| Standard WuXia Plot Elements "Kick butt first, ask questions later." WuXia stories seem to be filled with Hot Tempered people who will fight at the drop of a hat or the slightest provocation. Often WuXia will dive into fights without even bothering to figure out who is wrong or right, for as simple as the leader of the losing side is wearing their favourite flower, or a member of one side reminds them of the guy who stole their ex-girlfriend away from them! "Wait a moment, if you're her, then who are YOU?!?" WuXia stories thrive on mistaken identities, and they are also another source of regular conflict. Often heroes will mistake a maid for a princess, or a thief for a noble, almost any kind of mistaken identity is possible. This is an age where the only pictures are hand drawings, which often aren't very accurate. What happens when you look like someone's long lost cousin who is the only other person who can claim the family fortune? Or worse, when you look like the rival martial artist's brother who a group of thugs have been sent to kidnap? The possibilities are endless. "Honorary Brother, I will not let you down!" Heroes in WuXia stories form semi-familial relationships at the drop of a hat, any hat. Remember that to the WuXia, "Brotherhood" (or "Sisterhood") is everything in a world where you can only rely on your friends. So you form as many contacts as you possibly can, and the ones with whom you bond are people you may regard as close as members of your own family. Of course, with all these relations comes obligations and networks of favours owed by various people to each other. When someone kills the master of your honorary brother in a duel, it is your obligation to offer your sword in avenging him if the duel was an unfair one. When you friend needs to pay back a debt, he may ask your help, especially if the task will be difficult or expensive. "She is the most deadly fighter I have ever seen! I wonder if she is married yet?" In Chinese culture the most central and important unit is the family, and it is the duty of every member of that family to ensure the success of the family line. Part of that means bringing the best possible people of blood, skill and fortune into the family to improve the family's lot. Unmarried women are always looking for the chance to marry a successful man, and unmarried (and married! Men can have multiple wives!) men are always looking for impressive women, especially in WuXia stories. It's no exaggeration to say that WuXia epics are filled with weddings and funerals, and marriage is both a source of peace and trouble. (Can you say "Romeo and Juliet"? Or should I say.."Hui and Ming Ming"...) Marriages are often also arranged, which means people can't always pick their partners, and with marriage comes obligations. Of course, not everyone will always agree to an arranged marriage, especially the real lovers of people betrothed to someone else.... "I am Wu of the Condor Clan of the Five Sword Clans of Mount Hua!" If you are a WuXia and know martial arts, someone had to teach them to you! That means you not only have obligations to your master, honorary brothers and sisters and anyone else associated with the clan, but you also will have associations, rivalries, and even blood feuds with other clans! When the master calls back his students in times of need, where will YOU be? "Heavens Above! He knows the Double Tailed Snake Sword Technique!!!" Also with Martial Arts training will come a fighting style, and probably a bunch of special techniques which are associated with that style. There are, of course, a number of catches: 1) Of course, the special techniques are only taught to those who are worthy and advanced enough to learn them, or those who can steal the notes of a master. (Who always seem to write them down in places where they can be stolen...) 2) Martial Arts styles are system of attack and defence and like any system they will have holes and predictable responses to one who knows them or how to counter them. Often a WuXia can find his prized sword technique is suddenly useless against an opponent skilled in a counter-style, or who has studied his moves. Suddenly in order to defeat his nemesis, a swordsman will have to learn a new sword style, or technique which will require a great quest or training mission to learn.... 3) Often special techniques (which can be anything from simple tricks to army crushing manoeuvres) will require great efforts to learn, and can only be learned at great risk to the student. ("You must meditate for five days on your head, then rest for five days to let your chi properly settle. If you try to use your chi and fight during that time, your muscles will explode and you may die.") To learn almost any special technique requires the development of the user's "chi" life energy and pathways, and this can be said to cause any number of side effects or conditions which will (temporarily?) afflict the user if done improperly. Usually the more powerful the technique, the more dangerous it is to learn it, and more conditions come with it. Of course, once your DO master it, you will often gain serious power to be reckoned with! 4) Special Techniques can often have counter-techniques which can be learned to neutralize them, of course the counters are often as hard to learn as the original techniques and require special help of some kind to learn. The student may even need the co-operation of multiple masters to develop a counter technique, or to convince the originator of the original technique to develop a counter for him before the next big showdown. "He has the Thunder Sword of Mount Zou! The greatest of all weapons!" In WuXia fiction, the focus is on the skills and abilities of the WuXia, not their weapons, and as a result magical weapons are often actually quite rare. When they do appear, they are almost always extremely powerful or significant, and desired by almost everyone you can name. The problem with being a WuXia with a magical weapon is that you need to be powerful enough to hold onto it, because everyone and their bothers who know you have it are going to be trying to take it away from you! Weapons are often not significant just for their high quality or magical properties in WuXia fiction, they are also very often pieces of