The Four Xias of Taiyue (simplified: 太岳四侠, traditional: 太岳四俠, Jyutping: taai3 ngok6 sei3 haap6, pinyin: Tài Yuè Sì Xiá) were a group of four martial artists whose grandiose self-proclaimed titles and exaggerated martial reputations stood in comical contrast to their mediocre actual abilities. Comprising “Smoke and Mist Divine Dragon” Xiaoyaozi (their leader), “Twin Palms Open Monument” Chang Changfeng, “Shooting Star Chases Moon” Hua Jianying, and “Eight Steps Catch Toad, Rival Zhuan Zhu, Treading Snow Without Trace, Single-Footed Water Walker, Twin Thorns Cover Seven Provinces” Gai Yiming—whose sobriquet alone stretched to 63 characters—these four minor jianghu figures fancied themselves heroes whilst their martial skills barely exceeded those of ordinary fighters.
Their three attempts to acquire the famed Mandarin Duck Blades as a birthday gift for the Jinyang Hero Xiao Banhe resulted in successive humiliating failures: first defeated by escorts from Weixin Armed Escort, then having their teeth knocked out by Ren Feiyan’s slingshot, and finally being outwitted by the scholar Yuan Guannan who deceived them out of their remaining silver coins with a fabricated tale. Despite these failures, they eventually succeeded in presenting a golden hairpin (a gift from Xiao Banhe’s daughter Xiao Zhonghui) at his birthday feast, where they managed—through bumbling fortune rather than skill—to capture the imperial court expert Zhuo Tianxiong using fishing nets. This final success, achieved through comedic accident rather than martial prowess, exemplified their role as Jin Yong’s first experimental comedic group characters, prefiguring later beloved comic ensembles like the Peach Valley Six Immortals and Bao Butong.
Biography
First attempt: Weixin Armed Escort’s defeat of the “heroes”
The Four Xias of Taiyue’s involvement in the tale of the Mandarin Duck Blades began with noble intentions undermined by woeful execution. Determined to present an impressive birthday gift to the renowned Jinyang Hero Xiao Banhe, they resolved to intercept Zhou Weixin, Escort Chief of Weixin Armed Escort from Xi’an, Shaanxi, who was transporting the famous Mandarin Duck Blades to the capital. The four “heroes” positioned themselves to ambush the escort party, announcing their presence with their characteristically bombastic introductions and grandiose titles.
However, their martial prowess proved no match for even ordinary armed escort guards. The professional fighters of Weixin Armed Escort, accustomed to defending valuable cargo against genuine threats, swiftly defeated the four aspirant heroes. The Taiyue Four’s inflated reputations and self-important sobriquets provided no advantage against competent opponents, and they fled in humiliating disarray. This initial failure established the pattern that would characterize all their subsequent adventures: grand ambitions meeting painful reality.
Second attempt: Ren Feiyan’s slingshot and missing teeth
Undeterred by their first defeat, the Four Xias of Taiyue attempted a second interception. This time they encountered married couple Lin Yulong and Ren Feiyan, who were quarreling whilst traveling. Seizing what appeared to be an opportune moment, the four heroes demanded the couple’s travel bags, expecting easy success against what seemed like ordinary travelers engaged in domestic dispute.
Their assumptions proved catastrophically wrong. Ren Feiyan, far from being a helpless victim, possessed both formidable temperament and precise slingshot skills. She responded to their attempted robbery by employing her slingshot with devastating accuracy, striking the four would-be bandits and knocking out several teeth in the process. The humiliation of this second defeat exceeded even their first: not only had they failed again, but they had been bested by a woman using nothing more than a simple slingshot—a weapon considered beneath the notice of “true” martial artists.
This encounter with Ren Feiyan and Lin Yulong demonstrated the Four Xias’ consistent inability to assess opponents accurately. Their grandiose self-perception blinded them to genuine capability when it appeared in unexpected forms, leading them repeatedly into situations where their limited skills proved woefully inadequate.
