Schools and Sects, Gangs and Guilds

Part 1 — General Overview

Note: This post is best viewed on my other site, Actual Wuxia Translations. Better formatting. The contents is the same here, though.

Definitions

First, let’s quickly define a few key terms that might crop up in later discussions.

【Jianghu 江湖】The jianghu (pronounced jyahng-hoo, the “ah” as in “ah ha!”) refers to the underworld of itinerants, people who travel about from place to place, sometimes with no fixed abode at all. Traveling doctors, entertainers, etc. By extension the term came to include people outside of polite society in general. It’s not a place but a milieu, and it includes martial artists in the martial world, Greenwood bandits in their mountain strongholds, but also the innkeepers, restauranteurs and private citizens who mingle with others in this milieu. In other words, not everyone in the jianghu is a martial artist. There’s a saying that the jianghu is wherever there are people. Think of it like the world of organized crime. For example in the The Godfather, when Michael Corleone meets with Sollozzo and McCluskey at the restaurant and shoots them both, it’s just an ordinary restaurant that any person could frequent. It’s not a special place that only gangsters hang out at. So in this context, this ordinary restaurant, at least during this meeting, is part of the jianghu.

【Martial World 武林】The martial world, or wulin, literally the “martial forest” or “martial grove”, is the community of martial artists that inhabit the jianghu. It includes members of martial arst schools and sect, members of gangs, associations, secret societies, lodges, and private castles, and strongholds, as well as members of martial arts groups that dwell in valleys, on islands, temples, etc. The martial world does not include military personnel, imperial guards (such as the Brocade Guard), or secret police from the Eastern or Western Depot. However, the martial world can include catchquicks 捕快 (constables/police) or other official personnel who mingle with the world of the jianghu. And it always includes members of armed escort agencies 鏢局. In other words, sometimes some people can go in and out of the jianghu and/or the martial world, or perhaps it’s better to say that they have one foot in the martial world and/or the jianghu, and the other foot in officialdom, be it a high-ranking official or a low-level functionary like a yamen runner. But when people in wuxia novels talk about the martial world, they’re referring generally to the members of the various organizations to be discussed in this series.

【Greenwood 綠林】What about bandits, then? Are they part of the martial world? Well, maybe. Depends on the author. Some authors include brigands in the martial world as part of the black path 黑道 (i.e., law-breakers, more on this below), while others separate bandits into the greenwood. The word literally means “green forest” and refers to outlaws who reside in the mountains and gather to either resist the government or to rob villagers or waylay travelers. Often called “greenwood goodfellows” 綠林好漢. The 108 people who band together on Mount Liang in the classic Ming novel Water Margin (aka Outlaws of the Marsh) 《水滸傳》are goodfellows of the greenwood.

【White Path 白道】The white path, or light path if you prefer (though the word is literally white) refers to law-abiding citizens, those whose professions are legal. So catchquicks (aka constables/police), escort agency guards, private bodyguards, people who work at inns, restaurants, etc. For some authors, the white path is used to refer to any good guys, but that is not strictly the case. A catchquick can do bad things, so it doesn’t technically describe one’s morality but one’s profession. This is an important distinction to remember. So what about martial arts schools? These would be white path, unless the school is outlawed for some reason. If the imperial court suddenly deems a sect illegal, such as a secret society like the White Lotus Teachings 白蓮教, then it would become black path. But generally speaking, schools and sects belong to the white path. Some authors don’t really use the terms white and black path at all, or use them sparingly.

【Black Path 黑道】The black path, or dark path. This is anyone whose profession is illegal. So all outlaws are black path. The greenwood belongs to the black path. Gambling dens, any gang that dabbles in illegal activities such as salt smuggling, prostitution, gambling, etc., are black path organizations. Doesn’t mean they are morally bad guys (I guess that’s debatable). But some protagonists are black pathers, such as Yan Tieyi 燕鐵衣, the leader of the Azure Dragon Society 青龍社 in Liu Canyang’s 柳殘陽 Yan Tieyi series. He’s the head of a gang and thus are black pathers, but they are depicted as good guys.

