Lin Chaoying

Lin Chaoying (林朝英) is a fictional character in Jinyong's "Condor Trilogy".

Lin Chaoying is mentioned throughout the novel "The Return of the Condor Heroes". She was also briefly mentioned in chapter 1 of "The Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber".

* Martial Arts: Jade Maiden Manual
* Status in Wulin: Founder of the Ancient Tomb School

History

Lin Chaoying, with her repertoire in martial art skills, had put herself in the top list of the foremost and greatest martial artists in that era, namely the famous Five Great Fighters such as the Eastern Heretic, the Southern Emperor, the Western Poison, the Northern Beggar and the Central Divinity.

Lin Chaoying met Wang Chongyang (王重陽) earlier in her life and they were very close to each other. They corresponded while Wang Chongyang was at war with the Jurchens and most of the letters were still neatly kept by her. Later, she was responsible for forcing Wang Chongyang out of his long seclusion with severe scoldings after his great loss to the Jurchen armies. Thereon, both of them roamed the realm of martial arts together to assist the helpless and would often practise martial arts together to develop their martial arts to a higher level. Both fell in love with each other, unfortunately their egos and pride got in their way. Lin Chaoying would often indirectly show hints of love towards Wang Chongyang, but due to bestowed responsibility to defend the Central Plain, he feigned ignorance thereby rejecting her. Lin Chaoying was deeply disappointed and angered, mistakenly thinking that Wang Chongyang despised her. In the end Lin Chaoying and Wang Chongyang agreed to have a battle to sort out all their differences. The two battled at Mount Zhongnan, exchanging several thousand moves. As Wang Chongyang held back, the two of them reached a draw.

Lin Chaoying proposed one final duel to end it all. If Wang Chongyang could defeat her, she would leave him alone by committing suicide. But if she won, he would have to either surrender the Ancient Tomb to her or become a Taoist priest or Buddhist monk and live near the Tomb for at least ten years. Her implicit intention was that if Wang Chongyang surrendered the Tomb to her, he would marry her and live in the tomb together. However, if he did not want to do this, he had to become a Taoist priest or Buddhist monk. In this way, she prevented him from marrying someone else.

Wang Chongyang agreed and asked how they should duel. Lin Chaoying said that whoever could write on a stone slab with his/her bare fingers would be the winner. Wang Chongyang knew he could not do it and admitted defeat. Lin Chaoying walked over and touched the slab a few times. By touching the slab, she had smeared a chemical substance on the slab making the stone soft. She then started to write a poem on the slab and smiled wryly to Wang Chongyang that he was destined to become a Taoist priest.

Lin Chao Ying won and Wang Chongyang surrendered the Tomb. Unexpectedly for her, Wang Chongyang became a Taoist priest the next day and lived on Mount Zhongnan.

This was the time when her breathtaking and unmatchable martial art skills vanished from Jianghu.

After she moved into the Tomb with a nameless young maid, who later became her first disciple, she explored the Tomb and discovered a strangely built stone chamber where Wang had carved a set of impressive martial art techniques. To counter and keep up with Wang’s skills, she came up with a complete genuine set of martial art, which she later called Scripture of Jade Maiden’s Heart. However, the techniques were never put into practice and the training itself too was never fully accomplished because it required two people to be in sync while training.

Decades later, she died in grief and of heartbreak. She consolidated and streamlined all her other martial art techniques and skills acquired during her lifetime. These were passed on to her nameless disciple who in return taught them to her own recruited disciples, Li Mochou and Xiaolongnü, the-heiress-to-be of Ancient Tomb Sect. Besides that, Lin too laid down a few strict rules for those who became the disciples of Ancient Tomb Sect. The nameless maid later hired an old servant, Grandma Sun, to look after Li and Long as well as to take charge of the tomb’s household matters.