This thread shall serve as a neutral gathering for those who consume wuxia, xianxia, and xuanhuan media, including literature, movies, and television series. This shall remain a neutral holy land for martial arts.
The three major forms of Chinese martial arts fiction can be divided into three main categories, with some outliers.
With the advent of the internet, and the ability for people to post their fiction online, there has been an explosion of Chinese fantasy fiction online. However, as of recent years, their popularity in the west has exploded as well with the site Novel Updates, which is essentially an aggregator that updates every time an English fan translator completes another chapter and puts it up online.
The Chinese author, who uploads his work to a website for his fanbase to read on a chapter-by-chapter basis over time, gets a translation of their work these days through a translator like Deathblade of I Shall Seal the Heavens translation fame, which is now fully finished.
The availability of web novels means there's a bigger audience than ever before for all three genres.
With the advent of the internet, and the ability for people to post their fiction online, there has been an explosion of Chinese fantasy fiction online. However, as of recent years, their popularity in the west has exploded as well with the site Novel Updates, which is essentially an aggregator that updates every time an English fan translator completes another chapter and puts it up online.
The Chinese author, who uploads his work to a website for his fanbase to read on a chapter-by-chapter basis over time, gets a translation of their work these days through a translator like Deathblade of I Shall Seal the Heavens translation fame, which is now fully finished.
The availability of web novels means there's a bigger audience than ever before for all three genres.
Wuxia (武俠 wǔxiá) – The literal translation for this term is "Martial Heroes." If you are reading this and are completely unfamiliar with the genre, do you remember the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? That's wuxia. These fictional stories center around humans, with tinges of the supernatural. These stories contain powers beyond normal human capacity, through training in Chinese martial arts and harnessing the power of "qi," or internal energy. These are stories that run the entire gamut of human drama, including extreme tragedy, love stories, and chivalrous deeds.
The term for the gathering of energy you will most likely see in almost all of these stories is "cultivation." Cultivation, essentially, is gathering power inside yourself so you can explosively use it for martial arts.
Wuxia fiction's been around forever in Chinese literature. However, its modern iteration can be traced back to the 1950s as serialized novels appearing in Hong Kong newspapers - a lot of the 'conventions' of the genre can be traced back to this era, with things like the code of chivalry, how martial arts school are established, inner and outer strength, et cetera.
The most influential writers of this era are Jin Yong, Gu Long, and Liang Yusheng. The name to remember is Jin Yong, specifically, because every single person who has written any of the stories in this thread has read Jin Yong's works and are heavily influenced by him.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the writer Huang Yi started mixing together fantasy novels and time travel with wuxia,
which is where the term 'xuanhuan' was applied.
Basically, these stories are about people using their martial arts to perform heroic deeds, righting wrongs, and punishing evildoers.
Where to Start Reading:
7 Killers
The Legend of the Condor Heroes
The Smiling, Proud Wanderer
Dragon King with Seven Stars
The term for the gathering of energy you will most likely see in almost all of these stories is "cultivation." Cultivation, essentially, is gathering power inside yourself so you can explosively use it for martial arts.
Wuxia fiction's been around forever in Chinese literature. However, its modern iteration can be traced back to the 1950s as serialized novels appearing in Hong Kong newspapers - a lot of the 'conventions' of the genre can be traced back to this era, with things like the code of chivalry, how martial arts school are established, inner and outer strength, et cetera.
The most influential writers of this era are Jin Yong, Gu Long, and Liang Yusheng. The name to remember is Jin Yong, specifically, because every single person who has written any of the stories in this thread has read Jin Yong's works and are heavily influenced by him.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the writer Huang Yi started mixing together fantasy novels and time travel with wuxia,
which is where the term 'xuanhuan' was applied.
Basically, these stories are about people using their martial arts to perform heroic deeds, righting wrongs, and punishing evildoers.
Where to Start Reading:
7 Killers
The Legend of the Condor Heroes
The Smiling, Proud Wanderer
Dragon King with Seven Stars
Xianxia (仙侠 xiānxiá) – The literal translation for this term is "Immortal Heroes." These fictional stories are more along the lines of mythology. Demons, magic, and immortals that live thousands of years are all common themes in xianxia. Using the inspiration of Daoist thought as well as Buddhist elements, a story is constructed with all sorts of mythical beasts and legends. The four mystical creatures in the Chinese constellation are often central figures in these stories: the Azure Dragon, the Vermilion Bird, the White Tiger, and the Black Turtle. In xianxia, there are people capable of destroying entire countries with the wave of a hand. Think Goku from Dragonball Z-levels of power. These stories also focus on "harnessing qi," but that qi allows the characters in the story to be capable of splitting mountains in half with a palm strike, or summoning lightning and destroying an entire city with the wave of a sleeve. There are also often different planes of existence, and one can literally go to heaven and fight people there if your level is high enough.
