Cao Yunqi (simplified: 曹云奇, traditional: 曹云奇, pinyin: Cáo Yúnqí, jyutping: cou4 wan4 kei4), known in the jianghu as “Soaring Dragon Jian” (腾龙剑), is the senior disciple of Tian Guinong and the newly named zhangmen of the Northern Branch of the Tianlong School in Jin Yong’s Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain. He also appears briefly in Side Story of the Flying Fox.
Biography
In Side Story of the Flying Fox
At Fuk’anggan’s Grand Assembly of Zhangmen under Heaven, Cao Yunqi attends his shifu as his senior disciple. He hands Tian Guinong a long jian for his bout with Tong Huaidao, and later shouts a warning when someone flicks an iron pellet at Tian’s wine cup (SIDE ch. 18).
Pursuit of the Taos
Tian Guinong named Cao head of the Northern Branch on the day he sealed his jian and retired, shortly before he died (ch. 7). Cao believes that Tao Zian, betrothed to his shimei Tian Qingwen, murdered his shifu and stole the school’s treasured dao. With his shishu Ruan Shizhong, his shidi Zhou Yunyang, Tian Qingwen, and Yin Ji, zhangmen of the Southern Branch, he rides beyond the pass to hunt Tao Baisui and his son.
On the way he quarrels jealously with Tian Qingwen over a golden pen engraved with the character 安, which he takes for a love token from Tao Zian. At one point he turns his jian on himself, and she parries it. When the Taos dig up the iron box they buried, Cao means to kill Tao Zian with Poison Dragon Awls during Ruan’s ambush. Tian Qingwen knocks his arm aside and the awls miss. He then attacks Tao Zian with White Rainbow Pierces the Sun and fights him and Zheng Sanniang together (ch. 1).
On Jade Brush Peak
At Du Ximeng’s manor on Jade Brush Peak, Cao sees Tian Qingwen being kind to Hu Fei’s twin page boys. In a jealous rage he snatches the jian off both their backs. With their bare hands the boys throw him to the floor three times. He then fights them with his own jian, joined by Zhou Yunyang and later by the rest of the company, and has his jian cut through by one of their daggers (ch. 2).
On Ruan Shizhong’s signal he tries to shoulder Baoshu off the cliff edge. Baoshu leans aside, and Cao plunges over. Hu Fei, coming up the rope at that moment, catches him and sends him back up to announce his arrival (ch. 6).
That evening Yin Ji recounts what he overheard on the night Tian Guinong died: Ruan telling Tian that Cao and Tian Qingwen had had a child. Tao Zian then describes finding the infant smothered in her bed. Tao Zian attacks Cao with his dao and Tao Baisui with a chair, and no one from the Tianlong School comes to Cao’s aid (ch. 7). Later Cao seizes Li Zicheng’s Treasured Dao and runs, until Baoshu’s iron bead strikes his shoulder and he drops it (ch. 8).
The treasure cave
In the cave behind the peak Cao finds a second golden pen and brawls with Tao Zian in the dark. Tian Qingwen tells him, “You have ruined my whole life,” and declares that she belongs to Tao Zian alone (ch. 8). When Hu Fei appears at the cave mouth, Baoshu throws Cao into the fire to put it out, but only sets him ablaze. Hu Fei then leaves the treasure-seekers to their greed and rolls the boulder back across the entrance, sealing them in. The novel leaves their fate open (ch. 10).
Personality
Cao Yunqi is jealous, quick to anger and reckless. His shimei says she dislikes his “thunderbolt temper that cares for nothing”. Tian Guinong wished he had some of Tao Zian’s shrewdness. The text also credits him with one virtue: once he takes something on, he goes straight at it, as when he leads the way into the cave with a torch (ch. 1, 7, 8).
Relationships
- Tian Guinong (Shifu): Cao was his senior disciple, and Tian named him zhangmen of the Northern Branch.
- Tian Qingwen (Shimei): He loves her. By Ruan Shizhong’s account she bore him a child, which she smothered.
- Tao Zian (Rival): Tian Qingwen’s betrothed, whom Cao suspects of murdering his shifu.
- Ruan Shizhong (Shishu): Ruan is Tian Guinong’s shidi. On the night of Tian’s death he pressed Tian to make him zhangmen instead of Cao.
- Zhou Yunyang (Shidi).
Martial arts
Cao Yunqi has made real progress in both the palm and jian arts of the Tianlong School. He uses White Rainbow Pierces the Sun and Erlang Bears the Mountain, a killing move of the Northern Branch, and throws the school’s Poison Dragon Awls. His qinggong falls well short of Yin Ji’s (ch. 1, 2).