Jin Yong's love of history has won the praises of historians. "Jin Yong himself is willing to be called an historical novelist because historical novels enjoy a higher literary status," holds Lin Pao-hwun, who believes that Jin Yong worries that martial arts novels are regarded as an "inferior form of literature."
金庸的歷史癖贏得史學家的稱讚，「金庸本人也寧可當歷史小說家，因為歷史小說的地位比較高」，林保淳認為，金庸還是有視武俠小說為「次級文類」的嫌疑。