Note 1: This is NOT a list of character skills, just a list of xianxia terms in Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (GDC) aka Mo Dao Zu Shi (MDZS) that are likely to come up in tags, so I might as well give a brief explanation of them.
Note 2: This is by no means a full list of what goes on in canon, just a primer I slapped together from reading the GDC book-- the novels published by Seven Seas have glossaries at the back-- and other xianxia novels and comics, and a bit of extra research to fill in some gaps. There are people who have done even deeper dives into the genre, like whoever runs the Immortal Mountain site. If I made a mistake somewhere or the official translations contradict anything I've already written, I'll make the necessary edits.
Note 3: I'm a Southeast Asian of Chinese descent living in a Southeast Asian country with close historical and cultural ties to China. Some of the Chinese culture prevalent in this region has changed over time and distance, but the roots are still the same, so I try to write what knowledge I do have in ways I understand them to make them more accessible.
A concept in wuxia, xianxia and related works wherein a person trains in specific ways, usually to become the strongest in the world or attain immortality.
Practitioners aka cultivators hone their martial arts, develop supernatural skills like telekinesis and superspeed, adhere to religious or spiritual beliefs like Buddhism or Taoism, dabble in alchemy, and constantly push themselves to their physical and mental limits in order to increase the qi or life energy in their bodies. All these practices (and more) hone their bodies, martial arts and supernatural powers stronger, and pushes them closer to their goal. This is also why many cultivators look 20-30 (and conventionally attractive by East Asian standards) and rarely get sick-- their practices slow their physical aging and keep them at excellent health, and truly powerful individuals can reverse said aging. Or "rebuild" their bodies, which returns them to their physical prime while removing any flaws that their bodies had.
Why the word "cultivation"? Short answer: I think was a translation choice made for wuxia and xianxia novels that predate GDC. Long answer: The original texts in Chinese (Mandarin) use words that literally translate to "training/building (the body)", and "training to immortality". Meanwhile, "cultivate" has meanings other than raising plants-- it can also mean "to foster the growth of" and "to improve [something] by labor". With this in mind, the word "cultivation" in the context of xianxia means "improving oneself" or "acquiring a skill", which convey a similar meaning to the originals without translating literally.
Basically, cultivation is not just the martial arts or powers, practices, beliefs, or the person's overall strength, but all of these combined. You can absolutely call it magic, I tend to call it a magic system for stories set in high fantasy ancient China. Cultivation mechanics can differ depending on the author, and the author for GDC made a lot of changes to the basics.
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cultivation
Practitioners aka cultivators hone their martial arts, develop supernatural skills like telekinesis and superspeed, adhere to religious or spiritual beliefs like Buddhism or Taoism, dabble in alchemy, and constantly push themselves to their physical and mental limits in order to increase the qi or life energy in their bodies. All these practices (and more) hone their bodies, martial arts and supernatural powers stronger, and pushes them closer to their goal. This is also why many cultivators look 20-30 (and conventionally attractive by East Asian standards) and rarely get sick-- their practices slow their physical aging and keep them at excellent health, and truly powerful individuals can reverse said aging. Or "rebuild" their bodies, which returns them to their physical prime while removing any flaws that their bodies had.
Why the word "cultivation"? Short answer: I think was a translation choice made for wuxia and xianxia novels that predate GDC. Long answer: The original texts in Chinese (Mandarin) use words that literally translate to "training/building (the body)", and "training to immortality". Meanwhile, "cultivate" has meanings other than raising plants-- it can also mean "to foster the growth of" and "to improve [something] by labor". With this in mind, the word "cultivation" in the context of xianxia means "improving oneself" or "acquiring a skill", which convey a similar meaning to the originals without translating literally.
Basically, cultivation is not just the martial arts or powers, practices, beliefs, or the person's overall strength, but all of these combined. You can absolutely call it magic, I tend to call it a magic system for stories set in high fantasy ancient China. Cultivation mechanics can differ depending on the author, and the author for GDC made a lot of changes to the basics.