A Deeper Dive
What is Eastern Cultivation?
One of the most popular genres in recent years, let’s see where it came from and where it is now!
Chi, Qi, Core, Daitan, Dao, Meridians – do any of these words happen to be familiar? Have you already happened to crack open a novel and find these (seemingly) esoteric terms? Or are you doing homework beforehand so that you’re ready before tackling such a novel?
Whichever the case might be, I’ve got you, and together we’re going to explore exactly what the wonderful genre of Eastern Cultivation is.
Now before we get too far into the details – let’s take a quick moment to define the two major sub-genres, Xianxia and Wuxia, that readers can expect to find in here, both of which share similarities, but result in very different story styles and structures.
Xianxia
Loosely translates to “Immortal Heroes”, is a Chinese ‘high fantasy’ genre that focuses on characters who undergo various trials, tribulations, trainings, to ascend to the heavens, becoming godlike beings in the process. Common tropes within this genre are things like meditation to understand the world around them, harsh over-the-top training regimes, and fantastical and magical implementations of Taoist and Buddhist philosophies.
A good recent example of this genre would be the Black Myth Wukong video game.
Wuxia
Loosely translates to “Martial Heroes”, and is considered the Chinese ‘low fantasy’ genre that focuses on the lives and adventures of martial artists in ancient China, or similarly styled settings.
A great example of this setting would be the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or the Hero movies.
Between these two genres, Xianxia is by far the more popular one in terms of quantity of stories and as such will be the main focus of this deep dive here. However with that said, the tropes, progression styles, and terminology, may still overlap in some Wuxia novels depending on the story in question that you might be reading, so don’t be confused if you start seeing familiar elements crop up. Now – that piece out of the way, let’s get started with the most important tenant of Eastern Cultivation.
And that is where we are looking.
A Different Perspective
Given its cultural and geographical origin, the most important thing to note for Eastern Cultivation novels is how their philosophical perspectives are different from western novels (including Western Cultivation Novels), especially the novels that are written by native eastern authors. This is because of the general difference in perspective that each culture has.
To keep this explanation as short as reasonably possible, in western culture, people tend to look upward and outward towards the largest things they can find, often towards ideals or the gods of such faiths. Comparatively in eastern culture, people tend to look downward and inward, focusing upon concepts closer towards them, such as their breathing, their mindfulness, and their surroundings.
While this is an incredibly oversimplified explanation in general, it’s this fundamental difference in thinking that personally helped me understand the foundations of the genre when I first started exploring it and the underlying philosophical leanings some of these novels have. Especially as some novels lean on heavily Taoist/Daoist elements (those two terms are the same, but merely different translations/spelling of the same word) in their storytelling.
As a result of this, the majority of the ‘growth’ that is seen in these novels are focused, involve, or are achieved through various methods such as, meditation, special breathing techniques, martial arts, alchemy, and introspection with the ultimate goal of achieving a higher state of being, either spiritually, physically, or both. Moreover, because of these elements being entirely inwardly focused, the timescales of these stories can stretch to truly astronomical lengths, spanning hundreds if not thousands of years. Now, at this point you might be wondering the reason why the characters of such novels might want to do this, which neatly brings us to our next section.
To Defy The Heavens
For any of you who have already read Eastern Cultivation novels, this might be an incredibly familiar term for you all, and for those of you who haven’t, you will likely see it often as you break into the genre. That is because Defying The Heavens, is a popular, foundational trope for almost all novels in this genre.
At high level, this phrase is used to describe the overall journey that a Cultivator (a person who practices the kind of magic/progression system within these stories) follows in order to gain power and enlightenment. At a more nuanced level Defying The Heavens is a very real thing, as depending on the story, the Heavens themselves challenge Cultivators as they increase in power, ensuring that they are worthy of the power that they are accumulating, and striking down those who are too weak, or otherwise unsuited in their pursuit of immortality in the form of what is known as a Tribulation.
Tribulation: Known as tests from the heavens, these events occur whenever a Cultivator advances through a meaningful stage in their journey and personal power. When this happens, the Cultivators are bombarded with divine strikes of lightning which test their spiritual and physical fortitude to their absolute limits. Should they succeed, they are able to recover and continue upon their journey, however if they fail, they are either struck dead, or injured in such a way that continuing to cultivate is impossible.
(If you read one of the recommended novels below – A Will Eternal – you will eventually see this event in action!)
There are many ways that stories handle this kind of progression that this path entails, but since you’re all here, why don’t we outline the most basic progression of growth, and the terms associated with them, that you can expect while reading in this genre.