Third attempt: The scholar’s deception
Having suffered two painful defeats, the Four Xias of Taiyue encountered the scholar Yuan Guannan on the road. This meeting presented no attempted robbery; instead, the four heroes fell victim to deception through their own gullibility and pretensions to heroic virtue. Yuan Guannan, recognizing easy marks when he saw them, fabricated an elaborate tale of being a filial son desperately needing funds to rescue his imprisoned mother.
The story appealed perfectly to the Four Xias’ self-image as righteous heroes who aided the worthy and punished the wicked. Moved by Yuan Guannan’s performance and eager to demonstrate their heroic virtue, they voluntarily surrendered their remaining twenty taels of silver—essentially their entire remaining funds—to assist his supposedly noble cause. Only after the scholar departed did they gradually realize they had been comprehensively swindled through his clever exploitation of their vanity and naiveté.
This third failure, whilst lacking the physical pain of their previous defeats, perhaps stung most deeply. They had been conquered not through superior martial arts but through simple con artistry, their pretensions to heroic wisdom exposed as gullibility. Their journey to present a gift to Xiao Banhe had cost them their silver, their dignity, and several teeth, with nothing yet accomplished.
Xiao Zhonghui’s gift and the birthday feast
Fortune finally smiled upon the Four Xias of Taiyue through no merit of their own. They encountered Xiao Zhonghui, daughter of Xiao Banhe himself, traveling on a fine horse. Their attempt to stop her initially alarmed the young woman, but when they explained their purpose—to present a birthday gift to her father—her attitude transformed entirely. Learning of their sincere (if incompetent) efforts to honor her father’s birthday celebration, Xiao Zhonghui showed unexpected generosity.
She removed a golden hairpin from her own hair and presented it to the Four Xias of Taiyue, instructing them to offer it as their gift to Xiao Banhe at his birthday feast. This act of kindness saved the four heroes from arriving empty-handed after their string of failures, providing them with a face-saving resolution to their otherwise disastrous quest. Their gratitude knew no bounds, and they proceeded to the birthday celebration with renewed spirits, bearing a gift that, whilst not the Mandarin Duck Blades they had sought, proved acceptable thanks to Xiao Zhonghui’s compassion toward their bumbling sincerity.
The birthday feast: Accidental capture of Zhuo Tianxiong
At Xiao Banhe’s birthday celebration, the Four Xias of Taiyue finally achieved something resembling success, though through accident rather than design. When Gai Yiming presented the golden hairpin—accompanied by his characteristically lengthy recitation of his complete 63-character sobriquet, which provoked laughter from all assembled guests—the feast continued with various martial demonstrations and contests.
During the celebration’s chaos, an opportunity arose for the four heroes to demonstrate their abilities. Using fishing nets—perhaps the only technique at which they showed genuine competence—they managed to capture Zhuo Tianxiong, an expert from the imperial court. This capture, whilst appearing heroic to casual observers, owed more to fortunate circumstances, the advantage of surprise, and Zhuo Tianxiong’s momentary inattention than to any superior martial skill on the part of the Four Xias of Taiyue.
Nevertheless, this accidental success provided them with a genuine achievement to celebrate. For once, their action produced a positive outcome, and they could claim to have contributed meaningfully to the day’s events. The capture, combined with their successful (if gift-substituted) presentation of a birthday offering, allowed the four heroes to conclude their adventure on a surprisingly high note, having finally achieved something despite their consistent incompetence throughout the journey.
Individual members
Xiaoyaozi: “Smoke and Mist Divine Dragon”
Xiaoyaozi served as the de facto leader of the Four Xias of Taiyue, his sobriquet “Smoke and Mist Divine Dragon” (烟霞神龙) suggesting mysterious and dragon-like powers that his actual martial abilities utterly failed to substantiate. His title evoked images of an immortal-like figure dwelling amidst celestial mists with draconic martial prowess, yet reality presented a considerably less impressive picture. As leader, Xiaoyaozi presumably coordinated the group’s various misadventures, though his leadership proved as ineffective as his martial skills.
The contrast between his grandiose title and mundane capabilities epitomized the Four Xias’ collective self-delusion. “Smoke and Mist” suggested ethereal elusiveness; “Divine Dragon” implied supreme power and majesty. Neither quality manifested in their successive defeats by security escorts, a woman with a slingshot, and a clever scholar. Xiaoyaozi’s leadership primarily consisted of leading his companions into one humiliating situation after another, their shared incompetence preventing any single member from recognizing the group’s collective inadequacy.
