Genre guide
Xianxia Cdrama: Immortals, Reincarnation and Very Long Grudges
The high-fantasy shelf: flying swords, heavenly courts and love stories that survive death.
Xianxia is Chinese high fantasy. Its characters train to become immortals, live across multiple lifetimes and settle disputes that can last centuries. The genre borrows from Daoist and Buddhist ideas about cultivation and rebirth, then turns them into television: glowing energy, floating palaces, spirit beasts and a lot of tragic romance.
It is also the genre most likely to confuse a new viewer, because the vocabulary assumes knowledge. What is a tribulation? Why does everyone have three lives? Our cultural terms section answers those questions, but the guides below are written to work on their own.
Start with Love Between Fairy and Devil if you want something short and funny. The Untamed is the most famous and the most restrained. Ashes of Love and Eternal Love are the long, melodramatic classics. All four are available on licensed platforms in at least some regions.
Xianxia
Ashes of Love
A sheltered flower spirit, two heavenly brothers and a love that keeps being punished by the heavens.
Xianxia
Love Between Fairy and Devil
A low-ranking fairy and a sealed devil lord swap bodies, share a curse and accidentally become each other's only ally.
Xianxia
The Untamed
Two cultivators from rival clans, one war, and a bond that survived death and a very long flashback.
Xianxia
Eternal Love
A fox goddess, a heavenly prince and three lives of memory loss, betrayal and reunion.
2027
Jian Lai
Wu Lei leads a xianxia adaptation of a sprawling cultivation novel. Announced for 2027.
2027
Floating Life
A cup of tea links spirits across the Republic, Song, Tang and Warring States eras. Chen Zheyuan and Wang Churan star.
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Xianxia versus wuxia
Wuxia heroes are highly skilled humans; xianxia heroes are trying to stop being human. If a character can live for a thousand years, summon a heavenly army or reincarnate, you are in xianxia. If the story is about sects, honour and a recognisable historical China, you are in wuxia. Many dramas mix both, which is why the labels are argued about so often.