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.
Also known as a jindan, it's a golden orb that sits in either the belly or the solar plexus (GDC's live action puts it in the former, and the animation puts it in the latter). It's the crystallization of qi in one's body and acts like the beating heart of a cultivator's qi system, storing qi and sending it through the body at the cultivator's will. Golden cores are always accompanied by meridians, which are pathways that deliver qi from the core to various parts of the body, and three dantian, which are extra energy centers that refine qi for specific uses.
The strength of a golden core determines the strength of the cultivator, and there are many factors that go into determining the core's strength, such as how long the cultivator has been training and the techniques they use, but it also depends on the individual's talent. Most cultivators agree that a person has to start early in order to have a decent golden core in adulthood-- and when they mean "early", they mean as a child. It's as if one's physical growth has a massive impact on the development of the golden core. If someone starts as an older teen or an adult, they don't accumulate as much qi and end up being a mediocre cultivator, or they just don't form a core at all. There have been cases where late starters managed to cultivate powerful cores, though they don't look as youthful as their peers who started younger.
The golden core is typically not affected by anything that happens to the cultivator's body outside of specialized techniques, which is a boon because of the action-packed nature of xianxia fiction. However, if it's gone then it's gone, and the cultivator either dies from the shock (techniques that affect it are often extremely violent), or becomes a mundane human again. For its part, GDC goes further than just saying "it's the center of qi" and really treats it like an organ-- it can be transplanted into someone else if the doctor is really good, though the chances of the donor and receiver dying are 50/50.
The traditional type of qi that GDC cultivators use, which uses just the qi they have accumulated in their bodies. The primary way for cultivators to accumulate spiritual qi is to absorb it from their surroundings through meditation, because spiritual qi is an energy that flows through all living things, even in the atmosphere, it might as well be the default state of qi. Other xianxia works also introduce herbal medicine created from magical fauna and flora using alchemy that do the same job, but said medicine doesn't seem to exist in GDC. Or maybe it does, and no one wants to admit to using performance-enhancing drugs.
This method of cultivation is considered the orthodox way, and their culture tends to consider cultivation using other sorts of qi as unacceptable or taboo (usually for good reason).
"Orthodox" doesn't always mean good, and "unorthodox" doesn't always mean evil, though. "Orthodox" simply means that the practice is more socially accepted, sometimes with a long history of being associated with good, righteous people. Unorthodox practices allow cultivators to gain unique powers very quickly, but they're always risking themselves or bringing harm to others hence the bad but justified reputation, while orthodox practices take a long time to show results, but are safer. Of course, this means that orthodox cultivators don't look kindly on unorthodox cultivators, and fighting one to bring them to justice is considered acceptable by GDC's cultivators.
A GDC-only mechanic developed by Wei Wuxian, the story's protagonist. Also called gui dao, this cultivation practice uses qi from dead humans to cast spells, and is considered unorthodox.
Qi that comes from the dead is called resentful energy or resentment due to it being generated by/from negative feelings, unjust deaths, grudges, unresolved problems, and accumulated bad karma, to name a few. A dead person can also develop resentful energy if they were disrespected in death, such as not being buried properly, their killer remaining unpunished, or having their remains desecrated. In all cases, the dead person can linger as a spirit, who can then either haunt the area or the living, or transform into a more violent ghost or monster. Meanwhile, the bodies can become undead, and become a danger to cultivators and civilians alike.
Cultivators of this path can speak to spirits directly, and commandeer human corpses like puppets, regardless of if there's a spirit inside it. If you're reading this and saying "hey, that sounds like necromancy!"... Yeah, it's necromancy, just through a Taoist lens.
This cultivation is more accessible than orthodox practices because a golden core is not needed to practice it, the qi is from external sources after all. There's just one issue: resentful energy, no matter where it comes from, corrupts anyone manipulating it, making them irrational and violent... or offers them an outlet for their darker tendencies, if they were already inclined that way. It's also not uncommon for cultivators to die violently from prolonged practice (see: Qi deviation). If someone has been cultivating with resentful energy, reversing the problems is nigh impossible without outside help, which is one of the reasons it's considered unorthodox. Of course, the main reason why it's unorthodox is because it involves desecrating the dead.
The ghost path is usually conflated with demonic cultivation or mo dao, especially to discredit and/or demonize Wei Wuxian, so without clarifying that someone means a certain cultivation path specifically, both terms are interchangeable for most people in GDC. It doesn't help that later on, fans of Wei Wuxian emerge using actual demonic cultivation (using resentment harvested from living humans, or living humans that turned into demons) and can perform the same things he does, which further muddies the waters. This is also why the title of the story is what it is.
The state in which someone's qi becomes so unstable that it can outright destroy their body, which almost always leads to death unless there's a specialized healer on hand. There's almost no way to anticipate a qi deviation until it's almost too late, when the cultivator starts to bleed from all the orifices on their face. The most common causes of qi deviation are poisoning, curses, exposure to dangerous qi (like resentful energy), poor physical condition or illness, and flawed or incomplete techniques.
Other xianxia works also state that extreme emotional distress or shock can cause qi deviation, though that's not the case for GDC (even if it's a common meme in the fandom because our protagonist is a gremlin, there's a reason why the live action is called "The Untamed").
Unless specifically stated, these are all GDC-only concepts because wuxia and xianxia usually don't concern themselves with the dead or necromancy-like powers. In general, the earlier the body is reanimated after death, the stronger the undead is, and are capable of smelling blood even if they don't breathe. They can't heal, requiring intervention if they're damaged, but it's implied that they don't rot (but they do stink, depending on the body's deterioration when they were turned undead).
Walking corpses are the most basic undead, the shambling zombie in so many stories-- the only difference between GDC's walking corpses and zombies in other media is that they're not motivated by an instinct to eat brains. Or motivated by much, really. They might haul ass for blood, but their "hauling ass" isn't too threatening. Because of this, they're the easiest type of corpse for orthodox cultivators to defeat, and for demonic cultivators to control.
Fierce corpses are stronger and more ferocious than walking corpses due to their high amounts of resentment, which makes them ideal tools for demonic cultivators, but that also makes them difficult to defeat or control-- even one lapse in concentration can spell disaster for any cultivator. Because of the resentment, it's not unusual for a fierce corpse to act on the emotions that created that resentment in the first place, like attacking someone they wanted revenge on, or attempting to fulfill their final wish. Fierce corpses are also the ones that can regain their sentience by having their souls returned to them-- it's unknown if it's possible with the others, or if the high levels of resentment have something to do with the process.
Hopping corpses are the typical corpses seen in Chinese folklore and older Chinese media, also known as jiangshi. Because of their stiff limbs, they can only hop around, giving them their name. In GDC, they can only be created through corpse poisoning, an illness that develops when someone inhales the toxic blood or powder that a walking corpse emits when cut, or if they're wounded by a walking corpse. The illness acts quickly, but an easy non-cultivator remedy is glutinous rice, either by eating it as congee or applying the rice directly onto the wound.
Living corpses are created from humans who hadn't died yet, to avoid the stiff limbs and slow movement that the other types have. Some living corpses also don't realize that they're dead and act the way they did in life. It's said that a demonic cultivator (like, an actual one, not someone following the ghost path) first developed them, but the only one we ever see was created through corpse poisoning, so we don't know for sure what the actual process is.
Puppets are a live action-only concept-- depictions of undead are currently forbidden in Chinese media, so this is the live action's answer to the censorship. They have all the hallmarks of a fierce corpse, but have lost their souls and are still slightly alive rather than completely dead. They can't be returned to full health though, and are treated exactly like the novel's fierce corpses.
Also known as "fu" or "seal", talismans are spiritual tools with various uses. They're typically written on strips of yellow paper and contain their own special script derived from Taoist symbols, so only Taoists, dedicated scholars, or talisman makers can make sense of them-- GDC's cultivators usually just memorize the characters and call it a day. However, talismans are a one-time use because they burn up after the effects are over, hence why it's preferable to have a lot of them on hand. Most talismans are written in red due to cinnabar, which was the traditional writing instrument used for these in real life because it's considered sacred and a powerful source of protective energies in Chinese culture. They can be written in other materials as well, such as ink and blood, but cinnabar is the most common material.
