Xiong Yaohua (7 June 1938 – 21 September 1985), better known by his pen nameGu Long, was a Taiwanese novelist, screenwriter, film producer and director. Born in Hong Kong and educated at Cheng Kung Senior High School and Tamkang University in Taiwan, he is best known for writing wuxia novels, among which his best known works are Juedai Shuangjiao, the Xiaoli Feidao Series, the Chu Liuxiang Series, the Lu Xiaofeng Series, and The Eleventh Son. Some of them have been adapted into films and television series. In the 1980s, he started his own film studio to produce film adaptations of his works.
Background
Xiong was born on 7 June 1938 in Hong Kong, with ancestry from Nanchang, Jiangxi. He lived in Hankou, Hubei in his childhood before moving to Taipei, Taiwan in 1952 with his parents, who divorced in 1956. With help from his friends and using the money he earned from part-time work to fund his education, Xiong graduated from the Foreign Language Department of Tamkang University.
Career
In 1960, Xiong published his first wuxia novel, Cangqiong Shenjian (蒼穹神劍), under the pen name "Gu Long". From 1960 to 1961, he published eight novels but they were not particularly successful. He moved to Ruifang District and lived there for three years, after which he adopted a new writing style.
Between 1967 and the late 1970s, Xiong rose to prominence as a modern wuxia writer due to the success of his works, being named alongside Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng as the "Three Legs of the Tripod of Wuxia".
Death
In the later part of his life, Xiong suffered from depression and the quality of his works declined rapidly. He had to employ ghostwriters to co-write many of his later works because of his ailing health.
On 21 September 1985, Xiong died at the age of 48 due to illness wrought by alcoholism – namely cirrhosis and oesophagealhaemorrhage. At his funeral, his friends brought him 48 bottles of X.O. Cognac.
While Xiong was still attending Tamkang University, he lived with a dance hostess, Zheng Yuexia (鄭月霞), and they had a son, Zheng Xiaolong (鄭小龍). Later, he started a relationship with another dance hostess, Ye Xue (葉雪), with whom he had another son, Ye Yikuan (葉怡寬). Shortly after that, he met a senior middle school graduate, Mei Baozhu (梅寶珠), who became his first legal spouse and had a son, Xiong Zhengda (熊正達), with him. His extramarital affairs caused him to break up with Mei eventually.
In contrast with Xiong, other wuxia writers such as Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng incorporated Chinese history, culture, and philosophy in their works. Xiong initially intended to mimic them, but changed his decision after being exposed to the James Bond and The Godfather novels. The influence of these works, which relied on the idiosyncrasies of human life, razor-sharp wit, poetic philosophies, mysterious plots, and spine-tingling thrills to achieve success, enabled Xiong to come up with his unique style of writing wuxia novels.
List of works
Some of these works were co-written with other writers.
Standalone novels
Divine Sword of the Sky (蒼穹神劍)
Poison of the Sword and Fragrance of Plum Blossoms (劍毒梅香)
