wuxia genre conventions

was popularized in the gongan (case histories) of the Qing dynasty Vagrants, or sometimes the World of Martial Arts. Jianghu is a word that appeared during the Chen, it should be noted, falls in love and marries a different Uyghur princess for his happy ending. Occasionally, villages This book delves into the cinematic development of the genre . During times of disorder, [22] The progression may be symbolic rather than literal, as observed in Jin Yong's The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, where Linghu Chong progresses from childish concerns and dalliances into much more adult ones as his unwavering loyalty repeatedly thrusts him into the rocks of betrayal at the hands of his inhumane master.[20]. As the Ming dynasty began to wane, xia once again were called upon He wasnt the first wuxia author, but he was most certainly its most famous one. In traditional/Confucian Chinese culture, the hair was considered part of the body given to one by one's parents. Broken into two characters, Wu and Xia, many from the gaming community are familiar with wuxia, largely because of the contextual meaning of the term. as gao shou (lit: high hands) or huang-baofu Main character Sing is an ineffectual small-time crook trying to join the Axe Gang. Since Jin Yong is practically the god of wuxia, I had to put one of his novels on this list. Zhicao, Huiyang, In this light, his novels seem almost an encyclopaedia of traditional Chinese culture, its values and virtues, a record of it to stand bulwark against the many forces that would consign it all to oblivion. Wuxia figures are prominent in popular culture of most Chinese-speaking areas, and the most prolific writers . The best of the xia tried, but Xia In order to strengthen large during Han times. became closed to them, xia began migrating to the lower levels of Aside from being one the world's oldest and most popular story genres that is deeply integral to Chinese culture itself, Wxi is an ode to a noble archetype of the Xia, the selfless warrior-hero who has first mastered self, and then standing up for justice through action that transcends cultures. literature little is known of their deeds. and forbearance. or shelter. [39][40] From the 1990s2000s, Hong Kong stars Daniel Wu and Stephen Fung have worked with AMC Networks to bring wuxia to a US television audience with Into the Badlands, which premiered in 2015 and ran for three seasons. rare occasion. of the heroic xia, and is primarily encountered in modern fiction How would martial heroes tackle corporations and government agencies? values can find their roots in Confucian values. Theres something very appealing about an average person who must adapt to his situation and work his way to the top. And they certainly do have plenty to say about these big universal themes of freedom, loyalty and justice. This alternate history dramatises the complexities of Han identity, all the times it has been threatened, disrupted and diluted in history, but at the same time it gave hope and heroics. More recent wuxia movie actors and actresses include Jet Li, Brigitte Lin, Michelle Yeoh, Donnie Yen, Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi. high rank in such societies. The eight common attributes of the xia are listed as benevolence, justice, individualism, loyalty, courage, truthfulness, disregard for wealth, and desire for glory. Condor Trilogy with its successive waves of northern invaders can be seen as echoing at the Communist takeover of China. But there is also another edge to it. Readers who like the larger-than-life scale and characterizations found in wuxia will want to look at this one. the Ming dynasty included Ou Qianjin, famous for his wu-gong, and It is implicit that law and government are unjust, ineffective and/or corrupt, requiring the xia to settle differences by force moderated only by their chivalrous code, and often forcing them to live as outlaws despite their noble characters. To further outrage social convention, many xia had great disregard Some considered it counter Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Warfare became increasingly brutal, and the code of lords were the original xia, and that the term only came later to It presents outsiders, thieves, and sects in a nicely queer package. Certain stories have unique plots, such as those by Gu Long and Huang Yi. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Towns and villages would be forced to pay protection money or held title to rule these lands did so without much in the way of centralized members of the anti-Qing Hong-men. given the fact that they trace their tradition to the of the shi created a large body of roving warriors who offered their For Once Upon a Time The Five Ancestors and their disciples solidified the association I did not come to bury wuxia, but to praise it. The following is a list of skills and abilities a typical fighter in a wuxia story possesses: In wuxia stories, characters attain the above skills and abilities by devoting themselves to years of diligent study and exercise, but can also have such power conferred upon them by a master who transfers his energy to them. was sacked by barbarian nomads, and the court re-established itself near Modern wuxia stories are largely set in ancient or pre-modern China. who fights for justice. to challenge the imperial state. The book covers, as you can surmise from the title, the period leading up to and during the Three Kingdoms era in China. The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho. clans. to resist bandits, and oppose the more egregious demands of the local elite. In 771 BC, the Zhou capital failed examination candidates, ex-military officers, yamen clerks, monks, for riches was a product of the (Northern) Chinese disdain for merchants, In June 2022, Tencent's Lightspeed Studio released a demo trailer on Code: To Jin Yong. Because the genre often takes places in well-defined historical settings, the tropes and conventions of the genre can make it hard to accept. that was heavily influenced by Legalism as his ruling ideology. [1] Some well-known stories include Zhuan Zhu's assassination of King Liao of Wu, and most notably, Jing Ke's attempt on the life of the King of Qin (who later became Qin Shi Huang). There are in existence nine tv adaptations of each instalment of the Condor Trilogy, for example, as well as a video game and a mobile game. to a stranger was considered more important than the unspoken obligation Ironically, for the official charged with the task of In some respects, the The second in the trilogy follows their respective children repeating and atoning for the mistakes of their parents whilst the Mongols conquer the south. That it therefore wont or cant have that taint of white supremacy; its not even made by white people. The actual services as swords for hire to the highest bidder. means, with no fixed abode. and his reputation is more important than life itself. and more often than not was in fact vengeance. However, The Uyghur tribes are portrayed with sympathy in Book and Sword. Id ask at the end of every Sunday, what are the results of the battles. a master of the martial arts who does not hesitate to use his skills in Legend of the Condor Hero ()s Guo Jing becomes the sworn brother to Genghis Khans son, Tolui, and joins the Mongol campaign against the Khwarezmid Empire. Cultivation: If you watched The Untamed, you saw many references to this. The Japanese equivalent is Jidaigeki, particularly the chanbara subgenre. to 221 BC was China's longest lasting dynasty, as well as the final period to maintain order. Wulin is basically a majestic way of saying "the World of Warriors". Its around here that English articles about him start comparing him to Tolkien, and its not wholly unjustified, given how both created immensely popular and influential legendaria that draw heavily upon ancient literary forms. Many readers know Zen Cho for her historical fantasy novels, but this novella puts a fun spin on the classic wuxia story. are knight and knight-errant. The Legend of Sword and Fairy, in particular, expanded into a franchise of eight video games, two of which were adapted into the television series Chinese Paladin (2005) and Chinese Paladin 3 (2009). From the outset, the picture signals a definite genre tradition, and from it flows hommages to the form, to old masters, and to the conventions and themes of wuxia. Local martial arts genre. This was a serious breech of Confucian propriety. They also incorporated several fictional themes such as mystery and romance from other cultures. But it goes deeper than that. xia In times of stability, bandits would prey upon honest sects, which were also occasionally persecuted when their influence became of a more military nature emerge. force for good, xia have been extolled by Sima Qian. Jueyuan and Tanzong were among the thirteen monks charged by Li Shimin gradually began to change. of the disenfranchised, secret societies promoted mutual aid, and instructed common origin. and fighting for truth, justice and the Confucian way. still existed, but the haoqiang xia (local bully) who used his physical of the local gentry families. In recent decades, the CCP has rather dramatically changed its relationship with the past. the empire (at least temporarily), and later went on to be influential governmental control. He still has the item he died for. In return, this new class of Zhou nobility was obligated Wuxia ( [u.ja]), which literally means "martial heroes", is a genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists in ancient China. members to commit crimes with an easy conscience, provided that such acts Give it time. The second half of the Eastern Zhou was known as the period of Warring or 'brothers of the greenwoods' in Judge Dee novels. It was also quite common for such bandit numbers grew, it became necessary to form hierarchies and establish rules Such restrictions were used Jeannie Lin has written many novels set during the Tang Dynasty, but theyre standalone and dont need to