Introduction to Wuxia - Chinese Martial Fantasy genre

There was one time that I went to lunch with a group. We talk a little bit about Chinese film and it's not quite pleasant. I didn't remember much about the detail except the tiny bit when one of the guys comment on 'Hero'.

"It's not realistic." He laughed with an annoying grin. "The part where they jump around the water and fly into the air by stab into water is so ridiculous."

And he proceed to laugh like it was the funniest things in the world. I did not remember what my response is but it probably knock his sense enough for him to said:

"Maybe it's a culture thing."

At first, this word did not have much effect on me. But as I go on through my life, I saw several keep using that word when they keep running into their ideology vs. something else. Sometime really for mitigate situation, but for just shut down situation completely. I have use it several time myself. Along the way, I began to notice my surrounding and came to two realizations:

First is that I did not see any Chinese film in the theater for a very long time.

Second is that in western country, most people seems to categorized every Chinese film no matter how exaggerated is it with fighting as a 'Kung Fu' film.

And that was pretty wrong. A film 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' and 'Hero' are in somewhat different category than 'Chinese Action' film like Bruce Lee film, 'Fearless', or 'Ip Man'(which I will call 'Kungfu' film for sake of convenience).

Film like 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' and 'Hero' is in a special category Chinese people called 'Wuxia'.

Now, Wuxia is probably equivalent to Fantasy and Superhero in western country. And this make me sigh every time when I heard someone said that 'Crouching Tiger,  Hidden Dragon is not realistic! Chinese people can't fly!'

Of course, it not realistic!! What are those people expect? They watch the fantasy film and expect the film to be realistic!?

Ok, maybe they can say they don't know I guess. But then again, I rarely heard any of any Asian complaining that Harry Potter or The Lord of the Ring are 'not realistic' either.

Real documentary of British school. 

So that might come across as hypocrite, don't you think?

So after I switch back and forth between 'Battlestar Galactica', 'House of Cards', and 'Laughing in the Wind', I decide to write some sort of introduction to the Wuxia genre myself.

After all,  I got a feeling that I might write review or thought about it at some point.

But before I begin I like to make myself clear, I'm not an expert on Wuxia and I can't read Chinese. I only write from stuff I know that manifest from many of year of my exposure to the genre. So, it might be possible that I might got some meaning wrong. If I do, feel free to correct me. I would be greatly appreciated.

Also, this will be a lot more informal. If you want formal version, read wikipedia.

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What is Wuxia?

Wuxia (wu-hsia), according to good ol' wikipedia, is literally translate as 'Martial Hero'.

Wu(武) means military, martial, or armed.

Xia(侠) means honourable, chivalrous, or hero.

So combine together it probably sound something like 'Martial art hero'. It's a story about a dude/lady who learn some martial art, go around China, and do some good. How hard is that? Change the word 'dude/ lady who learn martial art' with 'knight' and 'China' with 'Europe' and you will got the same promise with western fantasy.

Not hard, isn't it?

See, I can understand it now, Gu Gu.

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When is it originate?

From what I understand, the concept of Xia(侠- chivalrous) probably went back all the way in from all of heroic story back during Autumn and Spring period[1]. But the idea of a wuxia probably generate in the Ming dynasty[2], by a book called 'Water Margin(Shui Hu Juan)'.

This one.

Water Margin (also called 'Outlaws of the Marsh') tells a story of 108 bandits who gathers around at Mount Liangshan. It told story for each of them, about their adventure, exploit, and how they were force to become bandit. It was one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese. Quite interesting badass book, if I said so myself. But I won't cover it here, I might do it in later time.

Not this version though.

Because what I want to talk about is the Wuxia in 20th story, the one that you watch in big screen.


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The Big Three (aka Guys that you should know).

At 1960-1980, it was a golden time for Wuxia novel. Despite the ban from mainland, wuxia novel become very popular among Chinese reader on other Chinese speaking country. Among them, there are three of them that rose among others.

1) Liang Yusheng(aka, Chen Wentong). He was name as a pioneer of modern wuxia genre, a baseline for all incoming writer like Jin Yong and Gu Long. Sadly, he was also the guy I know the least.

Famous work/adaptation: The Bride with White Hair(1993), Seven Swords(2005).