An Overview of Eastern Cultivation Progression
The Early Stages
While varying novel to novel, growth almost always starts with the main character starting their journey to Defy The Heavens as mortal, often at a very young age, beginning in their early teens, if not even earlier. These stages are commonly referred to as Condensation, Connection, and Foundation stages, but may vary on the novel in question.
During the earlier of this progression, typically what is expected of an aspiring Cultivator is to first discover how to sense their Chi/Qi within their Core or Daitan.
Chi/Qi: Is the life force of not only oneself, but that of the universe, and one that can be drawn into one’s body to not only enhance it, but grant one the ability to wield power. For comparison’s sake, it is similar to Mana from western styled fantasy.
Core/Daitan: Oftentimes this refers to a concentrated mass of spiritual energy, often visualized as a glowing orb within a Cultivator’s body, or the Lower Daitan which acts as the primary storage and source of their power. Depending on the novel and it’s system, the color/composition of one’s core can signal one’s overall strength and progression along their cultivation journey, such as a Iron Core, Silver Core, or Golden Core.
For this initial stage of growth the character is often faced with a great deal of introspection as they learn how to properly meditate, challenge their bodies to their physical limits, and attune themselves to the flow of Qi in the world surrounding them. Then, eventually, when they do manage to finally sense this mystical energy within them, they either have a kind of magical/epiphany styled ‘awakening’ allowing them to start to control their Qi, or if not, begin another level of training to begin to be able to do so anyway.
Once able to control their Qi, the next major step for Cultivators, depending on the story, is to open their Meridians and/or purify their bodies of the toxins/wastes/etc that existing as mortal leaves upon oneself. This commonly falls under the Foundation stage.
Meridians: In Eastern Cultivation, these refer to several places of power within the body that depending on the story may borrow either upon eastern medical practices or more esoteric mystical connections. Commonly these points include critical places of the body, such as the brain, bones, heart, lungs, and other organs, each of them granting power and ability as they are cleansed/unlocked.
During this process, the Cultivator learns to not only how to better channel Qi within their bodies, but drastically expands their lifespan and overall health, pushing them closer towards immortality.
The Middle Stages
Eventually a Cultivator continues their journey, they reach the middle stages of their progression, which is usually called the Core Formation stage, however may vary depending on the story in question.
Regardless, a commonality of this stage of advancement is the accumulation of Qi, or whatever mystical energy is present in the story. Through this process, the Cultivator gathers more and more Qi – either through introspection, meditation in places of power, adventuring and collecting rare magical items, or through alchemy.
Alchemy: In the context of Eastern Cultivation, this term refers to the practice of collecting rare resources, be they monster parts, plants, metals, or specially aspected Qi and brewing them into pill or elixirs. Then, once consumed, the energy and magic that they posses bring about change within the Cultivator’s body, empowering them, healing them, or granting them special abilities. Competition for these resources can be extremely fierce and is often a driving force of conflict in stories.
As the Cultivator grows through this stage, they often gain the largest amount of unique abilities and also start to specialize themselves when it comes to their overall identity and use of powers. Depending on the story you might see elemental specializations during this stage, or more philosophical ones for novels that follow a Daoist ethos. This stage is substantially longer than the earlier ones and can be broken down into several smaller advancements along the way depending on the novel in question.
The ‘Advanced’ Stages
Continuing to grow in power, the advanced stages of progression are usually marked by the arrival of the Nascent Soul stage – a term that is common across a vast majority of Eastern Cultivation Novels.
In this stage, the Cultivator has gained enough strength and power within their cores that they begin to either shape it into a brand new soul itself (almost like a clone of themselves) or they begin to empower their own soul to new heights. This execution varies somewhat depending on the story in question, but the theme of empowering and improving upon one’s soul remains.
However from this point on, easy classification of power progression and typical tropes starts to fall apart. Depending on the story in question, all of the above stages might be considered in fact ‘low’ and the story presented may go well beyond these power levels with their own style of progression and may feature story arcs that involve transcending into entirely new realms of existence. Other stories may stay grounded and extend each of the levels of progression here, making them more relevant within the novel’s context.
In either case, this grounding so far should be enough to prepare you for anything that a Eastern Style Cultivation novel can throw at you!
Starting Your Own Journey
If you’ve made it this far, then you are ready to strike out on your own and see all of the wonderful works that this genre has to offer. If you happen to be able to read any of the eastern languages, you will certainly be able to find a great variety of works to enjoy written natively. However, if you are not a native speaker and can only read in English, then you will need to rely on translated works. Given my English background here, I’ll be recommending the best translated stories that I have found that would be great starting points for those looking to start reading in this genre:
