Sun Moon Holy Order

The Sun Moon Holy Order (simplified: 日月神教, traditional: 日月神教, pinyin: Rìyuè Shénjiào, jyutping: jat6 jyut6 san4 gaau3), also known in earlier editions as the Chaoyang Holy Order (朝阳神教), is the most powerful heterodox martial arts organisation in Jin Yong’s Laughing in the Wind.

Headquartered at Black Wood Cliff in Hebei, the Order commands tens of thousands of followers and wields influence across the entire jianghu. Despite being branded as the “Demon Cult” (魔教) by orthodox factions due to their unorthodox methods and violent reputation, individual members often display more genuine human emotion and loyalty than their self-righteous orthodox counterparts. The Order’s internal power struggles and succession crises mirror the corruption found within supposedly virtuous organisations, suggesting that moral decay is endemic to concentrated power regardless of ideological pretensions.

The Order possesses two supreme martial arts: the Star-Absorbing Skill (吸星大法), which allows practitioners to absorb others’ internal energy, and the Sunflower Manual (葵花宝典), a devastating sword art that requires self-castration to master. These formidable techniques, combined with sophisticated organisational structures and the fearsome Three Corpse Brain Pill, enable the Order to maintain dominance over the heterodox martial arts world.

Origins and history

Early conflicts with orthodox factions

The Sun Moon Holy Order’s origins predate the events of Laughing in the Wind by generations, though the exact founding circumstances remain unclear. The Order established itself as the dominant heterodox power through a combination of martial prowess, ruthless efficiency, and willingness to employ methods that orthodox factions considered dishonourable.

Over eighty years before the story’s main events, several elite elders from the Sun Moon Holy Order conducted a night raid on Mount Wudang, successfully stealing the Zhenwu Sword—once used by the legendary Zhang Sanfeng—along with Zhang Sanfeng’s handwritten copy of the Taijiquan Manual. This daring theft resulted in a fierce battle that killed three of Wudang’s finest masters, though four Order elders also perished. Despite the losses, the Order retained both treasures, which would only be returned to Wudang generations later as a gesture of reconciliation.

The Ten Elders and the Sunflower Manual

The Order’s conflict with the Five Mountains Sword Alliance intensified when Huashan School obtained a partial copy of the Sunflower Manual. The Order dispatched their legendary Ten Elders to seize the manual:

The Original Ten Elders:

Iron-Armed Divine Demon (铁臂神魔) — Fu Yi
Great Strength Divine Demon (大力神魔) — Fan Song
Flying Divine Demon (飞天神魔) — Zhao He
Golden Monkey Divine Demon (金猴神魔) — Zhang Chengfeng
White Ape Divine Demon (白猿神魔) — Zhang Chengyun
Blood Blade Divine Demon (血刃神魔) — Li Donglin
Snow Palm Divine Demon (雪掌神魔) — Yu Bin
Silver Scorpion Divine Demon (银蝎神魔) — Ding Ling
Blue Spider Divine Demon (青蛛神魔) — Dang Long
Shadow-Vanishing Divine Demon (绝影神魔) — Xue Xu
Wind-Chasing Divine Demon (追风神魔) — Jiang Bin

The Ten Elders successfully seized the manual but suffered heavy casualties from the combined forces of the Five Mountains Alliance. Five years later, having deciphered counter-techniques for each Alliance school’s swordsmanship, they launched a devastating counter-attack that nearly destroyed the orthodox alliance. However, the Five Mountains factions lured the Ten Elders into a cave on Mount Hua and sealed them inside with massive boulders. Unable to escape, all ten perished—but not before carving their insights into defeating the Five Mountains sword techniques onto the cave walls. These carvings would later be discovered by Linghu Chong during his confinement on Repentance Cliff.

Ren Woxing’s reign

Ren Woxing rose to become Leader (教主) of the Sun Moon Holy Order through his mastery of the Star-Absorbing Skill and his formidable political acumen. Under his leadership, the Order reached unprecedented heights of power and influence. He established the positions of Bright Left Messenger and Bright Right Messenger, appointed loyal subordinates to key positions, and used the Three Corpse Brain Pill to ensure absolute loyalty from senior members.

