Gu Long

Gu Long (1938–1985), originally named Xiong Yaohua, was a leading figure of the new-style wuxia novel. His ancestral home was Nanchang, Jiangxi; he was born in Hong Kong and later settled in Taiwan. In 1960 he published his first wuxia novel, The Divine Sword of the Firmament, and went on to write more than sixty works over his lifetime. The library holds fifty-two of his titles, including the New Legend of Chu Liuxiang, The Wulin Chronicles, The Legend of Lu Xiaofeng, and the four-part Little Li Flying Dagger series, as well as The Happy Hero and a seventy-two-volume collection. His style blends mystery, drama and poetic language, with striking plots and vivid characters; his works have often been adapted for film and television. He is ranked with Jin Yong, Liang Yusheng and Wen Rui'an as one of the four great masters of wuxia. He died of cirrhosis in Taiwan in 1985.