Writing Creating own version of qi cultivation

[yinjenxie]

Hello, I have a story mixed with both mana and qi essence cultivation.

I still haven't explained the qi essence cultivation but I plan to do so in the next chapters. However, I am stuck between sticking to the traditional knowledge of qi cultivation (Taoism, Chinese traditional medicine, etc.), which I did research on, or create a unique version of it in my own story.

Will that be labeled as cultural appropriation or no?

 

[CheertheDead]

Hello, I have a story mixed with both mana and qi essence cultivation.

I still haven't explained the qi essence cultivation but I plan to do so in the next chapters. However, I am stuck between sticking to the traditional knowledge of qi cultivation (Taoism, Chinese traditional medicine, etc.), which I did research on, or create a unique version of it in my own story.

Will that be labeled as cultural appropriation or no?

Is there even any fiction out there that sticked to tradition? I thought they all invented their own version.

 

[Ai-chan]

Hello, I have a story mixed with both mana and qi essence cultivation.

I still haven't explained the qi essence cultivation but I plan to do so in the next chapters. However, I am stuck between sticking to the traditional knowledge of qi cultivation (Taoism, Chinese traditional medicine, etc.), which I did research on, or create a unique version of it in my own story.

Will that be labeled as cultural appropriation or no?

There will always be someone who complains. It's whether or not you care about it that matters. If you don't call it qi, nobody will complain, probably.

Heck, Ai-chan wants to complain now, but Ai-chan won't.

 

[ArcadiaBlade]

Both sides have pros and con, considering how you look at it.

On one hand, you can do the traditional way of writing qi off by using the source material provided but on the other hand it could be hard since you would be just copy pasting the works and put it on your own.

On the other hand, creating one from scratch isn't too bad as well and even making one gives uniqueness and originality that makes the system yours. However, it also proves a lot harder as you mostly rely on basically yourself to create a whole new system for yourself.

In the middle of that is between both sides as you took the source materials while providing originality to it, making it not only easy but also a bit unique to yourself. However, it might be easy in the long run, but as you continue on, it gets a lot harder to not only create uniqueness to it, it basically just a copy pasted version to the one you took from while also changing a few bits of lines just stictch there.

 

[ScholarOccultCauldron]

You can call it whatever you want, in fact kudos to you for trying something different. There are multiple stories out there with the energy of the universe being called multiple things (mana, energy, qi, prana, chakra, etc) so people wouldn't really care if you decide to use the same system but with different terms to fit that cultivation model.

 

[LinXueLian]

Idk about cultural appropriation. I'm Chinese myself, I make up whatever I want, and I don't really care what other people make up about cultivation. Your story, your world, your thing. I'm pretty sure most of us make up medicine and herbs very conveniently. I've created more than five kinds of herbal viagra for cultivators.... wait, forget I said that

I think as long as you make it easy for your readers to follow and understand it (like have a chart or something they can look at) it should be fine. As a reader I don't want to go, "HUH? WHAT THIS STAGE?" then find no sheet I can refer to for that stage

EDIT: But if it's sexy sexy stuff I don't care about stages... I just jump straight to the XXX heheheheheheheeee

 

[BenJepheneT]

I think as long as you make it easy for your readers to follow and understand it (like have a chart or something they can look at) it should be fine. As a reader I don't want to go, "HUH? WHAT THIS STAGE?" then find no sheet I can refer to for that stage

shit ton of manhwas with this issue. i'd be reading a chapter or two before going "wait isn't this guy heavenly stage?"

it wouldn't even be three chapters ahead before I go "what the fuck is a heavenly JADE stage? and when was the black dragon core stage established?"

 

[LinXueLian]

shit ton of manhwas with this issue. i'd be reading a chapter or two before going "wait isn't this guy heavenly stage?"

it wouldn't even be three chapters ahead before I go "what the fuck is a heavenly JADE stage? and when was the black dragon core stage established?"

In short nobody really cares about which stage is called what. Huge fancy names to show how OP the MC is lol

Only know this: MC is powerful. Whatever the stage is called, he's powerful. Also, all the beauties or little brothers in the same stage or higher can't fight him very well. Did I mention his Black Dragon Core can outdo Heavenly Golden Jade Qilin Core? Already killed five different cultivators of that stage right there!

 

[K5Rakitan]

Do you.

 

[Jemini]

If it's just a question of what to call it? I agree with most of the people here. You do you.

If it's a question about tips on designing your cultivation system and how to develop it with your world building, my advice is to not just make it a part of your power system. Find a way to make it incorporate into your entire world building. In the system I created, it is energy of the spirit, also called "spirit energy." It has the property of reacting to thought and belief.

I have developed the energy that feeds the cultivators from a top-down approach, starting with heaven. The reason you can get anything you want in heaven is because heaven is literally made of spirit energy, which means a simple thought in that realm warps reality to make it conform to your thought.

Spirit energy is also the reason elves exist in my world, as well as fairies and other things. All the creatures designated as "fey" are a consequence of humans unwittingly creating them from spirit energy.

In short, the cultivation energy in my world is not just an excuse to make people stronger. It is a fundamental building block of the world, and has several consequences that reach far beyond the act of cultivation. I did not write a cultivation novel to write a cultivation novel. I decided to write a fantasy story, and as I was going through the world building and it was starting to shape up I decided that making it a cultivation world was what fit this world building the best.

That... is probably a bit of a different approach to a cultivation world story, and I will admit mine certainly does not feel at all like your typical cultivation world story, but I also think it is good advice to incorporate something like the energy that's used to make it do more things than just make characters stronger.

 

[Deleted member 45782]

You can call it whatever you want, in fact kudos to you for trying something different. There are multiple stories out there with the energy of the universe being called multiple things (mana, energy, qi, prana, chakra, etc) so people wouldn't really care if you decide to use the same system but with different terms to fit that cultivation model.

Yup agree.