Mei Chaofeng

Mei Chaofeng

Contents

Mei Chaofeng (simplified: 梅超风, traditional: 梅超風, pinyin: Méi Chāofēng, jyutping: Mui4 Ciu1 Fung1), known as the Iron Corpse, was the third disciple of Huang Yaoshi and, with her husband Chen Xuanfeng, one of the Twin Evils of Dark Wind. Born Mei Ruohua, she fled Peach Blossom Island with Chen Xuanfeng and a copy of the lower volume of the Nine Yin Manual, and became feared throughout the jianghu1 for the Nine Yin White Bone Claw.

Biography

Early life

Mei Ruohua was a carefree child doted on by her parents. When both died, her uncle and aunt took her in, and at eleven sold her for fifty taels of silver as a maid to the Jiang family of Jiang Family Village in Shangyu County. At twelve she pushed away the master of the house when he groped her, and his wife, accusing her of seducing him, was about to put out her eyes with red-hot tongs when a man in a green robe intervened. He paid a hundred taels for her bond and took her to Peach Blossom Island, not as his maid but as his disciple. He was Huang Yaoshi, and he renamed her Mei Chaofeng. Like her fellow disciples, Qu Lingfeng, Chen Xuanfeng, Lu Chengfeng, Wu Gangfeng and Feng Mofeng, she bore a name ending in feng (风, wind).

Huang Yaoshi taught her martial arts, reading and writing, and in all her years on the island never spoke a harsh word to her. Qu Lingfeng, the eldest disciple, was drawn to her, but she fell in love with her second shige, Chen Xuanfeng. He used to leave peaches on her table, and called her “little thief-sister” after the night they went peach-stealing together; she called him “thief gege” (贼哥哥). When Qu Lingfeng caught Chen Xuanfeng in her room and fought him, Huang Yaoshi broke Qu Lingfeng’s legs and expelled him for prying, but from then on he no longer spoke to the pair or taught them.

Theft of the manual

Huang Yaoshi later married. His wife, Madam Huang, who was the same age as Mei Chaofeng and treated her kindly, told her that she and her husband had obtained the Nine Yin Manual and made a copy of it. Fearing that Qu Lingfeng would be taken back, Chen Xuanfeng stole the copy of the lower volume, in Madam Huang’s hand, while Huang Yaoshi was lost in thought over the manual. Mei Chaofeng refused to let him go back for the upper volume, and the pair fled the island that night.

In his fury Huang Yaoshi broke the legs of Lu Chengfeng, Wu Gangfeng and Feng Mofeng, who had done nothing wrong, and drove them from the island.

The Twin Evils of Dark Wind

The lower volume began with the Nine Yin White Bone Claw and the Heart-Crushing Palm, which it said could be learnt from external training without a foundation in neigong. The pair began their training on the people of Jiang Family Village, starting with Madam Jiang. The rest of the volume required the neigong taught in the upper volume, which they did not have, so Chen Xuanfeng devised his own method of forcing the arts through. To build their neili they took small doses of arsenic and drove it out again, which also left them resistant to poison. Chen Xuanfeng had a silver-plated steel whip made for her to train in the White Python Whip, as the betrothal gift he had never given her.

Hunted by men who wanted the manual for themselves, they killed many, and became known as the Twin Evils of Dark Wind.

Return to Peach Blossom Island

Hearing that Huang Yaoshi had said he would be better off dead, and hoping to steal the upper volume and flee to Mongolia or Western Xia, the pair returned to the island one night. They found Huang Yaoshi fighting a long-bearded Quanzhen man, Zhou Botong, who accused him of taking his copy of the manual. Chen Xuanfeng, entranced by the duel, would not leave. Huang Yaoshi glimpsed Mei Chaofeng’s hair at the window and called her name; Zhou Botong’s palm caught him at that moment, but he felled Zhou Botong with the Divine Finger Flick.

Mei Chaofeng knelt before him and wept. He told her that her shimu was dead, and she found the spirit tablet in the mourning hall and, beside it, a small girl of one or two, Huang Rong. Chen Xuanfeng dragged her back to their boat. Huang Yaoshi called after them to go, to look after themselves, and to practise the manual no more, for the sake of their lives.

Mongolia

Having seen that duel, the pair gave up hope of ever matching their shifu, but kept training in their own way, and their Golden Bell Cover and Iron Shirt reached seven or eight tenths. Lu Chengfeng gathered dozens of fighters and ambushed them at a ruined temple; they killed seven or eight and broke out, and Ke Pixie, elder brother of Ke Zhen’e, died at their hands. When Quanzhen Daoists also took up the trail, they fled to the Mongolian steppe.

