邊城浪子 - 序: 紅雪 (Link)

The prologue to The Bordertown Wanderer by Gu Long 古龍 introduces one of the main characters, Fu Hongxue. He is a young man who is assigned the mission of avenging his father's murder of 18 years ago. His mother gives him a black sabre that is covered with red snow. This is where I find it very hard to accept the imagery, as morbidly beautiful as it is. The reason is because Gu Long describes the snow as a powder that has been sitting on the blade of the sabre for the past 18 years. Now, when the old lady unleashes the sabre, the red snow powder actually falls to the ground.

I've grown up with the Canadian winter for almost 30 years, and as far as I know, snow melts. It does not turn into a solid powder form. I'm wondering how this is possible? I'm going to ask the experts at WuxiaMania for their explanation.

Other than the snow turning into powder part, I really like the rest of the descriptions. The language is very descriptive, but not figurative. This is the main difference between Gu Long and Jin Yong that I notice so far. I kind of like it that the language is so simple. The images are clearer and more vivid.

***EDIT***
I asked some experts at WuxiaSociety.com about this, and they helped me to figure out the answer. The red powder that the old lady called red snow, which she also sprinkled on Fu Hongxue, is just red powder. She's pretending it's snow, as is he. It's symbolic, and by having the red powder sprinkled on him, Fu Hongxue is symbolically bound to the murder mystery.

It is important to note that when Gu Long wrote, he wrote with Mandarin in mind, not Cantonese. In Mandarin, hong xue is a homonym of red snow and red blood. So, figuratively speaking, she described to the young man how snow was coloured red by the blood of the massacre. And when she sprinkled the red snow onto Fu Hongxue, it's as if she was splashing red blood on him.

So, I now see how the red powder works as a symbolic object to bind the young man to the murder mystery. Thus, he becomes responsible for having to solve the mystery and avenge his father and all the other members of his family who were massacred 18 years ago.