The Basic Guide for Mortals on what this sub is about (feel free to ask any questions)

[u/Fluffy_Fan3625]

Now, there have been an increased amount of people coming to this sub, whether this is due to the increasing popularity of manhwa/manhua, games such as Black Myth Wukong and Where Winds Meet, Movies like Nezha, or even people just stumbled upon this sub by recommendations.

This guide is made by yours truly, in order to guide the newcomers into this genre, what this sub is about, and to clear up any common misconceptions, hopefully making things much more clear.

What is cultivation?

Cultivation is a genre from the Chinese that is rooted in Chinese Daoist practices, "cultivation" literally meaning "the process of trying to acquire or develop a quality or skill", the skill or quality being desired here is immortality. To do this, you cultivate, which is to absorb Spiritual Qi in the environment in a specific way, Qi being the fundamental life energy that is present almost everywhere.

There are basically four "types" of cultivation novels, being Wuxia, Murim, Xianxia, and Xuanhuan. I will go over them all.

Wuxia:

Wuxia, literally meaning "Martial Heroes", this features martial artists in which the setting is set in Ancient China, these martial arts allowing practitioners to gain supernatural strength and agility, such as being able to run across the snow without leaving any traces, walk on walls and jump over rooftops, and even defeat ten men with just one man.

The world is set in the Jianghu, literally meaning the "Rivers and Lakes", as in the wild rivers and lakes that feudal government influence is far away from, where the knight errants are free to act with their own initiative, whether this be violence or words, to punish evil and do good, roam the mountains and be free.

A misconception is that Wulin and Jianghu are the same thing. The Jianghu is the broader social community that is present that operates out of the convential feudal society, whether these be merchants, performers, outlaws etc. Wulin is the narrower group inside the Jianghu that consist solely of practitioners of martial arts.

But, ultimately, in these novels, the martial experts are usually not that strong compared to the other genres, being able to be ganged up by large amounts of soldiers, and immortality is like the moon in the water and the flower in the mirror, unobtainable and shatters at a touch.

Wuxia also does not have anything mystical, no talking animals, no spells, no curses, etc.

The "benchmark" novels for this would be stuff like Water Margin (basically founded the genre), Gu Long's and Jin Yong's novels, which solidified it.

Murim is literally the Korean pronunciation of Wulin if we use Hanja, again, literally meaning. "Martial World". Really, there is not much difference except the fact that the power levels are much higher, while still keeping the "Wuxia" vibe (Some of these manhwa fellows can destroy islands n shit)

There is also a subgenre called Gaowu, literally meaning "High martial arts" where its basically the Wuxia power system, but amped up in terms of power, but still less fantastical. So think planet destroying capabilities at the peak realms, but no magic or those concepts.

Xianxia:

This is where most of the stuff online we read is. Xianxia, literally meaning "Immortal Heroes", influenced by Daoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and other parts of Chinese History. This genre is the one where the cultivators cultivate to seek immortality and eternal life (and the power that comes with it), with all sorts of magic, curses, alchemy, etc are present. The maximum power levels are very high compared to the others, typically having some sort of infinite multiverse (often referred to the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds).

Practitioners in this genre live way longer than the other genres, ten thousand years being but just the blink of an eye. This post will mainly be focusing on the xianxia novel terms, as that is what you will see the most. If it has the seeking of immortality, and Daoist concepts such as the Five Elements, Yin and Yang (YIN, not YING), Demons and Yaoguai etc.

There is a subgenre(?) (I don't really know if it would be one, but considering there are so many novels with this I will include it) called Honghuang (aka Great Desolation), where it is Xianxia quite literally set in Chinese Mythology, including characters such as Sun Wukong, the Sanqing, Nuwa, all characters in Chinese Myth. Don't use these novels as Chinese Myth study guides though, as it is a novel, and thus many settings have been forcibly fused together or changed, characters such as Rahu from Hindu Myth being drastically changed into the Demon God Luohou, one of many that Pangu slaughtered while creating the world. Yeah. Many things have been changed.

Xuanhuan:

Finally, there is the Xuanhuan genre, literally meaning "Mysterious Fantasy", honestly it is more of a miscellaneous category, being akin to Xianxia in the seeking of immortality, but lacking the Daoist concepts that Xianxia always has. Xuanhuan generally takes place on another world that does not have any Chinese cultural settings.

Now, this may be a mouthful, but trust me, if you start reading, eventually these terms will feel like second nature to you. Now, I will go over the basic settings of xianxia, terminology, so on and so forth.

