This section examines the charisma of Chinese wusia fiction. The Chinese wusia fiction, which is rich with traditional Chinese culture, is one of the most renowned fiction genres in Chinese popular literature. Since ancient times it has attracted numerous readers and it has been a particular favorite in Chinese society in recent years, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China and overseas Chinese communities. There are scholars who recommend it by saying, "Chinese wusia fiction could be read as a Chinese cultural textbook," and "Where the Chinese go, there wusia fiction goes."

    Wu and sia are two Chinese characters. By studying them we enter the amazing Chinese martial arts world.

Wu and Chinese Cultural Tradition

      There are four Chinese words based on wu including wushih, wuci, wuyi, and weiwu. Wushih literally means the soldier or warrior, wuci is the weapon which wushih holds, wuyi indicates the fighting skill which the wushih practices, and weiwu can be interpreted as "an awe-inspiring display of military force." These four words wushih, wuci, wuyi, and weiwu all have close links with the spirit of the wusia fiction genre. In other words they all have meanings close to the word wusia, which can be translated as "knight-errant". If we scrutinize the word wu, an associative compound of two pictographs one of which is a weapon, it is closer to wuci and wuyi.

The ceaseless civil wars taking place in China inspired invention of many weapons. These weapons in general were called the Eighteen Weapons. And the martial arts studying to use these weapons was called the Eighteen Martial Arts. None of these weapons require gunpowder, so we could call them "cold weapons". Although there are various weapons used in the wusia novels they are all based on the Eighteen Weapons. "Baida" deserves to be highlighted among the Weapons, because it refers to the barehanded fighting skill. In the wusia novel of traditional Chinese martial arts, philosophies and religions were combined into a fantastic form of wugong. The martial arts adopted in wusia novels were mostly from both the School of Shaolin and School of Wudang: "the Shaolin wugong was superior in its external practice and Wudang was internal," it was said. The adopted philosophies and religions were principally from Buddhist and Taoist meditations and training in repose. Taoist ritual was a rich resource to the wusia novelist. In addition to literary fantasy, the Chinese wusia novel genre is filled with fabulous martial arts.