Mount Hua School

The Mount Hua Pai(门派/派) , also known as the Huashan School, which earlier translated into Mount Hua Sect, is a fictional martial arts school mentioned in several works of wuxia fiction. It is commonly featured as one of the leading kungfu Zhengpai (正派）schools/Mengpai(门派) in the wulin (martial artists' community). It is named after the place where it is based, Mount Hua. The school appears in three of Jin Yong's novels.

Mount Hua School
Traditional Chinese華山派
Simplified Chinese华山派

There is a real-life Mount Hua Pai（门派/派） which has hardly any association with martial arts.[lower-alpha 1] It was founded in the Song dynasty by Hao Datong, one of the "Seven Immortals of Quanzhen", who also appears as a character in Jin Yong's Condor Trilogy.[1] However, in wuxia fiction, these two schools do not have any connection.

History

In The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber, set in the Yuan dynasty, the Mount Hua School is briefly mentioned to be one of the six leading orthodox school in the jianghu.[2] Its leader is Xianyu Tong.[2]

In The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, the school's leader Yue Buqun is the school's 13th-generation leader.[3] The Mount Hua School is part of the Five Mountain Sword Schools Alliance and Yue Buqun becomes the alliance's chief after defeating his predecessor, Zuo Lengchan of the Mount Song School.[3] The novel's protagonist, Linghu Chong, is Yue Buqun's first apprentice. In the novel, the Mount Hua School is inferior to only the Shaolin School, Wudang School and Sun Moon Holy Cult.[3]

In Sword Stained with Royal Blood, set near the end of the Ming dynasty, the protagonist, Yuan Chengzhi, is a member of the Mount Hua School. His master, Mu Renqing, is the school's leader and is reputed to be the best living swordsman in the jianghu (martial artists' community) at the time. The Mount Hua School is one of the Four Great Sword Schools alongside Emei, Kunlun and Diancang.[4]

Skills and martial arts

In The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, the martial arts of the Mount Hua School mainly comprise swordplay techniques and inner energy cultivation skills. The school is split into the Sword and Qi factions, which focus on swordplay techniques and inner energy cultivation respectively.[3] The division is caused by an internal conflict arising from a dispute over the Sunflower Manual by the founders of the factions.[3] The Qi faction seized control of leadership of the school and forced the Sword faction into exile. Since then, the Qi faction, headed by Yue Buqun, has been teaching the school's members inner energy skills and other forms of martial arts while placing little focus on swordplay, for which the Mount Hua School is better known in the jianghu (martial artists' community).[3]

Linghu Chong becomes famous after he learns the Nine Swords of Dugu from the Sword faction elder Feng Qingyang.[3] Linghu Chong's generation sees the revival of the Sword faction. In Sword Stained with Royal Blood, Mu Renqing is highly revered in the jianghu for his outstanding swordplay techniques, as his nickname "Divine Sword Immortal Ape" suggests.[4] Yuan Chengzhi inherits Mu Renqing's swordplay skills, while Mu Renqing's two other apprentices, Huang Zhen and Gui Xinshu, specialise in unarmed combat martial arts.[4]

List of skills and martial arts
Note: Although the skills listed here are entirely fictional, some may be based on or named after actual martial arts.

See also

Notes
  1. Only the Taoist sage Chen Tuan, who founded the Liuhebafa, is known to have attended the Huashan Taoist Monastery on Mount Hua. Otherwise, Mount Hua is not considered a development ground for Chinese martial arts.

References
  1. Cha, Louis. The Legend of the Condor Heroes (射鵰英雄傳). Ming Pao, 1957.
  2. Cha, Louis. The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. Ming Pao, 1961.
  3. Cha, Louis. The Smiling, Proud Wanderer. Ming Pao, 1967.
  4. Cha, Louis. Sword Stained with Royal Blood. Ming Pao, 1956.
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