Lin Yulong (simplified: 林玉龙, traditional: 林玉龍, pinyin: Lín Yùlóng, jyutping: lam4 juk6 lung4) was a skilled martial artist imarried to Ren Feiyan. Together, they learned the legendary Wedded Blades Style technique, though their volatile relationship often prevented them from achieving the full potential of this martial art.
Biography
Life in the jianghu
Lin Yulong established himself as a capable martial artist within the jianghu, earning recognition for his dao techniques and combat prowess. His reputation as a skilled fighter preceded him in martial circles, though he never achieved the fame of the most prominent warriors. His practical experience came from years of travel and conflict resolution that characterised the life of wandering martial artists during the Qing Dynasty.
His marriage to Ren Feiyan created a partnership that proved both his greatest strength and his greatest frustration. The couple’s relationship demonstrated the peculiar dynamics that could develop between martial artists—capable of perfect coordination in combat whilst experiencing constant discord in daily life. Their frequent quarrels became notorious among those who knew them, yet their commitment to each other remained unshakeable despite the emotional turbulence.
Encounter with the wise monk
A transformative moment in Lin Yulong’s martial arts development occurred when he and Ren Feiyan encountered a wise monk who recognised both their potential and their predicament. The monk perceived that whilst the couple possessed considerable individual skill, their constant discord prevented them from achieving true martial harmony. Moved by compassion or perhaps foreseeing future necessity, he taught them the first twelve moves of the Wedded Blades Style technique.
The Wedded Blades Style constituted a remarkable martial art created by an ancient married couple who possessed profound mutual understanding. The complete technique comprised seventy-two moves that required perfect coordination, emotional harmony, and complete trust between partners. Each move was designed to complement the other practitioner’s strengths whilst covering their weaknesses, creating a defensive and offensive system far more powerful than the sum of its individual components.
However, Lin Yulong and Ren Feiyan’s volatile temperaments prevented them from mastering the technique fully. Their frequent arguments and emotional conflicts created barriers to the deep mutual understanding required for advanced practice. Despite learning only the first twelve moves, even this limited application proved devastatingly effective when they achieved temporary harmony during combat. The monk apparently recognised that whilst they might never master the complete technique, even partial knowledge could serve crucial purposes.
Quest for the Mandarin Duck Blades
Lin Yulong and Ren Feiyan became involved in the widespread pursuit of the legendary Mandarin Duck Blades when news spread that the weapons had resurfaced in the jianghu after years of obscurity. The blades’ reputation as containing the secret to invincibility attracted martial artists from throughout the realm, creating a complex web of competing interests and conflicting loyalties.
The couple’s pursuit of the blades brought them into conflict with various factions, including the Qing court’s agents and other martial artists seeking the legendary weapons. Their journey paralleled that of Yuan Guannan and Xiao Zhonghui, the young couple who would eventually become the story’s protagonists. The intersection of these parallel quests created the circumstances for Lin Yulong’s most significant contribution to the novella’s events.
Conflict with Zhuo Tianxiong
During their pursuit of the blades, Lin Yulong and Ren Feiyan encountered the formidable Zhuo Tianxiong, an imperial guard of exceptional skill who disguised himself as a blind man whilst tracking the Mandarin Duck Blades on behalf of the Qing court. Zhuo’s martial abilities far exceeded those of most jianghu practitioners, and his ruthless efficiency in pursuing his mission created a genuine threat to all who possessed or sought the legendary weapons.
In a confrontation that revealed the vast difference in their martial capabilities, Zhuo Tianxiong overwhelmed both Lin Yulong and Ren Feiyan, along with Xiao Zhonghui, by sealing their acupoints with precise strikes. This technique paralysed them completely, leaving them helpless before his superior skill. Only Yuan Guannan’s clever stratagem—frightening Zhuo away through deception rather than martial prowess—saved them from this predicament.
