The Edition Research Of The Legend Of The Condor Heroes

In 1955, Jin Yong's (Louis Cha's) first martial arts novel The Book and the Sword was serializd on The New Evening Post at the invitation of Luo Fu. Jin completed his last martial arts fiction in 1972, after which he officially retired from writing. He has written a total of 15 pieces. Jin spent the next ten years after 1970 editing and revising his literary works, and the first complete collection of his works appeared in 1980. Since then he has become a martial arts master with the advent of a"time"of his own. In 2002 Jin revised his novels for the second time and the newly revised edition was published in 2005. In the field of pure literature,"revision"is a common part in the process of composition. Many writers spend no less time and energy revising than composing, and a number of prestigious writers all experienced repeated revisions before the final completeness. However, in the history of popular literature, people seldom spent so much time on revision or treated it so seriously as Jin did. Mr. Jin's revisions do not only involve the realization of the basic orientation of the martial arts novels, but also the evaluation on their value. In this sense, the academic circle should pay more attention on this issue of Jin's revisions, and we should ponder on it as well. Nevertheless, nearly all of the previous scholars kept on exploring the classic characteristics of his works. They started their reviews on the whole, and then made their analyses on a specific novel from such perspectives as the theme, the meaning, the variety of cultures or the rich historical consciousness of the novel. But few scholars attach any importance on the edition issue of Jin's works, not to mention the significance of the revisions for Jin's works, if not for the standardization of popular literature.Therefore, it is meaningful to do this research on the edition issue of Jin Yong's works. This paper analyzes the different editions of Jin's novels in different regions and makes a comprehensive comparison of the academic value and art value between the old edition, the popular edition and the newly revised edition of''Legend of the Condor Heroes'', based on which the author aims to explore the underlying reasons of Jin's revision issue, its contribution for the reputation of Jin's works, its influence on martial arts novels and even its influence on popular literature as a whole.