Liu Canyang

      The author Gao Jianji known by his penname Liu Canyang was born in Qingdao, Shandong Province in 1941. He graduated from Yuanlin Shihyan High School in Changhua County, Taiwan. His first knight-errant novel, Yumien Siuluo, was published in 1961 and brought him a good reputation, so he started writing knight-errant novels professionally.

      His father was a high ranking military official, so he led a comfortable life and was able to read many knight-errant novels, such as the ones by Bai Yu, Jheng Jhengyin in mainland China and the ones by Wolong Sheng, Jhuge Cingyun and Sihma Ling in Taiwan. Once he became a serious novelist he stopped reading other writers' books, to prevent his works from being overly influenced by their works.

      He is famous for writing about battles taking place in the gangster circles, and the two novels Siao Jhong Syong and Siao Ba published in 1966 were an important milestone in his writing style. Prior to these two books his story lines were predictable: family disaster - learning undefeatable martial arts - revenge.

      The established martial arts Schools, such as Shaolin and Wudang rarely appeared in his books. Instead, he invented some fascinating Cults and Schools, such as nujian men, the furious swords gang, and lingshe pai the sly snake gang.