ReignWulin:Wulin Culture

Meaning of Wulin

In the wuxia genre, the rigidly conservative culture of historical China has a chaotic and freewheeling counterpart - the "Jiang Hu" underworld. "Jiang Hu" literally means "rivers and lakes" and originated as reference to the lawlessness of far frontier regions of the empire, where bandit gangs and clans fought and kept their own rough idea of order in the absence of the officials. The term "Jiang Hu" has since evolved from its literal reference to the frontiers to a general idea of the underbelly of Chinese society - criminals, beggars, wandering performers, anyone who doesn't "fit in" the strict mainstream culture is considered part of the "Jiang Hu", which shouldn't be understood as implying unsavoriness so much as "wildness" or "separate from polite society". A brutal bandit who robs, rapes and kills travellers on the road is a member of Jiang Hu, but so is a pure-hearted itinerant monk who plays chess for his supper.

"Wulin" is a term for a subset of the Jiang Hu, that has been variously translated as "the world of martial arts", "the pugilistic fraternity" and "the circle of warriors". The Wulin is a counterculture of martial artists who are organized into gangs and sects, operate in a way totally removed from the official authorities (resolving their disputes amoung themselves), and prize their own specific code of honor. During times of foreign invasion and conquest many of the Wulin sects, which are already institutions organized around combat training, become the heads of popular rebellions against the foreign rulers. And for this reason, the Wulin as a whole is persecuted by the Yuan Dynasty when it comes to power.

Although there is much in-fighting between the various gangs and sects, the members of the Wulin generally feel a strong sense of brotherhood with each on the basis of their shared counterculture lifestyle. A Wulin fighter will often offer hospitality and assistance to another member of the Wulin simply on the basis of "since we are both in the world of martial arts". Anyone who competes in the Wulin and operates by its codes can be considered part of the Wulin - even Mongolian fighters compete in some tournaments! The Wulin does not care about your race (or sex - you would never see a woman in a Song, Jin or Yuan army but no one raises an eyebrow at the sight of a woman fighting in the Wulin), only about your skills and your respect for the code of the errantry.