【Demonic Path 魔道】Bad guys are described as “demonic”. Who’s a bad guy depends on who you ask. There’s the “Demon Cult” 魔教 (actually literally Demonic Teachings), a pejorative term applied to the Teachings of Mani 摩尼教. But this group is not as prevalent in wuxia fiction as you might think. Jin Yong used it (they weren’t bad guys in Heaven Sword, Dragon Sabre though). It shows up in other authors’ work as well. But in general, the word “demon” in wuxia fiction is used as a pejorative descriptor for any bad guy, an evildoer, regardless of what organization (if any) they are affiliated with. Then again, some martial artists have “demon” as part of their nickname, and some of them are not bad guys (again, depending on who you ask). And there are many gangs and religious sects (I don’t call them cults; more on that later) that have “demon” in their name. It’s not actual demons, just a way of calling someone a bad guy, an evildoer. A fiend in the mundane sense of the word.

【Murim】MURIM IS NOT WUXIA. Once more for those in the back: MURIM IS NOT WUXIA. Korea does have wuxia, but that’s different. Murim is just cultivation novels with some superficial wuxia trappings veneered on. So murim will not be discussed further here. Everything discussed here is as it applies to wuxia, not murim.

Organizations

Now let’s list the various groups that appear in wuxia fiction. This is just a brief overview. We’ll look at a more detailed rundown of each organization in later posts in this series.

Sects and Schools 門派

Here we have a grouping of two related organizations, sometimes used interchangeably, the sect 門 (men, pronounced like it’s spelled) and the school 派 (pronounced like the food, pie, or the π symbol). Now here I should point out that these English names are my translation for these terms. You could easily swap them around and call 門 a school and 派 a sect. I use sect for 門 because a 派 is sometimes divided into different branches, called 門, and the word “sect” can refer to a schismatic group, so I thought it more fitting. However a sect 門 is not necessarily a subgroup of a school 派. And the two terms can be used interchangeably as well.

A school 派 and a sect 門 are both a martial arts school, that is a group of martial artists headed by a secthead 掌門 who presides over disciples. The secthead is also a 師父 (lit. teacher-father), often called master in English, or left romanized in pinyin as shifu if Mandarin, or sifu if Cantonese. I sometimes translate it as sectfather to show the familial connection to the disciples which is very important in the relationship. One’s shifu is like a second father, and the shifu has the same power over his disciple as a father has over his son.

But these are not schools in the sense of students attending class and being graded. Well, they can be that, and sometimes are, but usually they are just a master passing down martial arts to disciples the same as a martial arts school one attends today. In other words, they are the same as the modern day martial arts schools that are everywhere. Often there are multiple masters (shifu), which is to say that as a disciple, your master is not necessarily the secthead, though the secthead is always over the other masters.

What’s the difference between a sect and a school?

Nothing, really. Unless the sect is a branch of a school, which does happen. Different martial arts styles within a school might be divided into different sects, or a branch of a school in another location might be called a sect.

On the Chinese internet there’s an explanation that a sect is only for family members, such as the Tang Sect 唐門. While it is true that the Tang Sect is (usually) composed only of family members, it’s not true that sects are always, or even usually family-only in wuxia fiction. Basically, the author decides which term to use and how its organized and structured.

One thing to keep in mind is that “school” is used here in the sense of a particular style, as in a school of painting, a school of philosophy. So a school of martial arts. Not school as in an academy for learning. But sometimes an author does structure a school to have grades or levels and tests or tournaments to pass in order to advance. Sometimes there’s “homework” or “lessons”.

Actually, often in wuxia novels, a school or sect is little more than a name of a group that a martial artist or traveling group of martial artists is a member of, and the actual structure and headquarters of the school or sect is never described. Just oh so and so is a Qingcheng disciple, etc.

The Nine Major Martial Arts Schools 九大門派

Many wuxia authors define their martial world in part by a number of schools or sects that are bigger or more important that the others. Every author has their own list and it’s not always nine. Some have just five, six, or seven. The most famous listing is that of author Wolong Sheng 臥龍生, who in his 1958 novel Flying Swallows Startle the Dragon《飛燕驚龍》defined his martial world with the following nine major martial arts schools:

• Shaolin 少林派

• Wudang 武當派

• Qingcheng 青城派

• Mount Hua 華山派

• Kunlun 崑崙派

• Kongtong 崆峒派

• Diancang 點蒼派

• Emei 峨嵋派

• Snowy Mountain 雪山派

These nine schools became some of the most commonly used schools in wuxia fiction, adopted by many other authors. Though in fact, earlier authors had used some of these schools in their fiction before, but Wolong Sheng was the first to specifically delineate and define his martial world with such a listing. Other authors followed suit, substituting different schools.

