Wang Jianying (simplified: 王剑英, traditional: 王劍英, pinyin: Wáng Jiànyīng, jyutping: wong4 gim3 jing1) is the elder son of Wang Weiyang and brother of Wang Jianjie, zhangmen of the Eight Trigrams School and one of the chief guards of Fuk’anggan in Jin Yong’s Side Story of the Flying Fox. Nearing fifty when he first appears, he is heavily built but light on his feet, and regarded as the foremost Eight Trigrams master of his day (SIDE ch. 3, 14). His father trained him with unbending strictness, and he is stubborn by nature: he will not strike until his feet stand on the correct trigram position, and the narrator judges that for all his inheritance his rigidity keeps him from the first rank (SIDE ch. 3, 5).
Biography
At Shang Family Fort
Wang Weiyang had been Escort Chief of the Zhenyuan Armed Escort in Beijing. After his death the escort closed and his sons entered official service, prospering in the household of Fuk’anggan, whom they call “Young Lord Fu”. They paid little heed to their father’s disciple Shang Jianming, with whom Wang Jianying had never been on good terms, and did not even know he was dead (SIDE ch. 3).
Riding through Shandong with Fuk’anggan, the brothers meet Shang’s son Shang Baozhen and accept his kowtow as his shishu. At Shang Family Fort they keep Old Madam Shang and her son talking on Fuk’anggan’s orders while he courts Ma Chunhua in the garden (SIDE ch. 3).
When Zhao Banshan of the Red Flower Society arrives, Wang Jianying recognises him from a meeting at his father’s escort more than twenty years before, and tries to smooth everything over, offering to drop Old Madam Shang’s quarrel with Hu Fei for Zhao’s sake (SIDE ch. 3). Stung by his shisao’s taunts that the Eight Trigrams School is left with nothing but cowards, he takes on Hu Fei himself. He fights with studied ease, performing for Zhao, until the boy’s strange moves make him lose his temper. Hu Fei wounds his palm with a poisoned golden dart hidden in his felt hat, evades his Wandering-Body Eight Trigrams Palm with a simple four-step footwork, and holds out until they lock palms and Zhao, seeing the boy beaten, parts them with a touch; Wang is left with nothing to say, and Zhao reflects that Wang Weiyang has no worthy successor (SIDE ch. 3).
The iron hall
Trapped with the others in the burning iron hall, Wang Jianying strikes the wall with both palms without moving it and pleads through the dog hole that he and his brother have done Shang Jianming no wrong. He offers to kill Hu Fei for Old Madam Shang, and when that fails proposes to the others that Hu Fei be sacrificed to save them all, bringing Yin Zhongxiang and Ma Xingkong round until Zhao Banshan stands in the way (SIDE ch. 4). Once Hu Fei is outside fighting Old Madam Shang, Wang calls through the dog hole how to break her Eight Trigrams bladework. He is the first out when the door opens, and has to watch Zhao Banshan and Hu Fei go back into the fire to rescue his brother, ashamed that strangers saved him (SIDE ch. 4). The brothers then return to Beijing with Fuk’anggan (SIDE ch. 4).
In Beijing
Years later, in Beijing, the brothers join Qin Naizhi and Zhou Tiejiao at the feast where Zhou and his fellows try to reconcile Hu Fei with Feng Tiannan. Seeing Feng save himself at a friend’s expense, they exchange a look of contempt and hold back from the fight (SIDE ch. 13). Yuan Ziyi, claiming the leadership of one school after another, challenges Wang. They fight on stools and then on a table, and he turns to his father’s secret Eight Formations Eight Trigrams Palm, taught only to Wang Weiyang’s sons, but she kicks teacups into his face, dislocates both his arms and demands his school; his brother yields it to save his life (SIDE ch. 14).
As one of the sixteen guards around Fuk’anggan at the Grand Assembly of Zhangmen under Heaven, Wang and Zhou Tiejiao catch up Ma Chunhua’s twin sons when the Ni brothers are forced to drop them, and the Wang brothers escort the boys to the rear court (SIDE ch. 17). When Yuan Ziyi, now the nun Yuanxing, publicly addresses him as zhangmen of the Eight Trigrams School, handing back what she had taken, he answers with praise for her, and he moves to seize Tang Pei on Fuk’anggan’s order (SIDE ch. 19).
Relationships
- Wang Weiyang (Father and shifu): Trained him strictly; the Eight Formations Eight Trigrams Palm passed only to his sons (SIDE ch. 3, 14).
- Wang Jianjie (Younger brother): Fights at his side throughout (SIDE ch. 3, 4, 14).
- Shang Jianming (Shixiong): Never on good terms (SIDE ch. 3).
- Old Madam Shang (Shisao): Traps him in the iron hall (SIDE ch. 4).
- Shang Baozhen (Shizhi): Trains him after the fire and brings him into Fuk’anggan’s service (SIDE ch. 12, 13).
- Fuk’anggan (Master): Wang serves as one of his chief guards (SIDE ch. 3, 19).
- Zhao Banshan: Wang defers to him at the fort and clashes with him in the iron hall (SIDE ch. 3, 4).
- Hu Fei (Opponent): Fights him as a boy at the fort and later tries to sacrifice him in the iron hall (SIDE ch. 3, 4).
- Yuan Ziyi (Opponent): Takes and returns his school’s leadership (SIDE ch. 14, 19).
Martial arts
Wang Jianying’s Eight Trigrams Palm rests on decades of work, most visible in its plainest forms (SIDE ch. 3). He commands the Wandering-Body Eight Trigrams Palm, the short, deadly Inner Eight Trigrams, and the Eight Formations Eight Trigrams Palm (八阵八卦掌), which blends the eight formations with the trigram positions and is taught only within the Wang family (SIDE ch. 3, 14). His step lands heavily, a sign of deep foundations, and his toes turn slightly inward as he walks, the mark of long Eight Trigrams training (SIDE ch. 13, 14). He knows Eight Trigrams bladework well enough to read it by ear (SIDE ch. 4).