Customer Reviews

The Eleventh Son: A Novel Of Martial Arts And Tangled Love

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The first official English translation of a novel by the most popular modern writer of "wuxia" (Chinese swordplay) fiction. This one is the source novel of a classic Shaw Brothers movie starring Ti Lung, "Swordsman & Enchantress." It's a lively and readable translation and a fine piece of bookmaking. Congratulations to everyone involved!

As far as I know, this is Gu Long's second novel published in the West. The first was Christine Courniot's French translation of "Les Quatre Brigands du Huabei" available from amazon.fr. This is the first professional and complete English translation done by Rebecca Tai. Those of us who have an interest in martial arts fiction, seek out novels like this one but you do not have to be a martial arts officionado to appreciate this excellent novel. Gu Long, more than Louis Cha, has a poetic style of writing that is unique to the genre of Chinese martial arts fiction. I find the settings of his novels lush and beautiful which leaves a lot to the imagination. Gu Long has acute psychological insight into human nature combined with the human relational understanding of honour and shame.
All these things aside, this if a fine adventure novel that follows the exploits of Xiao Xiyi Lang, an upstanding martial arts master who acts vis a vis an uncompromising martial code of honour. The characters are fascinating, the situations that these characters find themselves in are at times fantastic but that is typical of literature that encompasses history and fantasy. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It was a new and refreshing experience.

This book is the only official translated wuxia novel of by the Late Gu Long (Ku Long, Ku lung) available in English to date. Gu Long is one of the three best wuxia writers ever, so having one his novels finally being recognized is indeed wonderful. While comparing it to other translated wuxia novels are rather unfair, because Gu Long has his own distinct writing style, nevertheless in technical aspect of translating, Becky Tai, the translator, exceeded the rest, mainly when compared John Minfor and Graham Earnshaw.

Becky Tai maintained the writer's original writing style and mood, even if the words and sentences are now in English. Additionally, Becky kept the names and important terms in Chinese pinyin and explained them to her readers, a much better approach than changing character's name into English or ignorantly using the term "Karate" for Chinese martial arts, like Minford did in his translation of The Deer and the Cauldron.

Overall, this book worths every penny and should be collected by anyone who love the "wuxia" (Chinese knight-errand) genre but unable to read Chinese characters nor any other Asian language in which many wuxia novels have been translated. If you are interested to read the second book, it is currently being translated by Gu Long fans at wuxia mania forum, just google it.

I am the translator. I appreciate every reader's comments about this book. It's not my place to judge the value of Gu Long's work. I was just trying my best to translate Gu's story based on my own understanding and interpretation. However, I do have to defend my translation. Gu never wrote "Men are more sensitive than women." The comment in question is from p. 217. Please see the third line from the bottom of the page. I will give the quote here: "Women are much more sensitive then men." I wouldn't say this comment is universal truth or common sense. No matter what Gu did write, someone would be offended. However, to tell the truth, if Gu had indeed said it the other way around, I might not have been inspired to translate this novel in the first place.

For those who are curious about what this story is really about, below is a book review from YellowBridge, a Chinese-American guide:

Despite the popularity of movies such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "House of Flying Daggers", the English reader does not have too many choices when it comes to finding the martial art novels that inspired these type of movies in the first place. The first modern master of the genre to be translated into English was Louis Cha, who was based in Hong Kong and is the undisputed giant of the genre. With the translation of "The Eleventh Son", we have an excellent sample from another great writer, Gu Long, who was based in Taiwan. Gu Long ("Ancient Dragon") was the pseudonym for Xiong Yaohua (1937-1985), who is considered one of the top martial arts novelists. He wrote sixty nine over a twenty-five year career that was cut short at age 48, when he died due to liver failure caused by excessive drinking. "The Eleventh Son", published in Chinese in 1973, was a popular source for several movies and TV series, including Swordsman and Enchantment, a 1978 hit movie. Gu Long also published a sequel to the novel in 1976 but "The Eleventh Son" stands complete on its own.

