Reception Perspective, Jin Yong

Jin Yong's martial arts novels triggered "The Jin Yong Phenomenon" in the last two decades of the 20^th century, during which period his novels enjoyed a nationwide readership. Today the influence of the phenomenon still lingers. For a long time, martial arts fiction was considered to be of low literary value. However, in Jin's novels, traditional chivalrous culture, modern consciousness and the aesthetic psychology of the reading public are so nicely combined that the previously stylized martial arts fiction become subtle and multi-dimensional, thus its literary value is pushed onto a new altitude.This article starts with the interpretation of the unusual and conspicuous readership of Jin's martial arts novels and, from a receptive aesthetic perspective, explores the novels' narrative style in which tradition is integrated with modernity, and chivalry with modern consciousness. The issue of refinement and popularity is also addressed through the analysis of the texts as well as the expectation of the readers.Detailed analysis includes the following two aspects.1. The basic content of the receptive theory is briefly introduced. Judging from the narrative characteristics of martial arts fiction, Jin's novels conform to the writing model of martial arts genre. The recreational function of martial arts description is analysed and the "explicit response-inviting structure" of Jin's novels is also pointed out.2. The origins of martial arts and martial arts fiction are briefly stated. The charm of the colorful figures in Jin's novels, the unusual love stories and the independent female characters all fulfill the expectation of the reading public in the modern society. With his chivalrous heroes, Jin creates a Utopian world of Jianghu (rivers and lakes), which satisfies the readers' aesthetic expectations of a chivalrous Jianghu. Literarily, these expectations are all of a "static plane structure" vision.Jin's novels exhibit the attempts of modernization of traditional martial arts fiction but are still confined to the writing model of martial arts fiction. Their features of "explicit response-inviting structure" and "static expectant vision" define them as popular literature.