Teaching at the Purple Bamboo Nunnery
Following their rescue, the four martial artists sought refuge at the Purple Bamboo Nunnery, an abandoned temple that provided temporary sanctuary from Zhuo Tianxiong’s pursuit. When the imperial guard inevitably tracked them to this location, Lin Yulong faced a crucial decision. Recognising that Yuan Guannan and Xiao Zhonghui possessed both the weapons and the potential to oppose Zhuo but lacked the necessary techniques, he chose to pass on his knowledge.
Together with Ren Feiyan, Lin Yulong taught the young couple the first twelve moves of the Wedded Blades Style. Time constraints prevented comprehensive instruction—they could only demonstrate the techniques and provide basic guidance, trusting that Yuan Guannan and Xiao Zhonghui’s natural aptitude would compensate for incomplete training. This rushed pedagogy created both opportunities and limitations for the younger couple’s martial development.
Remarkably, despite having learnt only these initial moves and practising them for mere hours, Yuan Guannan and Xiao Zhonghui successfully drove off Zhuo Tianxiong in their first application of the technique. This unexpected success demonstrated both the power of the Wedded Blades Style when properly coordinated and the natural compatibility between the young couple. Their achievement also revealed an ironic truth—that their harmonious relationship allowed them to access the technique’s potential more effectively than Lin Yulong and Ren Feiyan despite the older couple’s greater experience and more complete knowledge.
At Xiao Banhe’s birthday celebration
Lin Yulong and Ren Feiyan attended the fiftieth birthday celebration of Xiao Banhe, the renowned Jinyang1 daxia2 and Xiao Zhonghui’s adoptive father. The celebration brought together numerous martial artists to honour the respected figure, creating an atmosphere of festivity that would soon transform into crisis.
During the celebration, Lin Yulong and Ren Feiyan completed their instruction of Yuan Guannan and Xiao Zhonghui by teaching them the remaining sixty moves of the Wedded Blades Style. This act of generosity ensured that the complete technique would survive through the younger generation, whilst also strengthening the martial capabilities of allies who would prove crucial in upcoming conflicts. The full transmission represented a significant investment in the future, as Lin Yulong entrusted the complete art to practitioners whose natural harmony allowed them to surpass his own achievements.
Personality and traits
Martial character
Lin Yulong embodied the qualities of a seasoned jianghu practitioner—confident in his abilities, experienced in combat, and pragmatic about survival in the martial world. His years of wandering and conflict had developed both his fighting skills and his understanding of how the jianghu operated. He possessed the self-assurance that came from proven capability, knowing his dao techniques could handle most opponents he might encounter.
His protective instincts toward Ren Feiyan revealed deeper aspects of his character beneath the surface confidence. Despite their constant quarrels, he demonstrated consistent commitment to her welfare, fighting alongside her and ensuring her safety during dangerous situations. This protective nature extended to a broader sense of martial responsibility—his willingness to teach Yuan Guannan and Xiao Zhonghui the Wedded Blades Style reflected understanding that knowledge should serve practical purposes rather than remaining selfishly guarded.
Temperamental nature
Lin Yulong’s volatile temperament created ongoing complications in his personal relationships and martial practice. His emotional reactions could flare quickly, leading to arguments that disrupted the harmony necessary for mastering the Wedded Blades Style fully. This characteristic represented both a personal failing and a realistic portrayal of human limitations—not every martial artist in Jin Yong’s works achieved the emotional mastery necessary for complete cultivation.
Despite recognising how their quarrels limited their martial potential, Lin Yulong apparently lacked either the ability or motivation to fundamentally change his temperamental nature. This acceptance of personal limitations whilst working within them characterised his pragmatic approach to both martial arts and relationships. Rather than achieving perfect harmony with Ren Feiyan, they found ways to function effectively despite their conflicts, demonstrating that successful partnerships need not require perfect compatibility.
Generosity as teacher
Lin Yulong’s generosity in teaching demonstrated important aspects of jianghu ethics and his personal character. When circumstances demanded that Yuan Guannan and Xiao Zhonghui learn the Wedded Blades Style quickly, he did not hesitate or attempt to extract promises or obligations. Instead, he freely transmitted his knowledge, trusting that worthy practitioners would use it appropriately.
