Highlights
- Korean manhwa like
Solo Leveling
are gaining popularity alongside Japanese manga. - Chinese manhua, like
The Ravages of Time
, offer unique adaptations of historical tales. - Danmei manhua, like
Heaven’s Official Blessing
, explore compelling romances between men in atypical situations.
Japanese comics, or manga, have been intriguing international audiences ever since anime began to explode in popularity as its own thing from the 1980s onward. Korean comics, manhwa, are catching up to them thanks to popular works like Solo Leveling, Noblesse, and more. However, China shouldn’t be counted out, as their own comics, manhua, are on the rise as well.
Like their Korean equivalents, manhua often turn up on the same digital platforms as web novels or webtoons, reaching broader audiences. Before then, curious readers might’ve come across oddities like the SVC: SNK Vs Capcom Chaos manhua in bookstores. Now, those readers can find a broader variety of manhua, and some of the biggest ones just happen to be historical tales.
10 A Lonesome Fragrance Waiting To Be Appreciated
Anime-Planet Score: 3.80/5 Stars
- Writer: Feng Nong
- Artist: Zi Gui
- Chapters: 12
- Fan Translations Only
Many of the most popular historical stories are romances. There’s something about the past that brings out the amorous side in people, even in times of war. A Lonesome Fragrance Waiting to be Appreciated, or Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang, sees Bai Pingting, a concubine under the Marquess of Jing’an, prove herself as a tactical genius, as her plans keep her land safe from the Kingdom of Jin.
Her wits see her treated like a queen, with many comparing her to other famous tacticians like Zhuge Liang. However, she ends up coming across her childhood love, Chu Beijie, who’s since become a general in the Kingdom of Jin’s army. Torn between her feelings and her country, her wits are tested as she tries to find a way to maintain her love in wartime. Based on Feng Nong’s original webnovel, it’s also inspired a TV drama series in The General and I.
9 Cicada Slave
Anime-Planet Score: 3.88/5 Stars
- Writer/Artist: Yy
- Chapters: 151
- Fan Translations Only
Historical tales are also fertile ground for fantasy stories, which isn’t surprising. Dungeons & Dragons, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, etc., really love the Dark Ages/Medieval European setting. For readers who prefer Asian-based historical fantasy tales like The Legend of Korra, they might enjoy Xian Chan Nu (Cicada Slave, based on a pet name for cats in ancient China), and not just for its use of folklore-ish figures.
Liu Shiqing is a young girl who longs for adventure. Her wish is granted when she is kidnaped by bandits, only to be rescued by a cat-person named Xian Chan Nu. Liu falls in love with them immediately, even after learning Xian is also a girl. In turn, Xian grows fonder and more protective of Liu. But falling in love is the easy part. Maintaining their love in a world of danger and despair is another matter entirely.
8 The Ravages Of Time
Anime-Planet Score: 3.94/5 Stars
- Writer/Artist: Chan Mou
- Chapters: 605+
- Fan Translations Only
One of the most popular periods in Chinese historical media is the fall of the Han Dynasty and rise of the Three Kingdoms, largely thanks to the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It affected the perception of its historical characters so much that many readers may be more familiar with the fiction than the reality, as the likes of Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Lü Bu weren’t quite the invincible superhumans the book makes them out to be.
The Ravages of Time is essentially another adaptation of the tale, but it changes things a bit. For everything familiar to RTK readers or Dynasty Warriors fans, there’s something altered. Most notably, Shu warrior Zhao Yun is now the leader of a group of disabled bandits, and his daring comes from his inability to feel pain. Dong Zhuo is a fearsome mountain of muscle rather than an overweight villain. While Lü Bu is a very different figure from the human monster seen in the Warriors games.
7 Biao Ren: Blades Of The Guardians
Anime-Planet: 3.96/5 Stars
- Writer/Artist: Xu Xian Zhe
- Chapters: 110+
- Fan Translations Only
If readers don’t like all the lovey-dovey stuff and want something with more action, they can check out Biao Ren: Blades of the Guardians. Like Lonesome Fragrance, it’s got a TV series adaptation on the way, alongside a movie. It’s already been turned into an award-winning donghua (Chinese cartoon), which is due to debut its second season sometime in 2024.
Set during the end of the Sui Dynasty, Daoma is a mercenary who, to pay back a friend for looking after him and his son, Xiao Qi, is sent out west to the capital of Chang’an. However, he ends up getting more than he bargained for. If the rakshasa and their victims don’t test Daoma’s blade, the tensions between ethnic groups will, as they threaten to boil over. What seemed like a simple journey could end up changing the world.
6 The Divine Physician
Anime-Planet Score: 4.02/5 Stars
- Writers: Ping Ping Jun, Yang Shi Lu
- Artist: Keai Bu Yu
- Chapters: 645+
- Fan Translations Only
Compared to the other entries, The Divine Physician takes place in the relatively modern Shun dynasty, which only lasted about two years before being succeeded by the Qing dynasty. It sees Feng Yuheng, a Marines officer and medical expert, being transported, isekai-style, from the 21st century to the Shun era, where she’s become the 2nd daughter of her ancestors, who are only noble in status.
