Jun You Yun

Wuxia (武俠), which literally means "martial heroes", is a genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists in ancient China.

The heroes in wuxia fiction typically do not serve a lord, wield military power, or belong to the aristocratic class. They often originate from the lower social classes of ancient Chinese society. A code of chivalry usually requires wuxia heroes to right and redress wrongs, fight for righteousness, remove oppressors, and bring retribution for past misdeeds. Chinese xia traditions can be compared to martial codes from other cultures, such as the Japanese samurai bushido.

(Source: Wikipedia)

In contrast to Xianxia, Wuxia stories are based on real-life martial arts and cultivation of qi, which lead characters to have extraordinary strength. Xianxia on the other hand, is more fantastical and characters cultivate through Taoist practices.

Note: It is difficult to categorize Wuxia and Xianxia without haven't experienced the show, so there's likely some overlap or ambiguity in this Stack.

Part 2 here:
https://myanimelist.net/stacks/61193

Collection of all Wuxia and Martial Arts Donghua (only the first season entry)

Wuxia is all about Martial heroes/warriors in the Jianghu using martial arts and inner strength
There may be some fantasy elements, but those are fairly minimal compared to Xianxia/Xuanhuan

Best of the best (ongoing). I mostly watch wuxia/xianxia or historical shows so will be biased towards those genres.

To be frank, the bar in terms of good writing for donghua is very low, because most of the novels that have good writing are adapted for the much more profitable live-action drama industry. The target age demographic for donghua is also generally younger, which unfortunately often means simpler plots and pacing issues.

Even though I casually enjoy some "slop," this list only consists of titles that would be on par with the much more mature JP animation industry standards of character & plot writing, visuals, etc. I consider writing quality as slightly more important than visuals, so shows that have subpar animation but excellent writing will still make it onto this list.

Ranked from high to low... Each title represents its whole series/seasons (please start watching from the first season).
Future additions : Renegade Immortal , Perfect World , Shrouding the Heavens , One Hundred Thousand Years of Qi Refining , The Master of Diabolism , Tales of Herding Gods , A Will Eternal , My Senior Brother Is Too Steady , Ten Thousand Worlds , The Peak of True Martial Arts , Against The Sky Supreme , Legend of Deification.