Zhong Zhaowen (simplified: 钟兆文, traditional: 鍾兆文, pinyin: Zhōng Zhàowén, jyutping: zung1 siu6 man4) is the eldest of the Three Heroes of the Zhong Clan (钟氏三雄) of Ebei (鄂北, northern Hubei), in Jin Yong’s Side Story of the Flying Fox. He and his younger brothers Zhong Zhaoying and Zhong Zhaoneng head the Zhong Family (钟家), known in the jianghu as the “Dread of Ghosts” (鬼见愁), whose Zhong School (钟门) dominates the Jingxiang region (SIDE ch. 2). The brothers are famous wulin figures of high seniority, careful in their dealings and strong in their arts, and have built a large following across Hubei and Hunan (SIDE ch. 2, 11).
Biography
The fight at the inn
One of the Zhong School’s disciples, disguised as a travelling tinker, was among the five men who stalked the official Nan Rentong for his Cold Moon Treasured Dao, and Miao Renfeng killed him while saving Nan’s daughter Nan Lan. The tinker’s light-footed gait had marked him out to Miao as a man trained by the Zhong Family (SIDE ch. 2).
Miao was laid up at an inn with poisoned legs when a dagger pinned a note to his table: “Zhong Zhaowen, Zhong Zhaoying and Zhong Zhaoneng of Ebei, with a hundred bows.” The next morning the three brothers rode in dressed in the white hemp of mourning. Zhaowen, speaking a thick Hubei dialect, apologised for troubling a wounded man but said a disciple’s death had to be avenged, and the three attacked together with pairs of judge’s pens (判官笔). Miao fought from his chair with the Cold Moon Treasured Dao and the Hu Family Bladeworks; one move, “Cloud Dragon Thrice Appears” (云龙三现), cut through a pen each of Zhaoying and Zhaoneng and gashed Zhaowen’s shoulder. Zhaowen then proposed they try fists instead. Zhaoying rolled behind the chair and kicked its legs out; Miao leapt from it and struck Zhaowen and Zhaoneng down. Zhaoying set fire to the inn’s fodder and the brothers stood guard at the door, threatening anyone who helped the lame guest. Miao swung out through the flames on a rope and threw all three into the fire; they escaped scorched and fled south on foot, leaving their horses (SIDE ch. 2).
This was the fire from which Nan Lan ran out alone, a moment Miao never forgot after she became his wife (SIDE ch. 2, 8).
Eight years later: the letter
Stung by that defeat, the brothers gave up the judge’s pen and spent eight years mastering new weapons, meaning to challenge Miao again. On the road they overheard Tian Guinong’s disciple Zhang Yunfei plotting against Miao and set out to stop the Weituo School’s Liu Hezhen, whom Zhang had duped into carrying a poisoned letter (SIDE ch. 8).
They hunted Liu and his wife to the Xiangfei Temple (湘妃庙) in a storm, where Hu Fei, dressed as a peasant, sent them off the trail; Zhaoneng tossed him a piece of silver for his trouble (SIDE ch. 7). Returning before dawn, they found Hu Fei barring the road as a mock highwayman. Zhaowen, anxious not to lose Liu, offered three hundred taels to pass. Hu Fei refused the money, killed Zhaowen’s horse with one blow of his fist and held the three off with a saddle and a pair of stirrups, whose moves they kept failing to place. He then proposed a contest with a pine branch for a dao, a touch to count as a cut. Zhaoying was touched first and threw down his staff; Zhaowen and Zhaoneng were touched in turn, and Zhaowen coughed up blood in his fury. The brothers kept their word and dropped their weapons. Zhaoneng told Hu Fei he had fine skills but was not on the right path (SIDE ch. 8).
Liu’s letter reached Miao and blinded him. When the brothers arrived Zhaowen called through the door that they had come for a contest but would never take advantage of a man in trouble; they helped put out the fire, hauled Liu and Zhang Yunfei out of the well where Hu Fei had thrown them, and heard the truth. Zhaowen told Miao that he had since learnt his disciple had died coveting another man’s weapon and deserved it, and thanked Miao for purging his school. Miao answered that the Three Heroes of the Zhong Clan were no mean men, and all three were delighted (SIDE ch. 8).
