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Jin Yong Books in Order

Browse all Jin Yong books in order, with brief summaries, Condor Trilogy reading order, series background, and guidance on where new readers start.

Last updated: January 16, 2026

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19 books

A Heart Divided

by Jin Yong

2021

Guo Jing and Lotus flee a deadly fortress, but her life hangs by a thread. As they race to find a healer while Mongol armies close in, Guo must choose between the people who raised him and the homeland he has sworn to defend.

A Heart Divided

by Jin Yong

2021

Guo Jing and Lotus flee a deadly fortress, but her life hangs by a thread. As they race to find a healer while Mongol armies close in, Guo must choose between the people who raised him and the homeland he has sworn to defend.

A Snake Lies Waiting

by Jin Yong

2020

Fresh from winning Lotus Huang’s hand on Peach Blossom Island, Guo Jing sails into another trap. Stranded on a sabotaged barge and hunted by vengeful masters, he must navigate poison plots, shifting loyalties and Yang Kang’s deepening treachery.

A Bond Undone

by Jin Yong

2020

In the Jin capital, Guo Jing learns the truth about his father’s death and finds himself unwillingly betrothed to two women. Journeying with Lotus Huang, he is drawn into the ruthless scramble for the Nine Yin Manual as old grudges close in.

A Hero Born

by Jin Yong

2019

After his patriot father is murdered, Guo Jing grows up on the Mongolian steppe under Genghis Khan, training in martial arts with eccentric masters. Called back to China, he must confront a deadly rival and decide where his loyalties truly lie.

The Young Flying Fox

by Jin Yong

1969

Set in Qing-era China, young swordsman Hu Fei roams the land chasing the villain Feng Tiannan and answers buried questions about his father’s death. Alongside mysterious Yuan Ziyi and healer Cheng Lingsu, he stumbles into conspiracies that pit justice against imperial power.

The Deer and the Cauldron

by Jin Yong

1969

Wei Xiaobao, a streetwise teen from a Yangzhou brothel, bluffs his way into the Qing court and becomes companion to the young Kangxi Emperor. Juggling secret society oaths, rival factions and seven wives, he survives on lies, luck and a flexible sense of loyalty.

Ode to Gallantry

by Jin Yong

1966

A hungry street beggar who calls himself Mongrel Dog is snatched into the martial world, where everyone insists he is the missing rogue Shi Zhongyu. As mistaken identities multiply, he stumbles into shocking skills, dangerous feuds and an unexpected lesson in real chivalry.

A Deadly Secret

by Jin Yong

1964

Naive villager Di Yun is framed for horrific crimes and left to rot in prison, where a dying master passes him secret martial arts. Freed into a world warped by greed over a hidden treasure, he fights to clear his name without losing his humanity.

Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils

by Jin Yong

1963

Spanning the 11th-century kingdoms of Song, Liao, Dali and Western Xia, this epic follows three unlikely brothers in arms: tragic warrior Qiao Feng, reluctant prince Duan Yu and monk Xuzhu. Their intertwined journeys probe identity, loyalty and the cost of power.

The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber

by Jin Yong

1961

Generations after the Condor heroes, Zhang Wuji is drawn into a brutal struggle over two legendary weapons said to grant dominion over the martial world. Torn between rival sects, rebel causes and tangled romances, he searches for a path that avoids senseless bloodshed.

The Return of the Condor Heroes

by Jin Yong

1959

Years after the first Condor saga, orphan Yang Guo is sent to train with the Quanzhen sect, only to flee cruel treatment into the Tomb of the Living Dead. There he meets enigmatic master Xiaolongnü and embarks on a taboo love story amid looming war.

Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain

by Jin Yong

1959

On a snowy peak in the Changbai Mountains, rival martial artists are trapped in a manor and forced to relive a generations-old feud over a mysterious saber. Their tangled stories reveal the rise of elusive swordsman Hu Fei, the Fox Volant.

Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain

by Jin Yong

1959

On a snowy peak in the Changbai Mountains, rival martial artists are trapped in a manor and forced to relive a generations-old feud over a mysterious saber. Their tangled stories reveal the rise of elusive swordsman Hu Fei, the Fox Volant.

A Past Unearthed

by Jin Yong

1958

Set in 1237, Return of the Condor Heroes opens as wanderer Penance Yang, son of disgraced Yang Kang, is taken in by Guo Jing and sent to train with the Quanzhen Sect. Probing the sect’s past, he confronts his family’s secrets and his own future.

A Snake Lies Waiting

by Jin Yong

1957

Fresh from winning Lotus Huang’s hand on Peach Blossom Island, Guo Jing sails into another trap. Stranded on a sabotaged barge and hunted by vengeful masters, he must navigate poison plots, shifting loyalties and Yang Kang’s deepening treachery.

