大唐双龙传 [Da Tang Shuang Long Zhuan] by Huang Yi

[HPC7595]

Thanks foxs

[akolaw]

真正引人入胜的是历史
What really attractive is history.

[akolaw]

Spoiler warning.

In the following interview, Huang Yi talk about his fictions. From his comment, we can form an view on his value, priorities, and parameters he set for his stories, we can understand why he write his book this way, and appreciate more of his hard work. HY only spent one to two line on each fiction, so, no in depth analysis, I don't see it as spoiler, but I think some will.

[akolaw]

很多人对《大唐双龙传》的结尾不满意，这个是读者太投入了。他们已经将寇仲和徐子陵当成自己， 都希望自己是 最后的胜利者。但我是没法子不向历史屈服的。要是项少龙杀了秦始皇，谁去收拾那个局面呢？
Lots of readers not satisfy with the ending of ( Da Tang ), these readers got carried away (by the fiction), and took Kou and Xu as themselves, and hope they will be the final victor, but I have no way but submit to History. If Xiang Shaolong killed Qin Shi Huang, who is going to tidy up the situation.

[akolaw]

我明白读者的想法 ，他们觉得起码应该打赢李世民一次。但在历史上李世民真的没输过。
我小时候，有一次经过图书馆，拿了《三国演义》来看，看了几个钟头，开头不觉得好看，但越看越 好看。所以《 三国演义》已经在我的精神里面了。
I understand the readers' mindset, they think (Kou) should at least win over Li Sieman onve, but historically Li Seiman really had never lost.
When I was very young, once I went through a library and borrowed Romance of Three Kingdom. I read that for hours, in the beginning, I don't feel how good it is, but the longer I read, the more attractive it become, so Romance of Three kingdom is in my spirit.

[akolaw]

你知不知道那时我好希望诸葛亮 赢呢？我很不希望看到关云长这么个死法，被 人火烧连营。但小说其实就是这样才好看。如果我将《三国演义》全改了，诸葛亮赢了，我们不会对 它留下什么印 象。现在这样的结局，让我们觉得悲剧英雄是最感人的.
Do you know at that time I really wish Zhuge Liang can win. I do not wish to see Guan Yu die in such a way, with the burning of the link camp. Say if I change all that in (Romance of Three Kingdom), Zhuge Liang won the war, we won't have a (long lasting) impression, but ending like that, we feel that tragic hero are most touching.

[akolaw]

大唐双龙传》是小混混成就了一个大事业。当然我可以写一个模范的人，但那不是真正的我，我只能 写一些与自 己有共鸣的人。我觉得任何小说最主要的都是对人物的刻画，我希望写有血有肉的人。
Da Tang Shuang Long Zhuan is a story of minor gangster making big accomplishment. Of course I can write someone who is like a role model, but that is not the real ME. I can only write some character that I can echo with. I that the most important part of any fiction is the characterization of the characters. I wish to write characters with flesh and blood.

[akolaw]

很多人喜欢《大唐双龙传》里的婠婠。现实就是这样，你很难说一个人就是正或者邪，人性是很复杂 的，黑白分明 ，永远无关真相。甚至你到监狱里问杀人凶手，你会发现每个人都有一个故事，他们也有完整的逻辑 和理由。
A lot of readers like Wanwan of Da Tang, In reality, you will find it difficult to name somebody righteous or evil. human nature is very complicated. absolute righteous or evil is never true. If you interview murderers in the jail, you will find every one of them have a story, and they also have their complete logic and reasons.

[akolaw]

我们有一个心理上的惰性，就是希望事物简单点，清楚分明，而不管真相是如何。就像你做记者去报 道一件事情， 你也会把它尽量简化，让人家容易接受。
We have a psychic laziness, we wish things could be more simple, clear in black and white, in spite of the truth. Just like you as a reporter when you made a report, you would probably try your best to simplify it and made it more receivable by readers.

[akolaw]

《边荒传说》是我最喜欢的小说。泰国的读者觉得《边荒传说》是我写得最好的一本书，有《大唐双 龙传》的东西 ，也有《寻秦记》的东西，所以在这本书里，看到我的野心。
In all the fictions that I have wrote, I like Bien fong tuen sui/ Legend of the Border wasteland the most. Thailand readers think that this is my best fiction, it combine something in Da Tang and something in Searching for Qin/asitp , and see my ambition in this book.

note: Huang Yi's fiction have official thai edition.