greater puzzles or sources of legends. For example, two fine daggers each carved with half the map to a legendary gold mine, or two swords which legend says will show that the man who can be the master of both will be the rightful Emperor of the next dynasty. Neither set of weapons is necessarily magic per-se, but they are likely to be both high quality, and sought after by more parties than you can name. "Scholar Joun Zu! It's the lost city of the Valley of Five Rubies!" China is a BIG place, and has at various times with filled with hundreds of small kingdoms and over 8000 years of history. As a result, there are a whole lot of "lost" places in WuXia stories waiting for the heroes to discover. From secret hideaways where the ancient princes were buried to bandit hideaways and even ancient lost cities buried inside mountain cave complexes, it's amazing what a traveller can stumble across. Of course, these will often be filled with traps and guardians, but no place is perfect. "Wait...I remember you...You're Hu's Cousin Wan Po!" WuXia stories are absolutely packed with co-incidences, and sometimes it seems like the incredibly huge Empire is as small as a town with twenty families. Everybody always seems to be connected with someone you might know, or has heard of someone you probably do know! To top it all off, if your father had a dishonoured brother who became a monk and you go to a monastery, there is absolutely no question who is going to be running the show or close to it when you desperately need the monks help! Nobody who isn't really dead ever seems to go away, they always seem like they are waiting their turn in the wings to make an appearance! You never know when you will run into someone you know, and they have a habit of showing up at the damndest times, both good and bad! "I am Chairman Feng of the Five Lilies Society! And you, are about to face justice!" Chinese culture has spent most of it's history filled with "Societies", formalized networks of social contacts and loyalties which act much like extended family units. "Secret Societies" in WuXia stories can be anything from a small group of friends to a massive network with members numbering in the hundreds of thousands. They will normally have a nominal stated purpose (ie restoring the rightful emperor, avenging a wronged man, bringing justice to a corrupt city, worshiping some god, or just bringing the members money or power, etc), a slogan ("Death to the Ming Family!", "Justice before Money!") and some form of power structure (usually a chairman, a council of elder members, and various ranks beneath). You never know who might be a member of such and such a society, and just like belonging to any family there are rights, obligations, dues, responsibilities and perks involved. They can be extremely useful for travellers, providing lodging, food, and other needs for members, or equally detrimental if the wrong person turns out to be a member of a rival society and they discover your loyalties. "...The most insidious poison developed, there is only one cure!" In WuXia stories, people love poisons and alchemical mixtures, and are constantly using them for various effects. Of course nobody ever develops a poison without developing a cure in case they get exposed to it, but getting that cure from them is often extremely hard if they wish to see you dead. And if you can't get it from them, you can get it from someone out there, you just have to find the right person, or the right mixture of ingredients. Poisons don't always kill either, sometimes they will cripple, impair, render unconscious, or do any other number of other nasty things. And of course, there are the other alchemical mixtures people use, aphrodisiacs are extremely common, and can serve many purposes if slipped into the right person's food, and then there are booster mixtures which can enhance certain abilities or qualities temporarily. "Fine Wine! Fine Women! What more could a living man ask for?!?" WuXia were men who risked their lives for many causes, and before (and sometimes after) they settled down, they enjoyed a pretty wild and boisterous life. The Chinese are a "drinking culture", and they have a strong love of drinking games, and enjoying the good life when they can. Of course, drinking, gambling and womanizing costs money, and often gets you into trouble with a wide variety of people.... "After you!....No, after you!" When dealing with opponents they considered honourable WuXia will almost always fight honourably as well, and treat the fight as more of a contest of skill than an actual duel unless circumstances dictate otherwise. Opponents are rarely killed unless necessary, and fights are to prove and test one's skills, not to cause serious harm to an opponent unless something happens in the heat of battle by accident or purpose. Sparring is a common way to settle disputes, especially between rival societies, clans or other martial groups. How serious it is depends on the situation and how far the opponent takes it, if the fight starts with hand to hand combat, then it stays there unless someone escalates the fight. Killing an unarmed or lesser skilled opponent in a duel with a weapon is a good way to get a bad reputation and can produce results far worse than losing the fight in the first place! "You're Lu Xiao Bei, I've heard of you!" In the WuXia "underworld" reputations are extremely common and easy to come by if you have any skill of note. Anything you do can get you a reputation and that reputation can follow you around for a very long time, regardless of whether it's good or bad. People love to gossip and tell stories, and in a world where one's skill and accomplishments can mean everything, this can be a real mixed blessing. If you have a great reputation people expect great things from you (perhaps more than you are capable of!), and many will seek you out for a variety of reasons, from wanting to learn from you to wanting to challenge you to a duel! A bad reputation can get you expelled from membership in societies, shunned by people who know you and even result in consequences for anyone associated with you. "I must kill any man who sees my face....or marry him." WuXia are constantly making and living under oaths, to their friends, families, teachers. If a