They are more accessible than the usual spells and skills of a cultivator, and to create one on the go, a cultivator just has to be able to have a lot of sheets of blank paper (or any surface that accepts ink or paint), and think fast and write faster. A large amount of spiritual qi on the cultivator's part isn't needed either-- and if Wei Wuxian's Yiling Patriarch days are any indication, it's likely that none is needed at all, perhaps there are talismans that can run on resentment. There's a talisman for almost anything, such as explosions, physical restraint, lighting, power suppression, and even teleportation. And if there's not, then either it will exist eventually, or there's an array instead.
Arrays, also known as spell formations, are large patterns and symbols written on the ground-- or the wall, or the ceiling, or even not written, but a collection of items arranged in a certain manner-- not unlike the magic circles that are common in fantasy media featuring Western magic. When activated, an array continuously casts whatever spell it was created for until either the lines of the array are ruined, or blood is spilled on it-- a common use for them is to create a spiritual barrier to protect whatever is inside... or contain it.
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mechanics/powers
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.
golden core
The strength of a golden core determines the strength of the cultivator, and there are many factors that go into determining the core's strength, such as how long the cultivator has been training and the techniques they use, but it also depends on the individual's talent. Most cultivators agree that a person has to start early in order to have a decent golden core in adulthood-- and when they mean "early", they mean as a child. It's as if one's physical growth has a massive impact on the development of the golden core. If someone starts as an older teen or an adult, they don't accumulate as much qi and end up being a mediocre cultivator, or they just don't form a core at all. There have been cases where late starters managed to cultivate powerful cores, though they don't look as youthful as their peers who started younger.
The golden core is typically not affected by anything that happens to the cultivator's body outside of specialized techniques, which is a boon because of the action-packed nature of xianxia fiction. However, if it's gone then it's gone, and the cultivator either dies from the shock (techniques that affect it are often extremely violent), or becomes a mundane human again. For its part, GDC goes further than just saying "it's the center of qi" and really treats it like an organ-- it can be transplanted into someone else if the doctor is really good, though the chances of the donor and receiver dying are 50/50.
spiritual energy
This method of cultivation is considered the orthodox way, and their culture tends to consider cultivation using other sorts of qi as unacceptable or taboo (usually for good reason).
"Orthodox" doesn't always mean good, and "unorthodox" doesn't always mean evil, though. "Orthodox" simply means that the practice is more socially accepted, sometimes with a long history of being associated with good, righteous people. Unorthodox practices allow cultivators to gain unique powers very quickly, but they're always risking themselves or bringing harm to others hence the bad but justified reputation, while orthodox practices take a long time to show results, but are safer. Of course, this means that orthodox cultivators don't look kindly on unorthodox cultivators, and fighting one to bring them to justice is considered acceptable by GDC's cultivators.
ghost path & demonic cultivation
Qi that comes from the dead is called resentful energy or resentment due to it being generated by/from negative feelings, unjust deaths, grudges, unresolved problems, and accumulated bad karma, to name a few. A dead person can also develop resentful energy if they were disrespected in death, such as not being buried properly, their killer remaining unpunished, or having their remains desecrated. In all cases, the dead person can linger as a spirit, who can then either haunt the area or the living, or transform into a more violent ghost or monster. Meanwhile, the bodies can become undead, and become a danger to cultivators and civilians alike.
Cultivators of this path can speak to spirits directly, and commandeer human corpses like puppets, regardless of if there's a spirit inside it. If you're reading this and saying "hey, that sounds like necromancy!"... Yeah, it's necromancy, just through a Taoist lens.
