Wuxia, the unique literature type of Chinese culture

Many foreigners are interested in Kong Fu, but for Chinese people, few of them are interested in Brusie Li's kong fu films but most of them are interested in Wuxia novels and films. 'If I were born in China, I would go to Shaolin temple to learn Kong Fu.' my best Indian friend always says this to me and I usually tell him that only the children in poor family will be sent to learn Kong Fu because China nowadays is a modern country; everyone is seeking wealth and kong fu cannot make them any money. However, people still need the spirit life of the fantastic ancient culture and Wuxia is all they need.



What is Wuxia? Someone may ask. The word "Wuxia" is a compound word composed form the words Xia("honorable", "chivalrous"), which is the philosophy of the Chinese knight-errent, and Wu ( "martial", "military"), from the Chinese term Wushu, meaning "martial arts" or "kungfu".A martial artist (or pugilist) who follows the code of Xia is often referred to as a Xiake ( lit: "follower of Xia") or Yóuxiá ("wandering Xia"). In some translated works of Wuxia, the pugilist is sometimes termed as a "swordsman" although he may not necessarily wield a sword.



Song dynasty and Yuan dyansty are usually the background of Wuxian fiction. These two dynasties are from 960 to 1368. At the end of Song dynasty, mongolians invaded the center part of China but the Song government didnt fight against them but gave them some parts of China for temporary peace.The chaos background generated lots of heroes. Some of them fight against the Song goverment , kill the bad rich people and share their money to the poor. Some of them organize a big party to fight against the mongolians. These heroes may not have fantastic kong fu skill, but in Wuxia fictions, they are descibed as the godlike kongfu masters and made series of legends.



Although Wuxia fictions are confagulated, the authors made it like the real things. There are lots of detailed descriptions and origins of each type of kong fu. And each kong fu or each character have some relationship though they are not in the same book. For example, a legendary sword seeked by everyon in book A was made by the main characters in book B. It looks the Wuxia stories are not fictions but documentery literature.