Wisely Series

This article is about the novel series. For the mobile application, see Wisely (mobile application).
Wisely Series
Author Ni Kuang
Original title 衛斯理系列
Country Hong Kong
Language Chinese
Genre Adventure fiction, detective fiction, science fiction
Published 1963–2004
Media type Print
Wisely Series
Traditional Chinese 衛斯理系列
Simplified Chinese 卫斯理系列

The Wisely Series are a series of Chinese adventure-science fiction novels written by the Hong Kong novelist Ni Kuang. The protagonist of the series is Wisely (sometimes also spelt "Wesley"). In total, there are 161 stories about Wisely recorded in 156 novels. Of these, only 150 stories in 145 novels are written by Ni Kuang; the remaining ones are written by other writers with Ni Kuang's permission. Some of these stories have been adapted into media, such as the films The Legend of Wisely (1987), The Cat (1992) and The Wesley's Mysterious File (2002), and the television series The New Adventures of Wisely (1998) and The 'W' Files (2004).

Publishing history

Ni Kuang wrote 150 Wisely stories in the form of 145 novels, most of which have a serial number to reflect the chronological order of their year of publication. There are 11 other Wisely stories written by other writers with Ni Kuang's permission. There are a total of 161 Wisely stories in 156 novels. The first 94 stories (excluding the prequel Young Wisely with serial number 0), were first published in serial form in the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao from 1963–92 (with a discontinuation from 1973–78). The stories written from 1992–2004 were published in the form of printed books.

According to Ni Kuang, when he decided to publish the Wisely Series as a collection in the 1970s, he discovered that Ming Pao did not retain all the copies of his previous works. Luckily for him, he encountered a reader, Wen Naijian (溫乃堅), who collected all the copies of his stories published in Ming Pao. He was thus able to have his works republished and released in a multi-volume collection. He expressed his gratitude to Wen in the preface, "These books would not have been published without Mr Wen Naijian's help."

In Hong Kong, books 1–80 were published by Ming Chuang Publishing Company (明窗出版社; under Media Chinese International) while books 81–131 were published by Qin+Yuan Publishing Company (勤+緣出版社). In Taiwan, the books before book 67 were initially published by Yuanjing Publishing Company (遠景出版社) and later by Storm & Stress Publishing Company (風雲時代出版社). The books after book 67 were published by Crown Publishing Company (皇冠出版社).

Ni Kuang announced his decision to stop writing the Wisely Series after book 131 was published. His friend, Taiwanese writer Yeh Lee-hwa, wrote the Wisely Memoirs (衛斯理回憶錄) as an epilogue to the series, and to explain Wisely's life and clarify ambiguities in the stories.

Overview of the stories

The novels are narrated from the point of view of Wisely (sometimes also spelt "Wesley"), the protagonist in the series. They are set in a modern era (1960s–2000s) in a city that is evidently based on Hong Kong. According to Ni Kuang, the character's name was inspired by Wesley Village (衛斯理村) along Tai Hang Road near Jardine's Lookout in Hong Kong. The village was named after John Wesley (1703–91), an English cleric who founded the Methodist movement in Protestant Christianity.

Wisely was born in a wealthy family who run a trading company. Little is known about his parents; it is assumed that they died early. The head of the family is Wisely's grandfather. Wisely is the chairman of the company's board of directors. He lets his general manager run the company and spends his time travelling around the world and solving mysteries. He has several extraordinary adventures throughout his life, including encounters with aliens and supernatural beings.