However, Ren Woxing’s ambition proved his undoing. Twelve years before the main story, his trusted lieutenant Dongfang Bubai—then serving as Bright Left Messenger—orchestrated a coup. Dongfang Bubai imprisoned Ren Woxing in a secret underground dungeon beneath West Lake, guarded by the Four Friends of Jiangnan at Plum Manor. For over a decade, the martial arts world believed Ren Woxing dead.

Dongfang Bubai’s transformation

Dongfang Bubai assumed the position of Leader and inherited the Sunflower Manual. His obsessive practice of this forbidden art required self-castration, fundamentally transforming both his body and personality. His martial arts reached supernatural levels—speed and technique beyond any opponent’s ability to counter—but he lost interest in worldly affairs, delegating all administrative matters to his lover Yang Lianting.

Under Yang Lianting’s corrupt management, the Order’s internal affairs deteriorated. Loyal veterans were persecuted, talented members eliminated on false pretences, and sycophancy replaced merit as the path to advancement. The cult of personality surrounding Dongfang Bubai reached absurd heights, with the mandatory greeting “Sun Moon Holy Order, invincible in battle; Leader Dongfang, cultured in letters and mighty in arms; may you reign for a thousand autumns, unifying the jianghu” (日月神教，战无不胜，东方教主，文成武德，千秋万载，一统江湖).

Organisational structure

Leadership hierarchy

The Sun Moon Holy Order maintains a sophisticated hierarchical structure designed for both military efficiency and political control.

Supreme Leadership:

Leader (教主): Supreme authority over all Order affairs
Deputy Leader (副教主): Second-in-command with broad executive powers
Bright Left Messenger (光明左使): Senior lieutenant overseeing major operations
Bright Right Messenger (光明右使): Secondary lieutenant handling special assignments
Saint Maiden (圣姑): Honorary position held by Ren Yingying, commanding authority over unaffiliated jianghu figures

The dual Messenger system provides redundancy whilst preventing any single subordinate from accumulating enough power to threaten the Leader’s position. During Ren Woxing’s reign, Dongfang Bubai served as Bright Left Messenger before his betrayal; after Ren Woxing’s restoration, Xiang Wentian assumed this position.

The Twelve Halls system

The Order organises its operations through Twelve Halls (十二堂), each identified by distinctive coloured sashes and responsible for specific functions:

Known Halls:

Wind-Thunder Hall (风雷堂) — Led by Tong Baixiong
White Tiger Hall (白虎堂) — Led by “Eagle Hero” Shangguan Yun
Azure Dragon Hall (青龙堂) — Led by “Yellow-Faced Venerable” Jia Bu
Vermilion Bird Hall (朱雀堂) — Former Hall Master executed for opposing Dongfang Bubai’s succession
Black Tortoise Hall (玄武堂) — Organised into five incense branches
Heavenly Wind Hall (天风堂)

Each Hall maintains its own hierarchy of elders, hall masters, deputy hall masters, incense masters, and deputy incense masters. The Hall elders wear green robes with yellow sashes, whilst the supreme Ten Elders wear black robes with yellow sashes—the most prestigious attire in the Order.

The Seven-Coloured Banners

Below the Twelve Halls, the Order organises regional forces into Seven-Coloured Banners (七色旗), distinguished by robe and flag colours: white, yellow, blue, purple, green, cyan, and black. Each Banner is led by a Banner Master responsible for specific territories. During Ren Woxing’s earlier reign, Qin Weibang served as Cyan Banner Master overseeing several counties in Jiangxi.

Subordinate organisations

The Sun Moon Holy Order commands allegiance from numerous affiliated groups and unattached jianghu figures:

Affiliated Leaders and Organisations:

Four Friends of Jiangnan — Huang Zhonggong, Black-White Zi, Bald Brush Scholar, Dan Qingsheng
Yellow River Elder — Subordinate to Saint Maiden Ren Yingying
Green Bamboo Elder — Hidden in Luoyang’s Green Bamboo Lane
Blue Phoenix — Leader of the Five Poison Cult of Yunnan
Ping Yizhi — “Killing Doctor” of Kaifeng
Various island masters, cave masters, guild leaders, and fortress chiefs

These affiliates number in the tens of thousands and include individuals from across China and beyond, including practitioners from the Western Regions. Most senior affiliates have consumed the Three Corpse Brain Pill, ensuring their loyalty through the threat of agonising death should they fail to receive the annual antidote.

