Xiao Banhe (simplified: 萧半和, traditional: 蕭半和, pinyin: Xiāo Bànhé, jyutping: siu1 bun3 wo4) is the daxia of Jinyang, whose fiftieth birthday draws heroes from across the jianghu. His real name is Xiao Yi. He is a eunuch who rescued the widows of the heroes Yuan and Yang from the imperial prison, and for sixteen years has passed as their husband and as the father of Yang’s daughter, Xiao Zhonghui.
Biography
Before the novella
Xiao tells his story at the end of the novella. His father was locked in a blood feud with the Manchu Qing and was killed; his father’s seven sworn brothers, pledged to avenge him, died one after another in battle with imperial guards or by lingchi. Judging that he would never match their skill, Xiao had himself castrated at sixteen and entered the palace to assassinate the Emperor, but in more than ten years he never came near him. Sixteen years before the story, he overheard two guards say that the Emperor had seized the families of the heroes Yuan and Yang to force them to give up the Mandarin Duck Blades; both men had died rather than yield, and their wives had been thrown into the imperial prison. Deciding that saving the living mattered more than avenging the dead, Xiao broke into the prison, killed several guards and freed the two women, though Madam Yuan’s son was lost in the escape. To hide from the Qing court, he put on a large false beard and had Madam Yuan and Madam Yang pose as his wives. He took the name Banhe in admiration of the Ming eunuch admiral Zheng He, hoping to have half his heroism.1
The blades resurface
A month before his birthday, Xiao learns that the blades have fallen into the hands of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Governor-General Liu Yuyi. Expecting Liu to send them to the capital, he plans to seize them on the road rather than from Liu’s guarded residence. He sends birthday invitations to heroes of Qin, Jin, Ji and Lu, slipping a private note into those for trusted friends asking them to take the blades, and sends men to lie in ambush on the Shaanxi road. Each time his daughter asks to go along, he refuses and sends her to ask her First Mother.2
The birthday
On the tenth day of the third month, his mansion fills with guests. Xiao receives the Four Xias of Taiyue, who present the golden hairpin his daughter gave them, and then Yuan Guannan, Lin Yulong and Ren Feiyan, who present the long Yuan blade. After questioning Yuan about his lineage, training and friends, Xiao agrees with the two madams to betroth his daughter to him, and announces it that night. He has just given Yuan a sandalwood fan as a betrothal gift when Yuan recognises Madam Yuan as his mother.3
Zhuo Tianxiong then arrives with Xiao Zhonghui as his captive. The two men’s handshake ends even, and Zhuo recognises Xiao’s power as the Hunyuan Qi, which only the celibate can keep. When Zhuo offers to exchange the girl for the long Yuan blade, Xiao shatters the back of his chair and declares that she is not his daughter, since a practitioner of the Hunyuan Qi cannot father children. Soldiers surround the mansion calling for the rebel Xiao Yi, and Xiao wipes the beard from his face, ending sixteen years of disguise. He holds Zhuo to a standstill while his friends drive off the guards and soldiers, then burns the mansion and leads his household and guests to the Zhongtiao Mountains.4
There he tells them the truth about himself and the two madams, and tells Xiao Zhonghui that her father was Yang Bochong. He believes the short Yang blade that broke in the fight was a fake planted by Zhuo, until the Four Xias arrive with Zhuo in a fishing net and the true blade at his waist.1
Martial arts abilities
Xiao’s Hunyuan Qi is his defining skill. It is the only power that can match Zhuo Tianxiong’s Thirty Palms of Heaven Shaking, and it must be cultivated in celibacy: marriage destroys it, man or woman. When Zhuo strikes at Yuan Guannan, Xiao meets him palm to palm, and the collision drives both men back two steps.4
Behind the scenes
His name 半和 (bàn hé) means ‘half He’, a nod to Zheng He. The false beard he strokes before every important speech is the novella’s running clue to his secret.
See also
- Mandarin Duck Blades characters
- Xiao Zhonghui — Yang Bochong’s daughter, raised as his
- Yuan Guannan — Madam Yuan’s son, betrothed to Xiao Zhonghui
- Madam Yuan — the hero Yuan’s widow, posing as his first wife
- Madam Yang — Yang Bochong’s widow, posing as his second wife
Follow the archive routes
- Read: Continue with Mandarin Duck Blades or browse the translation archive.
- Explore: Follow the Mandarin Duck Blades character pages and the novel reference page.
- Understand: Start with wuxia and jianghu for the genre and social-world context.
- Watch: Follow wuxia adaptations for the screen route.
- Write: Study story elements in wuxia fiction for craft grounded in the novels.
External links
- Baidu Baike - 萧半和 — Related character information