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My Thoughts on The Books
First, let me make it clear that I've been spoiled by Hong Kong's Jin Yong, who is the best wuxia novelist there ever was. I have never read a Wang Du Lu novel before now. Jin Yong made my standard very high. So some of my critical comments of Wang Du Lu's books may not be fair to some people. But I do know there simply wasn't any wuxia novelist who can compete with Jin Yong in terms of literature and history background. Jin Yong -whose real name is Cha Liang Yong - came from a famous scholar family that can trace its history back hundreds of years. Many of his ancestors topped Ching Dynasty's examinations and became high-ranking ministers. He has the kind of background in Chinese literature and history that other writers simply can't match. Jin Yong is also well versed in Western literature and dramas so he would mix Western narrative with Chinese history into his wuxia novels. No other wuxia novelists have the broad knowledge and background Jin Yong does. Other scholars who do have Jin Yong's broad knowledge either don't have his imagination or think wuxia novels are below them. Wuxia novels were and still are considered pulp fictions by the elite. But in my opinion, Jin Yong's books are literature that can stand up against classic Chinese novels such as "Shui Hu Juan" ("Legend of The Water Margin"). Chinese novels have always been meant for the masses, not the elite anyway.
So where does Wang Du Lu's books stand? I'd rank it above average among wuxia novels, but not quite at Jin Yong's level. It's about 8 on a scale of 10 (most of Jin Yong's books are 10). The strong points of Wang Du Lu's books are his characters and love stories. He reportedly wrote romantic novels before switching to wuxia novels. It's no wonder that he's very good at describing lovers' feelings and setting up love stories (although I think Ang Lee and his writers outdid him in the desert encounter scene). The characters in his books are also very vividly developed. Even some secondary characters such as Liu Tai Bao are well defined. I agree with Ang Lee that the 4th book ? "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" - in the series is the best. It has a much tighter structure and one center character ? Yu Jiao Long - that is very complex and real. Most of his characters are flawed in some ways. There are not many clean-cut good guys or bad guys in his books. I can see why Ang Lee was attracted to the project.
Now some not so good points. First, Wang Du Lu's books follow mostly classical Chinese novels' structure, with shifting narratives and viewpoints. But sometimes he would mix in some contemporary romanticism that was a bit jarring. This could be a result of his period. He wrote these novels in the 20s, when Chinese writers just started shifting from classical writing style to speaking style of writing ("Bai Hwa Wen"). The mixing was probably still experimental and a bit rough. Overall, his writing is above average.
Second, he had very little imagination when it came to martial arts skills. While Jin Yong and other writers would name and theorize different moves and styles, Wang Du Lu sticked with the fundamentals and seldom gave rationales why one fighter was better than the other. Readers have to accept that Li Mu Bai was better than almost everybody else because he's trained by good fighters. (He learned it from both his master Ji Guan Jieh and his father's brother-by-oath Southern Crane.) We learned that his skills were traditional Wudan styles, but we didn't know what type of skills they were. One thrill in reading wuxia novels is to see how the hero or heroine develops better skills and moves by learning from different teachers or manuscripts and what those skills and moves are. There's not much of this in Wang Du Lu's novels.
Third, he paid absolutely no heed to any politics or ethnic conflicts in Ching Dynasty. He could have set the story in any dynasty and it wouldn't have missed a beat. He accepted the status quo. Manchurians and Hans lived together peacefully in his novels and there's nothing wrong for Hans climbing social ladders in Manchurian government. He even seemed to think of it as the "right thing" to do. For example, in the 5th book, he used a 3rd party to express regret that Luo didn't follow the path Jiao Long wanted him to follow. He seemed to place the blame on Luo's failure to climb the social ladder instead of on Jiao Long's deep-rooted idea of class. It's a strange stand, considering the historical context. From the very beginning of Ching Dynasty, Han fighters with martial arts skills formed the cores of almost all underground rebellious groups against Manchurian rule. The most famous and powerful one was Tian Di Hwei, and later Hung Men. For a renowned Han martial arts fighter such as Li Mu Bai not involved in any of the conflicts and even befriending Manchurian aristocrats is strange indeed. This limits the impact of the "realism" he seemed to try to achieve.
Unlike other wuxia novels, Wang Du Lu tried very hard to set the Giang Hu world squarely within the "real" society. His characters had to worry about breaking the law by killing bad guys. Even breaking out of the jail was not an option because that would make them fugitives. He's the only wuxia novelist I know that tried so hard to mingle the Giang Hu world and the real world. But it's depressing to read our heroes have to endure harassments or tortures by corrupt or abusive officials. The fun of wuxia novels is that these fighters could and did thumb their noses at corrupt officials. To read Shiow Lien's father died because a city major's son lusted after Shiow Lien and jailed him as a way of blackmailing simply takes out part of the fun of reading wuxia novels. In another instance, he described how Li Mu Bai was starving on the road when he's running away from the law. I was rolling my eyes. Li had a sword. He's good at martial arts. And he couldn't find any wild animals to kill on the countryside? Please. Another example is how he made class difference into an insurmountable obstacle in CTHD. That's also rare in wuxia novels. In Giang Hu, skills were far more important than background. Whoever with the highest skills was considered the elite or the royal in Giang Hu. Nobody really cared about your birthright (unless your birthright meant highest martial arts skills). In my opinion, Wang tried too hard to be realistic and killed part of the joy of wuxia novels in the process.
Another thing is the tragic endings. I don't have a problem with tragic endings, but Wang seemed to have a particular liking to tragic endings, even when a tragic ending isn't necessary. Case in point is the romance between Li Mu Bai and Yu Shiow Lien. Once her fianc?died, there's nothing in societal rules or Giang Hu's honor codes that said they couldn't get married. She's not even Meng's widow. But Wang decided to give them a tragic ending for unfathomable reasons. Even Jiao Long's leaving Luo seemed a bit arbitrary. Wang was known by his contemporary as the "Tragic Writer". Either he really wanted to differentiate himself that way or as reported, that he had a hard life, hence, didn't want his characters have happy endings. I don't know which.
These are some of my thoughts about Wang Du Lu's books. To be frank, I think Ang Lee made a 10-star film out of an 8-star material. I heard investors are pushing Ang Lee for a prequel, or even a sequel. I don't think either one would be as interesting as CTHD because CTHD is the best book in the series. If Ang Lee wants to try his hand again in wuxia novels, I'd suggest Jin Yong's "Sheh Diao Ying Hsiung Chuan" ("Legend of Falcon-Hunting Heroes"), which was set on the grandest stage possible - Genghis Kahn's Mongolia, or "Sheng Diao Hsia Lu" ("Couple with The Magic Eagle"), the sequel to "Sheh Diao Ying Hsiung Chuan" and one of the best love stories ever told in a wuxia novel. Although Jin Yong's novels have been made into movies and TV series many times in both Taiwan and Hong Kong, in my opinion, nobody has captured the scope of the former or the characters of the latter yet.
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