WuXia makes an oath, they have to stick with it, and will stick with it often until death because their own personal honor and face is at stake. While it depends on the personality of the person who makes the oath, Chinese in WuXia stories take oaths extremely seriously, and will literally make life-changing (or death dealing) decisions based on them. Common reasons for oaths include revenge, displays of loyalty, familial obligations, or because they must do it in order for their master to teach them special techniques. Of course, what the Master may make them swear to is not always the most rational thing in the world, and is often from personal and selfish motives. For example, a female master who hates men may make her female student promise never to marry unless a man can defeat her in mortal combat. Another master may make the student swear to kill members of another martial order, or wipe out entire families. While still another might make the student swear to certain dietary habits ("You must never drink alcohol or eat meat."), religious rituals ("When I die, you must come and clean my grave once a year, and dump a bottle of the best wine on it."), familial decisions ("You must name your first son after me." or "Teach my art only to your second son." or "Marry my daughter and continue the school."), martial conduct ("You must never wear armour, it shows you are weak and cowardly and disgraces my name." or "You can only fight when you are attacked first." or "You can only use this technique if you are defending another's life.") or quests ("You must build a school made of stone atop Mount Flying Deer." or "You must marry five wives, one from each of the major holy martial schools." or "You must travel to each of the four borders of the Empire, and teach my arts to one person there."). "I challenge you....to a contest of Calligraphy....on that cliffside!" WuXia are all about skill and personal achievement, they get much of their immense egos and pride from their abilities, and that doesn't just extend to Martial Arts, although that is the most common focus. It also needs to be understood that WuXia are all about proving who is the better man (or woman), and they don't just mean in a fight, often they are trying to show who is closer to the Confucian ideal which runs so strongly in their society. Anything artistic can be used as the basis of a duel, as can any form of physical contest, and in WuXia stories these are often combined into some pretty wild contests mixing both! If both men are Xia and Poets, why not have a contest that shows both skill in swordsmanship, carving, and poetry at the same time? If both women are equally skilled painters, why not see if they can paint the castle wall in a day? (Who needs scaffolding when they can run up the wall-side?) Chinese WuXia duels can take almost unlimited forms, but they will often involve some of the following arts: Calligraphy Contests: calligraphy is an art that any great learned gentleman should have. The Chinese respect for scholars and wisdom knows no bounds, and as a result anything related to writing and reading is held in high esteem. One of those things is Calligraphy, which has been a high art in China for literally millenia, there are many ways and styles to write Chinese Characters, and a man can literally make a living painting characters if he is skilled enough and has a unique style. Poetry Contests: Often, these will be combined with the calligraphy contests, turning it into a contest of both style and wit. The Chinese have a great love of poetry, and their language contains poetic levels that cannot be expressed or explained in English terms because the very characters the poems are written in can have multiple meanings and histories that extend far beyond the surface reading. Of course the poems need not always be deep and meaningful, they use poems to tell dirty jokes, and political satire and for many other uses. Most of the "artistic" poems, however, like those of English will be ones about longing for home, a missed love one, a family or perhaps childhood. (Note: These are also used as passwords by secret societies, sometimes the society will have a special poem written by it's founder...only a member can recite this poem, or finish it if presented with the first half.) Jokes: Believe it or not, the Chinese love to tell jokes as much as any Westerner does, and these jokes can be as clean or as dirty as anything we tell. (Although of course a proper gentlemen will never tell "yellow" (dirty) jokes, especially not in the company of others he respects or wishes to keep the respect of.) It's perfectly common for WuXia to have contests to see who can tell the best joke. Singing Contests: These are especially popular for women, but men pride themselves on their singing too, in some parts of Southern China couples will literally sing to each other as they try to win the heart of the one they love, and the object of their affection will sing their feelings back in a song that will flow back and forth as the two negotiate a relationship. (100% true! they still do it in modern day!) Storytelling Contests: You have five minutes to tell a tale that will make the hardest warrior's heart weep...GO! Riddles: these are extremely popular, especially in WuXia stories. These riddles test the brain, and often they will be used as a secret password by secret societies. (Only a member will know the real hidden answer to the riddle.) "Your Ma-po Tofu is nothing compared with my SiChuan Style Dumplings!" In China, there is a saying, "Europeans are obsessed with Sex, Chinese are obsessed with Food", and it's not far from true. Cooking and food is an extremely important part of Chinese life, and recipes can literally be secrets guarded with one's life in a WuXia story. There were periods in China when great chefs held social power greater than many of the lords and members of royalty because they were so prized, and people would literally travel across the Empire to eat just once at a famous restaurant. Chefs would wander the countryside seeking masters just as WuXia do, and sometimes a Xia will be a master of multiple arts. Cooking can be the source of contests, medicine, health, wealth, power, and social status, and should not be taken or held lightly. |