TERMINOLOGY
Face (脸/面子): A person’s face is an important concept in Chinese society. It is a metaphor for someone’s reputation or dignity and can be extended into further descriptive metaphors. For example, “having face” refers to having a good reputation and “losing face” refers to having one’s reputation damaged.
Internal Cultivation (内功): Internal cultivation or neigong refers to the breathing, qi, and meditation practices a martial artist must undertake in order to properly harness and utilize their “outer cultivation” of combat techniques and footwork. As Daoism considers qi and breathing irrevocably linked, a large part of internal cultivation centers on achieving the advanced state of internal breathing (内息). Practitioners focus on regulating and coordinating their breaths until it becomes second nature. This then grants them the ability to freely manipulate their qi with little effort or conscious thought.
In wuxia, the capabilities of internal cultivation are usually exaggerated. Martial artists are often portrayed as being able to fly with qinggong, generate powerful force fields, manipulate objects across space without physical contact, or harden their bodies and make themselves impervious to physical damage.
Jianghu (江湖, “rivers and lakes”): A staple of wuxia, the jianghu describes the greater underground society of martial artists and associates that spans the entire setting. Members of the jianghu self-govern and settle issues among themselves based on the tenets of strength and honor, though this may not stop them from exerting influence over conventional society too.
Meridians: The means by which qi travels through the body, like a bloodstream. Some medical and combat techniques target the meridians at specific points on the body, known as acupoints, which allows them to redirect, manipulate, or halt qi circulation. Halting a cultivator’s qi circulation prevents them from using their internal cultivation until the block is lifted.
Names: When men and women came of age in ancient China, they received a new name for others of the same generation to refer to them by, known as a courtesy name. Use of their original or personal name was normally reserved only for respected elders and the person themselves—using it otherwise would be very rude and overfamiliar.
Using an emperor’s personal name was even more disrespectful. Rulers were usually addressed by the dynasty they led, and they each had a formal title to distinguish themselves from their predecessors or successors. For example, Yuwen Yong’s official title was “Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou” (北周武帝).
Pair Cultivation (双修): Also translated as dual cultivation, this is a cultivation practice that uses sex between participants to improve cultivation prowess. Can also be used as a simple euphemism for sex.
Parasitic Cultivation (采补, “harvest and supplement”): The practice of draining life energy and qi from a host to strengthen one’s martial arts. As the bodies of men are believed to hold more yang qi while women hold more yin qi, the person in question will often “harvest” from the other sex to “supplement” themselves, which gives the practice its association with sexual cultivation.
Qinggong (轻功): A real-life training discipline. In wuxia, the feats of qinggong are highly exaggerated, allowing practitioners to glide through the air, run straight up walls and over water, jump through trees, or travel dozens of steps in an instant.
Seclusion (闭关): Also known as “closed door meditation,” seclusion or secluded cultivation is when a martial artist isolates themselves from the rest of the world to meditate and further their internal cultivation for the purpose of healing injuries or taking their martial arts to the next level.
True Qi and Cores: True qi (真气) is a more precise term for the “qi” commonly seen in Chinese media. In Daoism, one’s true qi or life force is believed to be the fusion of Xiantian qi and Houtian qi.
True qi is refined in the lower Dantian (丹田, “elixir field”) within the abdomen, which also holds the foundations of a person’s martial arts, called the core. In Thousand Autumns, Daoist cores and demonic cores are mentioned, differentiated by the discipline (and hence Dao) the practitioner chose. All internal cultivation and breathing builds off these foundations—losing or destroying them is tantamount to losing all of one’s martial arts.
In wuxia, a practitioner with superb internal cultivation can perform superhuman feats with their true qi. On top of what is covered under internal cultivation above, martial artists can channel true qi into swords to generate sword qi, imbue simple movements and objects with destructive energy, project their voices across great distances, heal lesser injuries, or enhance the five senses.
Yin and Yang (阴阳): In Daoism, the concept of yin and yang is another set of complementary, interdependent forces that govern the cosmos. It represents the duality present in many aspects of nature, such as dark and light, earth and heaven, or female and male. Yin is the passive principle, while yang is the active one.
Warring States Period: An era in ancient Chinese history characterized by heavy military activity between seven dominant states. The rise of schools of thought like Daoism, Confucianism, and Legalism was partially in response to the extreme turmoil and suffering that were rampant during this time. It lasted from around 475 B.C.E. to 221 B.C.E., when the Qin state annexed the rest and established the first unified Chinese empire: the Qin Dynasty.
Weiqi (围棋): Also known by its Japanese name, go. Sometimes called “Chinese chess,” it is the oldest known board game in human history. The board consists of a many-lined grid upon which opponents play unmarked black and white stones as game pieces to claim territory.
Zoroastrianism: A religion from ancient Persia founded by the prophet Zoroaster.