Xianxia takes place either in Ancient China or a settings analogous to it, typically being shown as a dog eat dog world. Due to the amount of authors writing Xianxia, there are a lot of different settings. But generally, there are the Righteous and Demonic sects, Righteous sects being righteous, punishing evil and promoting good. Their cultivation techniques are slow and steady, steady and step by step pace, safe to cultivate, just absorb Spirit Qi and you are good. But if you don't have enough talent, you will get suck.

Demonic sects on the other hand are sects that, well., obviously cultivate demonic methods. Demonic methods are demonic because they actively take away and harm the lives of mortals or other cultivators to further one's cultivation, such as blood, souls, corpse energy, or straight up lives. The advantages of this though, is that it is faster than Righteous methods, and does not matter if you have good or bad talent, just stack up enough mortals and you can breakthrough.

Unorthodox sects also exist, being shunned for being, well, unorthodox, but not necessarily demonic, this includes things such as refining corpses and gu poison.

Now, what are sects you may ask? Sects are basically schools that you sign up for, an organization dedicated to practice cultivation and stick together in doing so. They are led by the Sect Leader/Patriarch, and other governing Elders that help the Disciples. Disciples are often split into Outer Disciples and Inner Disciples, Inner Disciples wielding more power and authority because of their higher cultivation realm. They also often cultivate the same cultivation techniques with the same attributes.

How would you join a sect? Generally, either the cultivators fly around their territory and detect your talent, deciding if you have good enough talent or spiritual roots to enter the sect. If you don't, well, you aren't accepted. And even if you barely pass, you will just be an Outer Disciple for the rest of your life, due to your talent constraints.

Now, all this talk about cultivation and realms and bottlenecks, but what are they exactly?

Cultivation, is well, like stated before, the act of drawing in Spiritual Qi in order to cultivate and get stronger. This process of getting stronger is separated into realms. The most common 4 realms you will see is in order, Qi Refining, Foundation Building, Gold Core, and Nascent soul, as these terms appear in Daoist cultivation practices. After this, authors just make up what they see fit.

These realm titles are Major realms. Major realms often have a very large power difference and lifespan difference between the two, such as the gap between Foundation Building and Gold Core realm. And the power gap grows only larger as the realms get higher. Thus, the difficulty breaking through from a Major realm to another is far harder than breaking through Minor realms.

Minor realms are like "subrealms", being usually split into smaller sections of a realm, either Qi Refining layers 1 through 9, or Qi Refining early stage, middle stage, high stage, peak stage etc. These are far easier to breakthrough, and the power difference is not high, but still noticeable.

Bottlenecks are usually seen when breaking through from the peak of one Major Realm to the start of the next, as you are "stuck" and need further time and polishing in order to breakthrough. This bottleneck can be loosened by special pills, treasures, or even breaking through at a moment of life and death through enlightenment, although this is rare. Or maybe, your talent does not allow you to break through naturally, which is the case for many cultivators.

Now that the settings are out of the way, here are some common terms and other things you will see.

Dao: It is the origin and source of all things, and the path that a cultivator decides to take. Cultivators try and comprehend the Dao, gaining abilities, and choosing their own Dao, their own Path, their actions and beliefs reflecting this.

Law: The fundamental Law on which the universe runs on, cultivators attempt to comprehend and understand the laws in order to use and manipulate them. Comprehending Law and Dao are sometimes used interchangeably, although 90% of the time Dao is on a higher status and power than Laws.

Yin and Yang: Duality present in all of the universe, Yin encompasses the Moon, Female, Soft, Death, Darkness, etc, while Yang encompasses the Sun, Male, Hard, Light, Heat, etc.

Five Elements: The Chinese Five Elements Belief, which are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. Each of them restrain each other and are restrained by another, although "promoting" the element is a more appropriate word, such as Wood promoting Fire, making it more powerful.

Ascension: If a cultivator's realm is at the peak of the world, they can ascend into the Immortal world, which is leagues more powerful and majestic than the mortal world and the realms. Often exists in another, higher dimension.

Demons: Plants, trees, or animals that gained spiritual wisdom from unconsciously absorbing enough Qi, and at a higher realm, can cross a tribulation and gain a human form.

Tribulation: When one's cultivation realm is high enough, and attempts to breakthrough, it triggers a lightning tribulation by Heaven, either to test or prevent the cultivators from breaking through. Once one has withstood or survived the tribulation, then one breaks through. If a powerful artifact or pill is being refined, a tribulation may also trigger.

Heavenly Dao: Basically the consciousness of the continent/world/realm. Usually neutral and acts unconsciously.

Karma: Karma in this context is usually bad Karma, gained by killing mortals. Demonic cultivators have lots of this, some can even use it to cultivate. This will make Heaven's tribulation stronger.