[foxs]

Ysabel, Jaya, Abhay, DongBin, HPC, you are welcome. Zlack, in that case, you'll have to wait for a long time, since we are only about 20% of the novel. Sky, that's the problem with protagonists: we know they won't die this soon. Akolaw, I agree with you that it's not a spoiler. The title itself is a big spoiler. And I agree with Huang Yi too, unless it happened in some parallel universe, he should not, and must not, change history. Even when reading Jin Yong's Trilogy, I knew that in the end the Mongols would won, and that after that, Zhu Yuanzhang would become the first Emperor of Ming. So I never thought that somehow Guo Jing or Yang Guo would overthrow the Mongols, or that Zhang Wuji would become the Emperor, since that would be changing history.

---

Qu Ao was a great martial art master of the present age. Finally he decided to crumble the loftiness in Xu Ziling’s heart. As long as the opponent was thinking of how many moves he could survive Qu Ao’s attack, naturally a feeling of unable to withstand the enemy would grow in his heart, and then the loftiness would diminish.

Smiling slightly, Xu Ziling said, “Old Qu, you are getting on in years, yet still so naïve. Right now I have preserved and nurtured my spirit, plus I have helping hands nearby. While you, Old Qu, have been rushing around for two days, and have risked your life in a strenuous battle. You have become a weary army who cannot afford to make the slightest miscalculation, or else you will implicate the illustrious name you painstakingly established all your life and let it down the drain.”

Qu Ao shivered in fear, because for the first time he saw how formidable Xu Ziling was.

The most puzzling thing was that the opponent seemed to be filled with vitality and ample spirit, without showing the least bit of lack of true qi and the exhaustion of the hard battle earlier and the tiring journey of running away for their lives. It was simply impossible.

Although he wounded Ba Fenghan earlier, his victory was really not easy; plus under Ba Fenghan’s counterattack, he suffered minor internal injury. And then in order to pursue the enemy, he did not have time to recover his energy, and thus like Xu Ziling said, he had become a tired army.

The most formidable aspect from Xu Ziling’s remark was the implication about his age being young and his reputation being far below his, so that losing would not be a great deal to him, while on the other hand, Qu Ao simply could not afford to lose.

Suddenly Qu Ao sensed that Xu Ziling appeared to be unfathomable.

Previously, every time he faced an enemy, he was always able to see through the opponent, but this time was an exception.

Even if Bi Xuan, Ning Daoqi, or the like were in his place, they might also be similarly overcome with anxiety and doubt. Even Xu Ziling himself did not understand it; he seemed to understand the situation he was currently facing, yet he did not seem to recognize it for what it actually was.

All because the ‘Secret to Long Life’ was not a secret that was passed on from generation to generation, it agreed implicitly with the concept of Man and Heaven, that everything was beyond the natural world, from Laozi’s [Lao-tze] own word, the Law of Heaven: ‘Road to road, extraordinary road’, ‘mystery within a mystery, arriving at its wonderful gate’. [From the ‘Book of Changes’. Sorry, it’s beyond me.]

Just now Xu Ziling skillfully obtained the image of the Heavenly Law penetrating the unspeakable, the nonexistent moment, something that ordinary people would not be able to see or could not understand clearly, where the essence and qi of the human body mixed with the essence and qi of the heaven and earth to become one entity, like a moment of enlightenment all of a sudden recovered the consumed true qi to nearing completion, and still have enough strength to forge ahead vigorously. Such a mysterious principle, who could understand? [Definitely not me, I just translated it as is. Sorry …]

An unspeakable feeling also grew in Qu Ao’s heart. But he has made his name for several decades, his will was as steadfast as a rock, hence he would never let discouragement overwhelm him. With a cold snort, fast as lightning he charged up the sloping hill toward Xu Ziling.

But contrary to Qu Ao’s expectation, Xu Ziling also leaped up to meet Qu Ao in the air.

Qu Ao was thinking that Xu Ziling would stay at the top of the slope to defend his position to the death and not letting Qu Ao to cross the line even half a step, to prevent him from going after Ba Fenghan and Kou Zhong, who were in hiding.

But now Xu Ziling was staking everything up by leaving the passage wide open, without any apprehension he attacked with all his might; how could Qu Ao not be surprised?

It’s just that at this moment Qu Ao did not have the luxury to analyze the situation. His ten fingers spread open, he pushed the ground with his toes, and leaped up to meet the attack. His ten fingers generated powerful qi energy, sealing both Xu Ziling’s incoming momentum and his escape route tightly, so that the only way out for Xu Ziling was to fight in total disregard of everything else.

Seeing Qu Ao’s claw was abstruse and unfathomable, extending and retracting indeterminately that it was hard to pin down, and it sealed the opponent’s movement with incomparable tightness, but suddenly changed course midway from offense to defense, Xu Ziling could not help letting out a long laugh, unexpectedly made a somersault in the air to rise half a zhang up, so that he was in a higher position looking down, and sent out a double punches in full strength to invade the shadow of Qu Ao’s claw.

The sound of colliding qi rang out continuously.

In the blink of an eye the two combatants have exchanged more than a dozen moves.

Amidst the dull grunt, Xu Ziling floated back to the top of the slope; he had to stagger one step back before he was able to gain a firm foothold. His left pants leg shattered into small pieces, two visible blood traces appeared, with fresh blood still oozing from them. Trace of blood also appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Qu Ao was standing straight at the middle of the slope, his countenance ashen, his eyes flashing with ominous glint.

Just now he already gave it everything he had; who would have thought that Xu Ziling sent out amazing moves one after another, each move neutralized his killer move? How could he not lose face and his pair of eyes lost its light?

Xu Ziling laughed aloud and said, “I told you Old Qu, you are tired! Yet you insist on showing off. En garde!”

This time even Qu Ao had to respect his heroism and boldness. Just now it could be said that Xu Ziling had gone through mortal danger and escaped alive. Were it not for his quick thinking of evading the attack on the vital part below his groin by blocking Qu Ao’s exquisite claw using his leg, this moment he would have been lying on the ground.

Right now the blood has not stopped flowing, yet he returned in a swirl of dust. Qu Ao could not help viewing him in a new light, but at the same time he also fanned out the murderous intent in Qu Ao’s heart.

Again, without any visible posture, Qu Ao charged toward Xu Ziling. “Let’s try another move!” he said with a laugh.

Xu Ziling saw Qu Ao’s palm hacking down at an angle, his stance and footwork contained limitless changes, all of a sudden a continuous flow of powerful qi completely enveloped him like the undulating wave; he knew that in his anger Qu Ao went all out to attack him. Naturally Xu Ziling did not dare to meet the attack head on. Abruptly he took three steps back, and then subsequently sent out three punches over the distance.

Even with his deep cultivation, Qu Ao was still taken aback.

In an outsider’s eye, this punch was completely senseless, yet it had completely blocked Qu Ao from making any changes to his move.

Supposing Qu Ao kept to his original plan of continuing his palm attack following the original path, before he was able to make any changes, undoubtedly it would meet the opponent’s razor-sharp punch head on.

Such an amazing move, it was the first time in his life that he had ever seen.

Under normal circumstances where his condition was at its peak, even if he did not have enough time to regenerate his power, he had full confidence that he would be able to shake the opponent and to make him spurting blood and falling back. However, right now his body was weary his strength exhausted, he was only able to use sixty, seventy-percent of his normal power; if he forced himself to meet the attack head-on, he could not guarantee the outcome.

Shouting angrily, Qu Ao sidestepped and kicked Xu Ziling’s open right flank.

Seeing his ploy worked, Xu Ziling’s spirit rose up greatly, his confidence boosted, his hands turned into thousands of fantastical palm shadows, raining down on Qu Ao in wild attack.

Seeing this junior, this younger generation actually seized this opportunity to take the initiative in offensive moves, Qu Ao nearly went mad from anger. Promptly he focused his mind to unleash the ‘Thirteen-Style Eagle Transformation’, which was heavily imbued with his true divine energy.

This ‘Thirteen-Style Eagle Transformation’ was actually the essence of the martial arts that Qu Ao created. It transformed complicated martial arts into simplicity, merging the incomparably complex palm, finger, claw, and many other styles into these thirteen styles, combining it with soaring, leaping, flashing, shifting and many other shenfa [reminder: motion in martial arts]. The changes were undefined, so that it was difficult to estimate, like flying eagle in the sky swooping down on its prey with profound accuracy.