As you can see here, all of these schools are named after a mountain, except for Shaolin which is the name of a monastery. Schools typically use mountains they are associated with for their names, such as the Changbai School 長白派 or the Mount Huang School 黃山派 or the Zhongnan School 終南派. Though there’s no rule that a school must be named after geography.

Sect names are much more varied. Could also be named after geography, family surname, martial arts style, etc. We’ll look into that more in a future post, as well as a more detailed look at the nine major martial arts schools and some other well-known schools and sects and how different authors structure or organize them.

Gangs and Guilds 幫會

This grouping contains a few terms that sometimes are more or less the same:

• Gangs (or Guilds) 幫

• Associations or Gatherings 會

• Societies 社

• Lodges or Halls 堂

• Teachings (or Cults) 教

• Palaces 宮

【Gangs or Guilds 幫】We all know what a gang is. But actually all the terms above refer to gangs of some kind of another. Or a guild. What’s the difference? Well, a guild of course is law-abiding, perhaps even established by the government. In real life, the Beggar Guild was such an organization. We’ll get into that more later. In wuxia fiction, the Beggar Guild is basically just another gang, though they tend to be good guys. Some authors instead call this group the Impoverished Gang (or Poor Family Gang) 窮家幫. But it’s the same thing.

Gangs can have all kinds of names and some are depicted as good guys, some as bad guys. The Heavenly Dragon Gang 天龍幫 is the main antagonist of Wolong Sheng’s above-mentioned Flying Swallows Startle the Dragon. The dragon in the title is that gang.

Gangs often have branches and there are various terms for that and the leaders of them, such as Altarmaster, Incensemaster, etc. More on that in a future post on gangs. Gangs are headed by a chief or head 幫主.

【Associations or Gatherings 會】Associations are the same as gangs, just a different name.

【Societies 社】Same as gangs and associations, just different name. Note that association for 會 and society for 社 is just my translation; you could swap them out. For example, Graham Earnshaw in his translation of Jin Yong’s The Book and the Sword 《書劍恩仇錄》translates 紅花會 as Red Flower Society, though it uses the word 會 (association) instead of 社 (society). It’s up to you how you want to translate it. There’s really no difference in how they function. These groups are sometimes led by a Helmsman 舵主, as in the case of the Red Flower Society.

【Lodges or Halls 堂】This word in Cantonese is Tong, a word for real-life gangs including Chinese gangs in foreign countries. It literally means “hall” as in a hallroom. I like the term lodge because it puts one in mind of, for example, the Masonic Lodge. All of the above gangs, associations, socities, and lodges may have religious or quasi-religious rites, rules, structures, etc. They are modeled on real life Chinese gangs, such as The Bamboo Union, the Four Seas Gang, the Heaven and Earth Society (or Hongmen), or the Green Gang.

Lodges or halls are headed by Hallmasters (or Lodgemasters) 堂主. A hall might also be the name of a branch of a larger gang. It’s all up to the author’s discretion.

【Teachings or Cults 教】This is a religious sect. Almost always translated as “cult”, but let me push back against that for a moment. The word “cult” is pejorative. It has negative connotations. It’s not what any group would call itself. So it often does not make sense to me to name a group Such-and-Such Cult because why would they call themselves a cult? Cult is a word that others use to name a group they dislike. No Christian group would call themselves a cult, for example, but those who don’t like Christian groups might.

So “Demon Cult” as a name for the Teachings of Mani 摩尼教 makes sense if it’s outsiders calling them that. Doesn’t make sense for the group to call themselves that. The name comes from the fact that the 摩 in Mani was in Medieval Chinese originally pronounced the same as Demon 魔. It was pronounced “Ma”. But now, in Mandarin, demon is pronounced “Mo” (you pronounce this by placing an M sound in front of the “wo” in “woman”; it’s not Mo as in Moe the bartender). So to put down the Teachings of Mani sect, it was called the Demonic Teachings instead. 教 (jiao, pronounced jyow, one syllable) means teachings.

The thing is, if you translate jiao as “cult” every time, then what are you going to do about Quanzhen? That’s the Daoist school and in real life and in wuxia novels is called 全真教 (Quanzhen Teachings, or the Teachings of Complete Perfection). They aren’t bad guys, how could you call them a cult? Though on the other hand, they are a religious sect just like any other that might be called a cult. So I prefer to just translate what the word actually means rather than resort to paraphrase.

The problem is, in wuxia fiction jiao really is used mostly in a negative context as a name for a heterodox religious sect. Usually bad guys. In other words, the author often is clearly thinking of the organization as a “cult”, so why not translate it that way?

Indeed.