The title character of "The Eleventh Son", Xiao Shiyi Lang, is an atypical hero even in the colorful pantheon of kung fu heroes. He is a true free spirit who, having no permanent home or family, aimlessly roams the land as he likes. He is highly skilled in the martial arts but he does not have the reputation for selfless service we come to expect of kung fu heroes. On the other hand, the established martial arts community is led by a group of exalted gentlemen whose martial skills are apparently only matched by their virtues. In fact, their reputation is such that the core group of six members is known as the "Six Ideal Gentlemen". Although Xiao's alleged crimes have never been witnessed by anyone, the "Ideal Gentlemen" have already labeled him as the "Great Bandit", a ruffian that needs to be stopped lest he sully the reputation of the whole martials arts community.

These two worlds collide when Xiao happens to rescue Shen Bijun, the most beautiful woman in the martial world, from repeated kidnap attempts. Shen is the daughter of a prominent family and happens to be married to Lian Chengbi, an accomplished martial artist from an equally respected family. In other words, Shen was already married to her perfect match, at least by the standards of Chinese society. Unfortunately for Xiao, Lian also happens to be one of the "Six Ideal Gentlemen" who are out to get him. Because of injuries they sustained as well as lies spread by Xiao's enemies, Xiao and Shen spend weeks on their own and on the run from the "Ideal Gentlemen" as well as from the person who tried to kidnap Shen in the first place. Although Shen is never unfaithful to her husband and Xiao's behavior towards her is always aboveboard, Gu Long is able to weave an ever more intense web of emotions between the characters even though they never actually reveal their inner feelings to each other. To make things more complicated, Xiao is not without his female admirers. His sometime drinking buddy and probably only friend is another free-spirit martial artist called Feng Sinian, who is probably secretly in love with him. It was Feng's scheme to steal a famed sword that put Xiao in the path of Shen Bijun in the first place.

The powder keg environment that Gu Long has created is perfect for the novel's twin themes of love and hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is dealt with straightforwardly. Without giving too much of the plot away, we can say that the "Ideal Gentlemen" simply aren't so ideal after all. They all have skeletons in their closets that are the real reason they are all so bent on killing the presumed bandit. But in the subject of love, and more specifically, the pain of love is where Gu Long really shines. I have never read a novel in which the pain is so palpable even though the presumed love between the two protagonists is never actually spelled out. Both Xiao and Shen are mindful of what the proper behavior between two unrelated person of the opposite sex would be. Neither ever considers running away with the other. There's never a spoken expression of love or even a kiss. And yet no stronger bond of love could ever be created. Each is prepared to sacrifice himself or herself to save the other. Whereas many a writer has written about unrequited love, Gu Long has made a strong case that requited love can be even more painful.

As only the second martial arts writer in English translation, Gu Long is certain to invite comparison to Louis Cha. The two writers, who actually knew each other, are equally adept at surprising and entertaining their readers but use very different techniques. Both writers were well-read in both Western and Chinese novels and thus brought new vigor to the Chinese novel. Louis Cha tends to infuse his novels with historical facts and freely weaving historical personages, both real and mythical into novels. His novels tend to have a large cast of characters and they often interact with the historical figures. The result is that his novels tend to have an epic quality to them. Gu Long, on the other hand, as the translator reminds us, was very conscious of how novels, even those set in ancient times could be interpreted by government censors as commentaries on the present. To avoid possible censorship, he explicitly avoided historical references. As a result, the novel does not give much clue to identify the specific time period. The number of key characters is relatively small but they are described in rich detail. There's also an underlying sensuality that is usually lacking in kung fu novels. The overall effect is a much more human-scale novel that is the perfect laboratory of human emotions.

As translator Rebecca S. Tai writes in the introduction, Gu Long, introduced a unique writing style characterized by very short paragraphs, many just one sentence long. Gu Long also sprinkles very interesting personal observations about human behavior throughout the narrative. His wry observations, a few of which could appear dated or politically incorrect to a Western reader, help understand the motivation behind his characters.