His willingness to complete the transmission later, teaching the remaining sixty moves during Xiao Banhe’s celebration, showed sustained commitment to his role as teacher. He apparently took satisfaction in seeing the younger couple surpass his own achievements, displaying none of the jealousy that might afflict less secure martial artists. This magnanimity suggested that he understood his place in the broader continuity of martial arts tradition—a link in the chain rather than its ultimate expression.
Martial arts abilities
Dao techniques
Lin Yulong possessed solid martial abilities with the dao, developed through his years in the jianghu. His combat skills earned him recognition as a capable fighter.
The Wedded Blades Style
Lin Yulong’s most significant martial achievement came through learning the Wedded Blades Style from a wise monk who encountered him and Ren Feiyan shortly after their marriage. The monk, troubled by their constant quarrelling, taught them this technique hoping to force them to remain together, as the method required perfect coordination between partners and proved completely useless when practised alone.
The Wedded Blades Style comprised seventy-two moves total, originally created by an ancient couple whose profound mutual understanding informed every aspect of the technique’s design. Each move complemented its partner’s action, with one advancing whilst the other retreated, one attacking whilst the other defended. The technique’s design created seamless coordination that could theoretically defeat any opponent, regardless of their martial prowess.
However, Lin Yulong and Ren Feiyan’s volatile temperaments prevented them from mastering the technique. Despite both learning their respective parts, they could manage only three or four moves before their quarrels erupted and they began fighting each other rather than coordinating against opponents. Their fundamental incompatibility created barriers to the deep mutual understanding the technique required.
When confronting Zhuo Tianxiong, Lin Yulong recognised their inability to use the technique effectively themselves. He and Ren Feiyan instead taught the first twelve moves to Yuan Guannan and Xiao Zhonghui, who successfully used them to drive off the formidable opponent. Later, at Xiao Banhe’s birthday celebration, they completed the transmission by teaching the remaining sixty moves, ensuring the younger couple possessed the complete technique.
The Wedded Blades Style incorporated a unique characteristic—it wounded opponents more easily than it killed them. This merciful quality, deliberately built into the technique by its ancient creators, aligned with the novella’s ultimate message about benevolence being the path to invincibility.
Relationships
Ren Feiyan
Lin Yulong’s relationship with Ren Feiyan formed the central paradox of his life—a marriage characterised by both deep commitment and constant conflict. Their frequent quarrels became notorious among their acquaintances, yet their bond remained unshakeable despite the emotional turbulence. This contradiction revealed the complexity of human relationships, demonstrating that love and compatibility could exist independently of harmonious temperaments.
Their quarrels stemmed from similar temperamental volatility—both possessed quick tempers and strong opinions that frequently clashed. However, these same qualities also created passionate engagement with each other and with life generally. They shared fundamental values about martial arts, honour, and loyalty even when disagreeing about specific decisions or interpretations. This common ground provided the foundation for their enduring partnership despite surface conflicts.
In combat situations, their relationship transformed. When facing external threats, they achieved the coordination and mutual support that their daily interactions lacked. This ability to overcome personal discord when necessary revealed the genuine depth of their partnership—they might quarrel constantly, but they never doubted their fundamental commitment to each other’s survival and welfare. Their combat effectiveness, though limited by their inability to fully master the Wedded Blades Style, still exceeded what either could achieve individually.
Their recognition that Yuan Guannan and Xiao Zhonghui possessed the harmony they lacked created no apparent jealousy or resentment. Instead, they seemed to accept this limitation pragmatically, focusing on what they could achieve rather than lamenting what remained beyond their reach. This mature acceptance of personal limitations whilst supporting others’ success demonstrated emotional wisdom despite their temperamental volatility.
