Subject : Lu Ding Ji (Royal Tramp) (Subject Index)

Royal Tramp, or The Duke of Mount Deer (Lu Ding Ji, 鹿鼎记) is probably the most unusual martial arts novel written by Jin Yong, because the protagonist Wei Xiaobao is not a martial arts hero at all, and does not intend to be one. Born in a brothel of a prostitute mother and an unknown father, Wei Xiaobao has no martial arts talent and doesn't bother to learn. His life-time ambition seems to open the biggest brothel. But the strange mixture of his childish innocence and street-wise opportunitism won him everything a martial arts hero could dream of, and more. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai's Wei Xiaobao in 1984's TVB series set such a high standard it overshadows every late remake.