The Iron Swallow and Brocade Sash

Synopsis of the wuxia novel Iron Swallow, Brocade and Silk: This novel tells the love-and-heroics story of its four main characters: Tie Shouhua, Li Yanhong, Ye Yanjin, and Ji Ling. It is called a tale of “love and heroics” because the author writes love with tender, delicate sorrow and heartrending intensity, quite unlike the styles of Jin Yong, Gu Long, and Liang Yusheng. In a word, it’s heartbreaking. But the novel isn’t only heartbreaking; it also has its heroic side. For instance, Tie Shourong earns the chivalrous name “Wild Goose in the Clouds” after slaying a giant serpent at Crow Ridge and ridding the locals of a menace. Li Yanhong draws her sword to help those in trouble, bravely stopping the “Two Fiends of the Southern Wilderness” from robbing disaster-relief funds. Ji Ling also steps in to help Yanhong punish “Passing Star” and “The Two Uglies of Changbai.” These three main characters all have the makings of true heroes. But the novel’s lead male character, Ye Yanjin, genuinely repulses me. Though he has one extraordinary encounter after another and his martial arts improve by leaps and bounds, he’s also a petty, womanizing scoundrel. He claims that he’ll love Tie Shourong and no one else for the rest of his life, yet sweet-talks Li Yanhong into giving him her heart and her virginity. Then he consoles himself by saying it was all Heaven’s will, that everything comes down to fate! He’s the one who betrayed two women’s love, one after the other, yet he keeps suspecting that both women, despite loving him deeply, are playing with his feelings. In the end, he concludes that he’s the one who’s had a miserable fate! What shameless hypocrisy! I see not a trace of chivalry in Ye Yanjin, only selfish, suspicious pettiness and a vicious urge to take revenge for the slightest offense. By comparison, Ji Jia, one of the “Two Fiends of the Southern Wilderness” and known as “Three Appearances of the Cloud Dragon,” seems far more likable as a villain.