Searching good novel (fantasy, old chinese)

[Ogo]

Hey,

i got here, because i was searching for a chinese novel, but didnt know here to search for it.

to improve my chinese i wanted wo work with a novel.

i like to read fantasy novels that play in medieval settings and most of the time have magic.

i enjoyed reading things like Lord of the rings or harry potter, to say some well known.

if i look in the direction of china, the genre i am searching for seems to be wuxia

i found an autor, but are not sure if this is the right one to read.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jin_Yong

now i am searching for one, that meets my expectations:

- i want the novel to have a lot of pages (like lord of the rings), or have multible books in a serie (like harry potter)

- i needs to be the same writer, because i want the same style in every part.

- it needs to be old chinese ( so old that an good educated chinese understands it, but old enough, that you can see the different choice of words an grammar)

i hope you have enough informations to help me out. if you have questions ask it.

p.s. english is not my native language, so i hope you understand it all.

[imron]

Jin Yong is definitely the sort of author you are after, and he's considered by many to be the best writer in the genre. He wrote a total of 12 novels (plus a couple of short stories), most of which span multiple books. The writing is not 'old', but it is in a more formal and literary style. Most of the stories don't have 'magic' per se, but the martial skills of some of the characters border on being super powers so I don't think you'll be too disappointed.

The only thing is, for a Chinese learner, reading Jin Yong is not for the faint of heart, and depending on your Chinese level may not be the best choice for a first novel.

There is another forum member slowing working through the Jin Yong novel 鹿鼎记, posting audio recordings and translations as he goes. You can read about his effort here. As other posters in that thread noted, 雪山飞狐 is probably a better choice for a first Jin Yong novel although it is not a long story. Don't let that put you off though, because it should give you a good indication of whether or not you like his writing, and if so he has plenty of other longer books that you can then jump in to.

[yialanliu]

I found Gulong to be slightly easier than Jinyong so you can give him a shot as well.

4th graders read both in China yet the majority of foreigners are still not at that ability .

I know you didn't ask for this, but the best bet is to read translations of western books. Translated books tend to be easier to read in my opinion and if you already read the english, then the chinese becomes much easier to comprehend as well. LOTR/HP have both been translated and are quite good.

[Ogo]

thanks for the help. i hope my friend can get me some books from china.

i try to get my hands on:

- 金庸 射鵰英雄傳

- 西游记

- 古龙 流星蝴蝶剑

so i have something to try out.

@yialanliu

i have read that some translations are really bad, so i want to get some native books to learn the language. i have the feeling that most translators have a limited pool of words. so the books they translate are not so good as the originals.

[Lu]

The 西游记 is not just about the past but actually from the past, I haven't read it but suspect it would be in Wenyanwen or something close to it. You can try it, but unless you're comfortable reading 文言 it's probably too hard.

Imron is right, Jin Yong fits your description perfectly. He's not easy to read, but the little I've managed to read was great.

[renzhe]

Jin Yong is what you are looking for. I've read 射鵰英雄傳 (about 1600 pages) and really enjoyed it, but I don't think that he's written a bad novel, so you should be safe with anything. I haven't read Gulong, but I've seen some TV shows based on him, and they were fun.

You should be somewhat comfortable reading Chinese before attempting Jin Yong, though, because it's full of bookish and archaic language and vocabulary you don't really come across often. If you can read a modern book easily, you'll really enjoy Jin Yong, though. 西游记 is even more difficult, being more than 400 years old. I'm reading through another classic right now (水滸傳), and it is really hard work whose usefulness for daily language is very limited.

[Ogo]

thanks for the advice. i try to read it with my method, if it doesnt work i try again later. but i am glad to hear that everyone says, that his books are great.

i have mutch to read in the future

[imron]

I still maintain that you'll find 雪山飞狐 a better story to try as your first Jin Yong novel. Think of it like reading the Hobbit before reading Lord of the Rings (although 雪山飞狐 and 射鵰英雄傳 are not related). The story might not be as long, but it's a much easier read.

[jbradfor]

i have read that some translations are really bad

Some are. Some are not. To dismiss them all out-of-hand might not be the best.

i have the feeling that most translators have a limited pool of words.

Which, at your level, might be an advantage.

[feihong]

Most of my Chinese reading consists of translated works. They don't really seem all that different from the non-translated stuff I've read. The only possible downside is that the transliterated names tend to sound a bit awkward in Chinese.