There are many situations where I miss a movie because of an ugly name. Movies such as "Three Idiots in Bollywood", "Terror Cruise" and "The Butterfly Effect" are all masterpieces, but this name is really a little bit… The meaning of a bad movie is really delayed by the name. Similarly, the same is true for martial arts novels. A good title can attract readers. On the contrary, a bad title can easily cause readers to miss a good work.
Among Jin Yong's stories, titles such as "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", and "The Legend of Heaven and Dragon Sword" are not eye-catching, but at least they are concise and comprehensive, summarizing what kind of story this book will tell. Readers You can immediately understand the author's thoughts.
(Still photos of Xiao Feng, Xu Zhu and Duan Yu)
This is not the case for "The Eight Parts of the Dragon". What is the profound meaning behind Jin Yong's title?
1. The inexplicable title of the book
"The Condor Trilogy" is undoubtedly the most out-of-the-box series of works written by Jin Yong. In fact, as mentioned above, the titles given by Jin Yong to these three works are definitely not very good.
Whether it is "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" or "The Legend of Heaven and the Dragon Slayer", they are only the most basic summary of what this work will be about.
In "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "The Condor Heroes" is a pun, referring to Genghis Khan and Guo Jing. Although they are both heroes, they have chosen completely different lives.
"The Legend of the Condor Heroes" is more intuitive. The so-called "heroic couple" naturally refers to the couple Yang Guo and Xiao Longnu.
(Still photo of the three protagonist brothers)
"The Legend of Heaven and Dragon Slaying" is even simpler. The plot in the book revolves around the two magic weapons, the Heaven Sword and the Dragon Sword, which were passed down by Guo Jing and his wife. Until the end of the story, the secret of Heaven and Dragon Slaying is revealed, which makes people feel wonderful. Unspeakable.
"The Eight Parts of the Dragon" gives people a sense of confusion. If it were not for the fact that this book was written by Jin Yong, I am afraid that most readers would be discouraged after reading the title, because the title reveals The information on the book is really limited, and people would not even associate it with "martial arts novels". Fortunately, before this book came out, Jin Yong had already created "The Book of Swords and Enemies", "Snow Mountain Flying Fox" and "The Three Condor Heroes". "Part" and other classics have gained fame.
2. People corresponding to the eight parts
Later, by looking up information on the Internet, I found out that the so-called "Dragon and the Eight Parts" are Buddhist terms. For example, it is mentioned in the Lotus Sutra: Devadatta: "The Eight Parts of the Deity and Dragon, humans and non-humans, all see each other from a distance. The dragon girl became a Buddha.”
The so-called "Eight Tribes" refer to the "Eight Tribes", which are: "One Heavenly Tribe, Two Dragon Tribes, Three Yakshas, Four Gandharvas, Five Asuras, Six Garudas, Seven Kinnara , Bamaharaga."
Because of this, some readers think that these eight tribes correspond to the characters in the book.
Some people analyze that Tianzhong corresponds to the eldest brother Xiao Feng in the protagonist. His character is like a "god", that is, "Emperor Shitian". He has excellent character and martial arts. In the book, he is almost invincible. There is almost no stain in his life.
Gandharva corresponds to Arjuna. This character is good at disguise and gives people a sense of change.
(Jiumozhi stills)
Asura corresponds to Murong Fu. He is the enemy of Emperor Shitian, but he is defeated by Emperor Shitian, which is consistent with Murong Fu's position in the book.
Among the remaining people, Garuda is Jiumozhi, Jinluana is Azi, Mahulaka is Xuzhu, Long Zhong is Duan Yu, and Yaksha is the four evil people.
This is a more mainstream explanation, but this is not Jin Yong’s own explanation. In the author’s opinion, this explanation can be said to be a bit far-fetched. After all, in terms of drama and role positioning, how can the four villains be compared with several other villains? Comparable to two characters?
Take the main characters in the book as an example. Ding Chunqiu, Wu Yazi, Tianshan Tonglao, and Li Qiushui are important characters belonging to the Xiaoyao sect. None of them correspond to the Eight Tribes. Is it unreasonable? You must know that among the three protagonists, Duan Yu and Xu Zhu were able to transform into top masters because of the Xiaoyao sect's martial arts.
(stills of The Four Villains)
Jin Yong actually gave his own explanation in the newly revised edition. The so-called correspondence between the eight tribes and the characters in the book is simply nonsense.
At least in the opening chapter "Release Names", he mentioned these few words when introducing the eight tribes. Taking heaven as an example, he said this: "'Heaven' refers to the gods. In Buddhism, The status of gods is not supreme, but they can enjoy greater and longer blessings than humans. Buddhism believes that all things are impermanent, and gods will die after their lifespan ends. There are five symptoms of gods before they die: Clothes Dirt, greasy flowers on the head, body odor, sweating under the armpits, and unhappiness (the fifth symptom may be said to be the "separation of jade girls"). This is the so-called "five declines of heaven and man", which is the greatest sorrow of the gods. . Sakyamuni is the leader of the gods."
You see, he only explained the meaning of the term, and did not explain which role the gods correspond to.
To put it bluntly, this explanation means saying nothing at all. As for the fact that he actually named the book "Dragon and the Eight Parts" for this book, it was actually because he "lost it" or "wrote it badly".
3. Explanation of Jin Yong’s later years
As mentioned earlier, the titles of Jin Yong's other works make people know that they are martial arts stories at a glance, while "The Eight Parts of the Dragon" gives people a sense of mystery and even a bit of magic, which is exactly what it means. The reason why Jin Yong gave this work such a name is that this book does have settings that go beyond the category of "martial arts".
Jin Yong mentioned in the postscript of the newly revised version of the original work: "There are many exaggerated or factually impossible aspects of the characters' personalities and martial arts skills in "Tianlong", such as the 'Six Meridians Divine Sword', 'Flaming Sword', ' Beiming Shen Gong', Wu Yazi's teaching, Tong Lao's rejuvenation, etc."
(Still photo of Tianshan Tonglao)
Why does he emphasize here that "there are many exaggerations and impossibility in "Dragon""? In fact, there are also settings in other stories such as "flying over the walls" and "beating cows across the mountain", but it is obvious that they are still "martial arts" and not "magic". Obviously, these settings that appear in "Dragon Babu" are Too exaggerated.
At the end of the tenth chapter of the original work, he also made this point clear: "The narrative in this book contains many false imaginations and exaggerations. It is named after the 'Dragon and the Eight Parts' and is mostly symbolic and abstract. It has entered the magical realm of magic." .”
Therefore, the title of this work does not correspond to any of the eight characters, but because the abilities Jin Yong gave to the characters in the book are too powerful, this is why such a slightly magical title was given.