The Return of the Condor Heroes
wuxia novel by Jin Yong
The Return of the Condor Heroes (神鵰俠侶), also translated as The Giant Eagle and Its Companion, is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). It is the second part of the Condor Trilogy and was preceded by The Legend of the Condor Heroes and followed by The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. It was first serialised between 20 May 1959 and 5 July 1961 in the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao.
The story revolves around the protagonist, Yang Guo, and his lover and martial arts master, Xiaolongnü, in their adventures in the wulin (martial artists' community), where love between master and apprentice is seen as taboo. Jin Yong revised the novel in 1970 and again in 2004. There are 40 chapters in the second and third revisions. Each chapter has a title composed of four Chinese characters. Most of the revisions are either clarifications or minor alterations of character motivations or names. The Chinese title of the novel approximately translates to The Magical Condor and its Hero Companion.
Plot summary
Set in 13th-century China against the backdrop of the Mongol Empire's expansion, the story follows Yang Guo, the orphaned son of the characters Yang Kang and Mu Nianci from the previous novel.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Return of the Condor Heroes” as wuxia novel by Jin Yong. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as wuxia novel by Jin Yong. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1187628. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1959, 1961, 1970 and 2004.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Return of the Condor Heroes” 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.