語
A
ñ
字
Second Language
Word file #015Here to stayStories & games

What does xianxia mean?

仙侠xiānxiá

Say itSHYEN-shyahnoun (often used like an adjective: “a xianxia novel”)

Character by character
  1. 仙xiānimmortal
  2. 侠xiáhero

A genre of Chinese fantasy fiction in which characters train body and spirit, in Daoist-inspired ways, to gain great power and become immortals.

Written by the Second Language TeamWritten

Xianxia is a genre of Chinese fantasy. In these stories, characters train their bodies and spirits to gain great power and, in the end, to live forever as immortals. The worlds are full of magic, demons, ghosts, gods, and Chinese myth, and the training is heavily inspired by Daoism [1]. English speakers meet the word mostly as readers of translated Chinese web novels, and also as fans of Chinese animation (donghua) and Chinese TV dramas. One translation site’s glossary puts it simply: if wuxia is “low fantasy,” xianxia is “high fantasy” [1].

English speakers usually say SHYEN-shyah. The Mandarin word is 仙侠 xiānxiá (traditional 仙俠) [2]. The “x” in pinyin is a soft “sh” sound, said with a smile. Xiān has a high, flat tone, and xiá rises, like a question. 仙 xiān means “immortal,” and 侠 xiá means “hero,” the same hero as in wuxia. The word is a neutral genre label in both languages. It is not slang and not rude, though fans can argue about it for hours.

Word stats

Known in English
Fans of Chinese web novels, donghua, and dramas know it well. Most other English speakers have never seen it.
Said in China today
Chinese readers and websites use 仙侠 as a genre label in the same sense, though where it ends and 玄幻 begins is up for debate.
Polite
A plain genre name. The only danger is starting a long argument about what counts.
Freshness
About as many people look it up as last year. Like its heroes, it is not going anywhere soon.

Spotted in the wild

Group chat · Sunday, 11:40 pm
  1. Miaok i finished the book you sent. why did the main guy sit in a cave for 300 years
  2. Youit’s xianxia. he was cultivating. 300 years is basically a nap
  3. Miahe came out and split a mountain in half
  4. Youyeah that’s the payoff

What it means here: Xianxia is the genre: stories where heroes train for centuries to gain huge power and become immortal.

Comments under a book recommendations post
  1. Leonew to xianxia, where do i start? i liked the old wuxia movies
  2. Priyathink wuxia plus immortals, flying swords, and a lot of breathing exercises. pick a translation with a good glossary
  3. Samtechnically half the stuff people call xianxia is xuanhuan, but nobody’s checking

What it means here: Priya explains xianxia as wuxia with magic and immortality; Sam points out that fans use the word loosely.

Text with Dad
  1. Dadwhat’s that show you’re watching? everyone in it is floating
  2. Youit’s xianxia. 仙侠. the floating people are immortals
  3. Dadso it’s a show about people who never have to do chores

What it means here: You write the Chinese word 仙侠 (xiānxiá, “immortal heroes”) to name the genre of the show.

How to use it

  • a xianxia novel / drama / storyShe’s reading a xianxia novel with over two thousand chapters.
  • read / watch xianxiaI started watching xianxia because of the costumes and stayed for the sword fights.
  • xianxia vs. wuxiaThe easiest way to explain xianxia vs. wuxia is to ask if anyone can fly.
  • xianxia-style (world, setting, game)The game has a xianxia-style world with mountain sects and ancient demons.

Don’t say it like this

  • Sounds off“ZEE-an-zee-ah” (reading x like the x in “xylophone”)

    Say this“SHYEN-shyah” (x sounds like a soft “sh”)

    In pinyin, the letter x is a soft “sh” sound, not a “z” or “ks.”

  • Sounds off侠 xiá means “martial,” so xianxia means “immortal martial arts.”

    Say this侠 xiá means “hero,” so xianxia means “immortal heroes.”

