Hong Qigong
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Hong Chutgong (洪七公) is a fictional character in Jinyong's wuxia novels, appearing in both The Legend of the Condor Heroes and its sequel The Return of the Condor Heroes. He was best known for being the leader of the Beggars' Sect (丐帮), and possessing the powerful martial arts technique Xianglong Shi Ba Zhang (18 Dragon-Subduing Palms, 降龙十八掌). With the Beggars' Sect primarily based in northern China, he earned the nickname Northern Beggar (北丐), and ranked among the Top Five Supreme Martial Artists (五绝) in the novel. Unlike the other four supreme martial artists, Hong Qigong was very lazy. He rarely ever passed whole sets of his skills to others, but would teach a stance or two to anyone he found worthy, such as he taught a fraction of his skills to Mu Nianci. He only took Guo Jing and Huang Rong as true disciples.
Hong Qigong was also known for his culinary skills and appreciation of fine food. He was also known as the Nine-fingered Divine Beggar (九指神丐), after severing one of his fingers as a reminder of once delaying to save a righteous man's life because of his appetite.
In his advanced age he left the affairs of his sect to his successors and travelled the world in search of culinary delights. On Mt. Hua he met Yang Guo and was impressed by the young man's integrity. Together they met Yang Guo's adopted father, the insane Western Venom who was once one of the five greats. The two old rivals fought each other for four days, and only Yang Guo's timely interruptions with food kept things from escalating too far. Eventually the old animosity proved too much, and the two Champions matched their internal energies directly for a full day, coming to another standstill. Exhausted, both fighters were too proud to back down, each claiming that he still had many techniques left to defeat the other. For three days, they used Yang Guo as their proxy, each instructing him in their respective skills and making the budding martial artist demonstrate the technique to his opponent. Thus Hong Chutgong would teach Yang Guo a stance from his Dog Beating Stick and Ouyang Feng would teach Yang Guo to counter with his own staff art. Hong Chutgong seemed to have won this odd duel when he unleashed his final Dog Beating Stick stance: No Dogs Under Heaven. This powerful stance surprised Ouyang Feng, and he had no counter to offer. After the night passed, he cried out excitedly to his son and whispered to him this newly created technique. Upon seeing his ultimate technique countered, Hong Chutgong laughed uproariously and embraced his enemy in defeat, calling Ouyang Feng by his true name. Breaking through his years-long madness, Ouyang Feng regained his memory, recognizing himself and his enemy. The two had been the most bitter of foes for their entire lives; with this final duel, they embraced one another, laughing, and died.
Yang Guo buried both of them on Mt. Hua side by side. Yang Guo observed that even though his foster-father had defeated Hong Qigong's arts, if the two champions had fought in real combat, Ouyang Feng would not have had the time to ponder and create a counter.
- Guo Jing (郭靖)
- Huang Rong (黄蓉)
- Xianglong Shi Ba Zhang (18 Dragon-Subduing Palms, 降龙十八掌) - A set of eighteen palm techniques that rely on overwhelming force. The maneuvers involved allow a response to attacks from any quarter. Taught to Guo Jing.
- Dog-Beating Stick Technique (打狗棒法) - A set of thirty-six staff techniques, this skill set is proof of leadership of the Beggars' Sect. Hong Qigong passed the full set to Huang Rong when he appointed her as the next leader. He taught the external forms to Yang Guo for his proxy duel with Ouyang Feng.