Chang Changfeng: “Twin Palms Open Monument”
Chang Changfeng’s sobriquet “Twin Palms Open Monument” (双掌开碑) claimed the formidable ability to split stone monuments with bare hands—a feat associated with masters of external martial arts who had cultivated tremendous strength and precise technique. This impressive-sounding title suggested Chang possessed power comparable to legendary strongmen who could shatter rocks and split stone tablets, marking him as a martial artist of exceptional physical capability.
However, Chang Changfeng’s actual combat performance revealed no such extraordinary strength. His defeats alongside his companions demonstrated that whatever palm techniques he had learned proved inadequate against even moderately skilled opponents. The grand promise of his title—monuments splitting beneath his palms—remained entirely theoretical, never manifesting in any documented encounter. Like his companions, Chang evidently believed his own publicity whilst lacking the substance to support it.
Hua Jianying: “Shooting Star Chases Moon”
Hua Jianying’s sobriquet “Shooting Star Chases Moon” (流星赶月) suggested exceptional qinggong abilities, evoking images of a martial artist whose lightness techniques allowed him to move with the speed of a meteor pursuing the moon across the night sky. This poetic title implied mastery of lightness techniques that would make him nearly impossible to catch or escape from—a terrifying prospect for any opponent he pursued.
Yet Hua Jianying’s actual mobility proved entirely ordinary. When the Four Xias fled from Weixin Armed Escort’s guards, no meteor-like speed manifested to carry them to safety. When Ren Feiyan’s slingshot stones sought their targets, no moon-chasing agility helped him evade projectiles. His sobriquet promised swiftness befitting celestial bodies in motion; his performance delivered nothing beyond normal human locomotion. The disconnect between title and reality reached almost tragic proportions, as Hua Jianying apparently remained blissfully unaware that his “shooting star” speed resembled a rather slow-moving cart more than any celestial phenomenon.
Gai Yiming: “Eight Steps Catch Toad, Rival Zhuan Zhu, Treading Snow Without Trace, Single-Footed Water Walker, Twin Thorns Cover Seven Provinces”
Gai Yiming distinguished himself among the Four Xias of Taiyue not through superior martial ability but through possessing the most absurdly lengthy sobriquet in Jin Yong’s entire literary corpus—a full 63 characters when written in Chinese: “Eight Steps Catch Toad, Rival Zhuan Zhu, Treading Snow Without Trace, Single-Footed Water Walker, Twin Thorns Cover Seven Provinces” (八步赶蟾、赛专诸、踏雪无痕、独脚水上飞、双刺盖七省). Each component of this ridiculous title made grand claims: “Eight Steps Catch Toad” suggested swift pursuit capabilities; “Rival Zhuan Zhu” compared him to the legendary assassin; “Treading Snow Without Trace” claimed weightless qinggong; “Single-Footed Water Walker” alleged the ability to run across water; “Twin Thorns Cover Seven Provinces” boasted weapon mastery across vast territories.
None of these claims bore any relationship to observable reality. Gai Yiming’s martial abilities matched his companions’ mediocrity, his multiple sobriquet components serving only to multiply the comic disparity between pretension and actuality. His insistence on reciting his complete 63-character title in full at Xiao Banhe’s birthday feast—producing laughter from all assembled guests—perfectly encapsulated both his character and the Four Xias of Taiyue’s collective absurdity. Here was a man whose name required longer to announce than his martial skills required to defeat, whose titles promised everything whilst his abilities delivered nothing.
The four members’ collective dynamic rested on mutual reinforcement of their shared delusions. None possessed sufficient self-awareness to recognize their inadequacy, whilst each member’s grandiose self-presentation validated the others’ similar pretensions. This created a self-sustaining bubble of inflated self-regard that persisted despite repeated reality checks from the outside world. Their genuine affection for one another and sincere (if misguided) aspirations to heroism made them ultimately sympathetic despite their foolishness—bumbling would-be heroes whose hearts proved better than their heads or hands.
