Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain

For other uses, see Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain (disambiguation).

Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain
Cover page of the English translation of the novel
Author(s)	Jin Yong
Translator	Olivia Mok
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Chinese
Genre(s)	Wuxia
Publisher	Ming Pao Chinese University Press
Publication date	1959
Published in English	1996
Media type	Print
Preceded by	Other Tales of the Flying Fox

Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain
Traditional Chinese	雪山飛狐
Simplified Chinese	雪山飞狐
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Xuě Shān Fēi Hú Cantonese (Yue) - Jyutping Syut3 Saan1 Fei1 Wu4

Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain, also known as Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain, is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong. It was first serialized between February 9, 1959 and June 18, 1959 in Ming Pao.^[1]

The novel has a prequel, Other Tales of the Flying Fox, released in 1960. The novel is one of Jin Yong's shortest novels with only 10 chapters. The chapters are labelled in numerical order, instead of Jin Yong's typical style of using a short phrase or duilian as a chapter's heading.

Structure

Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain is unique in structure amongst Jin Yong's novels, because it employs a frame narrative as well as the literary devices of unreliable narrators and storytelling flashbacks.^[2] The actual time frame of the novel lasts only a day, but the stories encapsulated within stretch back months, years and even decades before.

In the revised afterword to the novel, Jin Yong states his inspiration does not derive from Akira Kurosawa's film Rashomon (as was mistakenly assumed by many people). The literary devices used in Flying Fox have been used very often in literature, such as in One Thousand and One Nights and Sanyan Erpai.^[3]

Plot

The story begins in the northeastern Changbai mountains of China, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor in the Qing Dynasty. It follows the classical unity of time, taking place on a single day, which is the 15th day of the third month of the Chinese calender, in the 45th year in the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (i.e. April 19, 1780 under the Gregorian calendar).

A group of pugilists unearth a treasure chest and begin fighting for it. The reason for them doing so is deliberately kept from the reader at this point of time. Midway during their tussle, they are overpowered and coerced by a highly skilled monk called Baoshu to travel to a manor at the top of Jade Brush Peak (玉筆峰), to help the manor's owner drive away an enemy called Hu Fei, also known as the "Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain". They start telling stories concerning the origin of a precious saber in the chest, their mysterious foe (Flying Fox) and slowly reveal each other's personal secrets.

The saber's story dates back over a century ago to the feuds of the four bodyguards under the warlord Li Zicheng, who led a rebellion to overthrow the Ming Dynasty. Their family names were Hu, Miao, Tian and Fan. Owing to a massive misunderstanding, which lasted several generations, their descendants had been slaying each other in a vendetta which prevented anyone of them from discovering the truth. The Hu clan were opposed to those from the Miao, Tian and Fan, the latter three which were allies.

The various pugilists gathering at the mountain manor are either all descendants of the four bodyguards or are otherwise embroiled in the feud. Hu Fei's father, Hu Yidao, was a male descendant who became involved with Miao Renfeng, a descendant from the Miao family. Both were masterful pugilists without peer. Miao Renfeng, Hu Yidao and his wife developed an uncommon friendship and grew to admire each other, but Hu Yidao and Miao Renfeng must fight unwilling duels to avenge their parents' deaths. Under the schemes of the villain Tian Guinong, Hu Yidao was slayed unintentionally by Miao Renfeng after his sword was smeared with poison by Tian Guinong. Hu Yidao's infant son, Hu Fei, was smuggled away and raised by a waiter named Ping A'si. Hu Fei eventually grew up to become the "Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain".

The various scheming pugilists are eventually punished by their greed. Hu Fei makes an appearance midway in the story.

The conflict reaches a climax when Miao Renfeng challenges Hu Fei to a duel owing to a misunderstanding that Hu Fei has intentionally molested Miao Ruolan and both of them fight for several rounds but neither emerges the victor. They are stranded on a cliff about to collapse under their weight and the novel comes to its climatic end. Hu Fei has an opportunity to attack Miao Renfeng and knock him off the cliff, but he hesitates as Miao may be his future father-in-law. If he refrains, both of them might fall to their deaths, otherwise he himself will certainly die as Miao Renfeng will kill him. The novel ends in a deliberate cliffhanger, leaving the conclusion to the reader's imagination.

Main characters

• Hu Fei (胡斐) - the protagonist of the novel and son of Hu Yidao. He is raised by Ping A'si after losing his parents shortly after birth. He trains hard in his family's martial arts and becomes a formidable pugilist and legendary hero, earning the nickname of "Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain" (雪山飛狐).