Martial arts and treasures

Star-Absorbing Skill

The Star-Absorbing Skill (吸星大法) represents the Order’s primary martial arts legacy, derived from the ancient Northern Darkness Divine Art of the Xiaoyao Order. This technique enables practitioners to absorb opponents’ internal energy through physical contact, rapidly accumulating power that would otherwise require decades of cultivation.

Ren Woxing mastered this art to an extraordinary degree, using it to defeat numerous martial arts masters and consolidate his position as Leader. However, the technique carries inherent dangers—absorbed internal energies from different sources may conflict within the practitioner’s body, potentially causing violent backlash. This flaw ultimately contributed to Ren Woxing’s death when his accumulated foreign energies erupted uncontrollably.

Linghu Chong inadvertently learned a variant of this skill whilst imprisoned with Ren Woxing, though he never formally joined the Order.

Sunflower Manual

The Sunflower Manual (葵花宝典) contains martial arts of transcendent power, originally created by a palace eunuch during a previous dynasty. The technique emphasises supernatural speed, enabling practitioners to strike before opponents can react or defend. However, mastery requires self-castration—a price that fundamentally transforms the practitioner’s body and psychology.

The Order obtained an incomplete copy when the Ten Elders raided Huashan School. Dongfang Bubai practised this art obsessively after seizing power, achieving combat abilities that allowed him to simultaneously fight Ren Woxing, Xiang Wentian, Linghu Chong, and Shangguan Yun whilst barely exerting himself. Only Ren Yingying’s threat to kill his lover Yang Lianting distracted him sufficiently for the combined assault to succeed.

Three Corpse Brain Pill

The Three Corpse Brain Pill (三尸脑神丹) serves as the Order’s primary tool for ensuring loyalty. This fire-red pill contains dormant corpse worms that remain inert under normal circumstances. However, without the annual antidote administered each Dragon Boat Festival, the worms activate and burrow into the victim’s brain, causing madness, loss of reason, and eventually death.

The pill is extraordinarily difficult to produce, reserved only for senior members whose loyalty requires absolute guarantee. Different Leaders use different formulations, meaning antidotes are not interchangeable—Dongfang Bubai’s antidote cannot neutralise pills created by Ren Woxing, and vice versa.

Black Wood Token

The Black Wood Token (黑木令) is the Leader’s personal symbol of authority. Approximately half a foot in length, carved from charred black wood with intricate patterns and text, the token commands absolute obedience from all Order members. When the Black Wood Token arrives, it carries the same authority as the Leader’s personal presence, and subordinates must obey its bearer’s commands without question.

Role in Laughing in the Wind

Political allegory

The Sun Moon Holy Order serves as Jin Yong’s vehicle for political commentary within Laughing in the Wind. The novel, written during the Cultural Revolution, uses the Order’s totalitarian practices—mandatory sycophantic greetings, persecution of loyal veterans, promotion of incompetent favourites, and the cult of personality surrounding Dongfang Bubai—to satirise contemporary political excesses without directly criticising the Chinese government.

The Order’s conflict with the Five Mountains Sword Alliance illustrates that neither “orthodox” nor “heterodox” factions hold moral high ground. Zuo Lengchan of Songshan School proves as ruthless and ambitious as any Demon Cult leader, whilst Yue Buqun of Huashan School—the “Gentleman Sword”—ultimately reveals himself as the novel’s most contemptible hypocrite. Meanwhile, Order members like Qu Yang display genuine artistic sensibility and emotional authenticity that their orthodox counterparts lack.

Ren Woxing’s restoration

The story’s central conflict involves efforts to free Ren Woxing from his imprisonment and restore him to power. Xiang Wentian, the loyal Bright Left Messenger, orchestrates an elaborate scheme involving Linghu Chong to breach Plum Manor’s defences and release the former Leader.

