What is Wuxia?
In short, wuxia is a Chinese genre that is focused on martial arts. This is evident from the Chinese characters for wuxia, which are 武俠. The first character, 武, means martial, while the second character, 俠, means hero. However, there is much more to wuxia than simply Chinese martial arts and tales of heroism. There are usually themes of loyalty, brotherhood, romance, and more present in the novels as well.
What is the difference between wuxia and xianxia?
Let us contrast the Chinese characters for wuxia, 武俠, with the Chinese characters for xianxia, 仙俠. While the second character, 俠, remains the same, the first character, 仙, is different and harder to translate. 仙 is a type of mythical being that is commonly translated as “immortal,” and they usually possess mythical qualities. Unsurprisingly, xianxia would have more tales involving supernatural abilities compared to wuxia, which is more grounded in reality. As an example, while a xianxia character would have the ability to fly long distances in an instant, a wuxia character would utilize qinggong and maybe leap across trees and roofs, but not literally fly into the air.
Who are some famous wuxia authors?
I’m not sure who are the most famous wuxia authors nowadays, but among the classic ones, the most well-known ones are Jin Yong, Gu Long, and Liang Yusheng. Among the three, Jin Yong is undoubtedly the most famous one.
Who is Jin Yong, and how famous is he?
Jin Yong is an author who grew up in Haining, China, and later moved to Hong Kong, where he started writing wuxia for his newspaper. He is very famous in Chinese-speaking countries. Go talk to any stranger in a Chinese-speaking country, and it’s almost certain that he or she has heard of him. In fact, there are constantly new remakes being made based on his novels. I heard Jin Yong was also pretty famous in Vietnam, and according to the epilogue of The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, at one point members of the South Vietnamese National Assembly would hurl around names of the evil characters in the novel as insults toward other members.
What are the best novels by Jin Yong?
While his Condors trilogy is probably the most famous one, the Chinese internet seems to agree that his three works with the most literary value are The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, Demi-gods and Semi-devils, and The Deer and the Cauldron. Jin Yong himself was said to have said that the longer the novel, the better he thought it was, and the later he wrote the novel, the better it was. This leaves the three novels that I mentioned earlier.
Where can I read wuxia?
If you can read Chinese, then it will be fairly easy for you to find the original versions. However, if you want to read them in translation in English, things will probably be a bit harder. If you want to read more recent wuxia novels, you will likely have to make do with a time lag while the most recent update gets translated from Chinese to English. For older novels from authors like Jin Yong, not everything has been officially translated to English yet, so you might have to rely on unofficial translations from websites such as WuxiaSociety.
How much Chinese culture and history should I know before reading wuxia?
You do not need to know a lot in order to enjoy it. However, knowing more about Chinese culture and history is certainly a plus, because it will give you context that will aid in understanding the novel. Before you read one, try looking up the historical background associated with the setting. Trust me, knowing that would help you gain a finer appreciation of the work.
In the middle of a novel, you will likely be tempted to do some research on parts of the culture. Feel free to use Wikipedia or watch videos on Youtube to learn more. Before you realize it, you will start having a rudimentary knowledge of Chinese history. Through reading wuxia, my friend from Pakistan at this stage probably knows more about random Chinese historical figures than most of my Chinese American friends.
Why are wuxia novels so long?
Sooner or later, once you start picking up a novel, you will realize that they are long. Really long. Jin Yong used to be a journalist who started a newspaper in Hong Kong, so he would write installments of around 10,000 characters each day in order to attract people to read them and get hooked on what happens next so they would buy more copies in the future. As a result, some of his novels like the The Deer and the Cauldron were published in installments every day for almost three years.
Nowadays, modern wuxia writers are paid by the character, so the more characters they write, the more they earn. As a result, there is direct incentive for them to write more “filler” chapters. I heard some web novels written in China nowadays can stretch for more than a thousand chapters if they are popular.
Why should you read wuxia?
There’s a lot of content in wuxia, including epic fights, fast action, intricate plot lines, and more. I’ve also written about how we can take lessons from sword stances mentioned in the novels for everyday life. You can also learn quite a bit about traditional Chinese thoughts and values from reading this genre, as well as various sections of Chinese history. You might feel inspired to start reading up on Chinese history afterwards, which can be just as interesting. Last but not least, reading wuxia is fun!
If you want a more in-depth post of what I have to say about this genre, please read my thoughts on wuxia.