Dugu Qiubai - Roles - The Smiling, Proud Wanderer

The Smiling, Proud Wanderer

Dugu's swordplay technique Nine Swords of Dugu (獨孤九劍) is featured in this novel. The protagonist Linghu Chong learns this technique from the recluse swordsman Feng Qingyang.

This form of swordplay has nine forms, each of which can be used to defeat and overcome a certain type of attack. It is based on the principle of "no pattern can follow any other pattern". One is unable to predict (and counter correspondingly) a move which does not follow any pattern or sequence. Theoretically, the forms of the Nine Swords of Dugu do not follow any fixed sequence or pattern and hence the moves are all unpredictable.

The nine forms of the Nine Swords of Dugu are all offensive moves. They revolve around the principle of "defend oneself by forcing an enemy to defend himself". In simple terms, it means that those moves are used to attack an enemy and force him to take defensive moves, thus the practitioner does not need to defend himself from the enemy as he is attacking. Although each move is just one stance, it has endless variations. The more the swordsman learns, the more powerful his moves become as he comprehends the connections between the stances. The last three stances are the most difficult ones to master.

The key to mastering these techniques is to comprehend them and not simply rigidly memorising them. Once the essence of the swordplay is grasped, the swordsman can use it in endless forms and variations, hence the swordplay is said to take no fixed sequence or pattern. During combat, the less the swordsman remembers, the less restricted he is by the original stances. He is thus able to use his own custom form of the swordplay.