江湖 and the lawful-chaotic scale

[cashew]

OK, so I know I should just turn my brain off when watching 《少年歌行》 but like this is really bugging me, so I'm going to rant a little.

Since the show is classified as Wuxia, then we can't really get away from the concept of 江湖 (can't think of a good translation). In the Wuxia genre, 江湖 is referring to the anarchical society that exists outside of the ruling class' control. Because the system is anarchical, this means it lacks a stable hierarchy and that lack means there's no agreed upon authority to settling disputes. Hence, this is why the rule of 江湖 is essentially might makes right. This is why the "good guys" have to be the best fighters.

In an anarchical system, there is no ranking. Because ranking requires order and order is antithetical to anarchy. 江湖 is not meant as an alternative government to the existing rule, it's meant as an alternative to hierarchical governance. This means there's no "no. 1" or "no. 2". There's only "who won for now". (This also means power rankings kind of go directly against the concept of 江湖.)

Simultaneously, this means the existing actual government needs to be a system that can generate the existence of 江湖. You'll notice most Wuxia works, when taking place during an IRL period, is set in Tang dynasty or later. This is because pre-Tang, there was no imperial exam. And why is the imperial exam so important? Because it marks a cultural shift where authority is linked to capabilities rather than inheritance. This philosophical belief is the keystone of 江湖. Prior to this cultural shift, people simply followed the rule of nobles because they were nobles. And if you wanted to get people to follow you, either you had to be born into nobility, or establish a new government (aka 打天下) and become royalty/nobility. However, with the advent of imperial exams, people could become part of the ruling class (have authority) by demonstrating they were capable of ruling and that cultural shift of recognizing the authority of non-nobles is what allowed 江湖 to exist. In other words, the legitimacy of leadership has decoupled from bloodline, so anyone can establish themselves as a leader.

(There's a lot more nuance regarding war honors and being promoted to nobility in pre-Tang systems, but this isn't supposed to turn into a history lesson, so moving on.)

The other necessary factor to the existence of 江湖 is a relatively stable central rule. This is simply because the anarchy of 江湖 can only exist if there is a rigid and stable hierarchy to serve as contrast. If the actual government is already unstable and chaotic, well, there's no reason to take the fighting into 江湖, since you might as well just go establish a new government at that point. In other words, any of the political messy eras like North-South Dynasty (南北朝) and Five Dynasties Ten Kingdoms (五代十国) are terrible backdrops for 江湖 stories mostly because there's very little contrast between ruling class chaos and 江湖 chaos.

Finally, any pre-Qin systems (aka feudal systems) are terrible for 江湖 settings mostly because under those types of political systems, the peasants didn't really care about anything beyond staying full and warm. Wars fought in pre-Qin eras were carried out by the nobles. The peasants were focused on scraping together enough food to survive and did not have excess calories to spend on thinking about minor issues, like justice or morality. And while 江湖 was anarchical, it was also very much all about morals and justice. So 江湖 simply cannot exist in a pre-Qin kind of setting.

In short: political system is actually vital for the Wuxia genre and authors should stop ignoring it.

Comments

[tanithryudo]

Hm... do you categorize "Hero" as not wuxia then? Because normally most people do file that under the wuxia category, and it takes place during the Qin dynasty. I mean, the famous assassins from 史记 fit fairly well into the wuxia genre. There's also stuff like the legend of 莫邪 sword which also goes well with the genre.

Or, what about the likes of "琅琊榜"?

Also, I'm not sure I agree with anarchy being the defining factor of 江湖. While in some works, 江湖 is very chaotic, but in many others, 江湖 has its own order and hierarchy. I mean, there are works where 江湖 is split into orthodoxy/正道 vs unorthordoxy/魔道(邪道,etc) and that's where the main conflict lies. There are works where 江湖 has become its own mini government, with leaders and hierarchy and footsoldiers.

There are also works that deal with fighting and politics between various sects, as if they are their own mini-governments, with unwritten standards that everyone follows (and the villains get to break in secret). Essentially similar to xianxia setups. Not all of it is there to serve as contrast against an official government; sometimes the actual government of the era don't show up at all to serve as contrast, and you could essentially treat it as independent of any specific era/架空.

Like for instance, "小李飞刀" series doesn't really have a lot of indicators of when it takes place, other than Tang or later because 李寻欢's backstory includes a 探花 office (which doesn't actually serve any purpose other than be a backstory moniker). The government system is completely absent, and when multiple 江湖 parties need arbitration, they go to 少林. Then《英雄无泪》also similarly takes place independent of any government. There's little to indicate time other than it takes place in the same world as "小李飞刀" series, set at a later time.

