Mandarin Duck Blades
1961 novel by Jin Yong
Mandarin Duck Blades (鴛鴦刀), also known as Blade-Dance of the Two Lovers, is a wuxia novella by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). It was first serialised in 1961 in the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao.
Plot summary
The story is set in China during the Qing dynasty. A pair of precious blades known as the Mandarin Duck Blades are being transported to the Forbidden City by a security company commissioned by provincial officials. The blades are highly coveted by many martial artists in the jianghu because they are rumoured to hold a secret to invincibility. The officials have also detained the security company chief's family to ensure that he completes the mission instead of keeping the blades for himself.
Amidst attempts by different parties to intercept the convoy and seize the blades, eventually, through serendipity, the weapons end up in the hands of two couples: Yuan Guannan and Xiao Zhonghui, and Lin Yulong and Ren Feiyan. They are defeated by Zhuo Tianxiong, a highly-skilled imperial guard who hides in the convoy to protect the blades. The couples are forced to take shelter in a dilapidated temple while evading Zhuo and his men. Out of desperation, Lin and Ren teach the younger couple, Yuan and Xiao, a sword movement known as the Couple's Sabers.
The public source identifies “Mandarin Duck Blades” as 1961 novel by Jin Yong. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mandarin, Duck and Blades.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1949634. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1961.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mandarin Duck Blades” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.