Friday, September 19, 2008

Duan Tiande

Duan Tiande is a character in the wuxia novel Legend of the Condor Heroes written by Louis Cha.

Duan was first introduced in the novel as a Song army officer, who led government soldiers to arrest Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin for treason at the Niu Family Village in the first chapter. After a fierce fight, Guo was killed in battle by Duan Tiande and Yang was presumed dead. Guo's widowed wife Li Ping was captured by Duan Tiande.

Duan brought Li Ping with him to his uncle, Reverend Ku Mu's monastery and hid her inside. The Seven Freaks of Jiangnan and Qiu Chuji arrived later, searching for Li Ping. Qiu kept insisting that he saw Li Ping being brought into the monastery but Ku Mu denied it. The Seven Freaks interfered and a fight broke out between Qiu Chuji and the Seven Freaks. Eventually, it was revealed that Duan Tiande had indeed brought the captured Li Ping with him into the monastery, but had seized the opportunity to escape during the fight with his hostage. Meanwhile, the Seven Freaks and Qiu Chuji had an agreement to track down the widows of Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin respectively, nuture their unborn sons into martial artists and meet again eighteen years later for a contest between the two young men.

Li Ping managed to escape from the clutches of Duan Tiande and travelled north and finally arrived in Mongolia. There, she gave birth to her son Guo Jing and raised him. She constantly reminded her son that his father was killed by a man called Duan Tiande and he must avenge his father. Since a young age, Guo Jing had already a faint image of Duan Tiande as his mother had described to him Duan Tiande's physical features and he possessed a strong hatred and swore to kill Duan Tiande to avenge his father.

Eventually, fate brought Guo Jing, Yang Tiexin's son Yang Kang and Duan Tiande together where they confronted each other. Duan Tiande was killed by Yang Kang.

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