The Heart-Steadying Sword

The Heart-Steadying Sword is a full-length traditional wuxia novel by Zhu Taihe (real name Zhu Yongqiang). Conceived in 2007 and serialized on Qidian from 2013, it ran to 200 chapters and roughly 1.82 million characters, concluding in 2021. In print, People's Communications Press brought out the first three volumes in May 2017, and by 2018 the edition had reached eight volumes. Centered on a mysterious short sword of unknown origin, the Heart-Steadying Sword, the story is set during the Hongwu era of the Ming dynasty and opens with a martial-world incident in Wutai County, Taiyuan Prefecture: the Tianshan fiend Pi Buxiu, Meng Kun and their companions plot to rob an old monk, while the thousand-faced thief Ding Buer, prompted by a bet, comes to Foguang Temple and lures the honest young monk Yixin (Wu Qiuyu) out of the monastery. Cast adrift, Wu Qiuyu is taken in by the miraculous physician Ji Cangsheng, becomes his disciple, learns the Thirteen Demon-Subduing Forms, and unexpectedly masters the martial arts manual Small Shifting, left by the supreme master Weng Qiuhe. Five years later, master and disciple re-enter the jianghu because of a bloodstained yellow talisman left by Wu Lao'er, inscribed with the words "Twin Freaks, Helan Yingxue"; Ji Cangsheng is unfortunately poisoned, and the ordinary folk of the dust-filled world are drawn into martial-world strife. Framed by a verse that hints at the various masters—"At the peak of the martial world: the Scattered-Flower Immortal Elder; the Twin Freaks; the Sinless Divine Monk"—the book follows Wu Qiuyu's coming-of-age adventures through multiple narrative threads, portraying the grudges of the jianghu and the good and evil of the human heart. The author deliberately writes in a lifelike, realistic register, carefully researching and depicting geography and customs, society and culture, and the joys and sorrows of characters of every stripe, lavishing attention even on minor figures; the prose is polished, the plotting logical, and the narration carries the visual immediacy of a literary screenplay, making it easy for readers to enter the characters' perspectives.