For a Kuei-jin, survival in the Middle Kingdom is a nightly battle. From the moment a Kuei-jin takes those first few steps on the Road Back, he must steel himself against continual threats: fanatical witch-hunters, enemies among his fellow shen, Yama Kings and their demon minions, and the seething parasite inside himself.
Since few Kuei-jin move beyond the stage of chih-mei, ones who do tend to cling to others around them for support, creatures who, like them, have endured the trial of rebith. This idea of natural mutual support among like-minded Kuei-jin ordains the primary level of social interactions and definition within Kuei-jin soceity. Kuei-jin organize themselves into groups of five (usually), traditionally called wu. A wu functions as a Kuei-jin's surrogate family during this second chance at existence. A grouping of five vampires (one from each direction) is considered the most auspicious and harmonious number for a wu; in the Fifth Age, however, many wu include more of fewer Kuei-jin.
In some ways, a Kuei-jin wu resembles a Sabbat pack, but wu are far more purposeful. The oldest wu, which have survived for centuries or even millennia, have illustrious histories, legends, traditions, and all manner of pomp and circumstance attached to them. These "Hundred Corpse Families" (there are traditionally 100 "original" wu, although the actual number is probably over 1,000) were supposedly founded millennia ago, as the Kuei-jin scattered throughout the Middle Kingdom. Their names and pictographs were recorded on the (now destroyed) jade pillars at Changan, and their alliances and feuds have shaped the course of Kuei-jin and mortal history.
Conversely, because of the ever-increasing number of Kuei-jin being reborn in the Fifth Age, many wu are ragtag bands of recently created vampires, hastily thrown together and given whatever duities the ancestors feel will keep them out of trouble. Many ancestors scorn these wu, though some elders feel that the new wu are keys to the Kuei-jin's survival and ultimate deliverance.
The coming together of a wu can take on a number of forms. Some wu are created spontaneously, through the convergence of fine lone Kuei-jin who share a primal bond with one another. This bond can rance from a spiritual connection around a single Dharma to a familial connection in the members' former lives. Wu centering on spiritual instruction in a particular Dharma sometimes consist of a jina and four disciples. Wu can also come about for more mundane reasons, including political and financial ones. The ancestors of the Blood, Bone and Flesh Courts, for example, are members of a wu that exists to maintain contact and mutual support among the Five August Courts. As evidenced by the recent state of the Quincunx, however, this form of wu is often the most tenuous.
Like any familial relationship, the wu is subject to life's (or unlife's) vagaries. Personality conflicts and power struggles exist as much among a group of five vampires as in a household of mother, father and three children of varying ages. Nerves fray, tensions build up and arguments ensure. The maintenance of a healthy interdependency among the Kuei-jin in any wu translates directly to its collective strength. A near-ironclad fealty exists among the members of a healthy wu. Kuei-jin who belong to such a close-knit group often perform tasks that go aboe and beyond the call of standard obligations, even going so far as to act as de facto protectors of their fellow Kuei-jin's surviving mortal families, if any still exists. In contrast, the deterioration of the wu relationship can result in the weakening of each Kuei-jin member, in both Dharmic progress and control over P'o.
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