, this is still pretty good as a romance novel for its characters and plots. I really miss the period when the authors would love to write serious stories based on war or the country.
There aren’t many male protagonist as Wei Zhao, who had to be a catamite because of some reasons but is still a wonderful person. I hope there are authors can write more about this type of characters because there are many stories can be dug up from them, and the hurt/comfort types of plots are delicious XP
This sounds lovely but it’s too long for me to tackle right now :(( I found another novel that seems to have great writing (but shorter) called 鹤唳华亭. Apparently it was among the bestsellers in 2014 or sth. My Mandarin is faaar from fluency but I so want to challenge this. Have any of you guys read it yet?
The consensus among reviewers is that while the novel is beautifully written it’s a little hard to understand with all the references to ancient history, idioms, etc. There doesn’t seem to be any translation to refer to when stuck either so I’m a little hesitant +__+ If you guys have read it I’d love to hear your thoughts.