Code of the Errantry

• Characters of the pugilistic often harbor no admiration for one another on the first meeting, but tact and face made public aggression improper. Thus, they would often reach out for a handshake in the guise of friendliness, but in actuality it was a duel of sorts. It was not unusual for the inferior fighter to have his bones broken and his hand swollen, or beg for mercy when the pain became too much. Ma Yu only thought that Peng Lian Hu was practicing the old pugilistic habit of being friendly on the surface but secretly appraising each other's strength.
• She saw that the way Xiao Longnu and Yang Guo treated each other was like a couple in love, but they said they were Master and disciple, could it be that the two act in a manner contrary to the norm and have actually intermixed the relationships? This was something that was extremely hard to believe, she thought that although Yang Guo may not be a man of honour, he would not do such a thing as this. The Song respect tradition above all; the relationship between Master and disciple were like that of an emperor and his minister, a father and son, they can never intermix.
• According to the rules of Jianghu, if a person stops pursuing a matter and sets a date later on to resolve it, and the persons involved meet during the time period, they must not settle their issues there and then, they must wait for the agreed date.
• According to the rules of Jianghu, without the consent of your teacher, one must not have another teacher, even if that other teacher is ten times more skilled than their teacher. You are not allowed to do as you please and spread your wings whenever you want; to do so, they will have committed one of the worst offences there is. They will be despised by their peers in the Jianghu world. When Guo Jing took the Jiangnan Seven Freaks as his masters, and later learned from Hong Qigong, he didn’t call him master. Only later did Ke Zhen E and the others allow this and he and Hong Qigong had a master disciple relationship.
• According to seniority, Hao Datong was one level above Xiao Longnu and out of respect for dueling with a senior, Xiao Longnu should hold back on the first three moves.
• Duels: The Wulin is a culture devoted, above all, to the development of martial arts skill. A victory that is won through superior numbers or equipment is considered meaningless and dishonorable. When matters come to blows in the Wulin, the situation usually becomes a formal one on one duel, almost always without armor and usually without weapons. If one opposing force outnumbers the other, the remainder will stand by in reserve to take the place of anyone who falls. Not only would it lose honor for your sect to double-team, a bystander intervening would be showing disrespect for their sect brother by implying that his skills are inadequate to handle himself. Most duels are not to the death or even intended to cause much lasting injury (the skills of most in the Wulin are sufficient to fight with lethal weapons without risk of seriously injuring each other) - the goal is to force your opponent to acknowledge defeat and lose face. Killing an opponent in a duel is considered murder unless the duel was necessitated by grevious crimes on their part. Needless to say, attacking an opponent from surprise is considered extremely unchivalrous.
• Face: Face is perhaps the most important commodity in the Wulin community. Every time combatants duel, Face is on the line in addition to the explicit stakes. Injuries against an opponent's Face are taken at least as seriously as physical wounds. A combatant who insists on using nothing but bare palms in a duel against a sword-wielding opponent, for example, is aggressively offending his opponent by trying to cause him the maximum damage to Face possible when he wins the match under this disadvantage. On the other hand, a martial artist who needs to win a duel but wishes to avoid lasting resentment from his opponent may try to minimize the amount of Face lost by his opponent, by humbly presenting the pretense that his victory was narrow or making excuses for why his opponent wasn't in a position to fight at full capability. This generosity is the sort of thing that can make the difference between a powerful martial artist being truly respected in the Wulin instead of simply feared.
• Respect: Chinese culture prizes filial piety as one of the greatest virtues. Within the Wulin subculture this passion for filial piety is often transferred from one's birth parents to one's shifu, partly because many Wulin fighters are adopted into their sects from the outside world at a young age and literally raised by their sect, and partly because the years of training required to attain gongfu mastery is a much more demanding and intense relationship than one has to one's parents. The end result, is that a student is expected to treat his shifu with total deference and obey orders from him without hesitation or backtalk. In the less orthodox sects there may be less formality involved this relationship but the basic principle of respect and obedience will still hold. An important element of this relationship is the idea that your shifu "owns" the gongfu he has taught you, and to reveal the secrets of his techniques to others without his permission is akin to stealing from him - a terrible sin.
• Loyalty: Another highly prized virtue within Chinese culture is loyalty. To be considered truly righteous, one's loyalty to one's sect should be above question, and treason against your sect is considered the most despicable crime, more worthy of death than rape or murder. A Wulin fighter should also show loyalty to her race by not selling out to and cooperating with hostile foreign powers. In addition to group loyalties such as these, personal loyalty to one's friends is considered a lofty and noble sentiment. Fighters in the Wulin who have grown especially close friendships will often "swear brotherhood", and many legends of the Wulin revolve around sworn brothers so loyal to each other that they forsook their standing in the Wulin or even their own lives rather than betray each other.
• Justice: Those who commit crimes need to be held to answer for them. Within the Jiang Hu underworld, the laws of the reigning dynasty government are considered pretty irrelevant, as the official forces lack the power to bring criminals to justice if they also happen to be highly skilled gongfu masters. Protecting the innocent and holding the guilty accountable is the responsibility of anyone with the strength necessary to do so. This means aggrieved common people will often petition members of the Wulin to right wrongs for them, and to an extent a Wulin fighter is expected to take care of such things. A darker side to this principle of justice is that a member of the Wulin who has been wronged himself is expected to personally take his own revenge - and that failing to punish someone who has transgressed against you can lead to loss of Face for yourself.
• Honor: A proper Wulin fighter will never break his sworn word of honor, not even if he has been tricked and his words are twisted against him. Also, it is considered proper to scrupulously note when others perform favors for you, and consider yourself obligated to them until you can perform a similar favor for them in the future. Note that for this reason, Wulin fighters are often reluctant to request favors from members of other sects, even those with which they have good relations, because they will suffer a loss of Face until the requested favor has been repaid in kind.

Face

Face is your level of prestige within the Wulin culture. It is not the same thing as general fame - a reclusive hermit of a martial arts master could have his name unknown to virtually all of the common people and the government regime, but if he shows up at tournaments to compete then he will have a level of Face relative to his deeds. And similarly, even though a high ranking general may be one of the most famous and influential figures within his region, commanding ten thousand soldiers, that doesn't translate into Face within the Wulin.

Face is not even a reputation for sheer power and fight record, either. A totally undefeated master who lives a reclusive and hermit-like lifestyle will enjoy less Face than a master who heads a sect, governs it with wisdom and grace, and passes on his skills to multiple generations of disciples who go on to earn their own Face on their own accomplishments. Face is partly earned by the journey to martial arts mastery, but once one reaches the level of a master, further Face is a matter of "giving back" to the Wulin community.