List of Wisely novels by Ni Kuang

Serial number Title Published
1 鑽石花 11 March – 21 July 1963
2 地底奇人 22 July 1963 – 12 February 1964
3 妖火 13 February – 4 August 1964
4 藍血人 5 August 1964 – 19 February 1965
5 透明光 20 February – 22 July 1965
6 地心洪爐 23 July – 19 October 1965
7 蜂雲 20 October 1965 – 6 February 1966
8 奇玉 7 February – 22 March 1966
9 原子空間 23 March – 11 July 1966
10 天外金球 12 July – 2 December 1966
11 支離人 3 December 1966 – 16 March 1967
12 不死藥 17 March – 4 June 1967
13 紅月亮 1 August – 15 November 1967
14 人造總統 16 November 1967 – 15 February 1968
15 蠱惑 16 February – 7 April 1968
16 奇門 30 June – 21 September 1968
17 屍變 22 September – 24 November 1968
18 合成 25 November 1968 – 21 January 1969
19 筆友 22 January – 10 March 1969
20 叢林之神 11 March – 29 April 1969
21 再來一次 30 April – 20 June 1969
22 盡頭 21 June – 16 August 1969
23 湖水 17 August – 15 September 1969
24 消失 16 September – 15 October 1969
25 影子 16 October – 4 December 1969
26 多了一個 5 December 1969 – 14 January 1970
27 仙境 15 January – 16 March 1970
28 狐變 17 March – 10 May 1970
29 古聲 11 May – 14 June 1970
30 虛像 15 June – 9 August 1970
31 訪客 10 August – 18 September 1970
32 風水 19 September – 29 October 1970
33 環 30 October – 27 December 1970
34 聚寶盆 27 December 1970 – 30 January 1971
35 雨花台石 4 February – 23 March 1971
36 石林 24 March – 9 June 1971
37 創造 10 June – 27 July 1971
38 鬼子 28 July – 10 September 1971
39 老貓 11 September – 1 December 1971
40 貝殼 2 December 1971 – 7 February 1972
41 地圖 8 February – 4 May 1972
42 規律 5 May – 23 June 1972
43 沉船 24 June – 21 September 1972
44 大廈 22 September 1972 – 1 January 1973
45 新年 2 January – 22 February 1973
46 頭髮 1 March – 25 June 1978
47 眼睛 26 June – 25 September 1978
48 迷藏 26 September – 25 December 1978
49 天書 26 December 1978 – 10 April 1979
50 木炭 11 April – 8 August 1979
51 玩具 9 August – 27 November 1979
52 連鎖 13 February 1979 – 30 May 1980
53 尋夢 31 May – 13 October 1980
54 第二種人 14 October 1980 – 11 March 1981
55 後備 12 March – 22 June 1981
56 盜墓 23 June – 26 November 1981
57 搜靈 27 November 1981 – 17 April 1982
58 茫點 18 April – 20 September 1982
59 神仙 21 September 1982 – 30 January 1983
60 追龍 31 January – 23 May 1983
61 洞天 24 May – 14 September 1983
62 活俑 15 September 1983 – 7 January 1984
63 犀照 8 January – 9 May 1984
64 命運 10 May – 10 July 1984
65 十七年 11 July – 13 August 1984
66 異寶 14 August – 17 November 1984
67 極刑 18 November 1984 – 4 March 1985
68 電王 5 March – 24 June 1985
69 遊戲 25 June – 3 October 1985
70 生死鎖 4 October 1985 – 15 January 1986
71 黃金故事 16 January – 2 May 1986
72 廢墟 3 May – 13 August 1986
Serial number Title Published
73 密碼 14 August – 24 November 1986
74 血統 25 November 1986 – 16 March 1987
75 謎蹤 17 March – 4 July 1987
76 瘟神 5 July – 19 October 1987
77 招魂 20 October 1987 – 30 January 1988
78 背叛 31 January – 15 May 1988
79 鬼混 16 May – 27 August 1988
80 報應 28 August – 11 December 1988
81 錯手 12 December 1988 – 6 April 1989
82 真相 7 April – 22 July 1989
83 毒誓 23 July – 6 November 1989
84 拚命 7 November 1989 – 23 February 1990
85 怪物 24 February – 8 June 1990
86 探險 9 June – 23 September 1990
87 繼續探險 24 September 1990 – 11 January 1991
88 圈套 12 January – 28 April 1991
89 烈火女 29 April – 9 August 1991
90 大秘密 10 August – 22 November 1991
91 禍根 23 November 1991 – 29 January 1992
92 從陰間來 25 July 1991
93 到陰間去 25 July 1991
94 少年衛斯理 2 August 1991
95 陰差陽錯 17 December 1991
96 陰魂不散 3 March 1992
97 許願 23 May 1992
98 還陽 16 August 1992
99 運氣 26 October 1992
100 開心 6 February 1993
101 轉世暗號 11 April 1993
102 將來 9 July 1993
103 改變 12 September 1993
104 暗號之二 Late 1993
105 闖禍 11 January 1994
106 在數難逃 27 February 1994
107 解脫 17 April 1994
108 遺傳 16 May 1994
109 爆炸 30 September 1994
110 水晶宮 20 December 1994
111 前世 16 February 1995
112 新武器 11 April 1995
113 病毒 26 May 1995
114 算帳 9 August 1995
115 原形 2 November 1995
116 活路 20 January 1996
117 雙程 2 March 1996
118 洪荒 10 May 1996
119 買命 4 July 1996
120 賣命 28 October 1996
121 考驗 30 January 1997
122 傳說 23 February 1997
123 豪賭 17 May 1997
124 真實幻境 30 July 1997
125 成精變人 2 November 1997
126 未來身份 Early 1998
127 移魂怪物 24 March 1998
128 人面組合 20 August 1998
129 本性難移 6 December 1998
130 天打雷劈 23 March 1999
131 另類複製 15 May 1999
132 解開密碼 16 August 1999
133 異種人生 31 October 1999
134 偷天換日 8 April 2000
135 閉關開關 22 May 2000
136 行動救星 9 August 2000
137 乾坤挪移 24 December 2000
138 財神寶庫 16 March 2001
139 一半一半 4 May 2001
140 身外化身 6 October 2001
141 非常遭遇 22 January 2002
142 一個地方 20 May 2002
143 須彌芥子 7 December 143
144 死去活來 4 June 2003
145 只限老友 Late 2004

Adaptations

The novel series has been adapted into comic series, radio dramas, films and television series since the 1980s.

Comics

Radio dramas

Films

Television series

See also

External links

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