The rescue succeeds, and Ren Woxing leads his loyalists in an assault on Black Wood Cliff. Despite Dongfang Bubai’s overwhelming martial superiority, the combined efforts of Ren Woxing, Xiang Wentian, Linghu Chong, and Shangguan Yun—aided by Ren Yingying’s psychological tactics against Yang Lianting—ultimately prevail. Ren Woxing personally executes Yang Lianting by crushing him with Dongfang Bubai’s corpse.

Reconciliation with orthodox factions

Following Ren Woxing’s death from internal energy backlash, his daughter Ren Yingying assumes leadership. Rather than continuing the endless cycle of conflict, she initiates reconciliation with orthodox factions. Working with Xiang Wentian, she returns the Zhenwu Sword and Taijiquan Manual to Wudang Order and presents rare Buddhist scriptures to Shaolin Temple, dissolving generations of enmity.

After observing three years of mourning for her father, Ren Yingying transfers the position of Leader to Xiang Wentian and marries Linghu Chong, withdrawing from jianghu affairs entirely.

Distinction from Ming Order

Despite superficial similarities in their names—both containing characters that could relate to “brightness”—the Sun Moon Holy Order has no connection to the Ming Order of The Heavenly Sword and the Dragon Sabre.

Jin Yong himself clarified this point, stating: “Ren Woxing belongs to the Sun Moon Holy Order; Zhang Wuji belongs to the Ming Order.” The “sun” (日) and “moon” (月) in the Order’s name do not derive from splitting the character “bright” (明) but represent the organisation’s independent symbolism. The Ming Order traces its origins to Persian Manichaeism and the historical worship of light, whilst the Sun Moon Holy Order appears to be an entirely fictional creation for Laughing in the Wind without religious or historical precedent.

Behind the scenes

The Sun Moon Holy Order represents Jin Yong’s most sophisticated exploration of power, corruption, and the arbitrary nature of moral classifications in the martial arts world. The organisation serves multiple narrative and thematic functions that elevate Laughing in the Wind beyond simple adventure fiction.

Political commentary

Jin Yong wrote Laughing in the Wind during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), when direct political criticism was impossible. The Sun Moon Holy Order’s practices—the mandatory slogans praising the Leader, the persecution of loyal veterans like Tong Baixiong, the elevation of sycophants like Yang Lianting, and the atmosphere of fear and denunciation—closely parallel the excesses of that era.

The Order’s label as a “Demon Cult” by orthodox factions mirrors how political movements label opponents as enemies of the people, regardless of individual character or actions. Jin Yong suggests that such classifications serve the interests of those making them rather than reflecting genuine moral distinctions.

Moral ambiguity

Unlike the clearly villainous organisations in other Jin Yong novels, the Sun Moon Holy Order contains individuals of genuine virtue alongside genuine villains. Qu Yang, an Order elder, forms a beautiful friendship with Liu Zhengfeng of Hengshan School, transcending factional boundaries through their shared love of music. Their collaborative composition “Erta Nova” (笑傲江湖) represents the possibility of human connection beyond political and ideological divisions.

Similarly, Ren Yingying—despite her position as the Demon Cult’s Saint Maiden—demonstrates more compassion, loyalty, and integrity than most orthodox characters. Her eventual reconciliation with orthodox factions suggests that peace becomes possible when individuals look beyond inherited enmities.

Portrayals

The Sun Moon Holy Order has been featured prominently in various adaptations of Laughing in the Wind:

Television Series:

1984 series — Early TVB production featuring the Order’s power struggles
1996 series — Taiwanese adaptation emphasising Dongfang Bubai’s tragedy
2000 series — Detailed exploration of Order politics and internal conflicts
2001 series — Mainland production with enhanced focus on Ren Woxing’s character
2013 series — Modern reinterpretation with controversial changes to Dongfang Bubai’s portrayal
2018 series — Most recent adaptation featuring updated action choreography

Film Adaptations:

Swordsman II (1992) — Iconic portrayal of Dongfang Bubai by Brigitte Lin
The East Is Red (1993) — Sequel focusing on the Order’s aftermath

Most adaptations emphasise the contrast between the Order’s fearsome reputation and the humanity of its individual members, whilst showcasing the spectacular martial arts of the Star-Absorbing Skill and Sunflower Manual.

External links

Sun Moon Holy Order (Chinese) on Baidu Baike
Sun Moon Holy Order (Chinese) on Wikipedia