Yuan Guannan and Xiao Zhonghui
Lin Yulong’s relationship with Yuan Guannan and Xiao Zhonghui evolved from initial strangers thrown together by circumstance into a mentor-disciple dynamic and eventually something resembling friendship. Their first encounters occurred during the chaotic pursuit of the Mandarin Duck Blades, where immediate crises left little time for formal relationship development. However, shared dangers and common enemies created bonds more quickly than peaceful circumstances might have allowed.
His decision to teach them the Wedded Blades Style represented significant trust and generosity. In the jianghu, martial knowledge constituted valuable property that practitioners typically guarded carefully, teaching only formal disciples after extensive testing of character and loyalty. Lin Yulong’s willingness to transmit this knowledge to relative strangers in moment of crisis demonstrated both pragmatic necessity and genuine generosity of spirit.
He apparently took satisfaction in the younger couple’s rapid progress with the technique, displaying none of the jealousy that might afflict less secure teachers. Watching them achieve with twelve moves what he and Ren Feiyan had never accomplished with their more extensive knowledge might have created resentment, yet Lin Yulong seemed genuinely pleased by their success. This reaction suggested secure self-awareness—he understood his own limitations whilst appreciating others’ achievements without feeling diminished by comparison.
His completion of their training during Xiao Banhe’s celebration, teaching the remaining sixty moves, demonstrated sustained commitment to their development. This second phase of instruction required no immediate crisis to motivate it—he simply recognised worthy practitioners and chose to ensure they received complete knowledge. The act embodied ideals about martial knowledge as communal resource rather than private property, though not all jianghu practitioners shared this generous view.
Other jianghu figures
Lin Yulong’s interactions with various other jianghu figures during the quest for the Mandarin Duck Blades revealed his position within the broader martial community.
His presence at Xiao Banhe’s birthday celebration indicated his standing within martial circles—he received invitation to honour a renowned daxia, suggesting that his reputation extended beyond mere survival skills to include recognition of his character and achievements. The celebration brought together practitioners from various regions and backgrounds, with Lin Yulong apparently comfortable navigating these social dynamics despite his temperamental nature.
Behind the scenes
Literary function
Lin Yulong served multiple literary functions within Mandarin Duck Blades, operating as both supporting character and thematic vehicle. His presence in the narrative provided necessary plot mechanisms—teaching the Wedded Blades Style to the protagonists, creating parallel storylines about the pursuit of the legendary blades, and demonstrating various aspects of jianghu life. However, his significance extended beyond mere plot utility to encompass thematic explorations central to Jin Yong’s concerns.
His relationship with Ren Feiyan embodied one of the novella’s central themes: the relationship between emotional harmony and martial effectiveness. Their volatile marriage created a living demonstration that even significant martial knowledge could not overcome fundamental character limitations. This cautionary example contrasted sharply with Yuan Guannan and Xiao Zhonghui’s natural harmony, emphasising that technical knowledge alone proved insufficient for true mastery.
His generous teaching of the younger couple represented Jin Yong’s recurring interest in knowledge transmission and generational succession within martial arts traditions. The willing transfer of martial knowledge to worthy successors, without demanding formal discipleship or extracting obligations, embodied ideals about martial arts as communal resource rather than private property. This generous model contrasted with the hoarding behaviour that created many conflicts in wuxia narratives.
Character archetype
Within Jin Yong’s broader body of work, Lin Yulong represented a specific character archetype: the competent but limited martial artist who recognises both his capabilities and his constraints. This archetype appeared frequently in Jin Yong’s novels, providing realistic middle-ground between legendary masters and incompetent pretenders. Such characters populated the jianghu realistically, demonstrating that martial skill existed on a spectrum rather than as binary categories of “master” and “novice”.
His volatile relationship with Ren Feiyan also fit patterns Jin Yong explored across multiple works—the complex interplay between personal relationships and martial cooperation. Jin Yong frequently examined how emotional states affected martial performance, with Lin Yulong and Ren Feiyan’s situation representing an extreme example of this principle. Their inability to overcome temperamental volatility despite recognising its costs demonstrated realistic human limitations.
