Dugu Qiubai
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Dugu Qiubai (Traditional Chinese: 獨孤求敗; Simplified Chinese: 独孤求败) was a character mentioned in three of Jinyong's novels. He was given the nickname "Sword Devil" to reflect his skill and devotion in swordsmanship.
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[edit] Introduction
His skills are legendary as he is one of Jinyong's most mysterious characters. In fact, he has never made an appearance in any of them. His legacy is seen in the Return of the Condor Heroes and The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, and very briefly mentioned in the Deer and the Cauldron. He supposedly achieved the philosophical level of "swordsmanship without a sword."
His Dugu Nine Swords was described in Smiling Proud Wanderer, used by Linghu Chong, which contains nine forms to defeat or overcome any types of attack. It based on the principle of "no patterns bests any pattern" because one cannot predict (and counter correspondingly) a move which does not have a pattern. Therefore, in theory this technique of fighting has no style and cannot be beaten (given that the wielder is a martial arts adept who can apply this technique effectively).
The Dugu Nine Swords are all about offensive moves. The idea is that when one forces one’s enemy to have no other choice but to defend himself, there is no need to defend one’s self.
Although each move was just one stance, it had endless variations. The more one learns, the more powerful it becomes when one comprehended the connections between each stance. The last three stances are said to be the most difficult ones.
The 9 Stances
- General Index Stance (總訣式)
- Sword-defeating Stance (破劍式)
- Broadsword/Knife-defeating Stance (破刀式)
- Spear-defeating Stance (破槍式)
- Mace-defeating Stance (破鞭式)
- Whip-defeating Stance (破索式)
- Palm-defeating Stance (破掌式)
- Arrow-defeating Stance (破箭式)
- Qi-defeating Stance (破氣式)
The first move of the Dugu Nine Swords, General Index Stance, has many variations to implement the General Index Script.
The second move, Sword-defeating Stance, is to defeat sword styles from every school.
The third move, Broadsword/Knife-defeating Stance, is to defeat broadsword/knife moves of Single Knife, Double Knives, Willow-Leaf Cutlass, Ghost-Beheaded Saber, Large Cleaver, and Horse-Cutting Blade, etc.
The fourth move, Spear-defeating Stance included techniques to defeat pole weapons such as long-handled spear, long-handled halberd, snake-shaped spear, staff, fanged cudgel, white wax stick, Buddhist monk’s staff, and Buddhist monk’s spade.
The fifth move, Mace-defeating Stance is to defeat short weapons such as steel club, iron mace, point-sealing peg, crutches, Emei sting, dagger, war axe, iron plate, octagonal hammer, and iron awl.
The sixth move, Whip-defeating stance is to defeat flexible weapons such as long cord, whip, three-section cudgel, chain spear, iron chain, fishing net, and morningstar.
The seventh move, Palm-defeating Stance is to defeat martial arts which uses one’s fists, legs, fingers, and palms. If the opponent would fight against a sword with bare hands, he should be very skillful in the art that the use of weapons means little to him. The Palm-breaking Stance included techniques to overcome boxing and grappling, joint manipulation and point sealing, demon claw and tiger claw hands, iron sand divine palm, and the type of bare-hand martial arts.
The eighth move, Arrow-defeating Stance covers many kinds of missiles and projectiles. To learn this stance, the practitioner must first learn the skill of distinguishing the type of the missile by ear. He not only should be capable of blocking the many kinds of projectiles coming from the enemy with his long sword, but also redirecting the missiles to counterattack and injure the enemy with his own missiles.
The ninth move, Qi-defeating Stance, is to defeat opponents who have great inner energy. In the novel, it was not clearly explained how this stance actually works. A common evaluation among fans is that it may base on pin-pointing attacks on certain parts of the body to prevent the opponent from exerting his qi.
To master these sword techniques, the key lies on comprehension and not simply rigid memorizing. Once the essence of the sword techniques is understood, it can be used in endless ways, hence the idea of no pattern as a stance. Thus during combat, the more these stances are forgotten, the less restricted the practitioner becomes by the original stances.
