Xianxia

Xianxia (traditional Chinese: 仙俠; simplified Chinese: 仙侠; pinyin: xiānxiá; lit. 'immortal heroes') is a genre of Chinese fantasy heavily inspired by Chinese mythology and influenced by philosophies of Taoism, Chan Buddhism, Confucianism, Chinese martial arts, traditional Chinese medicine, Chinese folk religion, Chinese alchemy, other traditional elements of Chinese culture, and the wuxia genre.

Protagonists of xianxia stories are often practitioners or cultivators of immortality and supernatural powers, or else are transcendent beings xiān (仙) already possessing such powers to varying degrees. Antagonists have similar powers, and often belong to either the yao (妖) tribe (i.e. fae tribe) or mo (魔) (i.e. demon tribe) or similar category of inhuman sentient beings. Persons in the xianxia genre manifest superhuman talents or physics-defying superpowers such as flight/levitation, teleportation, telekinesis, divination/soul flight, shapeshifting, materializing objects and force fields, manipulation of energy and the elements, etc., akin to other high fantasy genres such as the sword and sorcery Western literatures.

Concepts from traditional Chinese philosophies such as internal alchemy and external alchemy feature in this genre—deities, immortals, yaoguai, demons and ghosts all engage in meditative practices and the consumption of rare substances or creatures to improve their skills or to augment their power. Action tends to take place across multiple realms, the number of which depends on the author or the world in question, but this usually includes the immortal plane, the mortal realm, and in the underworld. The xianxia genre also tends to feature the existence of magical creatures who do not belong to either the yao (妖) or mo (魔) category, as well as supernatural artefacts capable of upending the status quo.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.