Invincible East
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Dongfang Bubai, literally "Invincible East", is a fictional character in the
wuxia ( , literally "martial arts and chivalry") is a genre of Chinese literature, Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists in ancient China. Although is traditionally a form of historical fantasy literature, its popularity ha ...
novel ''
The Smiling, Proud Wanderer ''The Smiling, Proud Wanderer'' is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). It was first serialised in Hong Kong in the newspaper ''Ming Pao'' from 20 April 1967 to 12 October 1969. The Chinese title of the novel, ''Xiao Ao Jiang Hu'', literally m ...
'' by
Jin Yong Louis Cha Leung-yung (; 10 March 1924 – 30 October 2018), better known by his pen name Jin Yong (), was a Hong Kong wuxia novelist and co-founder of '' Ming Pao.'' Cha authored 15 novels between 1955 and 1972 and became one of the most pop ...
. He is the leader of the Sun Moon Holy Cult (), an "unorthodox" martial arts school. In his quest to dominate the ''wulin'' (martial artists' community), he
castrated Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharmaceutical ...
himself to fulfil the prerequisite for learning the skills in a martial arts manual known as the ''Sunflower Manual'' (), and became a formidable martial artist after mastering those skills. His castration and supreme prowess in martial arts make him one of the most memorable characters in Jin Yong's wuxia universe even though he appears in only one chapter of the novel. His name has also become virtually synonymous with
homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...
and
LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...
sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. Patterns ar ...
s in Chinese popular culture.


Role in the novel

Dongfang Bubai makes his dramatic physical appearance in only one chapter of the novel, but his character is pivotal and indispensable to the essence of the story and is continually referenced in vital ways throughout the plot. For example, Ren Woxing ranks him first on a list of "three and a half" persons he most respects and admires. Dongfang Bubai's captivating and provocative character has enabled his role to be largely expanded in films and television series adapted from the novel. He is first mentioned by name in the novel as a deputy to Ren Woxing, the leader of the Sun Moon Holy Cult. Through a scheme, he ousts Ren Woxing from power, imprisons him in an underground dungeon in
Hangzhou Hangzhou, , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly romanized as Hangchow is a sub-provincial city in East China and the capital of Zhejiang province. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counti ...
, and thereafter seizes the leadership position. He treats his subordinates cruelly and forces them to submit to him by making them consume poison pills. After taking the pill, the person will suffer a long and painful death. However, if the person submits to him and obeys his orders, they will be given an antidote to temporarily ease their suffering for a limited period of time. Dongfang Bubai castrated himself to fulfil the prerequisite for learning the skills in the ''Sunflower Manual'' and became an extremely formidable martial artist after mastering those skills. However, his personality became more feminine as a consequence and he developed an intimate relationship with a male lover, Yang Lianting. He neglects the cult's affairs and leaves them to Yang. Ren Woxing eventually escapes from the dungeon with Linghu Chong's help and gradually wins back allegiance from his former followers. Ren Woxing, along with his daughter Ren Yingying, Linghu Chong, and another follower Xiang Wentian, sneak back to the cult to confront Dongfang Bubai. In the ensuing fight, Dongfang Bubai is invincible and gains the upper hand despite being outnumbered three-to-one. However, he loses focus after Yang Lianting is injured and abused by Ren Yingying on the sidelines. His three opponents seize the opportunity to inflict devastating blows on him. Dongfang Bubai is critically wounded and eventually killed by Ren Woxing. Just before his death, he manages to blind Ren Woxing in one eye with his needles.


