Qu Lingfeng

Qu Lingfeng

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Qu Lingfeng (simplified: 曲灵风, traditional: 曲灵風, pinyin: Qū Língfēng, jyutping: Kuk1 Ling4 Fung1), also known as Qu San (曲三), was the eldest disciple of Huang Yaoshi of Peach Blossom Island and the father of Silly Girl. Crippled and expelled by his master, he lived as the lame innkeeper of Niu Family Village near Lin’an and died after robbing the imperial palace of treasures he hoped to offer Huang Yaoshi.

Biography

Peach Blossom Island

Qu Lingfeng was the first of Huang Yaoshi’s six disciples, senior to Chen Xuanfeng, Mei Chaofeng, Lu Chengfeng, Wu Gangfeng and Feng Mofeng. He was accomplished in both letters and martial arts and could paint; when Huang Yaoshi had no time, he taught the younger disciples in his place, reading and explaining poetry and lyrics to Mei Chaofeng. Lines of Ouyang Xiu and Zhu Xizhen that Huang Yaoshi had copied out were passed on to her through him.

Qu Lingfeng discovered the secret affair between Chen Xuanfeng and Mei Chaofeng. He confronted Chen, declaring that he was venting his master’s anger, and struck him down, sparing him only when Mei begged for his life. The next day Huang Yaoshi rebuked Qu for eavesdropping and for presuming to act for him, broke both of his leg bones with a wooden staff and announced that Qu Lingfeng had broken the rules of the school and was no longer a disciple of Peach Blossom Island. Mute servants took him back to Lin’an Prefecture. Chen and Mei later stole the Nine Yin Manual and fled, and Huang Yaoshi then crippled and expelled the remaining disciples as well.

Qu San of Niu Family Village

After his wife died, Qu Lingfeng moved to Niu Family Village and opened a small inn by the river, living there with his young daughter. The villagers knew him only as Qu San, a lame man on two crutches who looked about forty but was already stooped and greying. Among his customers were the sworn brothers Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin, who had no idea of his skill. When they and the storyteller Zhang Shiwu cursed Qin Hui over drinks, Qu San remarked that the real culprit behind the killing of Yue Fei was not Qin Hui but Emperor Gaozong, who had no wish to see the two captive emperors brought back from the Jin.

One night Guo and Yang watched him fight off three palace guards in a grove, vaulting on his crutches and striking with them, and killing the last fugitive with a thrown Iron Eight Trigrams. He made them help bury the bodies, revealed that he knew their ancestry, and pressed on them a gold pot and a gold cup from his haul, which he said he had stolen from the imperial palace in Lin’an. That night’s prize included two paintings and a piece of calligraphy by the Daoist Lord Emperor, Huizong. Some time afterwards he left the village and did not return; Bao Xiruo took his daughter to her mother’s house in Red Plum Village, where the girl was still being cared for after the Guo and Yang households were destroyed.

Death

Hoping to win his way back into the school, Qu Lingfeng had resolved to present his master with the antiques, paintings and calligraphy that Huang Yaoshi loved, and he robbed the imperial palace several times. In the end the palace guards discovered him. Badly wounded, he returned home and began a memorial to his master in his secret chamber:

“Respectfully submitted before Island Master Huang of Peach Blossom Island: This disciple has taken from the imperial palace a number of paintings, works of calligraphy and vessels, which he wishes to offer for the Island Master’s appreciation. I respectfully call you Island Master and do not presume to call you my revered shifu, yet even in my dreams I call you so. I have had the misfortune to be set upon by palace guards, and leaves behind a daughter…”

The letter broke off at the word “daughter”, stained with blood. A palace officer, Shi Yanming, followed him to the inn, and the two men died together in the chamber: Shi Yanming was stabbed from behind with a knife carved with the character Qu (曲) as he bent over the iron chest of treasures, and Qu Lingfeng’s ribs were shattered by a palm blow.

Years later, Guo Jing and Huang Rong found the two skeletons while hiding in the chamber. Huang Rong identified her senior from the engraved knife and his broken leg bones, and concluded that the girl living at the inn, who knew six or seven moves of the Azure Wave Palm Technique, was connected to him. When Huang Yaoshi came to the village, he recognised his own design in the chamber’s layout, retrieved the hidden memorial and understood what his disciple had done. Grieving, he declared that had Qu’s legs not been broken, a hundred palace guards could not have harmed him. Guo Jing and Huang Rong buried Qu Lingfeng’s remains beside Mei Chaofeng, and Huang Yaoshi took Silly Girl into his school, resolving to teach her everything her father had wanted to learn and never had.

Among the paintings in the chest was one by Shangguan Jiannan, left at the original hiding place of Wumu’s Art of War beside Cuihan Hall in the palace. Its hidden verse pointed Huang Rong to Iron Palm Mountain, and she later remarked that Qu Lingfeng had rendered a great service without ever knowing it.

Personality & traits

Qu Lingfeng remained devoted to his master after his expulsion. In his last memorial he wrote that he dared not call Huang Yaoshi his shifu, yet called him so even in his dreams. He was also fond of his daughter, who was slow-witted; Huang Yaoshi had known of her while Qu was still on the island. Huang Yaoshi, for his part, came to regret the punishment: drunk at a Mid-Autumn feast, he said he no longer blamed Qu and asked after his legs.

Martial arts abilities

Huang Yaoshi considered Qu Lingfeng the strongest and most intelligent of his disciples, and Huang Rong said he had learnt more of their father’s arts than any of the others. Even crippled, he moved on his crutches with superb qinggong, used them as weapons, and killed with a thrown Iron Eight Trigrams. His daughter learnt six or seven moves of the Azure Wave Palm Technique by secretly watching him practise; he had not dared to teach the school’s arts after his expulsion.

Relationships

Behind the scenes

In the first edition, Qu Lingfeng was one of the four disciples whom Huang Yaoshi punished, though innocent, after Chen Xuanfeng and Mei Chaofeng stole the Nine Yin Manual, and he did not appear in the opening chapter. The revised edition gave him a separate expulsion over his fight with Chen Xuanfeng, and in his afterword Jin Yong lists “Qu Lingfeng stealing paintings” (曲灵风盗画) among the new episodes added, alongside the opening with the storyteller Zhang Shiwu.

Portrayals

Qu Lingfeng has been portrayed by various actors in adaptations of The Legend of the Condor Heroes:

Television Series

See also

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