The story of "The Swordsman" takes place in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

The Wudang Sect was founded by Zhang Sanfeng in the early Yuan Dynasty. In the early Yuan Dynasty, it became one of the two major martial arts leaders alongside the Shaolin Temple. Zhang Sanfeng was still alive at that time. In "The Swordsman", the leader of Wudang is no longer Zhang Sanfeng but Chongxu, so "The Swordsman" must have taken place in the Ming or Qing Dynasty after the Yuan Dynasty.

However, in the Qing Dynasty, foreigners came to dominate China, and most people in the martial arts community took it as their mission to fight against the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty. If "The Swordsman" had taken place in the Qing Dynasty, Liu Zhengfeng would have been reviled by people in the martial arts world on the pretext of being a local official in the imperial court. How could he hold his "Golden Plate Washing Hands" in a grand manner? Therefore, there is no doubt that "The Swordsman" took place in the Ming Dynasty.

Supplement:

Swordsman: Mid-Ming Dynasty (after 1500 AD)

Argument 1: Zu Qianqiu mentioned in the book " "Yuan Ci", people of this dynasty would not use this tone to describe the affairs of this dynasty. From this, we can know that the background of "Swordsman" was in the Yuan Dynasty, Ming or Qing Dynasty.

Argument 2: The official positions, place names, and county government buildings mentioned in the article are all unique to the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Argument 3: There is a sentence in "The Deer and the Cauldron" that "...there was Linghu Chong in the previous dynasty...", which is undoubtedly before the Qing Dynasty.

Based on the first three arguments, we can see that "Swordsman" took place in the Ming Dynasty.

Argument 4: According to the analysis of the Huashan School's lineage in the article "Chronology of the Swordsman" by the Three Heroes of the Yangtze River, Mu Renqing was about the same generation as Linghu Chong's disciples and grandsons. "The Swordsman" takes place around the middle of the Ming Dynasty around 1500.

Argument 5: The article mentioned that “In fact, more than a hundred years ago, the real name of this sect was the Five Poison Sect. The founders and important figures in the sect were all Miao people from Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Hunan. ..." At this time, the Five Poison Sect was called the "Five Immortal Sect", but in "Blue Blood Sword" it was reverted to the name of the Five Poison Sect. The name of a sect should only change in one or two generations; Judging from the teacher-teacher relationship between He Hongyao and others, it is more appropriate to regard him as Lan Fenghuang's disciple or a more distant generation. This is also roughly consistent with Mu Renqing being the disciple of Linghu Chong.

Argument 6: The article mentions that "Emei... established the sect hundreds of years ago...", which means it should be at least 200 years after Guo Xiang established the sect. Guo Xiang established Emei after his middle age, which means that it was at least after 1500 AD.

From the above three items, it can be roughly confirmed that the historical background of the article "Swordsman" should be after 1500 AD in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

Hope to adopt it~