• Hu Yidao (胡一刀) - the legendary hero of Liaodong. He was highly respected by the ethnic minority tribes living in the north not only for his prowess in martial arts, but also for his gregarious character. He befriends Miao Renfeng despite the past feuds of their ancestors. He was killed unintentionally by Miao Renfeng.

• Miao Renfeng (苗人鳳) - a formidable pugilist nicknamed "Golden-faced Buddha" (金面佛). He forged a friendship with Hu Yidao despite the past feuds of their ancestors. He killed Hu Yidao unintentionally and has been feeling guilty for it.

• Miao Ruolan (苗若蘭) - Miao Renfeng's daughter. She is forbidden to learn martial arts by her father, who does so to remind himself of the guilt of killing Hu Yidao accidentally. She falls in love with Hu Fei.

• Tian Guinong (田歸農) - a descendant of one of the four bodyguards. He is a scheming and unscrupulous, and plots to kill Hu Yidao and Miao Renfeng in his bid for power and social status. He smeared poison on their weapons and caused the death of Hu Yidao indirectly.

• Ping A'si (平阿四) - a young man indebted to Hu Yidao, who had once saved his life. He rescued the infant Hu Fei and raised him to repay Hu Yidao's kindness. He is humble and shy by nature and always feels inferior to others.

• Nan Lan (南蘭) - Miao Renfeng's wife and Miao Ruolan's mother. She was born in an aristocrat family so she is spoilt and extravagant by nature. After her marriage to Miao Renfeng, she is unable to cope with his frugal lifestyle and decides to leave with Tian Guinong.

Adaptations

Films

Year	Production	Cast	Additional information
1964	Emei Film Company (Hong Kong)	Chiang Han, Pearl Au, Lee Yuet-ching, Shih Kien	See The Flying Fox in the Snowy Mountains

Television

Many of the television adaptations combine the plots of Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain and Other Tales of the Flying Fox.

Year	Production	Cast	Additional information
1978	CTV (Hong Kong)	Barry Chan, Jason Pai, Law Lok-lam, Michelle Yim, Wen Hsueh-erh, Lee Tong-ming	See The Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain (1978 TV series)
1985	TVB (Hong Kong)	Ray Lui, Patrick Tse, Kenneth Tsang, Rebecca Chan, Chow Sau-lan, King Doi-yum, Margie Tsang	See The Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain (1985 TV series)
1991	TTV (Taiwan)	Meng Fei, Mini Kung, Mu Sicheng, Tong Chun-chung, Wu Yujuan, Wang Luyao	See The Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain (1991 TV series)
1999	TVB (Hong Kong)	Sunny Chan, Felix Wong, Wan Yeung-ming, Cheung Siu-fai, Maggie Siu, Charmaine Sheh, Joyce Tang	See The Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain (1999 TV series)
2006	ATV (Hong Kong)	Nie Yuan, Gillian Chung, Athena Chu, Ady An, Patrick Tam, Alex Fong, Anthony Wong	See Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain (2006 TV series)

Radio broadcasts

• In 1981, Hong Kong's RTHK made a 15 episodes radio broadcast of the novel.

Translations

An English translation by Olivia Mok was published in 1996 under the title Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain.

References

1. ^ The date conforms to the data published in 陳鎮輝,《武俠小說逍遙談》, 2000, 匯智出版有限公司, pp. 57.
2. ^ "金庸创作了《雪山飞狐》...将整部小说的结构，推向了一个新的境界，通过一连串的倒叙，倒叙出自每一个人的口中，有每一个人之间的说法，有极度扑朔迷离的情形下，将当年发生的事，一步一步加以揭露……这是一种独特的表达方式……每一个人既然都站在自己的立场，为自己的利益作打算来叙述发生的事": 倪匡，《我看金庸小说》(Ni Kuang, Jin Yong novels as I read them)
3. ^ “我用几个人讲故事的形式写《雪山飞狐》，报上还没发表完，香港就有很多读者写信问我：是不是模仿电影《罗生门》？这样说的人中，甚至有一位很有学问的我的好朋友。我有点生气，只简单的回复：请读中国的《三言二拍》，请读外国的《天方夜谭》，请读基督教圣经《旧约列王纪上十六一二十八》……日本电影《罗生门》在香港放映，很受欢迎，一般人受了这电影的教育，以为如果有两人说话不同，其中一人说的是假话，那就是《罗生门》……其实，说道讲真假故事，世上自有《天方夜谭》之后，横扫全球，“罗生门”何足道哉？……” 世纪新修版《雪山飞狐》，后记 (Revised afterword to Flying Fox New Century edition)

External links

• (Chinese) Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain on Baidu Baike
• English translation of the novel at Wuxiapedia