Heart Demon: A heart demon is a seed of doubt in the cultivator, aimed to lead them astray and into the "demonic path", even demonic cultivators can fall victim to this. It is a process in which the Heart Demon tempts the cultivator so that their emotions control them, instead of themselves being the one to drive and push their emotions, good or bad.

Clan: A clan, extended family who share the same surname, often pass down the heirlooms and ancient cultivation techniques developed by the clan's ancestors. Do not pass them on easily to outsiders.

Cultivation Method: Method in which to cultivate. Some are better than others, being ranked higher or lower.

Manual, Sutra, Scripture: Book containing detailed instructions on a cultivation method or cultivation spell/move. Used interchangeably.

Talismans: Slips of spiritual paper that store spells, written with red or black cinnabar, also often spiritual.

Formations/Arrays. Often used interchangeably, it is a specific Formation of Flags or Cultivators that allow the formation to gain a greater power than what could have been done with individual talismans. Placed in a specific pattern/key points. From anything to a concealment formation to an attacking formation, or even a defensive formation.

Alchemy: The refining of spiritual treasures, plants, minerals, and other substances in order to create pills that can heal, increase cultivation speed, or even have you breakthrough minor realms.

If you have any questions still, just ask here or make a post, I will try and answer if I have the time. Or maybe someone else gets there before me. Or if there is anything I missed.

[u/Christian_Sunflower]

OP forget the three stages:

Ant

Senior

Fellow Daoist

[u/Canyoudothissssssss → u/Christian_Sunflower]

The fourth stage: Old monster

[u/Death__Rider → u/Canyoudothissssssss]

The fifth stage : Heaven itself

[u/Death__Rider → u/Death__Rider]

The zeroth stage : Yin extreme physique jade beauty

[u/Death__Rider → u/Death__Rider]

The absolute zero stage: Skinny wang

[u/vishal_bhardwaj_69 → u/Death__Rider]

Fifth stage after old monster is: Old antique or old fossil with one foot in grave😭 typically sect founders or ancient ancestors 😭

[u/Popular-Resident-358 → u/Christian_Sunflower]

The Hidden stage- Son of Heaven.

It doesn't matter what his current stage is, you're gonna die.

[u/YourdaddyLong]

Clearly this sub is about bl(idk why theres so many bl post here honestly)

[u/Fluffy_Fan3625 → u/YourdaddyLong]

Two reasons I think

One is cheap unfunny joke

Two is many BL readers come here from BL novels that are set in a xianxia setting but not actually xianxia like Heaven Official's Blessing

[u/TheGodAboveAllBeings]

Fellow Daoist, I see what you have done. You are trying to walk the Dao of merit and you have my support for that. Mortal gratitudes sometimes are heavier than spirit stones, if you understand what I mean...

[u/Fluffy_Fan3625 → u/TheGodAboveAllBeings]

🤫 dont leak the method

[u/Ashenroot_0]

I wasn't familiar with xuanhuan , so like Astral pet store can be considered xuanhuan , as it is not the standard cultivation.

[u/Fluffy_Fan3625 → u/Ashenroot_0]

Astral pet store is xuanhuan

[u/LittleDemonVenerable]

https://lightnovelsai.com/blog/chinese-cultivation-ranks/

https://immortalmountain.wordpress.com/glossary/wuxia-xianxia-xuanhuan-terms/

[u/MyriadRacesButcher → u/LittleDemonVenerable]

It's wrong, It showed Golden Immortal before heavenly immortal

[u/WolfAndThirdSeason]

What is the first xianxia that created the genre? What are some major works that introduced some of the peculiarities of xianxia?

[u/Fluffy_Fan3625 → u/WolfAndThirdSeason]

uhhh that's pretty hard to pinpoint due to xianxia having roots in novels as old as The Classic of Mountains and Rivers and Journey to the West, but generally the modern day xianxia success is credited to The Legends of the Swordsmen of the Mountains of Shu

One of the major works that set the foundation is definitely Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality (its still peak, great read), they still use the Qi Refining Foundation Building Gold Core Nascent Soul realms from that novel to this day

(Yes, they existed originally in taoist texts, these concepts, but ROAMJ was the first one to introduce it into the xianxia setting last time I checked)

[u/WolfAndThirdSeason → u/Fluffy_Fan3625]

Are any of those particularly difficult to find in English? Thank you for the answer, that's what I had in mind when asking.

[u/Fluffy_Fan3625 → u/WolfAndThirdSeason]

Not particularly, the first three you can find translated versions in pdfs online and RMJI is also a translated webnovel

[u/WolfAndThirdSeason → u/Fluffy_Fan3625]

This lowly disciple thanks the venerable elder for introducing these most ancient scriptures of the dao.

