Chinese novel written by Jin Yong, the story of a young schemer, Wei Xiaobao who joins the Heaven and Earth Society, who are dedicated to overthrowing the Qing dynasty- there are also a lot of chinese-language movies made from this book and that is what I am more familiar with, particularly the Steven Chow version, which is totally exaggerated and includes lots of silly dialogue and made-up martial arts moves not included in the original book.

Wei Xiaobao's filthy mouth (he grew up in a brothel) tends to get him in trouble but he always manages to weasel out of things by using his quick wits- in many ways he is similar to Edmund Blackadder in the British TV series Blackadder