The primitive Chinese sia fiction began in the chuanci short stories in the Tang Dynasty. Yi, righteousness, the principle ethic of the sia stories, had not yet been highly regarded in this period. The sia described in chuanci, had very strong personalities; in other words, they were more like real people rather than ideal heroes of the later sia stories. In addition, Taoism, as a religion, strongly influenced the contents of the primitive sia stories.

      Chuanci are the start of Chinese fiction as a literary genre, and the sia story is one of its various themes, which include love stories, supernatural stories, and so forth. Among the sia stories in Tang chuanci, Nie Yinniang is a representative one, which fully develops the sia image as a superhuman, sian.

      The story starts: As a ten-year-old girl, Nie Yinniang was kidnapped by a nun. She taught Yinniang wugong, especially feijian. Using feijian Yinniang could compact her sword into a hairpin. When she wanted to kill enemies, she merely used her mental power; the sword would fly and complete its mission even if the enemy was a hundred li away. So she became an assassin, and she killed the corrupted officials for the public.

      Yinniang was appointed as an official by her father's official supervisor, the Military Administrator of Weibo. She was given a mission to assassinate the Military Administrator of Chensiu, Liu Changyi. However, because Liu had the ability to tell the future, instead of fulfilling the mission, Yinniang turned to work for Liu; she also warned Liu that more assassins would come to take his life, but she would protect him.

      The first killer calling was Jingjinger. When he and Yinniang were fighting, other people only saw two flags; one was red and one was white, flying and jumping in the sky. Before long Jingjinger was beheaded.

      The second killer was Miaoshou Kongkonger. Yinninag knew that he was stronger than she, but he only attacked once then left regardless of winning or losing. So before he came, Yinniang circled Liu's neck with jade, then she transformed into a bug and hid in Liu's intestines. That night there was the sound of a blade slicing something. When the next dawn arrived, people found that there was only a deep crack on the jade, and Liu was not wounded.

      Yinniang saved Liu's life, but she refused any reward. One day she and her husband riding two donkeys, one white and one black, left, without leaving any messages.

      The wugong written about in this chuanci story such as the flying sword, marching as if flying, and transforming were close to the Taoist shensian beliefs. This characteristic repeats itself again and again in Chinese wusia novels, especially in those written in the earlier period of the 20th century, such as Jianghu Cisia by Pingjiang Busiao Sheng and Shushan Jiansia Jhuan by Huanjhu Loujhu.