[cashew]

Hm... do you categorize "Hero" as not wuxia then?

There's always going to be exceptions to the rule. I agree there's a subgenre of Wuxia that focuses on the actual politics (aka fighting for the protagonists' respective lords) rather than on 江湖道义, in which case, my entire post doesn't really apply.

famous assassins from 史记

I feel like 史记 is not really Wuxia even if there's a lot of Wuxia tropes because, technically, 史记 is supposed to be "history". (Y'know, the way Iliad is technically supposed to be "history".)

Or, what about the likes of "琅琊榜"?

I wouldn't categorize 琅琊榜 as Wuxia personally... And I believe its category on Baidu is "古装权谋". But genre categorization can be fuzzy sometimes. There's definitely genre cross-over and borrowing of tropes. So I'm mostly speaking in broad strokes.

There are works where 江湖 has become its own mini government, with leaders and hierarchy and footsoldiers.

I agree there are works that do that. I disagree that it makes sense to write it that way. 江湖's origin is one of an egalitarian society, which opposes the rigid hierarchy of the imperial system. I feel that a lot of more modern renditions of 江湖 results from authors having a hard time imagining a truly egalitarian society, and they have to keep borrowing social structures from the established ordered society they hate.

Turning 江湖 into a mini-government, or an alternative form of government that nonetheless relies on a might-makes-right mentality raises all sorts of ethical questions on a meta-literary level. Like how are the weak supposed to get justice if might-makes-right is the law of the land? Why would 江湖 be preferable to an actual government? Why aren't the people in 江湖 doing actual governing if they're actually so good at setting up a organized system that everyone finds fair and just?

Again, I'm not saying there aren't more and more works that do this, but I feel like these authors aren't thinking hard enough of about why the classics were set up in a way where 江湖 is put in direct conflict with the government.

sometimes the actual government of the era don't show up at all to serve as contrast, and you could essentially treat it as independent of any specific era/架空

My first point regarding the cultural mentality being important to establishing people accepting authority of non-nobles comes into play here. The actual government doesn't necessarily have to show up, but the cultural norms do. That's not to say there won't be Wuxia works where Qin era peasants are doing the Wuxia stuff of 行侠仗义, but on a meta level, the story starts becoming nonsense.

This goes back to my complaint that 架空 eras serve as a way for the author to avoid having to deal with the reality of cultural norms dictating what is and isn't possible, especially in terms of what is and isn't considered "morally correct". Mostly it serves as an easy way to put modern moral sensibilities into ancient people. I'm not saying it's not done. I'm just saying it's usually not done well because the work comes across as having a lack of consideration for...well, reality or the verisimilitude thereof. And verisimilitude is important for suspension of disbelief.

"小李飞刀" series doesn't really have a lot of indicators of when it takes place, other than Tang or later

It takes place in the Ming dynasty. The emperor is named, so we know exactly when it's supposed to take place.

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I feel like I need to emphasize: I'm not saying that a work can only be good if it slavishly sticks to historically accurate depictions. It's the exact opposite, actually; taking creative liberties makes a story better. But those liberties should be taken in service of the story, not because it's easier to not do any research. Obviously there is a fantastical aspect to Wuxia. But when it comes to writing a world that feels "real" vs one that is obviously "fake", a lot of that comes down to not violating certain expectations. Peasants are not concerned with 行侠仗义 in ye olde times because ethical musings were mostly the purview of aristocrats and the peasants just did as they were told to avoid punishment. It's only when production got efficient enough to support a large service-based industry that people had the luxury to dedicate themselves to learning martial arts and being heroes. These are some basic cause-and-effect sociopolitical dynamics to the human condition. Free will is a myth. Our behavior is heavily shaped by the sociopolitical environment we live in. And the purpose of fiction (all fiction, including fantasy and Wuxia and Xianxia, etc.) is trying to depict the human condition.

It's just that Wuxia in specific, and when addressing 江湖 in particular, the political system which allows 江湖 to exist requires a certain type of cultural and political norm. When a story violates that norm, it starts feeling juvenile, like the author failed to consider all the complicated aspects of why human society ended up the way it is.

And yes, of course there's room for brainless entertainment. But there's also room to demand for higher quality entertainment. Just like fantasy readers demand greater sociopolitical considerations when building a fantastical world (such as the popularity of Games of Thrones coming from its feeling like a historical drama despite being a medieval Euro-fantasy), Wuxia readers are also expecting deeper and deeper research from their authors into the actual history/traditional culture and reflecting it back, albeit in a fantastical way, in the writing. The re-popularization of archaic pronouns in Wuxia is just one expression of that rising demand.