Liu Yuanhe (simplified: 刘元鹤, traditional: 劉元鶴, pinyin: Liú Yuánhè, jyutping: lau4 jyun4 hok6) is a first-rank imperial guard in Jin Yong’s Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain, and one of the Eighteen Masters of the Inner Palace (大内十八高手) who serve under Saihetu, Commander of the Imperial Guard. He is the shixiong of Xiong Yuanxian of the Pingtong Armed Escort; the two grew up together under the same shifu and understand each other without words (ch. 1, 2). He is purple-faced, fights with a pair of iron crutches and is far stronger than his shidi, and the text calls him careful and shrewd (ch. 1).
Biography
Tian Guinong’s offer
Liu was among the eighteen guards Commander Sai invited to dinner at his residence to meet Tian Guinong of the Tianlong School. Over tea Tian offered to present Li Zicheng’s treasure to the emperor. The treasure could be found only with both Li Zicheng’s Treasured Dao, which the Tianlong School kept, and the map handed down in the Miao family, and Tian already had a plan for dealing with Miao Renfeng. Commander Sai set the guards to work on that plan, but doubted that Tian wanted nothing for himself and sent men out of the capital to watch him (ch. 7). Liu carries a secret order in a yellow envelope: “By secret decree, first-rank imperial guard Liu Yuanhe is to act on these orders without fail. Commander Sai” (ch. 7). As one of the Eighteen Masters, he had also helped seize Guild Chief Fan at Kaifeng as bait for Miao Renfeng (ch. 2, 8).
Under Tian Guinong’s bed
Liu attends Tian Guinong’s retirement banquet with a gift. Tian privately asks him to have the authorities jail Yin Ji on a false charge, so that the treasured dao need not pass to the Southern Branch, and Liu grows more suspicious. That night he slips into Tian’s room to hide the dao himself and is caught there by Tian’s return, so he hides under the bed. From there he hears everything: Tian finding the dao gone, the quarrel with Ruan Shizhong over the headship, the empty iron box handed to Tao Zian, Tian Qingwen’s plan to kill Zhou Yunyang, Miao Renfeng’s visit with the dao and the dead infant, and Tian’s suicide with an arrow to his own heart. Before he can take the dao, Tao Zian comes knocking. When Ruan, Cao Yunqi and Zhou arrive, Liu, still under the bed, grips Tao’s wrist, puts out Zhou’s lantern with a hidden weapon, tries to take the dao from him, and fights his way out past Ruan in the dark (ch. 7).
The fight at the pit
With Xiong, Zheng Sanniang and the monk Jingzhi, Liu lies in wait for days in a covered pit in the snow until the Taos come to dig up the iron box. He shoulders Jingzhi aside to take on Tao Baisui himself, meets his steel whip head-on, locks it with one crutch and gains the upper hand. When Tao Zian offers him the box and springs its hidden arrows, Liu pulls Jingzhi in front of himself as a shield and the monk dies. He then fights Yin Ji, whom he had met at Tian’s banquet, to a standstill (ch. 1).
When Baoshu invites everyone to his host’s manor, Liu declines and runs. Baoshu overtakes him, seizes both his wrists in one hand and drags him back face down through the snow, leaving finger marks deep in his wrists (ch. 1).
On Jade Brush Peak
In the manor on Jade Brush Peak he learns that it belongs to a friend of Miao Renfeng and that Guild Chief Fan is expected, and fears for his life; he tells Baoshu he does not know Fan (ch. 2). He and Xiong join the fight against Hu Fei’s page boys with their eyes on the iron box, and the elder boy cuts through his weapon (ch. 2). He urges the company to kill Baoshu first. He alone knows that Miao will not come to his daughter’s rescue, and he disputes the order engraved on the treasured dao’s sheath, saying Li Zicheng killed men without number, until the steward silences him (ch. 3). When a rope is hauled up, he tries to be first down it (ch. 6).
Revealed
Ruan recognises him from the fight in the snow as the man under the bed. Liu admits it cheerfully, says he acted on the emperor’s orders and shows his secret order, then tells what he heard that night. His account clears both Tao Zian and Hu Fei: Tian Guinong killed himself (ch. 7).
The map and the cave
Declaring that he acts on imperial orders and need not fear Miao Renfeng, who by now is probably in chains in Beijing, Liu pulls the phoenix-head pearl hairpin from Miao Ruolan’s hair. He reveals the trap laid for Miao in Beijing, promises everyone rank and a share of the treasure, and opens the hairpin with a hair as he had seen Miao do, finding the map of Jade Brush Peak. He wants Ruolan killed because she has heard everything, but her maid Qiner bites his wrist, and Xiong stops his punch at her (ch. 8). He walks off with the map beside Baoshu, who carries the dao, and is the first down the rope (ch. 8). In the cave he disarms Tao Zian when he rushes at Cao (ch. 8). He shrinks against the ice wall while Hu Fei punishes Baoshu, and is among those Hu Fei seals inside the cave, leaving their fate open (ch. 10).
Relationships
- Xiong Yuanxian (Shidi): Liu came to Liaodong partly because of Xiong’s feud with the Yinma Creek Stockade (ch. 7).
- Saihetu (Commander): Liu acts under his secret order.
- Tian Guinong: Liu watched his dealings with the court and witnessed his death.
- Tao Zian (Enemy): They shared the hiding place under Tian Guinong’s bed; Tao nearly killed him with the box’s arrows.
- Baoshu: He humiliates Liu in the snow, then walks beside him to the treasure.
- Miao Ruolan: He takes her hairpin and wants her killed.
Martial arts
Liu fights with a pair of iron crutches and is much stronger than Xiong Yuanxian. He gains the upper hand over Tao Baisui and fights Yin Ji to a draw, and Ruan Shizhong thought him formidable in the dark of Tian Guinong’s room (ch. 1, 7). His named move is Dragon Soars, Phoenix Dances (龙翔凤舞), a strike with both crutches at once (ch. 1).
Behind the scenes
In his afterword Jin Yong names Baoshu, Ping Asi, Tao Baisui and Liu Yuanhe as rough men whose storytelling in the novel still reads too literary. To make each voice fit its speaker, he writes, would have filled the page with oaths, which would be coarse and cumbersome (Postscript).