Liang Yusheng.

His most famous adaptation.

And it's glorious 3D remake.

2) Jin Yong(aka Louis Cha Leung-yung). Arguably the most successful Wuxia writer of all time. Several of his novel were adapt into TV series for countless time and most of his character is pretty well known in Asian country. His works usually include historical detail and their character. Genghis Khan himself was even show up as one of the important character on 'Legend of Condor hero(射雕英雄传)'.

Also, in my opinion, he's the most politic mind of all three.

Famous work: Condor Heroes Trilogy, Demi God and Semi Devil, The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, The Deer and the Cauldron.

Jin Yong.

And some of his adaptation.

3) Gu Long(aka Xiong Yaohua). Arguably the most unique and most tragic of all three. Unlike Liang Yucheng, and Jin Yong who in cooperate Chinese knowledge(poem, history) within their work, Gu Long got most of his inspiration from western literature like Ernest Hemingway along with their heroes like Sherlock Holmes, Arsine Lupin, and even James Bond. Most of his work is mostly involve with internal conflict within character and more philosophic in nature.

Also, as mention by his pen name(Gu - ancient, Long - dragon), he was arguably the most conservative(which can come sexist sometime) of all three. But then again it's a product of his own time and I  don't think he's worst than Ian Fleming in that regard.

Hell, I think he's not even that bad when compare with some modern American comic writer. He's just more direct to the point.

Famous work: Xiaoli Feidao(Little Li's flying dagger) series, Chu Liuxiang series, Lu Xiaofeng series, The Legendary Twins(Jeudai SheangJiao), etc.

Gu Long.

Chu LiuXiang, the fragrance thief, one of his famous character

Special mention:

Huang Yi(aka Huang Zuqiang): He's one of the more recent writer. I'm not sure if he's as popular as the big three above but I guess he's getting there. His most well known work are 'Step Into the Past' and 'Twin of Brother'.

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I don't know Chinese. Where should I start?

Sadly, despite having a Chinatown in almost every place in US. The source for English wuxia genre are pretty limit(at least in smaller city). The easiest would be getting one of Chinese movie dvd. I think it's a good idea, but I think it's a bit too short to learn about all those wonderful world of ancient China. If you want something more than 2 hour films you can check the novel and tv series. It might be hard to find but you might be able to get one by using these tips.

1) Know which one you want to check. First you needs to know which one you want to check. You can check by one of the name above or check on these two websites.

www.wuxiaedge.com: Good site. Looks neat. It mostly feature mostly the 'new' series and frequently update. They also have a 'recommendation' section which might be a good place to start.

www.spcnet.com: Seems to have some information and review. Not update for decade but the forum was pretty active. They have a fan translation too which is a plus.

www.wuxiapedia.com Have some info but don't update for a decade.

2) Use steaming service: There are several Chinese series that was fansub all around the 'net. Aside from that you can check on dramafever.com or crunchyroll.com, it contain mostly korean but there are some Chinese series here and there (I recommend 'Laughing in the Wind') as well.

3) Buy TV series dvd. I never try it but I surprisingly found that there are some of them selling in Amazon. But check carefully, some might not have English subtitle.

4) Buy a book. Sadly, this is the worst option. There are very few Chinese translated wuxia novel. I can't find it anywhere on my local Barnes & Noble or Books-a-million. And on Amazon I found only these handful book.

Books and Sword - Jin Yong.
Deer and Couldron - Jin Yong. This one worth a special mention since it's super expensive($35+ for one of three books) and have a bad translation from what I heard.
The Eleventh Son - Gu Long.

There are also some that are write in America(Dream of Dragon Pool, Legend of Snow Wolf,  etc). I might try it someday.
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So that's it for now. I hope someone can get something out of this.

Next time, I will be writing about some common 'skill' and 'rule' in Wuxia.

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Reference:

[1]: Autumn and Spring period(771-476 BC). One of most chaotic time in Chinese history, a three century of fighting between warlords. Many great philosophy like Sun Tzu, Confucious, Lao Tzu, Han Fei came this era.

[2] Ming dynasty(1368-1644). The next-to-last Chinese dynasty and the last one that govern by Chinese. Have some reputation of corruption by Eunuch. Several wuxia writer love to use this period.