ABOUT WUXIA

Although wuxia is based on real-life martial arts, the genre elevates the mastery of their crafts into fictitious levels of attainment. They usually have the following skills:

-fighting 

-use of everyday objects as lethal weapons (ex: ink brushes)

-the ability to move swiftly and lightly (ex: gliding on water)

-the ability to control inner energy and direct it for attack or defense

-killing or paralyzing opponents by hitting or seizing their acupoints with a finger, knuckle, elbow, or weapon

Earlier precedents

Wuxia stories have their roots in some early wanderers and assassin stories around 2nd to 3rd century BC, such as the assassination attempts of Jing Ke and Zhuan Zhu listed in Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian.

Those stories made a strong comeback in Tang Dynasty in the form of legendary tales.

The earliest full-length novel that could be considered part of the genre was Water Margin, written in the Ming Dynasty, although some would classify parts of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms as a possible earlier antecedent.

Three Kingdoms contained many classic close combat descriptions which were later borrowed by wuxia writers.

Many works in this genre during the Ming and Qing dynasties were lost due to prohibition by the government. The departure from mainstream literature also meant that patronage of this genre was limited to the masses.