Xu Ziling has just had a feel of the change before his eyes, Qu Ao already flew upward, while unleashing mercury-like, which flowed swiftly, no-hole-not-penetrated, violent and ferocious attack.

The initiative was back into the opponent’s hands.

Xu Ziling knew that in terms of experience, martial art skill and insight, he was a level below the opponent. Without any better option he clenched his teeth and relied mainly on dodging and evading, with blocking and parrying as secondary mechanism, while using the amazing moves from Yijian Technique to strenuously withstand the opponent’s powerful-like-the-Great-River, pouring-down-in-torrents violent offensive.

Qu Ao sprang up and dropped down again, looking exactly like an eagle sending out wave after wave of attack toward Xu Ziling.

‘Wah!’

Xu Ziling spurted out blood and fell to the ground; with his right foot raised, he met Qu Ao’s piercing fingertips. He was in extremely grave danger.

Qu Ao rose about a zhang up in the air, while shouting loudly, “This date next year will be the anniversary of your death.”

Both palms struck down in full power.

Xu Ziling hurriedly rolled down the slope. The ground where he was immediately sank, two palm prints appeared.

Having used up his true qi, Qu Ao landed on the slope.

Suddenly the sound of saber and sword splitting the air came from behind.

‘Bang!’

Xu Ziling, who had just struggled to stand up, fell down again. This time he could not crawl back up.

In a flash, as quick as a flint spark, Qu Ao already employed his internal energy to examine his own condition, and knew that in his eagerness to kill Xu Ziling, he was presumptuously using the ‘Thirteen-Style Eagle Transformation’, which was not suitable to be used when his true qi was suffering from the wear and tear of his body.

And now while he had no strength left, he had to deal with Ba Fenghan and Kou Zhong’s combined assault.

Making a prompt decision, Qu Ao sidestepped the attack, and disappeared into the darkness of the mountain and fields.

Ba Fenghan and Kou Zhong made their awe-inspiring presence known on the top of the sloping hill; they stood majestically as they watched Qu Ao disappeared without any trace, before looking down at Xu Ziling, who was trying to climb back up. And then, looking at each other, they smiled wryly and dropped down on their knees together. Other than panting heavily, they were unable to say anything.

[wangxiaohu]

I'm also panting heavily reading this part. Thank you Foxs.

[HPC7595]

Thanks foxs

[LuDongBin]

Superb! Thks foxs.

[Jayariyin]

Thanks, foxs.

[Ysabelkid]

Thanks foxs

[Abhay]

Thanks Foxs

[akolaw]

大唐双龙传》的很多读者认为寇仲没当上皇帝是种遗憾。而我在《边荒传说》中的两三个主角，一个 就成为北方 霸主，一个成为南方开国之君。看《大唐》有遗憾的人就在这里得到补偿，这就是小说的好处。
A lot of readers regret that in Da Tang, Kou eventually did not made it to emperor, However in the two to three leads in Bien Fong, one become overlord in the North, while the other become the founding father of a state in the South. Any regretful readers of Da Tang would be make it up here. This is the (special) merit of fiction.

Note: the main lead in Bien Fong is neither of the above.

[akolaw]

《边荒传说》里，我虚拟了“边荒宅”。说书馆也是现实世界中有的，说书人其实是我的代言人。我 在写一个故事 ，我自己甚至是故事里的一个角色，参与了故事的进程。
I have created a storytelling hall call 边荒宅/Bien Fong Residence in the fiction 边荒传说/Bien Fong. The Storyteller is actually my prolocutor, I write a story that I myself become a character of the story and even participate in the procedure of the story.

[akolaw]

说故事”是人类的传统，从古到今。这本书最后结尾， 是说书人一直在写一本小说，小说就叫《边荒传说》。我将小说的现实和真正的现实结合了。在别的 小说里，我没 写过这样的东西。
Storytelling is a tradition of mankind from time immemorial. In the end, the storyteller wrote a fiction call 《边荒传说》/Bien Fong/ the legend of Border Wasteland. I mingle the reality of fiction and true reality. In my other fiction, I have never wrote similar things.

note:this part is full of the taste of buddhism.