The ride to White Horse Temple
That night Zhang Yunfei came back to tell Zhaoneng that the poison had come from the King of Venoms (毒手药王). Zhaowen knew only that the King of Venoms lived at the town of White Horse Temple (白马寺) by Dongting Lake, and that asking him for help would not be easy. He went with Hu Fei, while his brothers, visibly afraid, stayed to guard Miao (SIDE ch. 8). On the road he told Hu Fei that no one agreed on what the King of Venoms looked like, scholar, butcher, old monk or hunchbacked woman, and warned him not to let food or water pass his lips within thirty li of the Medicine King Manor (药王庄). He asked Hu Fei to call him Big Brother rather than “Master Zhong” (SIDE ch. 9).
At the manor’s ring of poison trees he leapt the hedge and fell senseless, and Hu Fei revived him with a blue flower that a village girl had given him. At the girl’s cottage Zhaowen refused her rice and tea, yet fell into a drunken sleep all the same (SIDE ch. 9); Hu Fei later understood that the girl, Cheng Lingsu, had done it (SIDE ch. 14). He woke the next day with the antidote in hand and bought horses for the ride back (SIDE ch. 10).
Captured and released
Back at Miao’s house they found Zhaoying and Zhaoneng surrounded; Zhaowen ran to help, and all three were taken by Tian Guinong’s party. After Hu Fei beat Tian, Tian had them untied. Zhaowen apologised to Miao for failing to protect him and told Hu Fei that if he ever needed them, the brothers would give their lives for him. The three then went south (SIDE ch. 11).
Zhong Zhaoying and Zhong Zhaoneng
Zhong Zhaoying (钟兆英 / 鍾兆英, Zhōng Zhàoyīng) is the second brother, with a black moustache. He is the quickest-witted and the most impatient of the three: it is he who knocks out Miao’s chair legs with ground-fist rolls (地堂拳法) and sets the inn alight (SIDE ch. 2), who wants to fight rather than pay Hu Fei off, and who is first to concede the pine-branch contest (SIDE ch. 8). His later weapon is the mourning staff (哭丧棒), fought in the manner of a staff with some of the whip and mace (SIDE ch. 8).
Zhong Zhaoneng (钟兆能 / 鍾兆能, Zhōng Zhàonéng) is the youngest and clean-shaven. His later weapon is the soul-summoning banner (招魂幡), a soft weapon of cloth-like stuff that takes blows without yielding (SIDE ch. 8).
Both stay behind to guard Miao Renfeng while Zhaowen rides to White Horse Temple (SIDE ch. 8), and both are captured with him by Tian Guinong’s men (SIDE ch. 11).
Physical appearance
The three brothers look alike: deathly pale, with big flat noses and upturned nostrils, told apart by their beards. Zhaowen wears a small grey-white moustache (SIDE ch. 2). They dress as sons in fresh mourning, in coarse hemp with rope belts, and move so lightly they seem not to touch the ground (SIDE ch. 2, 7).
Relationships
- Zhong Zhaoying and Zhong Zhaoneng (Younger brothers): They fight as one, each attack answering the others.
- Miao Renfeng (Enemy, then respected rival): Zhaowen sought to avenge his disciple on him, lost, and later rode to find a cure for his blinded eyes.
- Hu Fei (Friend): Beat all three brothers with a pine branch; Zhaowen asked him to call him Big Brother and pledged the brothers’ lives to him.
- Tong Huaidao (童怀道, Friend): The Taiyuan master of the meteor hammer, “Meteor Chasing the Moon” (流星赶月), is Zhaowen’s close friend (SIDE ch. 8, 18).
- Liu Hezhen: Whom the brothers pursued to stop the poisoned letter; Zhaowen called him a true man after he put out his own eye (SIDE ch. 8).
Martial arts
The Zhong Family is known for its qinggong (SIDE ch. 2). The brothers first fought with pairs of judge’s pens. After their defeat by Miao Renfeng they took up three strange weapons: Zhaowen an iron spirit tablet (铁灵牌) inscribed “Wealth at First Sight” (一见生财), used with hard, heavy blows; Zhaoying the mourning staff; Zhaoneng the soul-summoning banner. The wooden hafts of all three still serve as judge’s pens for striking acupoints, so that hard and soft support one another (SIDE ch. 8). When Zhaowen went with Hu Fei he carried a judge’s pen at his waist (SIDE ch. 9, 11).