This is one of the first translated novel from the famed Chinese martial arts fiction write Gu Long. It's well translated and takes you back in time to a mythical China thousands of years ago, when martial art and chinese beauties went hand in hand. The world Gu Long creates is romanticized with diverse characters both good and evil, and all well versed in the martial arts. With great character development, Xiao, Feng, and Shen are very believeable and sometimes humorous. This is like a literary version of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, or House of Flying Daggers. Kudos to Rebecca Tai for translating and Homa for bringing a great Chinese literary gem to the states!

Few martial arts novels by major writers have been translated into English, so we're grateful for the few translators like Rebecca Tai, who does a great job translating this novel into idiomatic English. Unfortunately, content-wise, the novel's characters start out interesting but become increasingly contrived as the story progresses, which sucks both the fun and the drama out of the story.

The story starts out with a description of Feng, a wild, uninhibited and beautiful bandit girl who is a great, fun character. She has a crush on Xiao Xiyi Lang, an infamous bandit and awesome martial artist who is the "Eleventh Son" of the title. The book is fun as long as these two bandits are flirting and quarreling.

Unfortunately for the reader, two things happen: First, the fun Feng disappears from the story. The major female character becomes Shen, beautiful, married and virtuous, and much more boring than Feng. Second, Xiao Xiyi Lang's character changes: he ceases to be a wild, fun, uninhibited bandit and instead becomes a noble, misunderstood sad sack, a morally perfect saint and object of pity who is unjustly accused of countless crimes he did not commit.

After the fun Feng disappears from the story, we meet the married and virtuous Shen, "the most beautiful woman in the martial world", but whose martial arts are overrated-- her only skill is hurling golden needles. When she runs out of needles, as she does early on, she's a helpless damsel in distress, so Xiao must rescue her over and over. (At least Feng, though less beautiful and less virtuous, could take care of herself-- I guess beauty and virtue are inversely proportional to self-reliance.)

Early on, we are led to believe the story will center around a famous blue sword called the Deer Carver. Xiao Xiyi is framed for its theft. But the story thereafter becomes centered on Xiao saving Shen over and over. A romantic conflict is set up as Shen feels attracted to him, but she is too virtuous to cheat on her husband. The plotline about the Deer Carver is abandoned; we never find out what happened to the sword, who stole it, etc. Instead, the plot mostly consists of Shen learning over and over how misunderstood and unfairly slandered the hero is.

Xiao is made into an object of extreme pity, rather than a real, breathing person. Nobody, nobody, understands poor Xiao (except maybe the beautiful Shen.) He is framed and victimized by all the book's other male characters. It's not clear why they all pick poor Xiao Xiyi Lang to frame for crimes, but anyway, the world is against him.

The protagonist is an alcoholic, and given that the author Gu Long was an alcoholic, one cannot help feeling Xiao is a stand-in for the author. This by itself is not necessarily bad, as many drunk authors have created drunken alter-egos of themselves. But if we compare this with, say, F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender is the Night" or Kerouac's "Dharma Bums", those authors create drunken alter-egos, but do not encourage us to see them as victims of external cruelty. When an author creates an alter-ego, he must observe two rules: A. don't make him the noblest person in the room, and B. don't ask us to see him as a pitiful victim of external circumstances. Gu Long breaks those rules, and portrays alcoholism as a sentimental malady, a symptom of romantic disappointment. That ain't realistic.

As for the writing style, as others have pointed out, Gu Long has a unique style, consisting of short paragraphs maybe containing just one sentence, and minimal description, with the kind of spareness that some consider profound. Rebecca Tai's translation captures the feeling of the original style, so my Chinese friends tell me. But you may not like the style.