Martial arts abilities
Overall martial skill level: Mediocrity beneath grandiose pretensions
The Four Xias of Taiyue’s actual martial abilities stood in stark and comical contrast to their self-proclaimed reputations and elaborate sobriquets. Their combat performances throughout their adventures demonstrated skills barely exceeding those of ordinary fighters—certainly well below the standards expected of anyone claiming “xia” (heroic martial artist) status. They proved consistently unable to defeat even moderately capable opponents, suffering humiliating losses to professional security escorts, a woman wielding a simple slingshot, and falling victim to a scholar’s verbal deceptions.
Their martial cultivation appeared to have emphasized impressive-sounding techniques and formidable-looking stances over practical combat effectiveness. This pattern suggested they had learned enough martial arts to appear knowledgeable to untrained observers whilst lacking the foundational skills, consistent practice, or natural talent necessary for genuine proficiency. Their delusions of adequacy persisted despite repeated evidence of inadequacy, indicating either profound self-deception or complete inability to accurately assess comparative martial abilities.
The sources explicitly note their status as “martial arts mediocre, often playing the great hero” (武功平常，常充大侠) and “martial arts low, four small characters” (四个武功低微的小人物). These descriptions place them among the weakest named martial artists in Jin Yong’s corpus—individuals who had learned some martial techniques but remained fundamentally incompetent by jianghu standards. Their defeats came not against legendary masters or even particularly skilled opponents, but against ordinary professionals and civilians, underscoring the vast gap between their self-perception and reality.
Fishing net technique: Accidental competence
Paradoxically, the Four Xias of Taiyue’s one demonstrated success—capturing Zhuo Tianxiong at Xiao Banhe’s birthday feast—came through employing fishing nets rather than conventional martial arts techniques. This unexpected effectiveness with nets suggested several possibilities: perhaps their genuine skill level suited them better for fishing than fighting; perhaps nets required less martial cultivation to use effectively; or perhaps their success owed more to surprise, numerical advantage, and Zhuo Tianxiong’s momentary inattention than to any genuine skill.
The fishing net’s effectiveness as their signature technique carried inherent comedy. Nets ranked among the least prestigious weapons in martial arts literature—tools associated with fishermen and hunters rather than heroic warriors. Yet where their elaborate palm techniques, qinggong abilities, and weapon skills consistently failed, simple nets succeeded. This inversion of expectations perfectly embodied their character: grandiose pretensions yielding to humble realities, with success arriving only when they abandoned sophisticated martial arts for crude but practical methods.
Self-delusion as martial limitation
Perhaps the Four Xias of Taiyue’s greatest martial weakness lay not in technical deficiency but in catastrophic self-assessment failure. Their inability to recognize their own limitations led them repeatedly into situations where their inadequate skills guaranteed defeat. A genuinely skilled martial artist recognizes when opponents exceed their capabilities and adjusts strategy accordingly. The Four Xias consistently failed this basic test of martial wisdom, their inflated self-perception blinding them to obvious capability disparities.
This self-delusion prevented them from improving through honest self-assessment and dedicated practice. Convinced they had already achieved mastery worthy of their elaborate titles, they apparently saw no need for the grinding daily practice and rigorous self-examination that characterized genuine martial arts cultivation. Their stagnation at mediocre levels resulted directly from their delusion of adequacy—a martial and psychological trap from which they showed no signs of escaping.
Behind the scenes
Literary significance: Jin Yong’s first comedic group experiment
The Four Xias of Taiyue represent a watershed moment in Jin Yong’s literary development, marking his first systematic experiment with comedic group characters in martial arts fiction. Published in 1961 as part of The Mandarin Duck Blades, these four bumbling would-be heroes established a template that Jin Yong would refine and develop in subsequent works. Their fundamental characteristic—the comic disparity between self-proclaimed reputation and actual ability—would reappear in more sophisticated forms throughout his later novels.
This early comedic experiment demonstrated Jin Yong’s willingness to subvert conventional wuxia tropes. Traditional martial arts fiction typically presented heroes whose abilities matched or exceeded their reputations, where sobriquets indicated genuine martial prowess. The Four Xias inverted this expectation entirely: their elaborate titles served as markers of delusion rather than achievement, their self-proclaimed heroism highlighting their actual incompetence. This inversion created comedy through dramatic irony—readers understood the gap between pretension and reality even as the characters themselves remained oblivious.
