The Five-Flower Sword of Immortal Heroes (Part One)

海上剑痴Beijing Mingtianyuanhang Cultural Transmission Co., Ltd. · ChinaJul 2024

3.4

Word count: 70K words
Chapters: 19

Summary

In the Southern Song, the treacherous minister Qin Hui gathers a faction, persecutes the loyal and upright, and throws the populace into turmoil. The immortal hero Gongsun Daniu forges the Five Flower Swords; Guo Ran, Nie Yinniang, Hongxiannü, Huangshan Ke, and Kongkong'er each take one sword and descend the mountain to take disciples. These immortal heroes teach swordcraft respectively to a common girl, a scholar, a righteous man, and a courtesan, crush the troops of Qin Manor's Crouching Tiger Camp that endanger the people, slay Qin's partisans, assassinate Qin Hui, and rescue oppressed commoners. Yet unexpectedly, Kongkong'er mistakenly entrusts the Hibiscus Sword to the villain Yanzi Fei. Yanzi Fei colludes with bandits, robs and murders, and stops at no evil. Gongsun Daniu herself descends to the mortal world to eliminate him...

Editor's review

The first volume of Xianxia Wuhua Jian combines the background of treacherous officials holding power and loyal people being persecuted in the Southern Song with the thread of immortals and knights granting swords and descending the mountain to eliminate evils, unfolding a chivalric story with a folk-narrative flavor. Granny Gongsun forges the Five Flower Swords, and Qiu Ran Gong, Nie Yinniang, Hongxian Nü, Huangshan Ke and Kongkong Er each carry a sword and take disciples; those who receive the swords include a common girl, a scholar, a righteous man and a prostitute. This arrangement brings ordinary people of different identities into the action against the Qin mansion's Wohu Camp, giving the reading a group-portrait quality. The highlights of this first volume lie in the unfolding of sword-granting and knight-errantry, and in the turning point planted when Kongkong Er mistakenly gives the Furong Sword to the villain Yanzi Fei: a good sword falls into evil hands, the boundary between good and evil grows tense, and Granny Gongsun herself descends to deal with it, leaving suspense for what follows. The language carries the flavor of traditional vernacular and martial-arts romance, making it suitable as a reader for understanding the appearance of early modern xianxia and sword-knight fiction; simply proceed chapter by chapter.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy traditional sword-knight and xianxia stories
Readers interested in early modern popular fiction and folk narrative
Readers of classical fiction looking for brisk plots and clear good-versus-evil conflict

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer strict historical accuracy and do not accept supernatural elements
Readers impatient with chapter-style vernacular and a large cast of characters

Reading tips

Read in chapter order; first remember the five immortals and knights and their respective disciples, then enter the conflict.
When you reach Kongkong Er's mistaken granting of the Furong Sword, note the shift in power between good and evil; this is the key turning point of the first volume.
You may treat Qin Hui and the Wohu Camp as the story's backdrop; there is no need to check them against historical facts item by item. Focus on how the chivalric action unfolds.

About the publisher

Beijing Mingtianyuanhang Cultural Transmission Co., Ltd. China · Founded in 2009

Mingtianyuanhang (Beijing Mingtianyuanhang Cultural Transmission Co., Ltd.) focuses on the humanities, social sciences and classical texts, while also covering popular science, Eastern philosophy and science fiction. Among its 97 titles in the library are Ming and Qing prose and fiction such as Zhang Dai's Dream Seeking by West Lake and Liu E's The Travels of Lao Can, alongside Song Yingxing's The Exploitation of the Works of Nature, Liu An's Huainanzi and Sun Yirang's Mozi Jian Gu, as well as Wei Zheng's Qunshu Zhiyao, the collected literary works of Li Jieren and a collection of Jules Verne's classics, showing a catalogue that pairs collated ancient texts with foreign classics. Its authors include the above-named figures, and most titles are issued as e-books. Owing to limited public information, its overall publishing scale and plans remain to be further understood.

版权信息
说部题词
序
第一回太元境群仙高会软红尘五侠寻徒
第二回黄衫客一剑诛妖红线女单身杀盗
第三回服仙丹素云换骨衍宗派红线传拳
第四回白素云飞行绝迹黄衫客来去无踪
第五回报亲仇初试桃花剑救女侠误中竹叶镖
第六回雷一呜因伤卧病云万峰仗义复仇
第七回竹叶镖万峰殒命藻藜抓一鸣被擒
第八回白素云两番探虎穴黄衫客一怒掣龙泉
第九回传葵花剑仙侠收徒破竹叶镖英雄哭友
第十回白素云三探卧虎营黄衫客双祭飞龙剑
第十一回雪奇仇淫凶授首报私愤名妓蒙冤
第十二回酷吏逼供词飞霞下狱雏环诉屈冤素云探监
第十三回文云龙仗义挥金薛飞霞守身如玉
第十四回燕子飞慕色劫狱聂隐娘救女上山
第十五回访义士有心传道试侠肠无意怜香
第十六回名士美人双学艺剑龙钗凤两联姻

FAQ

Where does the first volume's story stop?

The first volume mainly unfolds Granny Gongsun's forging of the swords, the five immortals and knights each taking disciples, and everyone's action against the Qin mansion's Wohu Camp; it also tells of Kongkong Er mistakenly giving the Furong Sword to the villain Yanzi Fei, which escalates the conflict between good and evil. The later course of Granny Gongsun's descent to eliminate evil requires reading the second volume or later text to understand fully.

What does "Five Flower Swords" in the title refer to?

It refers to the five precious swords forged by Granny Gongsun, carried down the mountain by Qiu Ran Gong, Nie Yinniang, Hongxian Nü, Huangshan Ke and Kongkong Er, each to take disciples. The five swords correspond to different successors and also link the chivalric threads of people of different identities—common girl, scholar, righteous man, prostitute—and are a key structural device of the book.

Is Qin Hui in the story a historical figure?

Qin Hui is a historical figure of the Southern Song; the novel uses his image as a treacherous official as the story's background, setting up the Qin faction and the Wohu Camp as antagonists. But this book is a sword-knight novel, and most of the plot is fictional and folk imagination. When reading, it is best to treat the historical figure as a narrative starting point rather than as a work of history.

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About the author

海上剑痴 Author

Haishang Jianchi is an author about whom limited public information is available; their real name, nationality, and dates of birth and death are not clearly recorded. Only two works can be confirmed: Xianxia Wuhua Jian (Part One) and Xianxia Wuhua Jian (Part Two). Judging from the titles and their common classification, these two works are long-form xianxia (immortal-chivalry) fiction, built around sword heroes, cultivation, and feuds of the jianghu, with the story presented in two volumes. The pen name carries the flavor of old-school martial arts and supernatural fiction, and the writing leans toward the narrative appeal of traditional chapter-based storytelling, emphasizing characters' fortunes and plot development rather than modern-style worldbuilding. Because so little verifiable information exists, the author's life and full body of work cannot be described in detail; readers interested in the author and the writing may begin with these two volumes of Xianxia Wuhua Jian and explore the imagination and aspirations of its sword-hero world.