''Sunflower Manual''

The ''Sunflower Manual'' was written by a
eunuch A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...
from a previous dynasty era and was passed down for 300 years until it fell to the hands of Reverend Hongye, who is the abbot of Putian Shaolin. Yue Su and Cai Zifeng, two members of the Mount Hua School, knew of this and went to Putian Shaolin to pretend to visit Reverend Hongye as guests while plotting to sneak in to peep at the Sunflower Manual at the library of the
Shaolin School Shaolin Sect is a Shaolin school. It was founded during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma,Cha, Louis. ''The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber'' (倚天屠龍記). ''Ming Pao'', 1961. who wanted his followers ...
. One night, they snuck in the library, and in their attempt to copy the manual, each of them read half of the manual and memorised it before returning to Mount Hua. However, when they tried to piece together what they read, they found the final copy to be incomprehensible. Each of them believed that his memory of the manual is better than that of the other, but none of them was able to come up with something that made sense. Nevertheless, Yue Su and Cai Zifeng managed to integrate what they learnt from the manual into their existing skills and made significant improvements in their mastery of martial arts. At the same time, this also resulted in a rivalry between Yue Su and Cai Zifeng because they started concentrating on qi ( inner energy) and
swordplay Swordsmanship or sword fighting refers to the skills and techniques used in combat and training with any type of sword. The term is modern, and as such was mainly used to refer to smallsword fencing, but by extension it can also be applied to an ...
techniques respectively. The Mount Hua School split into the Qi and Sword factions as a consequence. Reverend Hongye recognised the evil nature and inherent dangers of practising the skills in the ''Sunflower Manual'' so he sent a monk, Duyuan, to serve as a mediator in the conflict between the two factions and dissuade them from practising the skills in the manual. Yue Su and Cai Zifeng apologise for their folly and seek Duyuan's help in trying to better understand the manual. Duyuan is able to make logical conclusions about the manual based on Yue Su and Cai Zifeng's recollections, and thereby compile a comprehensible version of the manual. This copy falls into the hands of the Sun Moon Holy Cult (and later into Dongfang Bubai's hands) when the cult took advantage of the internal conflict in the Mount Hua School to attack them. While working with Yue Su and Cai Zifeng, Duyuan himself gradually became increasingly obsessed with the ''Sunflower Manual'' and his mind was totally corrupted by it. He secretly developed a new skill, Bixie Swordplay (), based on his own interpretation of the manual and wrote the instructions on his kasaya. Later, he renounced his vows as a monk, returned to secular life, and assumed his former name, Lin Yuantu. The Bixie Swordplay bears similarities to the original ''Sunflower Manual'', one of which is that any man who wishes to learn either of these skills must castrate himself before he starts practising the skills.


Appearances in media


Film

Brigitte Lin Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia (; born 3 November 1954) is a Taiwanese actress. Regarded as a screen icon, Lin played a key role in boosting Taiwan’s film production with her romantic heroine roles in the 1970s before transitioning to Hong Kong, where ...
portrayed Dongfang Bubai in the 1992 film ''
Swordsman II ''Swordsman II'', also known as ''The Legend of the Swordsman'', is a 1992 Hong Kong wuxia-martial arts film very loosely adapted from Louis Cha's novel '' The Smiling, Proud Wanderer''. It was the second part of a trilogy: preceded by '' The ...
'', a sequel to '' The Swordsman''. The plot differs largely from the novel and Dongfang Bubai is given a more prominent role as the primary antagonist. The following year, the producers released the film '' The East Is Red'', with Dongfang Bubai as the main character. ''The East Is Red'' is unrelated to the novel except for its Chinese title ''Dongfang Bubai zhi Fengyun Zaiqi'', which roughly translates to ''The Return of Dongfang Bubai''. Lin's portrayal of Dongfang Bubai as a
trans woman A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...
has influenced subsequent portrayals of the character; Dongfang Bubai has typically been depicted as a trans woman in television series based on ''The Smiling, Proud Wanderer'' since the 2000s. Dongfang Bubai is also referred to as "Invincible Asia" in the subtitles of ''Swordsman II'' and ''The East Is Red''.


