I was a kungfu fan in my boyhood days. It was a time when martial arts movies and TV series, which had a tremendous appeal to the curious and fantastic minds of young people, became very popular in China. Consequently my boyhood friends and I were among the most fervent and devoted fans of martial arts TV series.

As I grew up, I came to know that many martial arts TV series I had watched were based on kungfu novels by Louis Cha (known as Jin Yong in Mandarin). As we all know, Louis Cha is one of the most widely read Chinese writers. Louis Cha's martial arts novels have sold millions of copies among Chinese all over the world, with many of them having been adapted into TV series and films.

Human souls do need a world beyond the one we live in. To the traditional Chinese mind that world beyond this life is Taoist world of immortals. The Chinese traditionally achieve the effect of spiritually transcending the suffering of this world through the quest for the visionary world of immortals. That is the so-called complementary relationship between Confucianism and Taoism.

In modern large-scale industrial production humans become mere appendages of machines. As long as we live in this world, we are bound to suffer the miseries and afflictions that beset the human being. This being the case, the world of modern mythology depicted in martial arts novels naturally becomes the spiritual world to soothe those Chinese souls who lack religious spirit.

Nevertheless, I have read little of Louis Cha since I graduated from university and started my career, partly because I've been so pre-occupied with making a living that I can hardly enjoy a leisurely life, and partly because I am not a daydreamer and I don't like to find my solace in Louis Cha's fictitious wonderland.

I still hold Louis Cha in high esteem though I no longer read his books. The sad thing, as I have recently discovered, is that Louis Cha doesn't seem to have a thorough understanding of history.

Louis Cha said he was preparing to write a general history of China. This would indeed be a good deed to accomplish. Louis Cha, it seems, not only wants to write history, but also wants to blend history with the ideological system which he is the exponent. For example,he said he would explain the 5,000-year-long history of Chinese civilization in terms of inter-ethnic integration and unity. It would be good if that were the case. However, Louis Cha's conception of history seems quite questionable. Louis Cha likes weak dynasties better than mighty dynasties. What kind of mentality is this? For example, Louis Cha doesn't think much of the mighty Han Dynasty, he has specifically stated that he doesn't like Emperor Han Wudi.

In another instance, Louis Cha has said that he doesn't like the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) but rather, he likes the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Then, why does Louis Cha prefer the rather weak Song Dynasty to the powerful Tang Dynasty? He said: "Take imperial audiences for example, in the Tang Dynasty the prime ministers had to kneel and kowtow to the emperors; while in the Song Dynasty the emperors sat with the prime ministers in discussion of matters, that is already a manifestation of equality and humanity."

Louis Cha has completely turned things upside down. Actually the opposite is true. Before the Song Dynasty the prime ministers were given seats and tea during their audiences with the emperors. Since the Song Dynasty the prime ministers have changed their positions from sitting to standing during such audiences. This process has been unmistakably described in the Song Shi (History of the Song Dynasty).

Even so, Louis Cha is still a very good writer, I believe that.

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