A Hero Born

by Jin Yong

1957

After his patriot father is murdered, Guo Jing grows up on the Mongolian steppe under Genghis Khan, training in martial arts with eccentric masters. Called back to China, he must confront a deadly rival and decide where his loyalties truly lie.

A Bond Undone

by Jin Yong

1957

In the Jin capital, Guo Jing learns the truth about his father’s death and finds himself unwillingly betrothed to two women. Journeying with Lotus Huang, he is drawn into the ruthless scramble for the Nine Yin Manual as old grudges close in.

Sword Stained with Royal Blood

by Jin Yong

1956

Orphaned son of a framed Ming general, Yuan Chengzhi grows up on Mount Hua and inherits the lethal Golden Serpent Sword. As he joins rebel plots and court intrigues, his quest for justice collides with the looming fall of the dynasty.

Where should I start?

If you want to follow the Condor saga in English: A Hero BornA Bond UndoneA Snake Lies WaitingA Heart DividedA Past Unearthed
If you love sprawling historical epics: Demi-Gods and Semi-DevilsThe Heaven Sword and Dragon SaberThe Deer and the Cauldron
If you prefer self-contained adventures: The Young Flying FoxFox Volant of the Snowy MountainSword Stained with Royal Blood
If you enjoy darker, twisty stories: A Deadly SecretOde to Gallantry

Author bio

Jin Yong was born Zha Liangyong on 10 March 1924 in Haining, Zhejiang, in a family that prized books, history and examination success. His father read him martial-arts tales as a child, and those stories of wandering swordsmen and hidden sects stayed with him long after homework was done. He would later turn that childhood fascination into some of the most widely read Chinese novels of the twentieth century.

Growing up in Republican China, he watched his country stagger through invasion, civil war and political campaigns. Members of his extended family had earned high degrees in the old imperial exam system, but his own father was executed in the early 1950s after being accused of counterrevolutionary activity. That mix of scholarly tradition and sudden violence runs quietly underneath many of his stories.

As a young man he studied foreign languages and law, hoping for a career in diplomacy, before drifting into journalism. In the late 1940s he worked as a translator and reporter, then moved to Hong Kong, where newspapers needed sharp, fast writers who could cover politics one day and culture the next. Those newsroom years trained him to write quickly, clearly and for ordinary readers.

In the mid-1950s he began serialising his first wuxia novel, The Book and the Sword, in a Hong Kong paper. Encouraged by friends, he kept going, and over less than two decades he wrote fifteen martial-arts novels, usually one newspaper chapter at a time. Readers followed along in real time, cutting out pages and swapping them with friends when they missed an installment.

In 1959 he co-founded the daily newspaper Ming Pao in Hong Kong and served as its editor-in-chief. For years he spent his mornings on editorials and his afternoons and evenings on fiction, sometimes producing around ten thousand Chinese characters in a single day. It was an exhausting rhythm, but it helped make his novels feel immediate and alive.

Those novels include the Condor Trilogy, beginning with A Hero Born and continuing through A Bond Undone, A Snake Lies Waiting, A Heart Divided and the later A Past Unearthed, as well as sprawling standalone epics like Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils and The Deer and the Cauldron. Shorter works such as Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain show a different side of his storytelling, playing with structure and point of view while still delivering sharp duels and family vendettas. Across these books, readers meet awkward but loyal heroes, brilliant tricksters, damaged villains and masters whose jokes often hide deep regret.

His stories are set against real dynastic crises, from the Mongol conquest of the Song to the Manchu rise in the Qing, but they rarely feel like lectures. Instead they turn big questions about loyalty, identity and power into personal dilemmas: Guo Jing torn between his Mongol foster family and his birth country, or Wei Xiaobao in The Deer and the Cauldron juggling friendship with a young emperor and oaths to a rebel brotherhood. Romances, from Guo Jing and Huang Rong to later couples who have to break social taboos just to be together, give the battles and political intrigue a human core.

After retiring from daily journalism in the early 1990s, he gradually stepped back from public life. In his eighties he returned to university study and completed a doctorate at Cambridge on succession in the early Tang dynasty, a reminder that he had always been as interested in history and ideas as in swordplay. He received honours from governments in Hong Kong, Britain and France, but the affection that mattered most probably came from generations of readers who grew up on his work. He died in Hong Kong on 30 October 2018, at the age of ninety-four, leaving behind characters and stories that continue to be adapted, debated and rediscovered around the world.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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All 19 Jin Yong Books in Order (Complete List 2026)