Is martial arts the only thing that matters in a sect?

[tape]

Many sects have been founded with certain philosophies and virtues in mind aside from martial arts being its primary trait. The Beggar's Union are compromised of poor heroes, Shaolin is compromised of Buddhist followers, many sects are merely just regional badasses that bully their region while trying to craft a good reputation.

Despite all the differences in leadership ability, founding principles, or regional location, it seems that the ONLY thing that dictates whether a sect succeeds or not is if you have the most powerful/one of the most powerful people as your leader.

The Beggar's Sect numbered in the hundreds of thousands, but they quickly got demoted to a third rate sect in a short time span once they lost their Greats level fighters in Hong Qi Gong/ Huang Rong (Guo Jing).

Quanzhen became THE top sect of the martial world and of course they had Wang Chongyang.

Wudang only had a legacy of tens of years before they were equals and even surpassing the other great sects with hundreds of years of legacy.

Zuo Lengchan was the leader of the 5 Sword Alliance and had by far the most powerful sect, and of course he was the most powerful.

The Ming Sect flourished when they had Yang Dingtian and Zhang Wuji, both of whom were the most powerful active martial artist in their age.

Shaolin/Wudang/Sun Moon were the top 3 sects in SPW, and of course they happen to be the top 3 most powerful people.


Does the average sect joiner really care that much about belonging to a sect that houses the most powerful person, when they know they will never see them and never learn anything from them most likely ?

[Ian Liew]

I think it's generally believed that the sect with the most powerful head is also most likely to have the most chance of teaching you something really powerful (although by that analogy, all the other Foshan schools in Ip Man should have closed down once IP Man beat the bandit). If you had a free choice of schools, assuming you can only learn 50% of the school's skills, having the more powerful leader will normally translate into having the better martial arts yourself.

In SPW, Songshan disciples seemed to be more confident, arrogant, and probably more skilled than the Hengshan disciples they were bullying in Liu Zhengfeng's manor, although that might have been due to superior numbers, but despite all the liberties taken with Ms Liu it's telling that none of her martial brothers could protect her when she was being bullied. On the other hand, RWX made a point to criticise Chong Xu for not being able to produce a good Wudang disciple, meaning that, in general, it is expected that better leader skill usually translates into better pupil skill.

Occasionally the most powerful in the sect might choose not to take, or be overlooked for, leadership in the sect, so other qualities do matter, but the presence of a good fighter in the sect, even if it's not the zhangmen, will lend credibility to the sect. For example, in HSDS, until his fall from grace, Song Yuanqiao was anointed as the next head of Wudang, although Yu Lianzhou was generally recognised as the best fighter (although he did become zhangmen later). Zhao Zhijing was also the best fighter in Quanzhen's 3rd generation, but was overlooked for leadership due to his lack of good character. Chen Jialuo probably wasn't the best fighter in the Red Flower Society either, but that was different, since he was Yu Wanting's heir.