There the Seven Eccentrics of Jiangnan found them training on a barren hilltop. Ke Zhen’e’s poisoned caltrops blinded Mei Chaofeng. Chen Xuanfeng killed Zhang Asheng and seized the six-year-old Guo Jing, who stabbed him in the navel, his one weak point, with a short jian. Dying, Chen Xuanfeng pressed the copy of the lower volume into her hands. She fled through the rain carrying his body, and when she pulled the jian from him she felt the name “Yang Kang” (杨康) carved on its hilt, and took it to be his killer’s. She buried him in the desert and lived for some years by begging from the Mongols.

Prince Zhao’s Estate

When Wanyan Honglie passed through Mongolia, he took the blind woman back to Prince Zhao’s Estate in Zhongdu, where she swept the rear garden, lived in a disused cellar and trained by night. The young prince, Yang Kang, came upon her practising with her whip while hunting for birds’ eggs and pestered her until she taught him, swearing him to tell no one. She taught him the Nine Yin White Bone Claw and the Heart-Crushing Palm among other arts.

Some years later she persuaded the prince to take her back to Mongolia, meaning to take revenge on the Eccentrics. On a clifftop there she found them in company with Ma Yu, who, posing with them as the Seven Zis of Quanzhen, let slip a neigong formula in answer to her question. Back in her cellar, forcing her training without guidance, she suffered qi deviation2 and lost the use of her legs. Guo Jing, fleeing through the garden, fell into her cellar; she recognised him as her husband’s killer, but before she could kill him Huang Rong called her by her old name, Mei Ruohua. In the garden she then fought four of the prince’s retainers while riding on Guo Jing’s back, her legs useless; they had turned on her when Huang Rong cried out that she held the Nine Yin Manual.

Returning Clouds Manor

Mei Chaofeng travelled south with Yang Kang, journeying separately by night so that she could train. Near Suzhou Ouyang Ke trapped her with his snakes, wanting the manual. When Yang Kang was held at Returning Clouds Manor on Lake Tai, she came there and faced Guo Jing and the Six Eccentrics. Guo Jing held her off with the Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing, and Zhu Cong picked her pocket of her antidote, the short jian and the copy of the manual. When she said she meant only to return the book to her shifu, since she could no longer read it, Zhu Cong took pity on her and gave it back.

A masked man in a green robe then carried her off. He was Huang Yaoshi. She gave him the copy of the lower volume, which she said she had always meant to return. He told her that the arts it recorded were there to be broken, and that the claw, the palm, the external training and the whip she and Chen Xuanfeng had practised were in the end of no use. Then he took her and Lu Chengfeng back into the school, and told her to live at Lu Chengfeng’s manor and do no more evil.

Death

Reformed after her return to the school, Mei Chaofeng met the Quanzhen Daoist Tan Chuduan, who attacked her; for Ma Yu’s sake she only wounded him, and pursued him to Niu Family Village. There she was caught in the Big Dipper Formation of the Seven Zis of Quanzhen. Huang Yaoshi arrived with Ouyang Feng and fought the formation to a standstill. Ouyang Feng struck down Tan Chuduan from behind, then turned his Toad Skill on Huang Yaoshi’s back, and Mei Chaofeng threw herself onto her shifu’s back and took the blow.

As she lay dying she begged him to treat her as he had when she was a girl. He promised, and called her Ruohua. Overjoyed, she tried to perform the rites of discipleship once more, and died at the third kowtow. Huang Yaoshi then fought the Six Eccentrics with her body, striking with her hands, so that she might still have her revenge.

Personality & traits

Physical appearance

Han Xiaoying, seeing her in Mongolia, found her face somewhat dark but quite pretty, and judged her in her twenties. Her husband was called the Copper Corpse for his sallow, expressionless face. She wore her long hair loose over her shoulders, and in her training her joints cracked loudly.

Character traits

Mei Chaofeng was ruthless with enemies and trained on living people, yet she never stopped loving her shifu. She recalled her years on the island with longing, grieved when she heard of her shifu’s anger, and wished to return the manual to him.

Martial arts abilities

Nine Yin White Bone Claw

The Nine Yin White Bone Claw (九阴白骨爪 — Jiǔyīn Báigǔ Zhǎo) was her signature art. The skulls the Twin Evils left on the Mongolian hilltop each bore five holes made by fingers. Ma Yu judged that her external martial arts far surpassed his own and the Eccentrics’, though her neigong had not even found its way in.