Think of wuxia, but if everyone in a wuxia had the potential to wrestle a dragon and win, or shoot energy out of their hands that can freeze an entire city to ice. Basically, the difference between low and high fantasy. Cultivation, in this sort of story, is the actual absorption of the energy of Heaven and Earth itself.
Where to Start Reading:
I Shall Seal the Heavens
A Will Eternal
The Desolate Era (Get it? Still, worth reading)
World of Cultivation
Immortal Mortal
Think of wuxia, but if everyone in a wuxia had the potential to wrestle a dragon and win, or shoot energy out of their hands that can freeze an entire city to ice. Basically, the difference between low and high fantasy. Cultivation, in this sort of story, is the actual absorption of the energy of Heaven and Earth itself.
Where to Start Reading:
I Shall Seal the Heavens
A Will Eternal
The Desolate Era (Get it? Still, worth reading)
World of Cultivation
Immortal Mortal
Xuanhuan (玄幻 xuánhuàn) – The literal translation for this term is "Mysterious Fantasy". This is a pretty big umbrella that covers what is essentially a mixture of Chinese mythology and folklore together with stuff from other countries and other settings.
Some of the time, it's original medieval Western low/high fantasy mixed together with Chinese elements.
Other times, it's a xianxia that introduces the concept of time travel, or the main character being from our world and transported to this 'new world' in someone else's body. Some xuanhuan seems to have adopted elements of Japanese isekai media, even, where the main character gets a videogame interface no one can see, but not all of them have that.
Where to Start Reading:
Coiling Dragon
Release that Witch
Martial World
Sovereign of the Three Realms
Realms in the Firmament
Stellar Transformations
Commonly used terms:
Jianghu: literally, "Rivers and Lakes." This term refers to the world of martial arts that lurks beneath the surface of society. Martial artists, merchants, thieves and those operating in the grey area of the law are all part of this section of society.
Flying Sword: a magic sword capable of flying around in the air and attacking people from a distance, and is "the" weapon that most people think of when they think of xianxia fiction. "Cultivators," the immortal heroes of xianxia, are capable of not only controlling these swords mentally, but also capable of standing atop them like Tao Pai Pai in Dragonball and using them to travel around, as seen in the OT image at the top of this post.
The Dao: the origin and source of all things. The principles of Yin and Yang that permeate everything. Daoist thought is the foundation for most xianxia, for example. Characters in stories often try to gain insight into the "Dao," or the basic principles of the universe itself, and are able to unleash incredible power and control over the natural world and its laws through sheer understanding of how it works.
Sect: an organization dedicated to martial arts, cultivation, or both. Sects contain disciples, who are cared for by the sect, and there is an extremely strict hierarchy in regards to respecting one's elders. The sect's elders teach disciples how to properly train and cultivate in the sect's own styles, and a sect's usually led by a Sect Leader, or Patriarch.
Visit here for a more indepth glossary of commonly used terms.
Will amend over time. This is just to get things going. Feel free to contribute suggestions for the OP and tweaks, I decided that, since I always wanted to make this OT on Neogaf but never got around to it, I'd get things going on resetERA instead.
Some of the time, it's original medieval Western low/high fantasy mixed together with Chinese elements.
Other times, it's a xianxia that introduces the concept of time travel, or the main character being from our world and transported to this 'new world' in someone else's body. Some xuanhuan seems to have adopted elements of Japanese isekai media, even, where the main character gets a videogame interface no one can see, but not all of them have that.
Where to Start Reading:
Coiling Dragon
Release that Witch
Martial World
Sovereign of the Three Realms
Realms in the Firmament
Stellar Transformations
Commonly used terms:
Jianghu: literally, "Rivers and Lakes." This term refers to the world of martial arts that lurks beneath the surface of society. Martial artists, merchants, thieves and those operating in the grey area of the law are all part of this section of society.
Flying Sword: a magic sword capable of flying around in the air and attacking people from a distance, and is "the" weapon that most people think of when they think of xianxia fiction. "Cultivators," the immortal heroes of xianxia, are capable of not only controlling these swords mentally, but also capable of standing atop them like Tao Pai Pai in Dragonball and using them to travel around, as seen in the OT image at the top of this post.
The Dao: the origin and source of all things. The principles of Yin and Yang that permeate everything. Daoist thought is the foundation for most xianxia, for example. Characters in stories often try to gain insight into the "Dao," or the basic principles of the universe itself, and are able to unleash incredible power and control over the natural world and its laws through sheer understanding of how it works.
Sect: an organization dedicated to martial arts, cultivation, or both. Sects contain disciples, who are cared for by the sect, and there is an extremely strict hierarchy in regards to respecting one's elders. The sect's elders teach disciples how to properly train and cultivate in the sect's own styles, and a sect's usually led by a Sect Leader, or Patriarch.
Visit here for a more indepth glossary of commonly used terms.
Will amend over time. This is just to get things going. Feel free to contribute suggestions for the OP and tweaks, I decided that, since I always wanted to make this OT on Neogaf but never got around to it, I'd get things going on resetERA instead.
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