While her ancestral counterpart took their abuse, she isn’t keen on that, and fights back with her old military and medical background. With her stern snark and confidence, she becomes the most popular figure in the dynasty, running her own hospital. She’s even popular with the emperor, although he wants her to marry his disfigured son, who has his own grand ambitions. Yuheng may end up becoming part of history in more ways than one.
5 Chronicles Of The God’s Order
Anime-Planet: 4.11/5 Stars
- Writer: Ziang Jian He
- Artists: Chi Fai Tang, Kin Wo Cheng
- Chapters: 182 (includes 2 sequel strips)
- Fan Translations Only
The fall of the Shang Dynasty, the oldest verifiable Chinese dynasty, to the Zhou has inspired a wide range of stories over the millennia since it happened. Legend says the cruelty of Emperor Di Xin led him to lose his divine authority, or ‘Mandate of Heaven’, to the Zhou state. Di Xin’s army defected to the opposing forces, forcing the emperor to commit suicide before they got to him. In his place, King Wu of Zhou took control and started the Western Zhou Dynasty.
That’s the (very) basic rundown, but Chronicles of the God’s Order (Feng Shen Ji) makes the Mandate of Heaven more literal. Now the emperor, renamed Zi Shou, deliberately shuns Heaven’s orders, determined to run the Shang regime his way. This makes Heaven favor his rival, King Wu of Zhou, who wages war against him with the gods on his side. It turns a military battle into a war between the mortal and the divine that should thrill fans of shōnen manga in particular.
4 A Journey To The Past
Anime-Planet Score: 4.15/5 Stars
- Writer/Artist: Vivibear
- Chapters: 203+
- Fan Translations Only
Isekai tales have been booming in manga, manhwa, and manhua for so long that it’s enough to burn someone out. Anyone who’s tired of the craze may prefer the time-traveling tale A Journey to the Past, where, instead of going back to one era or historical fantasy world for one adventure, Gong Yaoying travels to multiple periods in history to sort out people’s past lives.
It’s part of her job at the Lives of Past & Present Tea House, a place that only exists in dreams, and only pulls in clients fated to be there. They’ll explain their issue, then the teahouse’s agents will trace it back to one of their previous lives to sort it out at the root, giving them better karma in the future. Yaoying’s missions see her meeting various historical figures, alongside different spirits and entities in a surreal, shojo-esque adventure series.
3 Song Of The Long March
Anime-Planet Score: 4.32/5 Stars
- Writer/Artist: Xia Da
- Chapters: 61
- Fan Translations Only
Biao Ren: Blades of the Guardians saw how the Sui dynasty ended, and the Tang dynasty began. Song of the Long March (Chang Ge Xing) covers the Tang dynasty’s end 300 years later. Li Shimin rebelled against his brother, Crown Prince Yin, and killed his family to become Emperor Taizong. Except the manhua has his (fictional) daughter, Princess Yongning, escape while being declared dead.
Vowing to avenge her family, she changes her name to Li Chang Ge and lives as a man in Shou, where ‘he’ proves his worth as a strategist. She has trouble maintaining her male disguise, as she finds herself flitting between her original self and keeping up her masculine facade in order to overthrow her evil uncle. At first, she just wanted revenge, but as she learns more about the common folk, she begins to think more about the greater good.
2 The Grandmaster Of Demonic Cultivation
Anime-Planet Score: 4.41/5 Stars
- Writer: Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (MXTX)
- Artist: Luo Di Cheng Qiu
- Chapters: 259
- Available in English via: Seven Seas Entertainment
Some of the most popular manhuas are adaptations of danmei (boys’ love/yaoi) novels. The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation won the silver prize for Most Popular Webcomic Adaptation at the China Animation Golden Dragon Awards, and it became a New York Times Best Seller in the West, debuting at #9 on its charts.
It follows Wei Wuxian, a cultivator (magician) who was killed for using his skills to raise the dead. He finds himself reborn 13 years later as a man named Mo Xuanyu. With this new identity, he tries to operate in the background, but ends up joining his rival, Lan Wangji, to track down an evil entity. At first, it threatens to expose his true identity. Then, over time, it may reveal his growing feelings for his old foe.
1 Heaven’s Official Blessing
Anime-Planet Score: 4.45/5 Stars
- Writer: Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (MXTX)
- Artist: STARember
- Chapters: 101+
- Available in English via: Seven Seas Entertainment
The other New York Times’ best-selling danmei tale, Heaven’s Official Blessing, was also based on a novel by MXTX, and managed to receive a donghua adaptation as well. It saw the Crown Prince Xie Lian pass away, where his good deeds saw him almost reach Heaven before he was banished back down to the mortal realm. He got a second chance, only to be sent back again. By the time he finally made it into Heaven, he was considered a laughingstock.
Once there, however, he comes across Hua Cheng, ruler of ghosts and one of the Four Calamities, who induces fear in everyone else in the afterlife. He expresses an interest in the seemingly cursed Xie Lian and, unlike everyone else in Heaven, treats him with respect. As they grow closer, Xie Lian learns even the realm of the divine has secrets it would rather keep covered up.
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