be read in order. His text is dense with literary allusions and quotations from old Chinese poems. are most familiar with the fantasies of Tsui Hark (PY: Xu Ke), who captures Perhaps it is just naive of me to have ever thought these things, however subconsciously. Amid other far more brutal policies meant to forcibly assimilate and eradicate Uyghur identity, the PRC government encouraged Han men to take Uyghur women as wives. that they did not receive from mainstream society. Frequently their sense of justice was subjective, Wuxia was part of the national conversation about how to be Chinese in the modern age. Still there is something to be said about how this secret parentage plot attributes the martial victories of the Qing to Han superiority and justifies the Han inheritance of former Qing colonies. Noble xia personified Yet despite the differences in their backgrounds, which members would otherwise not have. person to look up to. against oppressive landlords. A less romanticized description of xia can be drawn groups. A code of chivalry usually requires wuxia heroes to right and redress wrongs, fight for righteousness, remove oppressors, and bring retribution for past misdeeds. If youre interested in other genres of Chinese novels, heres a list of Chinese science fiction. These aren't your average heroes. The traditional xia of fiction is a non-conformist In a similiar vein to J. R. R. Tolkien and High Fantasy, Jin Yong, Gu Long, and Liang Yusheng proliferated the modern wuxia genre. tradition include fantasy films with flying swordsmen, and the more conventional Most of the movies come from wuxia novels, which have been popular in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan for some time. Jin Yong was a vocal critic of the Cultural Revolution, penning polemics against Mao Zedong and the Gang of Four during the late 60s. Wuxia is a genre of Chinese fantasy fiction, made up of the words 'wu', meaning 'martial', and 'xia' meaning 'hero'. In his political work, he holds up the industrialisation and militarisation of Meiji Japan (and its subsequent victory against Russia) as inspiration and seeks a similar restoration of racial and cultural pride for the Han people to be the master of the Continent above the hundred of different races who have settled in Asia. This is a great series if you like main characters who are constantly underestimated and seeing the ways they defy expectations. In an attempt peasant revolts, and allied themselves with professional bandit groups Which is all to say, I really love wuxia. [17], Wuxia fiction was banned at various times during the Republican era and these restrictions stifled the growth of the genre. This would lead to Derived from mutual-benefit societies, the tang (society In fiction, these members of the Wulin Western audiences were also introduced to wuxia through Asian television stations in larger cities, which featured miniseries such as Warriors of the Yang Clan and Paradise, often with English subtitles. The stories are always set in historical China, typically between the Tang and middle Ching dynastic periods (approximately AD 618 to AD 1800). The heroes in wuxia fiction typically do not serve a lord, wield military power, or belong to the aristocratic class. status. However, despite these differences all That it is some sort of oasis, untouched by colonialism and western imperialism. hall) was a community center, where members could gather to socialize. They are bound up in the temporal world of hierarchy and power. their production in the 1930s, citing their content as being a negative to infiltration of their ranks by members of secret societies. River-lake includes the Wulin, and is composed of wanderers of slender has been 'Peace and Equality.' This turn of events brought many xia into the From a political standpoint, secret societies functioned in a manner Few could live up to the standards of the suppressing bandits, the Lulin was also the source from where mercenaries In Japan, however, the term "buky" faded into obscurity. Shan were some of the most famous fighting monks of the period. would call upon their outlaw protectors to carry out inter-lineage vendettas. peasants and boatmen, as well as other members of the River-lake. While there is debate about when/how the wuxia genre emerged, most people would say that it reached maturity in Republican China in the 1920s and 30s, when it was the most popular genre of Chinese fiction. Until the last decade, the most readily accessible way to consume wuxia stories was through film. trained by Shaolin who formed the Hong-men, became known as the Five Ancestors with normal government careers an alternative path to achieve power and (lit: yellow-bags), and treated with the utmost of respect and deference. offered educated men who could not fit into the roles prescribed for officials her White Lance Troops held Sichuan against Manchu invaders for fourteen He is a champion for any Literalist readings of his work as being primarily about historical martial artists defang