Jiuyang Zhenjing

Jiuyang Zhenjing
Traditional Chinese	九陽真經
Simplified Chinese	九阳真经
Literal meaning	Nine Yang True Classic
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Jiǔ Yáng Zhēn Jīng Cantonese (Yue) - Jyutping Gau2 Joeng4 Zan1 Ging1

The Jiuyang Zhenjing, also known as the Nine Yang Manual, is a fictional martial arts manual from Jin Yong's Condor Trilogy. It is first introduced briefly at the end of the second novel in the trilogy, The Return of the Condor Heroes. It plays a significant role in the third novel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber after Zhang Wuji discovers it and masters the skills in the manual.

Origin

The manual's origin is sketchy, as opposed to that of its counterpart Nine Yin Manual. Rumours say that the manual is written by the founder of Shaolin Monastery, Bodhidharma, but these rumours have never been verified to be true. The manual is also never published as a single book, in contrast with the Nine Yin Manual, which comes in two volumes. The manual's contents are written between the lines of the Lanvakatara Sutra, one of the many various Buddhist scriptures in the library of Shaolin.

The Return of the Condor Heroes

Hence, the manual's existence is not known to the jianghu until it is stolen by Yin Kexi and Xiaoxiangzi at the end of The Return of the Condor Heroes. The Shaolin librarian Jueyuan and his young disciple Zhang Junbao pursue the thieves all the way to Mount Hua to retrieve the stolen book. They encounter the new Five Greats (Huang Yaoshi, Yang Guo, Guo Jing, Yideng and Zhou Botong), who are just departing from Mount Hua after paying their respects to the late Hong Qigong and Ouyang Feng.

Zhang Junbao defeats Yin Kexi and Xiaoxiangzi with the help of Yang Guo but he still has not found the missing manual yet. In fact, Yin has already hidden the manual in the abdomen of a white gorilla. Subsequently, Yin and Xiaoxiangzi becomes suspicious of each other that each of them is intending to keep the manual for himself. They fight to seize possession of the manual and ultimately Yin kills Xiaoxiangzi but he also is fatally wounded and remains in a moribund state. Yin meets the Kunlun Sect elder He Zudao and makes a dying confession to He, telling him to inform Shaolin where the manual is. He mishears "The manual is in the ape." as "The manual is in the oil." and passes on the wrong words to others. The mystery of the whereabouts of the manual puzzles pugilists for nearly a century. He also disappears mysteriously after being defeated by Jueyuan in a fight.

The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber

Jueyuan passes on his knowledge of the manual

Jueyuan is unable to recover the lost manual as the only people who know its whereabouts are either missing or dead and he returns to Shaolin Monastery after his futile attempt. However, Jueyuan has already read the entire text of the manual and practised martial arts based on its principles before. He is unaware of the manual's true value and cultivates strong inner energy from the practice. He imparts sections of the manual he learnt to his disciple, Zhang Junbao. Zhang builds up a strong inner energy foundation from the practice which later becomes useful when he proceeds to practise more advanced martial arts.

Three years later, a powerful pugilist travels to Shaolin to challenge the sect and none from Shaolin is able to defeat him. Jueyuan takes up the challenge and he defeats the challenger. The Shaolin members are surprised when they see Jueyuan, who has been bound by the sect's rules not to practise any form of martial arts, exhibit such powerful skills during the fight. According to the rules of the sect, Jueyuan must be put to death for violating the rules by practising martial arts when he is banned from doing so. Zhang Junbao is also to be killed as well. Jueyuan expresses his willingness to accept the punishment and he begs for Zhang's life to be spared but is denied.

At the critical moment, Jueyuan breaks loose and escapes with Zhang. They run into Guo Xiang, the younger daughter of Guo Jing and Huang Rong, at the foot of Mount Song (Shaolin is based on the mountain). Guo defends them from the pursuing Shaolin monks and they engage in a fierce battle. The three of them decide to retreat as they are no match for the full force of Shaolin and also because they do not wish to develop feuds with Shaolin. Jueyuan carries Zhang and Guo to safety but he overexerts himself and coughs blood later. Jueyuan is on the verge of death and he recites the text of the Nine Yang Manual from memory to Guo Xiang, Zhang Junbao and Wuse (a Shaolin monk) before his death. As the three of them have significant differences in their levels of understanding of martial arts, their interpretations of the manual's verses vary.

The Shaolin, Wudang and Emei sects have their own versions of the Nine Yang Manual after Wuse, Zhang Junbao and Guo Xiang pass on their knowledge to their respective sects. As Guo has the best memory of the three of them, Emei's version is the longest. However, Shaolin's version is the most powerful because Wuse is superior to Guo and Zhang in terms of martial arts and he integrates the manual's skills with his own. As for Zhang, who spent the longest time with Jueyuan, he recalls the most original and purest version of the manual. The three simplified versions of the manual eventually become known as "Shaolin Nine Yang Skill" (少林九陽功), "Wudang Nine Yang Skill" (武當九陽功), and "Emei Nine Yang Skill" (峨嵋九陽功).

The manual's influence on various sects

Zhang Junbao and Guo Xiang incorporate various principles of the Nine Yang Manual into their own martial arts abilities and become more powerful pugilists as they grow older. Zhang Junbao (later renamed to "Zhang Sanfeng") and Guo Xiang found the Wudang and Emei sects respectively decades later. Their skills are passed on to their disciples and later become infused into their sects' martial arts. Wuse returns to Shaolin and passes on his knowledge of the manual to the disciples of Shaolin. The manual's skills find their way into the martial arts of three of the leading sects in the wulin.

Despite the common belief that the Nine Yang Manual has Buddhist origins, Zhang Sanfeng begins to doubt this claim as he delves further into the text. He notices that the principles and philosophy of the skills depicted in the manual are very much Taoist in nature rather. He also points out that the manual is written in Han Chinese characters instead of Sanskrit, the language that the alleged creator Bodhidharma would have used. Zhang develops the famous Taiji Fist based on the principles of the manual.

Zhang Wuji finds the manual

No one possesses the complete version of the Nine Yang Manual since it was stolen from Shaolin. Zhang Sanfeng, Guo Xiang and Wuse only grasped parts of the manual from Jueyuan's incomplete recitation of the manual's text. Zhang Wuji discovers the white gorilla by chance. He uses his medical knowledge to remove the hidden manual inside the ape's abdomen, which is placed inside by Yin Kexi after he stole it nearly a century ago. As Zhang had previously learned Wudang's simplified version of the manual, he is able to understand its content and spends five years mastering the skills in the manual. He develops the "Nine Yang Divine Skill" (九陽神功) from his study of the manual and uses it to heal himself of his wounds caused by the Xuanming Elders' "Xuanming Divine Palm". Zhang later buries the manual, along with the books about medicine and toxicology (written by Hu Qingniu and Wang Nangu), in an unknown valley located within the Kunlun Mountains. Zhang integrates his knowledge of the manual's skills with other martial arts he learnt and becomes a formidable pugilist.

Notes

External links

• (Chinese) Jiuyang Zhenjing on Baidu Baike