Eh, first of all, I actually kinda doubt how many people actually know about the second half of Water Margins. My impression is that the popular consciousness only emphasizes parts from that novel, like the famous 武松打虎, as standalone snippets the people are familiar with, and absent of most of the context before and after the event.
In that respect, if you boil down the many works of the wuxia genre down, it could simplify down to: takes place during imperial era + lots of martial arts / fight scenes. I wouldn't even say anti-government is required, since there are many wuxia works where the main protagonists are part of the government （四大名捕，三侠五义）. In that respect, the Water Margin does fit into the broad category.
> the Wuxia genre's hero actually makes a difference and is able to use their heroism to change how the people in government use their power, sometimes going so far as to being able to influence the emperor's ethics.
Eh... do they? There are plenty of wuxia stories with bad ends similar to Water Margins. Like, the 五鼠 in 三侠五义 all died due to being sent on suicide missions by the government. In the Condor trilogy, 郭靖 & 黄蓉 & all their followers died at Xiangyang from the Mongol army (this isn't the recent movie where the protagonist can actually talk freaking Genghis Khan into turning back his army *eyeroll*). I am hard pressed to think of any wuxia story that takes place during Song that actually influenced any real change.
Wuxia isn't also necessarily about celebrating the protagonist. I mean, there are plenty of anti-hero protagonists in the genre. Or works where the jianghu is predominantly a morally dark place (many works set in the Ming dynasty feel like they go this route, eg a lot of Gulong's works).
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Date: 2025-02-23 18:46 (UTC)In that respect, if you boil down the many works of the wuxia genre down, it could simplify down to: takes place during imperial era + lots of martial arts / fight scenes. I wouldn't even say anti-government is required, since there are many wuxia works where the main protagonists are part of the government （四大名捕，三侠五义）. In that respect, the Water Margin does fit into the broad category.
> the Wuxia genre's hero actually makes a difference and is able to use their heroism to change how the people in government use their power, sometimes going so far as to being able to influence the emperor's ethics.
Eh... do they? There are plenty of wuxia stories with bad ends similar to Water Margins. Like, the 五鼠 in 三侠五义 all died due to being sent on suicide missions by the government. In the Condor trilogy, 郭靖 & 黄蓉 & all their followers died at Xiangyang from the Mongol army (this isn't the recent movie where the protagonist can actually talk freaking Genghis Khan into turning back his army *eyeroll*). I am hard pressed to think of any wuxia story that takes place during Song that actually influenced any real change.
Wuxia isn't also necessarily about celebrating the protagonist. I mean, there are plenty of anti-hero protagonists in the genre. Or works where the jianghu is predominantly a morally dark place (many works set in the Ming dynasty feel like they go this route, eg a lot of Gulong's works).