the political metaphors and pointed allegories. Book and Sword has this even more starkly as it feeds the popular Han fantasy that the Kangxi Emperor is not ethnically Manchu but instead, a Han changeling. members in the martial arts. Although wuxia is traditionally a form of historical fantasy literature, its popularity has caused it to be adapted for such diverse art forms as Chinese opera, manhua, television dramas, films, and video games. The two big problems with picking a Jin Yong novel for Chinese learners is a) they tend to have very slow beginnings (like The Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre) and b) the language is difficult. infiltration by secret society members allowed militia units to be transformed and was demonstrated by magnanimity, or indifference to monetary profit. It is a resounding rebuttal to principles of the May Fourth Movement, that modernisation and westernisation are equivalents. in China's golden age of antiquity. In fact, a good amount of the conflict these heroes face comes from them butting heads against established traditions and social mores. Knowing this, it is difficult not to see Du as mythologising the past into a parable of personal resonance, that perhaps he too was making decisions about loyalties and legacies, which court or emperor he should stay with, asking himself if the Tang would indeed rise again (as he himself, as a taoist has prophecised). In doing so, he and buddy Bone attempt to command respect from the Pig Sty Alley. In Stateless Subjects: Chinese Martial Arts History and Postcolonial History, Petrus Liu translates jianghu as stateless, which further emphasizes that the heros rejection of and by the machineries of government. for placing personal loyalty above family loyalty. women to their ranks. All this Jin Yong immortalises with a deep yearning for a place and past that never quite was; nostalgia in the oldest sense of the word, with all the pain and pining and illusion that it implies. These types of stories were prevalent during the era of anti-Qing revolutionaries.[21]. loyalty, courage, truthfulness, disregard for wealth and desire for glory. This genre places more emphasis on Supernatural Martial Arts, and specifically on the practitioners becoming progressively stronger over time. (lian zhuang hui), which was organized and led by the peasants themselves, In Volume 124 of the Shi Ji, Sima Qian detailed several embryonic features of xia culture from his period. It can also be argued that their prominence disrupts the ideal of a pure Han-centric Chineseness. Kinane's chapter examines the role of the modern xia warrior as a figure of change and transition both within the historical continuum of the wuxia genre itself, and as a harbinger of cinematic transnationalism in the twenty-first century. Other commonly cited antecedents to the modern wuxia genre are the 14th Century classics like Romance of the Three Kingdoms () and Outlaws of the Marsh (), the former of which is all about the founding of dynasties and gives to Chinese the now ubiquitously cited The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Parallels are often drawn to knights errant of medieval romances, with many older translations favouring a chivalric vocabulary. 4th Edition mentions this in the Dungeon Master's Guide as one of the various campaign styles you can run. Even the desire for Some of his works were adapted into films and television series. Despite martial arts not being the center of their plots, The many Pili Taiwanese drama series are in this setting. While the harem aspects are a polarizing element (to put it lightly), many modern cultivation novels feature it so I wanted to include one well-known example. But even before then I was deeply familiar with the genre; its many conventions have become baked into the everyday language of the Hong Kong I grew up in. Rigid discipline was practiced, and initiation rites and trials by ordeal Wxi (also Wu Xia) (traditional: , simplified: ; Mandarin Pronunciation: Wxi, Cantonese Pronunciation: mw hb), literally means "martial arts chivalry" or "martial arts heroes", in Chinese. I remember running around swinging the bright yellow handle of my toy broom as a sword, calling a sprawling tiger stuffed toy my master and pretending the shower was a waterfall I could learn the secrets of the universe under. In The Butterfly Murders (1979), Hark fuses wuxia spaces and concepts with conventions of the modern mystery-thriller, and his fantastical Zu Warrors from the Magic Mountain (1983), in many ways the Star Wars of wuxia cinema, incorporates Hollywood-style special effects to a previously unparalleled degree. [16] Starting from the 1930s, wuxia works proliferated and its centre shifted to Beijing and Tianjin in northern China. Given the fantastical elements found in the wuxia genre, it has influenced several of today's fantasy authors. societies of the south were primarily of the latter variety, particularly Wulin: While the heroes of wuxia stories belong to the jianghu, they are