It’s really difficult if not impossible to remain consistent in one’s translation principles. Play it by ear.

【Palaces 宮】These are temples or other organizations, sometimes all female. Functions basically like a gang though. More on these in a future post.

Castles and Fortresses 城堡

The Chinese word for castle is 城堡, composed of 城 (lit. city wall, also the word for city) and 堡 (fortress, a fortified city of village, a military fort). There’s many ways to go about translating these terms into English. Obviously below are my choices.

• Castles or Fortresses 堡

• Citadels 城

• Stockades or Strongholds 寨

• Waterside Stockades or Strongholds 水寨

• Mountain Villas 山莊

• Manors 莊

• Pavilions 閣

• Lofts 樓

These are all functionally the same. They’re all fortified private residences. Often the owner of the place has his own disciples and/or hired retainers to act as guards or goons as the case may be. These are not entirely fictional. Lords during the Warring States period kept their own retainers, a private army if you will. And I was just reading the other day about a bandit in the Ming dynasty who had a huge fortified residence and his own personal army. But all these terms are mostly the same, so just a brief word on each. We’ll dive deeper into castles and strongholds in a future post.

【Castles or Fortresses 堡】This is possible the most common term. It’s used a lot, by most authors. The names of such places vary widely, named after the family surname, a martial arts style, or something unrelated. They are castles, not just with fortified walls (the Chinese used rammed earth faced with stone or brick, allowing the walls to be much thicker than European castles, and stronger; the wall faces also inclined, deflecting straight impacts) but also moats and drawbridges, often other booby traps in and outside the castle. The walls on all these terms enclose the entire estate, all the buildings within the walls.

Castles are headed by a Castlelord of Fortmaster 堡主. Some castles are merely the headquarters and namesake of a larger gang with branch offices in other locations. Thus, their structure follows that of gangs listed above. Others are just a single private residence, for example a badass martial arts hero and his disciples or retainers. Usually there is a steward 總管 who manages the castle’s affairs. This is the same for all the other terms in this section as well.

【Citadels 城】Same thing as castles or fortresses, only it’s a different word so I need a different word to translate it. I choose citadel because the word is the same as the word for city and citadel literally means “little city” in its diminutive Old Italian form. So it seems a good fit. Headed by a 城主, which I would translate probably still as Castlelord. Citadel Lord would be too many syllables for my liking. But you do you.

【Stockades or Strongholds 寨】I tend to prefer stronghold as a translation just because I like the way it sounds, but I need to point out that the word literally is stockade. That is, an enclosure made of palisades, which are walls made of wood palings or posts. Some people just call the whole thing a palisade, but technically palisade is just the wall. And enclosure of such walls is a stockade.

That’s what a 寨 (zhai, pronounced jai as in Michael Jai White) is. These strongholds are used mainly by bandits in the mountains or forests, but they don’t have to be. They are generally constructed of palisades. Headed by a Chief 寨主.

【Waterside Stockades or Strongholds 水寨】Same as above, only waterside strongholds are placed at the water’s edge, such as the edge of a marsh, a riverbank, etc. Otherwise it’s the same.

【Mountain Villas 山莊】A private residence, often fortified but not always, in the mountains or countryside. Headed by a Manorlord 莊主. Functionally the same as a castle or citadel. Very common in wuxia novels.

【Manor 莊】Same as a mountain villa, only it could be anywhere. Often on the outskirts of a city or in the countryside, but it could be within a city as well. Sometimes fortified, sometimes not. It’s a private residence. A mansion. All the buildings, gardens, etc. are enclosed within a wall though, whether it’s fortified or not. All Chinese cities are walled (if it’s not walled it’s not a city) and one’s residence is like one’s own personal city. If you’re wealthy enough, that is. Martial artists in wuxia novels tend to be wealthy. Though how is not always explained. Headed by a Manorlord as above.

【Pavilions 閣】 Same as all of the above, basically. Just a different name. A 閣 (ge, pronounced “guh”) is a multistoried building with a gallery running along the outside of the second-story walls, windowed all around, providing a great view. That’s technically what it is. In practice it’s a name that could be placed on damn near anything, including temples, ones that don’t have said gallery.

【Loft 樓】Same as above. What I’m translating as “loft” can be applied to any multistoried building. In China, in the old days, buildings rarely exceeded two stories, except pagodas or course, which is 塔 (ta, pronounced “tah”). 樓 is lou, pronounced “low”. Loft is used in the names of residences, pleasure quarters, and perhaps most commonly, restaurtants. If there is a titled head, it is 樓主. I dunno I never had to translate that one. I’d probably just go with Master or something. Loftmaster? Eh…

Islands and Valleys 島谷

There are other organizations that are simply named after their location, often on an island or in a valley.