His role as teacher to the protagonists followed another common pattern in Jin Yong’s works—knowledge transmission through circumstantial mentorship rather than formal discipleship. Many of Jin Yong’s heroes learnt crucial techniques from temporary teachers encountered during adventures rather than through traditional master-disciple relationships. This pattern reflected both narrative practicality and thematic interest in how knowledge spread through martial communities beyond formal institutional structures.
Comedy and tragedy
Lin Yulong and Ren Feiyan’s relationship contained both comedic and tragic elements, contributing to the novella’s overall tonal complexity. Their constant quarrels provided humour—readers could laugh at the absurdity of a couple so temperamentally unsuited yet so committed to each other. The image of them bickering moments before or after perfectly coordinated combat carried inherent comedy, highlighting the contradiction between their personal discord and martial cooperation.
However, tragic undertones accompanied this comedy. Their awareness that their temperaments prevented full mastery of the Wedded Blades Style created poignant recognition of human limitation. They possessed the knowledge and desire to achieve greatness but lacked the fundamental compatibility necessary for complete success. This awareness of unrealised potential added melancholy depth beneath the surface comedy of their quarrels.
The contrast with Yuan Guannan and Xiao Zhonghui sharpened both the comedy and tragedy of their situation. Watching younger, less experienced practitioners achieve what they could not might have created bitter resentment, yet their generous acceptance of this reality demonstrated emotional maturity that partially redeemed their temperamental failings. This acceptance transformed potential tragedy into something more complex—not quite triumph, but not complete failure either.
Contribution to novella’s themes
Lin Yulong’s presence enriched Mandarin Duck Blades’ exploration of partnership, harmony, and the relationship between martial prowess and character cultivation. His partial mastery of the Wedded Blades Style demonstrated that technical knowledge alone could not overcome fundamental character limitations—a message reinforced by the novella’s ultimate revelation about the blades’ inscription advocating benevolence rather than martial supremacy.
His teaching of the younger couple illustrated how knowledge transmission could occur through generous sharing rather than formal institutional structures or rigid hierarchies. This model of flexible, circumstantial education reflected ideals about martial arts as communal resource whilst also serving practical narrative purposes by enabling the protagonists to acquire necessary skills rapidly.
The relationship between Lin Yulong’s personal limitations and his martial capabilities explored questions about the relationship between character cultivation and combat effectiveness. Jin Yong’s works frequently suggested that true martial mastery required corresponding personal development, with Lin Yulong serving as an example of how character flaws could prevent complete achievement despite adequate technical knowledge and genuine effort.
Portrayals
Lin Yulong has been portrayed in film adaptations of Mandarin Duck Blades:
Film adaptations
- 1961 film Twin Swords (Parts 1 and 2) – Actor unknown
- 1982 film Lovers’ Blades – Tak Yuen
The 1982 Shaw Brothers production Lovers’ Blades featured Tak Yuen as Lin Yulong. Shaw Brothers’ characteristic emphasis on spectacular martial arts choreography likely highlighted the character’s dao techniques and his teaching of the Wedded Blades Style to the younger protagonists. The film, directed by Lu Jungu with screenplay by renowned wuxia writer Ni Kuang, presented an action-oriented interpretation of the novella that emphasised combat sequences over character development.
See also
- Mandarin Duck Blades characters
- Ren Feiyan – His wife
- Wedded Blades Style – The martial art he taught to the protagonists
- Yuan Guannan – His disciple
- Xiao Zhonghui – His disciple
- Zhuo Tianxiong – His opponent
External links
- Lin Yulong (Chinese) on Baidu Baike
Footnotes
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晋阳 – Jīnyáng. Present day Taiyuan in Shanxi Province. Jinyang was the capital or secondary capital of many dynasties. See Wikipedia. ↩
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大侠 – dàxiá. Title of great respect in the martial world, denoting a xia of exceptional martial prowess who upholds justice and righteousness. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