What's the difference between Jin Yong's and Gu Long's novels?

Jin Yong emphasized man's responsibility and significance to society, and wrote "the great man of chivalry", while Gu Long paid more attention to the meaning of man as a free individual and wrote "the romantic trend of chivalry". Of course, this is just an overview, not to say that Jin Yong ignored the free existence of human beings, and Gu Long ignored the social responsibility of human beings, just saying that they each had their own emphasis. This is manifested in the following aspects: (1) Different interpretations of human desires. Both Jin Yong's and Gu Long's works focus on expressing people's desires. After all, talent is the most active and active factor in the whole work, and only people with profound human nature can show the most valuable humanistic care spirit contained in the work.

Both Jin Yong and Gu Long attached great importance to the realization of human desire. This desire is the expression of human natural instinct. For example, the heroes in Gu Long's works, Chu Liuxiang, Li Xunhuan and Master Lu Feng, all have the most sincere friendship, the sweetest love, the fullest material enjoyment and live a free life. What they have is the desire of ordinary people and the beautiful life that ordinary people yearn for. Different from the characters in Gu Long's novels, the hero in Jin Yong's novels is not pursuing worldly wealth and enjoyment, but the righteousness of the country and the nation. But they are not the embodiment of rigid "righteousness", but a group of heroes with strong and sincere emotional world and persistent and tenacious pursuit. Most of them are spontaneous, brave and upright, with a strong individualistic color.

Lust for power and lust have the same embodiment in Jin Yong's and Gu Long's works, but the emphasis is different. In the depths of Gu Long's novels, it is often lust that drives the plot development. For example, the love of the sword is bizarre and chaotic, but the behind-the-scenes manipulator is Ji's pain, Ji's sadness and Yu. These three people have incest and extramarital affairs, and the darkest side of human nature is among them. It is Gu Long who reveals these irrational psychological behaviors caused by greed, anger and infatuation in human nature, and concentrates them in one place to construct a crazy world. At the same time, by expressing his thoughts directly, he tactfully criticized the ethical model of the previous generation's hatred turning into secular karma, and created a new generation of Jianghu people full of humanity and human feelings, which made us see the dawn of hope and contained unique artistic charm. Open-minded, tolerant, witty, full of love and confidence in human beings, is the pursuit of Chu Liuxiang's life, but also a symbol of Gu Long's personality.

But in Jin Yong's works, there is more power struggle: in the legendary swordsman, Zuo Lengchan of Songshan School and Yue Buqun of Huashan School conspire with each other for the champion of Wulin; In "Eight Dragons", the Murong family tried their best to restore the country, and they did not hesitate to sow discord and make the Wulin blood shed; In The Legend of the Condor Heroes, Song, Jin and Meng competed for the Central Plains, and Wulin experts gathered in the Jianghu to compete for Jiuyin Zhen Jing. A "right" and a "profit" have become the main sources of all contradictions and disputes in Jin Yong's works. But as Murong Bo said, "Shu Ren is like dust, and emperors are like dust. The Great Yan State is no longer empty, and the restored State is also empty. " [1] Behind all the disputes over power and money, it turned out to be the emptiness of life. Life seems unlikely, far from perfect. Even if it is perfect in the end, there will inevitably be a feeling of being at a loss. All the goals have been achieved, but they are still empty. The joys and sorrows of China people are often mixed with a sense of loss. Therefore, after despair, the chivalrous people have to pursue and build their own spiritual home in sorrow, that is, seclusion.

However, both the obsession with power and the obsession with lust stem from the selfishness and greed of human nature. Jin Yong and Gu Long felt a lot of unspeakable confusion when they were constantly exploring and going deep into the characters' hearts, so their works showed a kind of hidden pain, a kind of helplessness to beauty and evil, love and hate, and the team suggested that no matter how you explain it, the tragedy would continue from generation to generation. (2) Stories in martial arts novels often occur in ancient society. Many of Liang Yusheng's novels are set in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Its purpose is to put the characters in the background of more cruel, complicated and wonderful political struggle and national struggle, and to show the colorful and magnificent martial arts world with a higher perspective and a broader vision.

At this point, the historical background of Jin Yong's novels is more clear, and most of them are based on historical turmoil. For example, The Legend of the Condor Heroes was written in the early Southern Song Dynasty, and the confrontation between Song and Jin led to the rise of Mongolia. The historical background of Tianlong Babu is the mid-Northern Song Dynasty, with Song, Liao, Xixia, Tubo and Dali criss-crossing. The background of Duke Lushan's era was the conflict between Manchu and Han in the early Qing Dynasty. Jin Yong's choice of the background of the times also serves the content and characterization of the novel. Turbulent times can better reflect heroic pride. Compared with the cowardly and corrupt bureaucrats in the temple, chivalrous people have a distinct sense of national justice. As Guo Jing said, "for the country and the people, chivalry is great" [2]. The highest definition of chivalry is "for the country and the people", which is the sublimation of chivalry. Although the hero in Jin Yong's novels is no longer a temple, he is a real hero who takes the world as his duty.

