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Zhou Botong

fictional wuxia master

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ3205891
Source-derived summary

Zhou Botong (周伯通) is a fictional character in the wuxia novels The Legend of the Condor Heroes and The Return of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong. A member of the Quanzhen Sect, he is highly-skilled in martial arts, having been trained by his senior, Wang Chongyang. Although he is already in his old age, he is still known for behaving childishly and constantly seeking fun, hence he is nicknamed "Old Imp" (老頑童). At the end of the second novel, he takes the central position of the "Five Greats", the five most powerful martial artists in the wulin (martial artists' community).

Fictional character biography

Zhou Botong is a junior of Wang Chongyang, the founder of the Quanzhen Sect and one of the "Five Greats", the five most powerful martial artists in the wulin of his time. Like his senior, he is highly-skilled in martial arts. However, he is also known for his childish temperament and playful behaviour, even when he is in his old age, hence he is nicknamed "Old Imp".

In his younger days, he had a secret affair with Liu Ying, a consort of the Dali Kingdom's ruler Duan Zhixing, who is one of the "Five Greats". When Wang Chongyang found out about the affair, he forced Zhou Botong to end it and leave with him. Unknown to them, Liu Ying was already pregnant with Zhou Botong's child at the time, and she later gave birth to a son.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Zhou Botong” as fictional wuxia master. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Zhou, Botong and fictional.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current 241-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Zhou, Botong and fictional providing the first useful test.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3205891. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Zhou Botong” 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.