The inner blade But the jian is fundamentally a weapon, and fights are what interest the readers of chivalric novels. According to Chen Pingyuan, "The more modern chivalric novels in particular are devoted almost entirely to descriptions of fights, because that's what readers are looking for. In these novels, all varieties of jian-craft are glorified." And, of course, each knight-errant's jian-craft outdoes that of the last.
話說回來，劍的本質仍是武器，武俠小說吸引人處，往往也就在豐富的技擊過程，「特別新派武俠小說，大部分都在描述打鬥過程，這也是讀者樂趣的主要來源，各式劍法、劍譜、劍學也才在小說裡發揚光大，」陳平原指出。