However, Gu Long is the antithesis of Jin Yong. He is completely divorced from history. In his novels, we can't find a specific historical background that can be clearly defined. "A little bit bound by any constraints, but with emotional brushwork, close to real life" [3]. There are two reasons for this. On the one hand, the political atmosphere in Taiwan Province Province is still in a state of "high pressure". In order to avoid the suspicion of "stabbing the present with the past", Gu Long simply did not talk about history. On the other hand, what Gu Long's novels want to express is the attitude of modern people towards life. Avoiding specific historical time and space is more conducive to the free development of characters' emotions. Therefore, his novels focus not on the reflection and review of history, but on the feelings of real life, so they are full of modern flavor. For example, the attitude and enjoyment of the protagonist Chu Liuxiang towards life and the rule of law he advocated all have a strong modern flavor. It can be said that modern people are placed in a fictional ancient world. But his characters are not only the shadows of modern people, but also include Gu Long's understanding and ideal of modern people. The leisurely life of the protagonist in the novel can be said to be a denial and transcendence of modern life, with a strong rhythm of life.

It can be seen that Gu Long tried to express the feelings of modern people, so he put aside all the constraints of historical environment and time, only explored real life with perceptual brushstrokes, and explored how human nature developed in a state of pure interpersonal communication, thus creating a mysterious and modern romantic art world that neither needs historical support nor can be supported by history. In this world, his characters come and go freely, happy and resentful, and show "chivalrous romance" incisively and vividly. (3) Different language styles The language of a well-behaved work must also be unique. If the language of Jin Yong's novels is classical and elegant, then the language of Gu Long's novels is flying and smart.

The elegant chivalrous language culture of China's classical vernacular novels is a unique traditional culture in China. The use of traditional language symbols can better express China's inherent cultural heritage. Jin Yong's novels mostly use the language of China's classical vernacular novels, which are concise and elegant. The authors of all modern words and concepts try their best to avoid it, such as replacing modern saying with the word "Tao" in classical Chinese, replacing modern Chinese with the sentence pattern "kindness" in classical Chinese, and replacing thought with "turning around", "thinking" and "thinking". Sentences vary in length, from a dozen words long to four words short, with beautiful rhyme and distinct sense of rhythm. In the choice of sentence patterns, the novels mostly use single sentences and short sentences, without long and tedious modifiers, and the structure is simple and very concise, which is the characteristic of the language of China classical vernacular novels. Jin Yong applied China's language to the extreme. Some people say that a great contribution of Jin Yong's novels is to correct the bad habit of Europeanization of new literature since the May 4th Movement. Jin Yong's language and writing activated the regeneration of Chinese characters in modern times, and showed the charm of Chinese characters again.

Gu Long is obviously different. His language is sharp and powerful, his sentences are short, his syntax is changeable, he avoids straightforward narration, and his writing is full of jumps and shocks. He draws lessons from Hemingway and other western writers, and promotes the development of the story with the help of concise, fluent and humorous oral dialogue. After absorbing the advantages of many schools, Gu Long's language strives for novelty, change and profound meaning, and writes in sections with prose poems, thus creating a telegraph-style "Gu Long Style".

On the one hand, the differences in language styles between Jin Yong and Gu Long are related to their personalities, and more importantly, to the themes of their works. Jin Yong strives to be a "great man of chivalry", so his language is closer to the ancient traditional language of China, which is convenient for expressing Confucian feelings of "worrying about the country and the people"; Gu Long pursues "chivalrous romance", and his language is concise and lively, full of rhythm and jumping, which more richly expresses the feelings of the prodigal son in his works. Generally speaking, the hero in Jin Yong's novels pursues "the great man of chivalry" and does whatever it takes to serve the country and the people. Gu long pursues "chivalrous romance", is wild and unrestrained, and is free and easy.

Jin Yong's novels emphasize the unity of individual consciousness and group consciousness, which is also the main expression of the combination of May 4th spirit and traditional culture in his works. The spirit of the May 4th Movement emphasizes individual freedom, while traditional culture advocates group consciousness. The hero in Jin Yong's novels not only has the free personality of chivalrous men, but also has a strong national spirit and sense of hardship. They are free and happy, and have the courage to take responsibility in front of the country's righteousness. These two seemingly contradictory things have reached a perfect unity in Jin Yong's works: the spirit of "chivalry" embodies the dignity of being a man and saving the world, and the essence of being a free and unrestrained individual, and the so-called "national justice" is no longer the court, but the social responsibility that chivalrous people think should and must bear, and also the expression of their independent personality and frank nature. This is essentially different from the traditional "loyalty to the country". Therefore, when Jin Yong takes the broad mind of national justice as the criterion for judging heroes, he not only walks out of the pivot of monarch and minister, but also pursues patriotism based on maintaining independent personality and individual freedom, without ignoring the inherent spirit of freedom in martial arts texts.

However, in Gu Long's works, the rise and fall of the country and the national justice are rarely involved. He pays more attention to the value of human existence as an independent individual and the equality and respect between people. This value is innate, and this equality and respect only come from people's abstract morality and conscience. When Chu Liuxiang exposed the plot without flowers, he said, "I can only expose your secret, but I can't punish you. No one in the world has the right to take other people's lives ... "[4] Flowers all over the building show another realm of life. He is blind, but he never feels sorry for himself. But to appreciate the world with a bright heart and love the life in this world with all your strength. This realm is what Gu Long admires most. This lofty spirit of ignoring practical utility shines with the brilliance of idealism and romanticism.

If Jin Yong is a hero, then Gu Long is a prodigal son. Jin Yong's novels are profound and meaningful; Gu Long's novels are smart, romantic and poetic. The ideological concepts and spiritual connotations embodied in their works play a positive role in the construction of spiritual civilization of modern mankind as a whole. With their own creation, they promoted the connotation of martial arts novels, completed the transformation of martial arts texts from vulgarity to elegance, created a number of vivid characters from the height of human nature, made up and enriched the galleries of China literature, and made great contributions.