Television

Notable actors and actresses who have portrayed Dongfang Bubai in television series include: *
Kong Ngai Kong Ngai (born Tang Siu Ji; October 1936 – 13 March 2013) was a Hong Kong actor with TVB and ATV. Early years Born in China in 1936 as Tang Siu Ji, Kong's affluent family fled to Macau during World War II and later migrated to Hong Kong. ...
, in ''
The Smiling, Proud Wanderer ''The Smiling, Proud Wanderer'' is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). It was first serialised in Hong Kong in the newspaper ''Ming Pao'' from 20 April 1967 to 12 October 1969. The Chinese title of the novel, ''Xiao Ao Jiang Hu'', literally m ...
'' (1984); * Henry Lo ( 魯振順), in '' State of Divinity'' (1996); *
Leanne Liu Liu Sue-Hua, also known as Leanne Liu, is a Golden Bell Award-winning Hong Kong actress. She first starred in Shaw Brothers films in Hong Kong, but moved to Taiwan in the 1980s to focus on her television career. She is particularly famous for a ...
, in '' State of Divinity'' (2000); * Jacelyn Tay, in '' The Legendary Swordsman'' (2000); * Mao Weitao, in ''
Laughing in the Wind ''Laughing in the Wind'' is a 2001 Chinese television series produced by Zhang Jizhong, starring Li Yapeng and Xu Qing in the leading roles. The series is an adaptation of Louis Cha's novel '' The Smiling, Proud Wanderer''. It was first broadcas ...
'' (2001); * Joe Chen, in ''
Swordsman Swordsmanship or sword fighting refers to the skills and techniques used in combat and training with any type of sword. The term is modern, and as such was mainly used to refer to smallsword fencing, but by extension it can also be applied to a ...
'' (2013); * Ding Yuxi, in New Smiling, Proud Wanderer (2018 TV series).


Comics

A
manhua () are Chinese-language comics produced in Greater China. Chinese comics and narrated illustrations have existed in China throughout its history. They are usually graphic and can be written for a myriad of genres, including romance, fanta ...
series titled ''Dongfang Bubai'' was drawn in 1991 by Hong Kong artist Khoo Fuk-lung.


Music

The Chinese electronic music artist Tzusing released an experimental techno album with that title in February 2017.


Analogues

Dongfang Bubai inspired the character Master Asia in the anime ''
Mobile Fighter G Gundam ''Mobile Fighter G Gundam'', also known in Japan as (and commonly referred to as simply ''G Gundam''), is a 1994 Japanese animated television series produced by Sunrise and the fifth installment in the long-running ''Gundam'' franchise ...
''. Master Asia is also known as Tohō Fuhai, which is the Japanese reading of the
Hanzi Chinese characters are logographs used to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represent the only one ...
characters as
Kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...
. In the
manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
''
Rosario + Vampire is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akihisa Ikeda. The story revolves around Tsukune Aono, a boy who inadvertently enrolls in a boarding school for monsters. He quickly befriends Moka Akashiya, a vampire who soon develo ...
'', the character
Dongfang Bubai Dongfang Bubai, literally "Invincible East", is a fictional character in the wuxia novel ''The Smiling, Proud Wanderer'' by Jin Yong. He is the leader of the Sun Moon Holy Cult (), an "unorthodox" martial arts school. In his quest to dominat ...
is a
yōkai are a class of supernatural entities and Spirit (supernatural entity) , spirits in Japanese folklore. The kanji representation of the word comprises two characters that both mean "suspicious, doubtful", and while the Japanese name is simply ...
and he leads a triad family.


References

: Tan, Xianmao (2005)
Dongfang Bubai: The Invincible Devil Who is a Transsexual
In ''Rankings of Jin Yong's Characters''. Chinese Agricultural Press.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dongfang, Bubai Literary characters introduced in 1967 Jin Yong characters Fictional gay men Fictional wushu practitioners The Smiling, Proud Wanderer Fictional Chinese people Fictional LGBTQ characters in literature Fictional transgender women Fictional LGBTQ characters in film Fictional LGBTQ characters in television