Cha authored 15 novels between 1955 and 1972 and became one of the most popular Chinese writers of all time, with over 100 million copies sold globally—excluding widespread pirated editions.

[4][5] Cha’s novels, which have been adapted into numerous TV dramas, films, and video games, are esteemed for their literary quality and universal appeal, resonating with both scholarly and popular audiences.

[8] His grandfather, Zha Wenqing (查文清), obtained the position of a tong jinshi chushen (third class graduate) in the imperial examination during the Qing dynasty.

[9] Zha Shuqing used to read him excerpts from the wuxia Huangjiang Nüxia (荒江女侠; "Woman Warrior of the Wild River") by Gu Mingdao (顧明道) every day, which aroused Cha's strong interest in the genre.

Later, Cha took the initiative to read other works like Water Margin and The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants, which laid the foundation of his future as a wuxia novelist.

In 1938, the Japanese army invaded Zhejiang, and the Jiaxing Middle School had to move hundreds of miles south to Lishui city in order to survive.

Cha was later expelled in 1941 after he wrote an article called "Alice's Adventures" which satirized the training director sent by the Kuomintang for being vicious towards the students.

When Cha was transferred to New Evening Post (of British Hong Kong) as Deputy Editor, he met Chen Wentong, who wrote his first wuxia novel under the pseudonym "Liang Yusheng" in 1953.

In 1959, Cha co-founded the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao with his high school classmate Shen Baoxin (沈寶新).

In 1980, Cha wrote a postscript to Wu Gongzao's tai chi classic Wujia Taijiquan, where he described influences from as far back as Laozi and Zhuang Zhou on contemporary Chinese martial arts.

[27] His funeral service was held privately at Hong Kong Funeral Home in Quarry Bay on 13 November 2018 with his family and friends,[28] with well known figures including writers Ni Kuang, Chua Lam, Chip Tsao, Benny Lee, producer Zhang Jizhong, actor Huang Xiaoming, former President of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Poon Chung-kwong, image designer Tina Liu, politicians Tung Chee-hwa and Edward Leong, and founder of Alibaba Group Jack Ma among them in attendance.

At noon, his coffin was moved to Po Lin Monastery at Ngong Ping, Lantau Island, where he was cremated and his ashes was interred at the Hoi Wui Tower's columbarium.

[32] In July 2010, Cha earned his Doctor of Philosophy in oriental studies (Chinese history) at St John's College, Cambridge with a thesis on imperial succession in the early Tang dynasty.

In a very brief inner monologue in The Deer and the Cauldron, Chengguan, a knowledgeable but naïve Shaolin monk, ponders two great swordsmen in the past who performed swordplay without following any defined stances: Dugu Qiubai and Linghu Chong.

Wu Liuqi, a historical character from The Deer and the Cauldron, is mentioned in the third edition of A Deadly Secret as the martial arts master of Mei Niansheng.

Hu Yidao, Miao Renfeng, Tian Guinong and the Feng family in The Young Flying Fox are the fictional descendants of the four bodyguards of Li Zicheng, who appears in the Sword Stained with Royal Blood and The Deer and the Cauldron.

After Cha completed all his works, it was discovered that the first characters of the first 14 titles can be joined to form a couplet (duilian) with 7 characters on each line: 飛雪連天射白鹿 笑書神俠倚碧鴛 飞雪连天射白鹿 笑书神侠倚碧鸳 Shooting a white deer, snow flutters around the skies; Smiling, [one] writes about the divine chivalrous one, leaning against bluish lovebirds (or lover) Cha stated that he had never intended to create the couplet.

In most of his works, Cha places emphasis on the idea of self-determination and identity, and many of his novels are set in time periods when China was occupied or under the threat of occupation by non-Han Chinese peoples such as the Khitans, Jurchens, Mongols and Manchus.

In The Legend of the Condor Heroes, for example, he casts Genghis Khan and his sons as capable and intelligent military leaders against the corrupt and ineffective bureaucrats of the Han Chinese-led Song dynasty.

However, he also questions the validity of these values in the face of a modern society, such as ostracism experienced by his two main characters – Yang Guo's romantic relationship with his teacher Xiaolongnü in The Return of the Condor Heroes.

In all but his 14th work, The Deer and the Cauldron, the protagonists or heroes are explored meticulously through their relationships with their teachers, their immediate kin and relatives, and with their suitors or spouses.

In each, the heroes have attained the zenith in martial arts and most would be the epitome or embodiment of the traditional Chinese values in words or deeds, i.e. virtuous, honourable, respectable, gentlemanly, responsible, patriotic, and so forth.

In The Deer and the Cauldron, Cha departed from his usual writing style, creating in its main protagonist Wei Xiaobao an antihero who is greedy, lazy, and utterly disdainful of traditional rules of propriety.

Cha intentionally created an anticlimax and an antihero possessing none of the desirable traditional values and no knowledge of any form of martial arts, and dependent upon a protective vest made of alloy to absorb full-frontal attack when in trouble and a dagger that can cut through anything.

Ni is a fan of Cha, and has written a series of criticisms analysing the various personalities and aspects of his books called I Read Jin Yong's Novels (我看金庸小說).

None of these bans are currently in force, and Cha's complete collection has been published multiple times in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

While some praised the inclusion of popular literature, others feared that the violence and unrealistic martial arts described in Cha's works were unsuitable for high school students.

At about the same time, Singapore's Ministry of Education announced a similar move for Chinese-learning students at secondary and junior college levels.

The Book and the Sword (2005) – published by Oxford University Press, 2005, translated by Graham Earnshaw, edited by John Minford and Rachel May.

Those available in English include: Jin Yong co-directed 2 films produced by Hong Kong's Great Wall Movie Enterprises.