The Four Xias’ role as comic relief within the short novel The Mandarin Duck Blades proved crucial to the work’s overall themes. Their quest for the Mandarin Duck Blades—undertaken with noble intentions but executed with farcical incompetence—paralleled the main protagonists’ journey whilst providing humorous contrast. Where the central couple Lin Yulong and Ren Feiyan grew through their adventures and ultimately discovered the blades’ true secret (“The benevolent are invincible”), the Four Xias learned nothing, grew not at all, and concluded their adventure much as they began it: well-intentioned, sincere, and utterly delusional about their capabilities.
Creative influence on later works
The Four Xias of Taiyue’s literary DNA appears most clearly in The Smiling, Proud Wanderer’s Peach Valley Six Immortals—arguably Jin Yong’s most beloved comedic group characters. Like the Four Xias, the Six Immortals possessed exaggerated self-images and created chaos wherever they went. However, Jin Yong evolved the template significantly: where the Four Xias were simply weak, the Six Immortals possessed formidable martial skills applied with childlike lack of judgment. This sophistication represented the refinement of concepts first explored with the Four Xias—comedic martial artists whose humor derived not from weakness but from psychological peculiarity.
Similarly, Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils’ Bao Butong (“Bao the Dissenter”) embodied another evolution of Four Xias principles. Bao’s compulsive contrarianism and inflated sense of his own wisdom created comedy through verbal rather than martial incompetence, yet the underlying dynamic remained familiar: self-perception dramatically exceeding objective capability. Even The Deer and the Cauldron’s Wei Xiaobao, whilst far more complex, contained elements traceable to the Four Xias—success achieved through accident and luck rather than legitimate skill, with self-awareness eventually distinguishing Wei from his spiritual predecessors.
The Four Xias also established Jin Yong’s pattern of using comedic characters for thematic reinforcement rather than mere entertainment. Their fishing net capture of Zhuo Tianxiong—success achieved through humble tools rather than sophisticated martial arts—echoed The Mandarin Duck Blades’ ultimate message about the virtue of benevolence over martial prowess. Their genuine if misguided virtue (shown in their generous gift to Yuan Guannan and sincere desire to honor Xiao Banhe) suggested that moral character mattered more than combat ability, a theme Jin Yong would explore throughout his career.
Cultural reception and contemporary relevance
Modern readers frequently compare the Four Xias of Taiyue to contemporary internet phenomena, particularly the “Ma Baoguo phenomenon”—referring to self-proclaimed martial arts masters whose grandiose claims crumble upon contact with reality. This comparison demonstrates how Jin Yong’s 1961 satire of martial arts pretension remains culturally relevant over sixty years later. The psychological patterns he identified—self-delusion sustained through selective perception and mutual validation—prove timeless, appearing in every generation under different guises.
Gai Yiming’s 63-character sobriquet has achieved particular cultural immortality as one of Jin Yong’s most memorable comic inventions. The sheer audacity of a mediocre martial artist claiming eight separate achievements in a single title, each component individually absurd and collectively ridiculous, makes him unforgettable. Chinese readers can often recite at least portions of his title from memory, testament to its linguistic playfulness and comic effectiveness.
The Four Xias of Taiyue’s enduring appeal lies in their fundamental humanity beneath the comedy. Unlike purely satirical targets, they possess genuine virtues: sincerity, loyalty to each other, honest intentions to honor worthy figures like Xiao Banhe, and generosity toward those they believed deserving (like Yuan Guannan’s fabricated filial piety). Their delusion about their martial capabilities doesn’t extend to moral corruption—they aspire to be heroes not for personal gain but because they genuinely believe heroes should exist and they can fulfill that role. This combination of comic incompetence with moral decency makes them loveable despite their foolishness, explaining their continued popularity among Jin Yong’s vast cast of memorable minor characters.
External links
- Four Xias of Taiyue (Chinese) on Chinese Wikipedia
- Four Xias of Taiyue (Chinese) on Baidu Baike
- The Mandarin Duck Blades on Wikipedia