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The fictional character Yang Guo () is the protagonist in the 1959 Chinese wuxia novel The Return of the Condor Heroes by Jinyong.

One of the best-loved characters in writer Louis Cha's list of fictional heroes, Yang Guo came to epitomize youthful rebellion. A reluctant hero, his love affair with his teacher Xiaolongnü remains one of the classic love stories in wuxia fiction.

Biography

Name

Yang Guo was named by Guo Jing, his given name "Guo" (過 / 过) means "fault" in Chinese, and style name "Gaizhi" (改之 / 改之) means "correct it".

Children: A girl (in yellow dress) appeared in the later novel :The Legend of Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre

Story Background

The background of the novel was set towards the end of Southern Song dynasty in the mid 13th century. The son of the villain, Yang Kang in Louis Cha's previous novel in the trilogy, Yang Guo was an orphan who was later brought up by his father's sworn brother, Guo Jing. Yang Guo came from a historic pedigree in Chinese history despite his father's villainy. His grandfather, Yang Tiexin's forebear was one of the 108 heroes of Mt. Liang, who in turn was directly descended from the famous Yang Family Generals, who had shed five generations worth of blood defending the Song dynasty. These five generations, from Duke Yang Jiye who had served under Song Taizu to Yang Zaixing who had died fighting for Marshal Yue Fei at the Xiaoshang River against the Jin, are true historical figures.

Midway in the novel, Yang Guo fell in love with his teacher, Xiaolongnü. This relationship was highly controversial. In fact, such teacher-student love was forbidden in Confucian feudal Chinese society. At the end of the novel, they were able to overcome pressure and were accepted as a couple.

Yang Guo's Martial Arts

As a teenager, Yang Guo met a lot of highly-skilled martial artists and he was fortunate enough to learn their skills. With the various types of martial arts that he learnt, he eventually created his own unique technique, the Melancholic Palms. Unlike the dim-witted Guo Jing, Yang Guo was extraordinarily intelligent rather like Huang Rong. With this skill and his profound knowledge of martial arts, he stood without peer in his generation and was eventually honoured with a position among the Five Greats, West Passionate, taking the place of Ouyang Feng.

West Poison (西毒)

At the beginning of the story, Yang Guo met a strange old man, who turned out to be the crazed Ouyang Feng, also known as the West Poison. Becoming a foster father to Yang Guo, Ouyang Feng taught the boy the Divine Toad Stance (Ha Ma Gong).

Quanzhen Foundation (全真教)

Guo Jing, Yang Guo's uncle and surrogate father later brought the boy to the top of Zhong Nan mountain where the famed Taoist temple, Chong Yang Palace Shrine stood. Yang Guo was made the disciple of a third-generation Quan Zhen Sect (All True Religion) Taoist, Zhao Zhijing. Yang Guo had seen Guo Jing defeat the Quan Zhen priests earlier in the story, so he began to look down on Quan Zhen martial arts. This mentality and other incidents caused Zhao Zhijing to begin discriminating against Yang Guo. However, since Zhao Zhijing's master had ordered him to train the boy, Yang Guo's master came up with a devious plan. Instead of teaching him practical martial arts, Zhao Zhijing only got Yang Guo to recite martial art cultivation verses. In the end, Yang Guo remembered all the verses but he could not apply them and was unable to put them to good use. As a result, everyone in Quan Zhen Sect thought that Yang Guo was lazy and unwilling to learn.

Ancient Tomb Sect Kung Fu (古墓派功夫)

Later, Yang Guo expelled himself from Quan Zhen Sect because he was bullied and ill-treated. He came to live in the Ancient Tomb with Xiaolongnü who was the grand-disciple of the deceased Grand Ancestress Lin Chaoying, founder of the Ancient Tomb Sect. From Xiao Long Nuu, Yang Guo learnt the elegant and graceful martial arts of the Ancient Tomb Sect. They include the Unparalleled Lightness of Ancient Tomb, the Fist of Beauties, the Palm of Infinity supplied with the Gloves of White Silver, the Long Sash of Gold Bells, the Gold Needles of Jade Bee and the most of powerful of Ancient Tomb Sect's, the "Jade Maiden Sword Play".

After learning the first level of the Jade Maiden Swordplay, which consisted of the basics, Xiaolongnü and Yang Guo advanced to the second level where they had to learn Quan Zhen martial arts. Since the Jade Maiden Swordplay was meant to counter Quan Zhen martial arts, Xiaolongnü and Yang Guo needed to know Quan Zhen martial arts in order to effectively neutralise it. Since Xiao Long Nuu's teacher had died when she was still very young, there was no one who could impart to her the full set of Quan Zhen Sect skills. Here, Yang Guo's knowledge of the verses behind Quan Zhen martial arts was crucial. He recited the verses from memory and Xiaolongnü was able to comprehend the martial arts theory behind it and the both of them were able to master Quan Zhen's skills. Finally, in the third and final level, Xiao Long Nuu and Yang Guo mastered the Jade Maiden Swordplay. This swordplay was extremely powerful but since it was not created as a killing technique, it was not very deadly.