Heart-Crushing Palm

The Heart-Crushing Palm (摧心掌 — Cuīxīn Zhǎng) smashed the internal organs. The Eccentrics watched her strike a man nine times without a sound of breaking bone, though his organs were crushed.

White Python Whip

Mei Chaofeng fought with an extremely long silver-plated steel whip set with sharp barbed hooks, and trained in the White Python Whip (白蟒鞭 — Báimǎng Biān) from the Nine Yin Manual.

Peach Blossom Island arts

From Huang Yaoshi she learnt the rudiments of the Divine Finger Flick (弹指神通 — Tánzhǐ Shéntōng), with which she flicked coin-darts at her attackers in Prince Zhao’s Estate. She claimed that she and Chen Xuanfeng could rout their pursuers with Peach Blossom Island arts alone.

Relationships

Chen Xuanfeng

Mei Chaofeng and Chen Xuanfeng became lovers on Peach Blossom Island and lived as husband and wife after their flight. After his death she lived to avenge him, and kept the short jian she had drawn from his body.

Huang Yaoshi

Huang Yaoshi rescued her as a child and raised her as his disciple. She betrayed him by fleeing with the stolen volume, but returned it to him, was taken back into his school, and died saving his life.

Yang Kang

Yang Kang was her secret disciple in Prince Zhao’s Estate. He told her he preferred her to his other shifu, whose name she never asked. After her death he used her claw to kill Han Baoju on Peach Blossom Island.

Huang Rong

Huang Rong was her shifu’s daughter and her shimei.3 When her barbed whip caught Huang Rong in Prince Zhao’s Estate, she was alarmed, knowing that if she hurt the girl her shifu would never forgive her.

Seven Eccentrics of Jiangnan

The Seven Eccentrics of Jiangnan were her sworn enemies: the Twin Evils had killed Ke Pixie, and the Eccentrics had blinded her and killed her husband.

Behind the scenes

In the 1st edition, when Huang Yaoshi forgave her at Returning Clouds Manor, he struck a bone-attaching needle (附骨针) into her back, whose poison would act within a year, and set her three tasks before he would remove it: recover the lost manual and kill everyone who had read it; find Qu Lingfeng and the descendants of Wu Gangfeng and Feng Mofeng and bring them to the manor; and rid herself of the arts she had learnt from the manual. The 3rd edition drops the needle and the tasks, and he simply takes her back into the school.

The 1st and 2nd editions name her whip the Poison Dragon Silver Whip (毒龙银鞭).

Portrayals

Mei Chaofeng has been portrayed by numerous actresses in film and television adaptations of The Legend of the Condor Heroes:

The Legend of the Condor Heroes

Other adaptations

Notable portrayals

Yang Liping’s portrayal in the 2003 television series is widely regarded as the definitive interpretation of Mei Chaofeng. Her background as a renowned dancer allowed her to bring extraordinary physicality to the character’s martial arts scenes, particularly in depicting the Nine Yin White Bone Claw practice sequences. Her performance captured both the character’s fearsome exterior and underlying tragic humanity, creating a portrayal that remains unmatched in its combination of martial artistry and emotional depth.

Huang Wenhui’s 1983 performance established many of the character’s iconic visual and performance elements, particularly her haunting portrayal of Mei Chaofeng’s blindness and the way it enhanced rather than diminished her martial prowess. Her chemistry with the cast and understanding of the character’s role in Guo Jing’s development helped make this version particularly memorable.

Huang Wenhui as Mei Chaofeng in 1983 series Huang Wenhui (1983)Yang Liping as Mei Chaofeng in 2003 series Yang Liping (2003)
Mai Cuixian as Mei Chaofeng in 1994 series Mai Cuixian (1994)Kong Wei as Mei Chaofeng in 2008 series Kong Wei (2008)
Chen Lihua as Mei Chaofeng in 2008 series Chen Lihua (2008)Wang Yan as Mei Chaofeng in 2017 series Wang Yan (2017)

See also

Follow a route

Footnotes

  1. 江湖 — jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. The itinerant world beyond settled society and official reach, holding not only martial artists but the trades that travel with them, including pedlars, physicians, fortune-tellers, entertainers, boatmen, beggars, outlaws and the like. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

  2. 走火入魔 — zǒuhuǒ rùmó. Literally fire deviation and demon entry. Daoist internal alchemy term to describe losing control (of the heating) leading to corruption. Dangerous condition where disrupted qi causes mental and/or physical collapse. Caused by flawed cultivation or emotional trauma. ↩

  3. 师妹 — shīmèi. Female junior. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Mèi means younger sister. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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