This cultivation is more accessible than orthodox practices because a golden core is not needed to practice it, the qi is from external sources after all. There's just one issue: resentful energy, no matter where it comes from, corrupts anyone manipulating it, making them irrational and violent... or offers them an outlet for their darker tendencies, if they were already inclined that way. It's also not uncommon for cultivators to die violently from prolonged practice (see: Qi deviation). If someone has been cultivating with resentful energy, reversing the problems is nigh impossible without outside help, which is one of the reasons it's considered unorthodox. Of course, the main reason why it's unorthodox is because it involves desecrating the dead.
The ghost path is usually conflated with demonic cultivation or mo dao, especially to discredit and/or demonize Wei Wuxian, so without clarifying that someone means a certain cultivation path specifically, both terms are interchangeable for most people in GDC. It doesn't help that later on, fans of Wei Wuxian emerge using actual demonic cultivation (using resentment harvested from living humans, or living humans that turned into demons) and can perform the same things he does, which further muddies the waters. This is also why the title of the story is what it is.
qi deviation
Other xianxia works also state that extreme emotional distress or shock can cause qi deviation, though that's not the case for GDC (even if it's a common meme in the fandom because our protagonist is a gremlin, there's a reason why the live action is called "The Untamed").
undead types
Walking corpses are the most basic undead, the shambling zombie in so many stories-- the only difference between GDC's walking corpses and zombies in other media is that they're not motivated by an instinct to eat brains. Or motivated by much, really. They might haul ass for blood, but their "hauling ass" isn't too threatening. Because of this, they're the easiest type of corpse for orthodox cultivators to defeat, and for demonic cultivators to control.
Fierce corpses are stronger and more ferocious than walking corpses due to their high amounts of resentment, which makes them ideal tools for demonic cultivators, but that also makes them difficult to defeat or control-- even one lapse in concentration can spell disaster for any cultivator. Because of the resentment, it's not unusual for a fierce corpse to act on the emotions that created that resentment in the first place, like attacking someone they wanted revenge on, or attempting to fulfill their final wish. Fierce corpses are also the ones that can regain their sentience by having their souls returned to them-- it's unknown if it's possible with the others, or if the high levels of resentment have something to do with the process.
Hopping corpses are the typical corpses seen in Chinese folklore and older Chinese media, also known as jiangshi. Because of their stiff limbs, they can only hop around, giving them their name. In GDC, they can only be created through corpse poisoning, an illness that develops when someone inhales the toxic blood or powder that a walking corpse emits when cut, or if they're wounded by a walking corpse. The illness acts quickly, but an easy non-cultivator remedy is glutinous rice, either by eating it as congee or applying the rice directly onto the wound.
Living corpses are created from humans who hadn't died yet, to avoid the stiff limbs and slow movement that the other types have. Some living corpses also don't realize that they're dead and act the way they did in life. It's said that a demonic cultivator (like, an actual one, not someone following the ghost path) first developed them, but the only one we ever see was created through corpse poisoning, so we don't know for sure what the actual process is.
Puppets are a live action-only concept-- depictions of undead are currently forbidden in Chinese media, so this is the live action's answer to the censorship. They have all the hallmarks of a fierce corpse, but have lost their souls and are still slightly alive rather than completely dead. They can't be returned to full health though, and are treated exactly like the novel's fierce corpses.
talismans & arrays
They are more accessible than the usual spells and skills of a cultivator, and to create one on the go, a cultivator just has to be able to have a lot of sheets of blank paper (or any surface that accepts ink or paint), and think fast and write faster. A large amount of spiritual qi on the cultivator's part isn't needed either-- and if Wei Wuxian's Yiling Patriarch days are any indication, it's likely that none is needed at all, perhaps there are talismans that can run on resentment. There's a talisman for almost anything, such as explosions, physical restraint, lighting, power suppression, and even teleportation. And if there's not, then either it will exist eventually, or there's an array instead.
Arrays, also known as spell formations, are large patterns and symbols written on the ground-- or the wall, or the ceiling, or even not written, but a collection of items arranged in a certain manner-- not unlike the magic circles that are common in fantasy media featuring Western magic. When activated, an array continuously casts whatever spell it was created for until either the lines of the array are ruined, or blood is spilled on it-- a common use for them is to create a spiritual barrier to protect whatever is inside... or contain it.