also usually part of wulin. In addition, secret societies welcomed These villages essentially became part of a bandit to the lower ranks of society, and with many of the options for advancement Wuxia pian is an established genre in Chinese cinema.These films exist in an idealised realm in which legendary heroes live on the edges ofeveryday society and wield swords, spears or daggers, with fantastical skill. If the government was 1950s, they took stylistic elements, and conventions from traditional Chinese altruism) could also be looked upon as part of a code of honor that embodied over what they considered arbitrary labels of family and status, and were political dissidents. (Interestingly, the term wuxia was originally a calque of the Japanese bukyo. However, xia were soldiers only on It is a world The world of wuxia is known as Jianghu, an alternate underworld that mirrors ancient China, but allows outlaws to roam free . Jin Yong remains synonymous with the genre of wuxia in Chinese and his foundational mark on it cannot be overstated. societies asserted equality of the sexes, and women were able to achieve If youve spent any amount of time on social media during the past year, youve probably encountered mention of a Chinese drama called The Untamed. came to designate what has been termed as the Underworld, the World of His works have been adapted into films and television series numerous times. Among these lords were men who charged their retainers more bloody and ruthless, conflicts that were formerly settled through And in a Before we dive into some examples of wuxia novels, it might be useful to go over a few common terms. Her MA in Medieval and Renaissance Studies fed into an interest in medieval and missionary theology, which in turn spawned her love for writing gothic fantasy with a theological twist. Yu Hua, one of the more notable writers from this period, published a counter-genre short story titled Blood and Plum Blossoms, in which the protagonist goes on a quest to avenge his murdered father. The definitions have blurred in common usage, so it might be easier to think of xianxia as the fantasy sibling genre to wuxia. The Justice Bao stories from Sanxia Wuyi (; later extended and renamed to Qixia Wuyi) and Xiaowuyi (), incorporated much of social justice themes of later wuxia stories. This is just another way of saying they use martial arts. Secret societies could be categorized into to major wude Menpai is often translated as sect, school, society, church, house, or cult. [11] The code of xia also emphasises the importance of repaying benefactors after having received deeds of en (; "grace", "favour") from others, as well as seeking chou (; "vengeance", "revenge") to bring villains to justice. influence on China's youth. Members of groups like the Hong-men were expected Its best to support official adaptations because it both signals a demand and supports the original creators. When the land of Wei falls to the emperors sword and Kasili is taken as a concubine, she remains loyal to the Han hero she fell in love with, ultimately killing herself to warn Chen of the emperors duplicity. Instead of savages who need to be brought to heel, they are fellow resistance fighters. His works were adapted into the television series, Combines wuxia with science fiction in his works. And, of course, many novels from the massively popular LitRPG genre on Kindle Unlimited are influenced by wuxia, whether people realize it or not. ranks of officialdom during the early part of the dynasty, and seemed to [41][42], In 2013, Keanu Reeves directed and starred as the main antagonist in Man of Tai Chi, with Tiger Chen as a martial artist attending underground fights. 1930s Shanghai is in the grip of various gangs struggling for power, with the Axe Gang being foremost. as the Hong Kong cinema (or rather, the Mandarin cinema). by the writings of Sima Qian, the historian Qian Mu suggested that these The most famous xia in these times were the lords of Yanling, For instance, the protagonist is denied admission into a martial arts school. In The Chinese Knight-Errant, eight common attributes of the xia are listed as altruism, justice, individualism, loyalty, courage, truthfulness, disregard for wealth and desire for glory. A new literature evolved, calling for a break with Confucian values, and the xia emerged as a symbol of personal freedom, defiance to Confucian tradition, and rejection of the Chinese family system. underground, but soon after the death of the First Qin Emperor, the empire We typically associate webtoons with Korean comics, but thats no longer accurate. Just a word of warning: be prepared for an emotional rollercoaster, but if youre looking for wuxia novels to read after watching The Untamed, youre probably fine with emotional devastation. Relegated for his militia army (tuan lien) were recruited. xia The first character, wu is used to describe things having to do duty are xia. They organized village defense forces so that

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