Chen Yu (simplified: 陈禹, traditional: 陳禹, pinyin: Chén Yǔ, jyutping: can4 jyu5) is a fighter of the Taiji School’s Northern Branch at Guangping Prefecture in Zhili, serving in the household of Fuk’anggan, in Jin Yong’s Side Story of the Flying Fox. Capable, shrewd and smooth, he has a long-established name in the jianghu and is well liked among his fellow retainers, but to learn his school’s secret formulas he murdered his shishu Lü Xixian and Lü’s young son (SIDE ch. 3, 4).
Biography
The crime
The Guangping Taiji School’s founder, surnamed Sun, had three disciples: Sun Gangfeng, the eldest and now zhangmen; Chen Yu’s father, the second; and Lü Xixian, the third and strongest. Chen’s father died early without passing on the school’s secret formulas (SIDE ch. 4). Chen served in the household of Prince Ding, who recommended him to Fuk’anggan (SIDE ch. 4). According to Sun Gangfeng, Chen long pressed Sun and Lü to reveal the Chaos Rings Formula and the Yin-Yang Formula, the keys to Taiji Fist, and used Prince Ding’s power to lean on Lü when they refused. At last he came by night with three others to Lü’s sickbed, seized Lü’s only son and threatened to kill him unless Lü spoke; he killed the boy with his jian, then wore the sick Lü out with Cloud Hands until he died of exhaustion. Lü’s young daughter saw it all from outside the window (SIDE ch. 4).
Sun Gangfeng, unable to deal with Chen himself, cut off his own left hand, wrote a letter in its blood and sent the girl to find Zhao Banshan of the Taiji School’s Southern Branch, in the Western Regions (SIDE ch. 4).
At Shang Family Fort
Chen rides with Fuk’anggan to Shang Family Fort, where Fuk’anggan sends him to keep Ma Xingkong company while he courts Ma Chunhua (SIDE ch. 3). Zhao Banshan arrives that night with Lü’s daughter, who points Chen out at once. Chen insists that the Wenzhou and Guangping Taiji schools are of one school but separate branches, so that Zhao has no authority over him, and strikes first; Zhao pins him with a single Cloud Hands move, and when Chen’s friend Yin Zhongxiang of the Tianlong School attacks from behind, Zhao snaps Yin’s jian with Chen’s own (SIDE ch. 3).
Chen then takes the girl hostage with a dagger at her back, claims that he was acting on Prince Ding’s orders and that Lü died of a fit, and when Sun Gangfeng himself appears and contradicts him, still bargains his way to the door, Zhao letting him go for the girl’s sake (SIDE ch. 4). As he backs out, the boy Hu Fei jumps on a chair and urinates in his eyes, then rolls the girl clear (SIDE ch. 4).
Death
Surrounded, Chen hears Zhao Banshan recite and explain the two formulas he had killed for, and is overjoyed; the lesson is really meant for Hu Fei. Zhao then draws him into push-hands and, seeing his terror as the Cloud Hands close on him, eases off. When Chen strikes at his unguarded back with Step Forward, Deflect and Punch, Zhao turns the blow aside and, following moves Hu Fei calls out, lands a slap on his back that could as easily have killed him. Trying to break away, Chen seizes Zhao and hoists him into the air, but Zhao stays aloft, bearing down on his arms, until Chen has sweated himself dry and falls to his knees begging for his life (SIDE ch. 4).
Zhao spares him, his martial arts now destroyed, and leaves him to Sun Gangfeng, who hands Lü’s daughter the dagger. Chen staggers away from her to the hall door, which Old Madam Shang has secretly shut and set fire to; it is iron and red-hot, and his hands stick to it. He falls against it and is burned to death, the first victim of the iron hall (SIDE ch. 4).
Relationships
- Lü Xixian (Shishu): His victim (SIDE ch. 4).
- Sun Gangfeng (Shibo): Zhangmen of the Guangping Taiji School, who seeks justice against him (SIDE ch. 4).
- Zhao Banshan: The Southern Branch master who hunts him down and breaks him (SIDE ch. 3, 4).
- Fuk’anggan (Master): Chen serves in his household (SIDE ch. 3, 4).
- Yin Zhongxiang (Friend): The Tianlong School man who tries to help him (SIDE ch. 3).
- Wang Jianying and Wang Jianjie: Fellow retainers, not close but on good terms (SIDE ch. 4).
Martial arts
Chen fights with Taiji Fist, using forms such as Jade Girl Shuttles at the Loom, As If Sealing, As If Closing, Strumming the Lute and Cloud Hands, and carries a jian (SIDE ch. 3, 4). Among Northern Taiji fighters he is outstanding, but against Zhao Banshan the difference in understanding and power, not in forms, decides everything (SIDE ch. 3).