You might referring to the story "the Sword of the Yue Maiden." Which was written rather recently (1970) by Jinyong. We read it in my Popular Chinese Literature class. I dont have the reader at my apartment, but the story is something like this:
Sword competition between Yue and Wu? countries. Yue always looses. They look for some way to win. Meet this sheepherder girl named Ah Qing. She soundly defeats some ruffians while only using a thin pointy stick, and they used a sword. The prime minister of Yue wants to bring her in and learn from her. She agrees and later agrees to introduce her to her Shifu. But guess what. Her Shifu is a......White Ape. Literally. Isnt that weird? Now i dont know if the author (who is still alive) is suggesting some connection between Zhejiang and Tongbei baiyuan quan, or if he just knows a little martial arts history, and thought it would be cool for his story, or what.
I didnt like the story personally. I thought the writing was trite and the characters weak.
Incidentally, the king of Yue, Gou Jian later appeared in Sima Qian when i read it in my Traditional Literature Class. And can anybody correct me here: the Yue in Yuenan (Vietnam) is the same Hanzi as the Yue in Yue Kingdom from the late Zhou, and this being true, Vietnam gets its name from the late Zhou Kingdom of Yue? It makes sense, because i know that the Yue people were pushed south by the Chu i think. I read all that several months ago, so i dont remember the names exactly.
I have found the story here:
http://wuxiapedia.com/novels/jin_yon...he_yueh_maiden
Anyway, just my two cents.
B Redmond
BTW, Sal, you seem to have done a lot of martial arts research. Have you made any sites in particular to share this information, or do you plan to?