The author constantly inserts comments about human nature, psychological/emotional "insights". Some of these "insights" are obvious, and others are questionable or wrong. On p.302, he writes, "Most women are slightly more optimistic, because they don't look as far into the future." Now that point I dispute. Most women think further into the future than men, worrying about house downpayments and/or having babies etc., while most men rarely think further into the future than the next orgasm. (Note: when I first wrote this review, I misquoted this, getting it mixed up with the quote on p.217, "Women are much more sensitive than men," a point I do not dispute. The translater, Ms. Tai, pointed out my mistake.)

Later on p. 302 he writes, "Dying is a painful thing for most people." Gee, ya think?

Clearly Gu Long's style is very polarizing, some love it, some hate it. Most of the other reviewers posting below love him. The Chinese people I know (who have read the original) hate him.

There are few enough martial arts novels translated into English, and I would hate to discourage the few translators in the field like Ms. Tai. So I don't much enjoy giving this book a low rating. But a man's gotta be honest.

At any rate this is not the translator's fault, and I hope she goes on to translate more martial arts authors.

I think those who are criticizing the story are all new to the "Wuxia" novel genre, and unfamiliar with the writing style of the venerable Gu Long. Short paragraphs and short fighting scenes are two distinct traits of most of his works. If Jin Yong is the harbinger of light or optimistic writer in this genre, then Gu Long would have to be the ambassador of darkness and pessimism.

The one reviewer is correct that Gu Long is a polarizing writer, but in my case, my Chinese friends all love him --as do I. I have a hunch that Ms. Tai chose this novel to translate, because more than any other, it more a story of unfulfilled love than it is a story about martial arts.

The translation of this novel is first-class, and if not for Ms. Tai's efforts, I sadly would never have had the chance to enjoy it. I heartily recommend this for those who want to explore this untapped, yet rich genre of literature.

So yeah, I was super overdue in reading this novel. It was written in the late 60's, and I am assuming it was published as a serial in newspapers like most Wuxia novels in the era. The chapters take on a serial feel, and it is hard to comment on the writing style because you always wonder how much is a product of translation.

The Eleventh Son is tangled story indeed as characters weave into and out of the story. Some even drop out of the story altogether. The main character Xiao is not even introduced until a few chapters in. It would seem at first that the novel is about Xiao battling for a famous sword called "The Deer Carver." this maguffin is quickly forgotten as Xiao and a sinister female villian known as Little Mister battle over the Chinese countryside. The main story here is a messy love story between Xiao and a noble woman named Shen. Little Mister who is truly awesome villian frames Xiao for the murder of Shen's entire family. She knows better as Xiao is the one who saved her.

It is said that Long was more influenced by western writers than his competition and I only have Jin Young to compare him too. I can see a little more western influence in the structure of the novel, and the way he tells the story.

Some really cool and weird stuff happens along the way and you would expect in a Wuxia novel, there is a cool chapter where they encounter and battle gods of lightning and thunder. Perhaps my favorite part was a chapter called Doll manor, this super weird chapter finds Xiao and Shen tapped in a doll house worried that they have been shrunk and chaptered a kungfu magician. I was totally surprised by their escape and it was a super neat surprise. The coolest and most inventive part of the novel.

My biggest problem with the novel is that it ended with a set-up for sequel. That is not translated into English. Here is hoping the translator and publisher do this again. We need more Wuxia novels in print!

While most reviews tend to focus on the original content, I'm going to write about the translation. The translator makes a strong attempt at conveying the original author's style and rhythm, a goal stated explicitly in the translator's preface. This is generally a successful endeavor, although at times it does lead to some awkward dialogue and a few parts that are difficult to understand without background knowledge of Chinese culture. But then again, if a reader isn't interested in Chinese culture, what is he or she doing reading Wuxia novels, anyway?

Translation quality is very comprehensible, complete, and consistent from start to finish--good read.

Many write off Gu Long for being overly modern, and if your looking for a martial arts novel that goes into encyclopedic detail on the world of wuxia this is not it. Gu Long's approach to the wuxia novel appears to be extremely dry and terse at first glance, but this novel reveals itself as a contemplative work on human relationships and gender.

If what I have said holds any interest to the perspective buyer then the novel should hold interest as well.