Edition note: An independent English rewriting of the Chinese argument, shaped for English-language readers.
The action of Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain occupies one day: the fifteenth of the third lunar month in 1780, inside a lodge on Jade Brush Peak. Snow surrounds the house, charcoal burns within, and an iron box sits among people waiting for the legendary Fox of Snowy Mountain. Through their competing stories, more than 130 years enter the room.
The novel's weight lies not simply in that duration but in who speaks it. The monk Baoshu begins with authority, displaying the saber marked with Li Zicheng's slogan and explaining its origin. Much of what he says is accurate. His real name is Yan Ji; he knows so much because he took part in the events and stole the Hu family's manual. Proximity makes him informative and interested at once.
Ping A-si speaks as the servant who witnessed Hu Yidao's final days and carried away the infant Hu Fei. Miao Ruolan contributes what her family transmitted. Members of the Tianlong school and other families supply further segments, each concerned with a particular reputation, death, or grievance. Everyone holds a piece. No one holds the whole.
They are willing to narrate because the box and saber promise access to Li Zicheng's treasure. History is not being reconstructed for its own sake. It is a mechanism someone hopes to operate. Omissions, emphases, and suspicions travel with the speaker's desired result.
The reader therefore performs the act no character can complete alone: assembling a version from testimony without receiving an omniscient judge. That form mirrors the founding tragedy. Generations earlier, three loyal men saw a fourth in the enemy camp. Their sight was true, but it was only a piece; they treated it as the whole and killed him.
Inside the lodge, descendants again place partial accounts together. This time they use words rather than blades. The difference is not trivial. Speech leaves room for another piece to arrive. Outside, the snow continues and the man they fear has not yet reached the door.
Based on the Sanlian Bookstore edition of Jin Yong's Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain; later revisions differ in some details.
版本说明：中文原作；简体与繁体同页切换。
这本书写的是一天。
乾隆四十五年三月十五，长白山玉笔峰上的一座山庄。一群人被一个和尚带到这里，等一个人上山。屋外是雪，屋里生着炭火，一只铁盒摆在中间。
这一天里，几个人轮流说话，把一百三十多年的事情说了出来。
这本书的分量不在那一百三十年，在这一天里由谁来说、怎么说。
先说的是宝树和尚。
他是这天的召集人，也是把众人制住带上山的人。铁盒是他打开的，盒里那把刀的来历是他讲的：刀鞘上刻着奉天倡义四个字，字里填了朱砂，那是李自成当年的称号。这一节他讲得很有派头，讲到关键处翻过刀鞘让众人看，众人这才信了。
他讲了很长一段，讲得也大致不错。
这个人的真名叫阎基。他当年在场，是那件事的经手人之一，还偷过胡家的刀谱。
他讲得最多，因为他知道得最多；他知道得最多，因为他就在那件事里面。
接着说的是平阿四。
他是胡一刀家的仆人，那天在场，抱走了那个婴儿。他讲的是他亲眼看见的那几天：一场比武怎么开始，两个人怎么打，怎么喝酒，胡一刀怎么死的，胡夫人怎么把孩子托付出去，然后怎么自尽。
他这一段最实，因为他没有可算的账。他只是个下人，一辈子做的事就是把那个孩子养大。
再往后是陶百岁，是天龙门的殷吉、田青文，是刘元鹤、熊元献这些人。每一个人接一段。
他们每个人手上都有一块，没有一个人手上有全部。
苗若兰也说了一段。
她是苗人凤的女儿，那年很年轻，坐在炉边拿拨火棒拨炭火。她讲的那一段是她从家里听来的——关于胡一刀的夫人，关于那几天她父亲和那个人之间发生了什么。她讲的时候，屋里那些人各怀心思地听着。
这些人为什么肯讲？
因为那只铁盒。盒子里那把刀是一张指路的东西，指向李自成留下的那批财宝；要弄明白刀怎么用，就得把一百三十年前的事情弄明白。他们讲往事，不是为了弄清一件事，是为了打开一个盒子。
所以每一段叙述都带着讲话人的用处。宝树讲的时候，有几处是不肯讲的；殷吉那一边关心的是天龙门的掌门是怎么死的；陶家父子关心的是自己有没有被冤枉。
书里没有让任何一个人做全知的那一位。
读者手上最后那个版本，是自己拼出来的，而每一块都有主人。
这个写法配得上这本书的内容，因为这本书讲的那件事，本身就是一次拼错了的事。
一百三十多年前，三个人亲眼看见了一样东西，据此杀了一个人。他们看见的是真的，他们不是说谎，他们也不是坏人。
他们只是把看见的那一块，当成了全部。
那件事的后果，是四个家族杀了四代人。
屋里这一群人在这个下午做的事情，跟他们的祖先那天做的是同一件：各自拿着一块，去凑一个说法。
分别只在于，这一次讲的是话，那一次动的是刀。
外面雪没有停。他们等的那个人还没上来。
注：本文所据为金庸《雪山飞狐》三联书店版。人物、情节与引述均出自该版本；新修版在若干处另有改动，与本文所论不涉之处不另作说明。