The Dog Beating Bamboo Rod (打狗棒法)

Due to a misunderstanding, Xiaolongnü left Yang Guo. In his search for his master, Yang Guo meets the nine-fingered old man, Hong Qigong, who is known as the Northern Beggar (Bei Gai) and is the former chief of Beggar Sect. During this time, Yang Guo and Hong Qi Gong came face to face with the insane Ouyang Feng. Ouyang Feng and Hong Qigong fought each other in an internal energy battle, where only the stronger fighter survived and the weaker fighter died. In the end, both of them exhuasted their internal energy but were not ready to admit that they had lost. They decided to impart each of their techniques to Yang Guo so that Yang Guo could perform the techniques for the other to see. From Hong Qigong, Yang Guo learned the clever and ingenious variations of the Dog Beating Stick and he also acquired the vengeful and malevolent Snake Staff Techniques from Ouyang Feng. However, Yang Guo did not comprehend full Dog Beating Bamboo Rod technique from Hong Qigong. He did not get the internal energy formulation from him. Later in the novel, it was Huang Rong, who succeeded Hong Qigong as the leader of the Beggar Clan, who taught him the rest.

Dugu Qiubai's Sword Techniques (独孤求败剑法)

Later in the novel, Guo Fu, Guo Jing's spoiled daughter chopped off Yang Guo's right arm in a fit of rage. Finding his way back to Condor Valley, Yang Guo befriended the legendary condor, which he had met earlier in the story. The condor had once been a companion of the Demonic Swordsman, Dugu Qiu Bai. The condor helped Yang Guo recover from his injuries and Yang Guo felt an affinity between the condor and himself. After Yang Guo had fully recovered, the condor led him to Dugu Qiu Bai's sword tomb.

When Dugu Qiubai roamed the martial arts world, he was unbeatable. Although this mysterious figure had created a set of formidable sword techniques, he was unable to find opponents to duel with. As a result, he died a lonely man, leaving behind three swords. He had abandoned the first sword in a valley because he had accidentally injured a righteous man with it. The second sword was the Heavy Iron Sword, which was well suited for executing simple and powerful techniques. The third and final sword was a wooden sword because Dugu Qiubai had attained such a high martial arts level that he could use anything as a sword. Dugu Qiubai also mentioned that he was seeking to find a way to "overcome the sword without a sword". Whether he succeeded or not is debatable.

In order to wield Dugu Qiu Bai's Heavy Iron Sword with one arm, Yang Guo trained relentlessly with the help of the condor. The condor offered Yang Guo gall bladders of golden snakes to boost his internal strength and brought him to a waterfall to train. With the Heavy Iron Sword, Yang Guo managed to defeat a group of elite pugilists on Zhong Nan Mountain. After his separation from Xiaolongnu, Yang Guo returned to Condor Valley and decided that he was ready to take up the wooden sword. As the wooden sword was much more fragile than the Heavy Iron Sword, Yang Guo needed a lot more skill and internal strength to wield it. He trained the condor using the wooden sword and after more than seven years, he felt that he had fully mastered Dugu Qiu Bai's sword techniques (This is questionable because Yang Guo broke his sword in his final confrontation with the Golden Wheel Monk). Despite these minor controversies, Yang Guo is widely considered to be the best swordsman of the Trilogy.

Melancholic Palms (黯然銷魂掌)

During the 16 years Yang Guo spent waiting for Xiaolongnü, his great sadness drove him to create a set of palm techniques which he later called the Divine Melancholic Palms (An Ran Xiao Hun Zhang Fa). It was the only palm technique that rivalled Guo Jing's powerful Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms (Xiang Long Shi Ba Zhang). The Divine Melancholic Palms incorporated all the martial arts that Yang Guo had learnt in his lifetime, which included the skills of martial arts masters like Huang Yaoshi, Ouyang Feng, Hong Qi Gong and the skills of different schools like Quanzhen Sect and Ancient Tomb Sect, as well as some of the techniques in the Jiuyin Manual.

This palm technique was based on emotion. The more dejected Yang Guo felt, the more powerful the palm technique became. With this palm technique, Yang Guo sparred with two martial arts masters, Zhou Botong and Huang Yaoshi. Although their duels more or less ended in a draw, the two martial arts masters praised Yang Guo's genius in creating this set of powerful palm techniques (In fact, Zhou Botong went down on his knees to beg Yang Guo to teach him the Divine Melancholic Palms but because Zhou Botong could not grasp the theory of the emotion behind the technique, he was unable to master it).

In his battle against the Golden Wheel Monk, Yang Guo was unable to fully muster the power of the technique because he was overjoyed after his reunion with Xiaolongnü. However, at the verge of death, he was saddened by the fact that he would not be able to see her again and the power of the Divine Melancholic Palms returned, allowing him to hold off the Golden Wheel Monk.

Notable actors who have played Yang Guo

Characters in written fiction | Condor Trilogy

杨过

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Yang Guo".

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