Mandarin Duck Blades translation completed

I’m thrilled to announce that we’ve completed the Mandarin Duck Blades translation! This marks another milestone for WuxiaSociety as we bring more of Jin Yong’s works to English readers with the cultural context and annotations that help readers appreciate the nuances of wuxia fiction.

After just over a year after I picked up this translation, my journey translating it has come to an end, but yours in reading it has probably just begun and I hope you enjoy it.

A comedy in the jianghu

Mandarin Duck Blades is Jin Yong’s second-shortest work at just eleven chapters, but it packs a surprising amount of humour and heart into its compact story. Unlike Jin Yong’s epic tales of heroes and kingdoms, this novella is a delightful comedy that subverts wuxia expectations at every turn.

The story follows the misadventures surrounding a pair of legendary daos said to hold the secret to invincibility. As various martial artists scramble to obtain these treasures, we meet an unforgettable cast: the bumbling Four Xias of Taiyue whose grandiose titles vastly exceed their abilities, an armed escort company led by Zhou Weixin, a peculiar scholar who can’t stop reciting poetry, a spirited young woman caught up in the chaos, and a bickering couple.

Start reading

For those who’ve been following along chapter by chapter, thank you for your patience and support! I hope you’ve enjoyed this lighter side of Jin Yong’s writing as much as I’ve enjoyed translating it.

If you haven’t started yet, dive into Chapter 1 and meet the Four Xias of Taiyue as they attempt their first robbery. You’re in for a delightful journey through Jin Yong’s most comedic work.

Alternatively, you can visit the complete translation page to see all eleven chapters.

Want to explore more about the novel? Check out our comprehensive wiki pages: the complete lists page with all characters, locations, and martial arts at a glance, or dive deeper into the characters, locations, and martial arts pages for detailed information about the world of Mandarin Duck Blades.

Follow the archive routes

• Read: Continue with the translation archive and the complete translation.
• Explore: Follow Jin Yong and the Mandarin Duck Blades reference pages.
• Understand: Read how we translate wuxia for the archive’s approach to terminology, notes, and revision.
• Watch: Follow the Wuxia adaptations route for source-work context and separate factual records and analysis.
• Write: Study story elements in wuxia fiction for recurring plots, relationships, and character patterns.

What’s next?

I’ll be continuing my translation work on other wuxia classics and also fleshing out our wuxia wiki.

As always, if you find our translations valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon. Your support helps keep WuxiaSociety running and allows us to continue bringing these wonderful stories to English readers with the cultural context they deserve.

Happy reading, and may you find that the merciful truly are invincible!