【Islands 島】It’s a group on an island. Sometimes a group has some other name and is just on an island. How it’s structured varies widely. Nameless Island 無名島 is the setting in an epynomous novel by Dongfang Yu.

【Valleys 谷】Same as above, but these are much more common in wuxia novels. The structure and organization of it varies widely. Like Lost Soul Valley 亡魂谷 (in Yun Zhongyue’s novel The Endless Jianghu Road《天涯江湖路》 ) or Netherworld Valley 幽冥谷 (name of a Yuwen Yaoji novel).

White Path Organizations

• Armed Escort Agencies 鏢局

• Six Doors 六扇門

• Inns 客棧

• Dynastic Houses 世家

• Temples and Monasteries 觀寺廟

【Armed Escort Agencies 鏢局】A company akin to Wells Fargo or some other armored truck security company, like those ones that deliver money to banks and other establishments. Beginning apparently in the late Ming dynasty but flourishing in the Qing, these companies escorted goods, money, or people to wherever they were paid to go, and they did so under armed guard.

Often what happens in a wuxia novel is the goods being escorted get stolen. The most famous escort agency of course is in Bai Yu’s 白羽 novel Twelve Coin Darts《十二金錢鏢》, named after the specialty weapon of the company’s owner, Yu Jianping 俞劍平.

Headed by an Escort Chief of Head 總鏢頭. The escort guards are 鏢頭 or 鏢師. They often are on horseback. Then their are runners or footmen 趟子手 (lit. travelhands or journeyhands) who run in front and alongside of the carts or carriages escorting the goods. More on escort agencies in a future post.

【Six Doors 六扇門】This is a colloquial name for the local yamen 衙門, the administrative center of a locale. In wuxia fiction Six Doors refers to a police force, sometimes the regular government one, sometimes a special one that only deals with martial world/jianghu affairs. It’s called Six Doors after the number of doors the yamen building has—six. Three sets of double doors. 六扇門, liushanmen, literally means six door leaves. The policeman are usually called 捕快, which I render as catchquick, a literal explanation that matches the colloquial, unofficial Chinese term. Most people translate it as constable. In wuxia fiction they are police detectives, basically. In real life they were menial functionaries who had basically no salary and had to resort to corruption to make a living. And in real life they didn’t do investigations, they just went out and arrested whoever the magistrate told them to. It was the magistrate who did the investigating. But in wuxia novels the catchquick is a detective, often a famous one who always gets his man. See, for example Shen Ying in The Bloody Bridal Chamber by Ximen Ding.

【Inns 客棧】It’s an inn. Nothing special here, but they are ubiquitous in wuxia novels so I wanted to mention it. Besides lodging they also serve food and drink. You know the wuxia movie Dragon Inn (aka Dragon Gate Inn)? That movie takes place in an inn, obviously. A lot of fights go down in inns, just like saloons in westerns.

【Dynastic Houses 世家】You could also call these hereditary houses, these are famous martial arts families. I could have included this in the Schools and Sects section actually, because that’s basically what it is. They will of course live in some sort of castle or manor or mountain villa. The rule is you have to have three generations of martial artists (blood relatives) to count as a dynastic house. The archetypal one is House Nangong from Wolong Sheng’s novel The Fair Hand Affair《素手劫》, 1963. The most well-known one is Jin Yong’s House Murong from 《天龍八部》Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils.

【Temples and Monasteries 觀寺廟】Monasteries, abbeys, temples, Buddhist, Daoist, what-have-you. These are place names mostly, but they could house martial artists, such as Shaolin. A lot of plot goes down in temples, abandoned or otherwise. Li Yingqiong 李英瓊 gets her famous sword (which is literally a purple dragon that transforms into the blade) in an abandoned, rundown temple complex in Huanzhu Louzhu’s seminal wuxia novel 《蜀山劍俠傳》Sword Xia of the Shu Mountains.

Conclusion

I’ve probably forgotten something, but if I did I’ll come back and amend this post. For now let this serve as a brief (ha!) introduction to the various organizations you’ll encounter in wuxia fiction. In the future I will look at each of these categories in greater detail, using excerpts from multiple authors to illustrate how these groups are actually used in wuxia novels.

Until then,

Lone Crane