Zhou Zhiruo
| Zhou Zhiruo | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Jin Yong |
| Appearances | The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber |
| Personal information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Spouse(s) | Song Qingshu (fake wedding) |
| Romantic interest(s) | Zhang Wuji |
| Affiliations | |
| Organisations | Emei Sect |
| Teachers | Abbess Miejue |
| Skills and abilities | |
| Qinggong | Emei Sect qinggong |
| Neigong | Emei Nine Yang Skill, Nine Yin Manual skills |
| Unarmed combat skills | Nine Yin White Bone Claw, Heart Shattering Palm, Soft Palm of the Golden Peak |
| Armed combat skills | Emei Swordplay, White Boa Whip Skill |
| Weapons | Heaven Reliant Sword, White Boa Whip |
| Zhou Zhiruo | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 周芷若 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 周芷若 | ||||||||||
|
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Zhōu Zhǐruò |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Jyutping | Zau1 Zi2-joek6 |
Zhou Zhiruo is one of the two female lead characters in the wuxia novel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). Jin Yong describes Zhou's physical appearance as "beautiful, pure and free of worldly traits".
Zhou is the daughter of a boatman from the Han River. Her name "Zhiruo" is derived from her birthplace, Zhijiang. Zhou's mother died when she was very young. Her father was killed by Yuan soldiers when she was 10, but she was rescued by Zhang Sanfeng, who was passing by. Zhou meets the young Zhang Wuji, who was travelling with Zhang Sanfeng then, and they develop a friendship. Zhang Wuji leaves them later and follows Chang Yuchun to Butterfly Valley to seek treatment from Hu Qingniu. Zhang Sanfeng brings Zhou back to Wudang and recommends her to join the Emei Sect later. Zhou enters the sect and becomes a student of Abbess Miejue, leader of Emei.
Zhou meets Zhang Wuji several years later by chance and falls in love with him. However, Miejue dislikes Zhang because of the latter's affiliation with the Ming Cult. Miejue forces Zhou to swear that she must not marry Zhang or have any romantic feelings for him. The oath is as follows:
I, Zhou Zhiruo, hereby swear to Heaven, that if I have any romantic feelings for the Demonic Cult (Ming Cult)'s leader Zhang Wuji or if I marry him, my late parents' souls will not be at peace; my teacher Abbess Miejue will become a vengeful ghost after death and haunt me day and night, and should I have any offspring with Zhang Wuji, the males will become slaves while females will become prostitutes for every generation.
Miejue names Zhou as her successor to leadership of Emei and tells her the secret behind the Heaven Reliant Sword and the Dragon Slaying Saber. Miejue tells Zhou to extract the martial arts manuals and the Book of Wumu concealed in the weapons' blades and master those skills, and use them to glorify Emei. Zhou is unwilling to harm Zhang, but is bound by her oath to do so. On Divine Serpent Island, Zhou steals the weapons and breaks them by clashing them together, obtaining the secret items hidden inside. She kills Yin Li (Zhang's cousin) and frames Zhao Min for the deed.
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Wikipedia