Dugu Qiubai has another technique, namely the Heavy Sword Technique. It was used by Yang Guo and has a rigorous requirement on qi energy. This technique emphasizes that simple actions, when accompanied by potent qi exertion, can be more effective than the most complicated forms of attacks.
The Heavy Sword Technique requires the Heavy Sword (see below) to perform. It is stated in the book when Yang Guo was learning this technique, he commented that average swords would be broken right away once he exerted/ channelled his qi energy into the sword. The weight of the Heavy Sword would also boost the power of his thrusts and swings.
It should also be noted that Yang Guo managed to meet the qi energy requirement to attain Heavy Sword Technique by following the qi training process Dugu Qiubai undertook (guided by the Giant Condor). Later on,Yang Guo became one of the most powerful qi practitioners in his time. This can be used as the basis to evaluate the qi energy power of Dugu Qiubai.
[edit] The Debate
It was argued among fans that whether the Dugu Nine Swords or the Heavy Sword Technique is more advanced. While there is not a definite answer (from the writer or the book) to this question, there is a reference in the JinYong 100 Questions session during an interview:
Question: Did Yang Guo manage to learn Dugu Qiubai's swordsmanship? How advanced he was in the area of martial arts?
Answer (Jinyong): Partly because Dugu Qiubai had not passed on a complete record/script, his (Yang Guo) swordsmanship was not very strong. Yet his qi energy was stronger than Linghu Chong, as he had been training in the waterfall for sixteen years.
[edit] The Tomb of Swords
Dugu Qiubai wrote about himself (this is what Yang Guo read at the Dugu's Tomb):
"Having roamed the martial arts world for more than thirty years, I have killed all my villainous foes and defeated all heroic champions, under Heaven there's no one who can be my equal. Without any other choice, I could only retreat and live in seclusion in this deep valley, with a condor as my companion. Alas, throughout my life I searched for a good adversary but in vain, I am truly lonely and saddened. DEMONIC SWORDSMAN DUGU QIUBAI"
In his Sword Tomb, it is stated:
"The Demonic Swordsman Dugu Qiubai has become the invincible and unchallenged warrior under Heaven, he therefore buried his swords here. Alas, the heroes of the realm bowed down before me, now my long sword is of no use anymore... the agony!"
The first sword - "Fierce and aggressive, able to penetrate every obstacle. With it, I competed with the heroes of the Northern Plains during my teenage years."
The second sword - "The Violet Flexible Sword, used it prior to the age of thirty. I accidentally wounded a righteous man with it, it turned out to be a Weapon of Doom. I felt great remorse and abandoned the sword in a deep valley."
The third sword - "The Heavy, Blunt Sword, complexity is useless. Before I reached the age of forty, I used it to roam the entire Empire under Heaven."
The fourth sword - "After the age of forty, I no longer relied on weaponry. Trees, bamboo and rock can all be my swords. From then on, the essence of my cultivation slowly reached the level of overcoming the sword without a sword."
Film and Television
He appeared in a movie, The Ashes of Time, filmed by Wong Kar Wai with permission from Jinyong who received credit as co-writer, wherein he wasn't actually a "he" but a "she." Dugu Qiubai is here presented as a woman, Mu Rongyan, who developed a severe split personality--one male, one female--upon having her heart broken by Huang Yaoshi. They had met while she was pretending to be a man. When Huang Yaoshi stated in a drunken daze that if Mu Rongyin, her alter ego, had a sister, he would marry her. They agreed to meet later, but he stood her up, which drove her crazy. After she speaks to Huang Yaoshi one last time, where he tells her that she couldn't hold something he'd said when he was drunk against him, she asks him to lie to her when she asks him if he loves her the most. Eventually, she wanders off, and it's stated that she became a mysterious swordsman said to practice against her own reflection. The movie was a prequel to the Legend of the Condor Heroes.
TVB filmed a TV series on Dugu Qiubai, but the story was created by TVB and is by no means considered canon.
[edit] Trivia
- Dugu Qiubai's surname, 獨孤, is a last name from a tribe in northern China. As individual words, the word 獨 means single, and 孤 means alone.
- His name, 求敗, means "asking for defeat". It is generally assumed that he gave this name to himself in his later years, when he could find no one to best him.
