Mu Nianci

Mu Nianci
Created by	Jin Yong
Novel appearances	The Legend of the Condor Heroes
Information
Gender	Female
Date of Birth	1205
Date of Death	1235
Family	Mu Yi (foster father)
Spouse(s)	Yang Kang (not legally wed)
Children	Yang Guo (son), Yellow Dress Maiden (descendant)
Affliations
Teachers	Hong Qigong (unofficial teacher)
Skills and abilities
Unarmed combat skills	Carefree Fist

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Mu.

Mu Nianci
Traditional Chinese	穆念慈
Simplified Chinese	穆念慈
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Mù Niàn Cí Cantonese (Yue) - Jyutping Muk6 Nim6 Ci4

Mu Nianci is a character in Jin Yong's wuxia novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes. She is the love interest of the primary antagonist Yang Kang and the mother of Yang Guo, the protagonist of the sequel novel The Return of the Condor Heroes. Jin Yong describes her appearance as "firm like a piece of jade, despite appearing weather-beaten, she is beautiful, with bright eyes and sparkling white teeth." (玉立亭亭，雖然臉有風塵之色，但明眸皓齒，容顏娟好)^[1][2]

Mu Nianci and Qin Nanqin

The character of Mu Nianci in the current edition of The Legend of the Condor Heroes is actually an amalgam of the original character of Mu and another character called Qin Nanqin (秦南琴). In the first edition, Nianci is the love interest of Yang Kang, but she is not the mother of Yang Guo. Nanqin lives with her grandfather and they catch snakes for a living. After Guo Jing saves her, she develops a crush on him. However, Nanqin is raped by Yang Kang and Nianci arrives too late to stop him. Nanqin becomes pregnant and gives birth to Yang Guo subsequently. Nanqin becomes a nun and travels with Nianci before settling down to raise her child. After Yang Kang was poisoned, Nianci performs a coup de grâce on him and commits suicide to join him in death. Nanqin later also died after being bitten by a snake, but entrusts her son to Guo Jing before her death. Jin Yong felt that Nanqin's role is unnecessary and decided to merge the characters of Nianci and Nanqin as one in later editions.

Biography

Mu Nianci was from Hetang Village (荷塘村) in Lin'an province (present-day Hangzhou). She became an orphan shortly after birth when an epidemic killed her family. Months ago, her family offered shelter to an injured Mu Yi, who was escaping from Duan Tiande. When Mu Yi returned to her home to offer assistance in combating the plague, he saw that she was the only survivor out of her family of seven (her parents and four brothers died) and decided to adopt the infant girl to repay her family's kindness. When Mu Nianci becomes older, her foster father decides that it is time for him to find a suitable spouse for her. They travel around the land, staging martial arts contest for interested men to participate. The contestant must defeat Mu Nianci in order to win her hand-in-marriage. However, no man has been able to defeat Mu. She learnt some martial arts from Hong Qigong after a brief encounter with him earlier, in addition to those taught to her by her foster father.

Once, Mu Yi and Mu Nianci arrive in the capital city of the Jin Dynasty to stage another contest. A young Jurchen prince named Wanyan Kang joins the contest out of mischief and he defeats Mu Nianci easily. According to the rules of the contest, Wanyan must marry Mu, but he refuses. He molested Mu during the contest and took her shoe as a souvenir. Mu Yi is displeased with Wanyan's attitude and he insists that Wanyan marries his daughter. Wanyan turns violent and shoves Mu Yi away. Guo Jing, who has been watching the contest nearby, stands up for Mu Yi and he chides Wanyan for his behavior. Guo and Wanyan start to fight.

Just then, the prince's mother, Bao Xiruo, arrives on the scene and stops the fight. Mu Yi recognises Bao and is stunned. Mu is actually Yang Tiexin, Bao's first husband, who was apparently killed 19 years ago. Wanyan Kang is actually Yang's biological son, Yang Kang. Wanyan refuses to acknowledge his father and his parents commit suicide after being cornered by Wanyan Honglie. Before dying, Yang Tiexin discovers that the young man who stood up for him earlier is actually the son of his late sworn brother. He decides that Guo could be a suitable spouse for his foster daughter. However, both of them refuse Yang's arrangement, as Guo is romantically involved with Huang Rong and Mu Nianci already has feelings for Yang Kang.

Mu Nianci attempts to kill Wanyan Honglie to avenge her foster father but Yang Kang intervenes and stops her. In fact, Yang has fallen in love with her ever since he first met her during the contest. Their love relationship gradually becomes more complicated. Yang is unwilling to give up his status as a Jurchen noble so he can enjoy wealth, fame and power. Mu tries to persuade him to give up and follow her to become an ordinary Han Chinese citizen of the Song Dynasty. Yang reveals his treacherous nature and collaborates with the Jurchens to exploit his own race. Concurrently, he lies to Mu and pretends to have changed for the better.

Mu discovers Yang's villainous deeds eventually and decides to leave him for good. They never meet each other again, even after Yang got his retribution. However, Mu is already pregnant with Yang's child and still loves him despite his misdeeds. She gives birth to the child shortly after Yang's death. The boy is named "Yang Guo" by Guo Jing, who hopes that the child will redeem his family's honour by doing good and never follow his father's footsteps. Mu raises Yang Guo all by herself for 11 years before her death due to illness. Following his mother's instructions before her demise, Yang Guo had her remains cremated and buried at the Temple of the Iron Spear, in hope of reuniting her with his father in death.

Martial arts and skills

Carefree Fist

Mu learnt the "Carefree Fist" (逍遙遊) when she was 13 from Hong Qigong in a ruined temple in Kaifeng. Using the early martial arts training by her foster father as a foundation, she masters the skill within three days. When a combatant utilizes the skill, he or she is elegant, extremely light, agile, and appears as if he or she is dancing. Every motion is as beautiful as that of a jade yanornis or huge eagle.^[3]

Notes

1. ^ The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 7 page 280
2. ^ cnnovels.net
3. ^ cnnovels.net - Chapter 12

References

• (Chinese) 穆念慈：真情终是一场空 - extract about Mu Nianci from Rankings of Characters in Jin Yong's Works (金庸人物排行榜) by Tan Xianmao (覃贤茂)
• (Chinese) 秦南琴：值得纪念的人物 - extract about Qin Nanqin from Rankings of Characters in Jin Yong's Works (金庸人物排行榜) by Tan Xianmao (覃贤茂)

External links

• (Chinese) Mu Nianci on Baidu Baike
• (Chinese) Qin Nanqin on Baidu Baike