The Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain: Plot and Reading Guide

The first problem is a casket in the snow. The second is what the people who gather near it already believe about one another. As the story moves from the casket to the people waiting on the mountain, Jin Yong asks you to pay attention to the distance between a past event and the person telling it.

The Mountain Gathering in 1781

On a winter morning in the northeast of the Qing empire, several parties converge on a buried metal casket. They suspect it holds a dagger inherited within the martial world. A monk invites them to a residence on the summit. The host is away seeking help against the Flying Fox, who is expected to come at noon. While they wait, people begin recounting incidents from roughly twenty years earlier. ^[1]

The casket gives the opening an immediate object of pursuit. The anticipated arrival gives the gathering a deadline. The two facts help orient the reader even when a speaker takes the story decades into the past. Each return to the people waiting on the mountain lets you consider what the last account has changed about the situation at hand.

The novel is a compact way into Chinese wuxia fiction if you enjoy a mystery. Its fights matter, but so does the question of whether the people recounting them can explain why they happened.

How the Witnesses Reconstruct a Feud

Hu Fei’s father, Hu Yidao (胡一刀, Hú Yīdāo), is central to the events being recalled. So is the swordsman Miao Renfeng (苗人凤, Miáo Rénfèng). The dispute reaches the younger generation through accounts of a confrontation between two people with obligations of their own. Some speakers witnessed different parts of the earlier events. Their positions in the feud affect how they tell what they know. ^[4][6]

It helps to distinguish three things as you read:

• The speaker: Ask who is giving the account and what part of the event that person could see.
• The overlap: Compare the accounts where they describe the same encounter. An added detail can change the interpretation of a scene you have already read.
• The effect in 1781: Ask how the story affects what the listeners expect the Flying Fox to do or what they feel entitled to ask of him.

Jin Yong recalled that newspaper readers compared his structure to Rashomon. In the afterword, he answered by pointing to a much older practice of placing rival accounts and stories inside stories. The Three Words collections and the Two Slaps collections belong to the Chinese storytelling traditions he brought into that discussion. The comparison describes what readers noticed. It gives no firm evidence about how Jin Yong arrived at the structure. ^[3]

This design turns a family grudge into a problem about evidence. If you simply record who fought whom, the timeline will make more sense. If you also record who supplies each account, you can see why the feud means something different to the people who inherit it.

How the Two Flying Fox Novels Fit Together

The Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain first appeared as a Hong Kong newspaper serial in 1959. Jin Yong wrote it before The Young Flying Fox, although the latter follows Hu Fei at an earlier stage of his life. The author treated them as related, independent novels. He did not expect every detail of one book to carry over into the other. ^[2][3][6]

Read Snowy Mountain first if you want the contained mountain story and the effect of reconstructing the past with the listeners. Read The Young Flying Fox first if you would rather meet Hu Fei earlier in his life. These choices answer different questions about order. Snowy Mountain comes first in writing order. The Young Flying Fox comes first in the character’s chronology.

This is a different relationship from reading installments of a long saga that resumes where the previous volume stops. For another standalone point of entry to Jin Yong, try The Book and the Sword if you prefer court intrigue to a confined group of witnesses.

Where to Find Olivia Mok’s English Translation

Search for Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain and Olivia Mok. Mok identifies her translation as dating to 1993. The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press lists a 1996 English edition, catalogued as the second edition. If you need the 1996 paperback, the publisher gives ISBN 9789622017337. ^[1][2][5]

Mok has written about the choices involved in translating personal names, formal titles and fighters’ nicknames. Those forms can identify the same character while showing how a particular speaker regards that person. If you are using a guide with pinyin names alongside the translation, check the role and relationship before treating a nickname as another character. ^[2]

FAQs About The Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain

Is Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain the same novel?

Yes. It is the title of Olivia Mok’s published English translation of Jin Yong’s Snowy Mountain novel.

Do I have to read The Young Flying Fox first?

No. It covers earlier events in Hu Fei’s life, but the mountain story gives readers the context they need through its own witnesses.

Does the novel settle every question it raises?

Some points become clearer as the accounts overlap. The book also leaves a consequential question open, which is part of the reading experience.

Sources

[1] The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain: New Edition

[2] Olivia Mok, Perspectives. Translating Appellations in Martial-Arts Fiction

[3] Jin Yong, revised-edition afterword. Afterword to The Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain

[4] Korea Citation Index. A Study on Detective Novel Narrative Techniques in The Flying Fox in Snow Mountain

[5] CiNii Books. Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain: English Second Edition

[6] Jin Yong, via Jin Yong Wuxia Archive. The Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain: Chinese Text