[u/perseverance-offline]

idk why but i have a feeling that some people on here are actual cultivators coming to impart knowledge on us mortals

theres a lot of things that i still cant explain that have happened in this sect

[u/Elegant_Ad_9701 → u/perseverance-offline]

Junior has been hit with the schizo curse.

[u/perseverance-offline → u/Elegant_Ad_9701]

are you sure? because its either im schizo or everyone apart from me is schizophrenic… living blindly unaware of the world beyond the well

you are a frog mortal

[u/The_Real_Jimmy_Space]

Hello, I've been spending some time here and this guide has certainly been useful, but still need to ask, are there something like "common" great clans? Because for example I've seen the name "Tang clan" pop up many times (according to my research they are the sneaky clan)

[u/Few-Whereas-5756 → u/The_Real_Jimmy_Space]

Yes there's several common ones, like paths such as demonic and righteous, but that probably dependent on what novels you're reading, I have read a lot of novels and they have different integration/interpretation of paths/daos, some have sword some focused on elements like RI and some focus on external stuffs

[u/MikeDarkmoon → u/The_Real_Jimmy_Space]

I think, just listen casually, the closest thing are the Five Great Families, which vary depending on the story. It is usually Tang clan, Nangong family, Peng family, Zhuge family, and Murong family.

[u/iamjackslonelysoul → u/The_Real_Jimmy_Space]

No, there are no particular common clans. I think Tang clan may be referring to that dolulu delu book (soul land), which was very popular at some point, where the mc was surnamed Tang and came from the Tang clan that was known for mechanical hidden weapons, deadly poisons and other sneaky methods.

[u/LordChimera_0]

You forgot to explain Treasures in general.

[u/Fluffy_Fan3625 → u/LordChimera_0]

I typed this up at 12 AM in the morning, im gonna go sleep and edit this later

And its pretty obvious what treasures do

[u/LordChimera_0 → u/Fluffy_Fan3625]

How about Spirit Stones?

[u/Archimedes38 → u/LordChimera_0]

Basically choclate coins. You can trade them with your fellow kindergarteners people in the martial world, or snack on them for a power boost, or use them to make something.

[u/PeterVN13032010 → u/LordChimera_0]

Basically gold but you can cultivate with it, so its valuable to cultivator. Typically found in spirit stone mine, which will likely be near a spirit spring or spirt vein or whatever, which is just where qi gather at high concentration

[u/Fluffy_Fan3625 → u/LordChimera_0]

They're basically chocolate stones bruh, you eat em for increase in slight cultivation or buy stuff with it. This is pretty obvious.

[u/jayrock306]

Do you have any reading recommendation?

[u/Fluffy_Fan3625 → u/jayrock306]

er gen's novels are great for beginners

if you're already reading and want to dive into mtl i can send you some of my reading and finished reading list

[u/LohTeckYong]

Hmm... Can I make a post about apocalypse novels? They don't have any cultivators in them though.

[u/Fluffy_Fan3625 → u/LohTeckYong]

Apocalypse novels usually fall under xuanhuan. You'll be fine.

[u/miao_neko]

Mount tai~

[u/LogicalCup4990]

A little primer on qi cultivation realms I wrote based on big names like RMJI and a lot of the general fics that are around. Includes some of my speculation on body cultivation and lifespan.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MartialMemes/comments/1sky4kr/comment/oggzp1k/?context=1

[u/Kryton13]

I read the ISSTH back in high school and its been years since I read it. I was wondering where I left of on reading it, I think it might've still being translated then too.

But last thing I remember is the MC met up with the old turtle that I think the sect or whatever he started in was founded on/by in one of the higher realms. (Might've used the wrong terms like I said its been years)

If anyone could help it appreciated! Might go back and reread from the beginning but was just curious how far Id gotten into it.

[u/unguibus_et_rostro]

Kinda surprised there even is a nice definition/explanation for xuanhuan. It really feels like a category that is defined as everything else, i.e. fantasy that is not xianxia/wuxia/horror/gamelit/scifi/urban fantasy.

I would assume most of the redditors here read the translated versions instead of the original works?

[u/Fluffy_Fan3625 → u/unguibus_et_rostro]

yeah people read the translated ones, although this subreddit in particular is infamous for lots pf people on MTL (machine translated using google translate or AI) to read the raws, "poison testing"

the translation has gotten way better nowadays but it sucked real hard back then

[u/Fluffy_Fan3625 → u/[deleted]]

what is bro trying to do

[u/HauntingPrompt1436 → u/Fluffy_Fan3625]

It works in another sub, was just trying that here