    The “martial” part of wuxia is 武 wǔ. Both genre names share 侠 xiá, the hero.

  • Sounds offCalling a sword-fighting story with no magic at all xianxia.

    Say thisCalling it wuxia.

    Without immortals, magic, or cultivation, a martial arts story is wuxia, the older and more down-to-earth genre.

  • Sounds off“That’s not xianxia, it’s xuanhuan. End of discussion.”

    Say this“I’d call that more xuanhuan than xianxia.”

    Even Chinese critics call the line between the two blurry, so there is rarely one right answer.

xianxia or not?

Is each of these xianxia? Pick an answer to find out.

  1. A young disciple joins a mountain sect, trains his qi for decades, and hopes to become an immortal.

  2. A swordswoman travels from town to town to avenge her teacher, with no magic anywhere in the story.

  3. Heroes ride flying swords, fight demons, and meet gods from Chinese myth.

  4. A farm boy and an elf go on a quest to destroy a dragon’s ring.

The xianxia family

  • wuxia 武侠“Martial heroes”: Chinese stories about sword fighters and martial artists, with little or no magic.The older sibling. Wuxia heroes jump very high; xianxia heroes just keep going up.
  • xuanhuan 玄幻“Mysterious fantasy”: a broad Chinese fantasy genre that can mix in ideas from anywhere.The neighbor whose fence keeps moving into xianxia’s yard.
  • xiuxian 修仙“Cultivating immortality”: training body and spirit to become an immortal, the main activity in xianxia.Xianxia is the genre; xiuxian is the very long to-do list.

Where it came from

  1. Six Dynasties and Tang dynastyTales of the strange (志怪 zhìguài) from the Six Dynasties and Tang tales of the marvelous (传奇 chuánqí) are named as the roots of xianxia fiction [3].
  2. 2015China Writers Net describes xuanhuan and xianxia as two major categories of Chinese online writing, with a line between them that is not clear-cut and even blurry [3].
  3. TodayTranslated web novels, Chinese animation, and dramas carry the word to English-speaking fans, who often use it for any story about cultivation.

Xianxia vs. wuxia vs. xuanhuan

Fans of Chinese fantasy use three genre words a lot, and they overlap. Here is the rough difference.

GenreChineseWhat the heroes wantHow much magic
Wuxia武侠 wǔxiá, “martial heroes”Justice, honor, revenge, skill with a swordLittle or none
Xianxia仙侠 xiānxiá, “immortal heroes”Power and eternal life through cultivationA lot: flying swords, demons, immortals
Xuanhuan玄幻 xuánhuàn, “mysterious fantasy”Power, often in a made-up worldA lot, and it can mix in anything

Xianxia stays close to Chinese myth and religion. Wikipedia describes it as influenced by Taoism and Chan Buddhism [2]. Xuanhuan is freer: its worlds can borrow from Western fantasy, games, or nowhere at all.

In English, fans often use xianxia loosely for any cultivation story, where a hero trains their energy (qi) to climb through levels of power. Many of those stories are filed as xuanhuan on Chinese sites. So the English word covers more ground than the Chinese one.

Chinese critics admit the lines are blurry too. A 2015 article on China Writers Net calls xuanhuan and xianxia two major categories of online writing, but says the line between them is “not clear-cut, even blurry” [3]. The same article says that, strictly speaking, xianxia is a story form of traditional wuxia fiction that adds the “immortal” element to the hero tradition [3]. Huanzhulouzhu’s novel Legend of the Swordsmen of the Mountains of Shu (蜀山剑侠传 Shǔshān jiànxiá zhuàn), first published from 1932, is widely seen as the first true xianxia novel [2].

Sources

  1. General Glossary of Terms (Glossary of Terms in Wuxia, Xianxia & Xuanhuan Novels)Wuxiaworld
  2. XianxiaWikipedia
  3. 关于玄幻与仙侠小说中国作家网 (China Writers Net), May 26, 2015

More words to decode

Articles