#CANON jiang cheng

[elaichichais-blog]

When people start to realise that Jiang Cheng’s character arc is not about redemption but about survival is when we’ll progress as a society.

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

The Misconception of Fandom and Saying Jiang Cheng is a "Good Uncle" and Jin Ling's Initiative to Begin Thinking for Himself

1. Jiang Cheng does not care to exhibit good ethics for Jin Ling and is the one to have set up nets, threatens and intimidates to impede fellow hunters at Dafan Mountain just so Jin Ling can "win":

He didn’t expect the journey to be this unlucky. Originally, he came to help Jin Ling out. Jin Ling would be turning fifteen this year, the age of which he should already be making his debut and starting to compete with the juniors of other clans. Jiang Cheng considered the decision carefully before choosing Dafan Mountain as the location of the hunt. He also set up nets everywhere and threatened the cultivators of other clans, showing them the consequences so that they would retreat, in order to let Jin Ling take the top prize without anyone fighting against him.

Although four hundred deity-binding nets were a whopping price, it wasn’t too much for the YunmengJiang Sect. Nonetheless, losing the nets were a small matter, but losing face was not. With Lan WangJi’s actions, Jiang Cheng felt a whirlpool of anger at the bottom of his heart, rising higher by every second. He narrowed his eyes, his left hand casually stroking the ring on his right hand’s index finger.

(ExR)

2. Jiang Cheng does give Jin Ling ultimatums to curry his favor just as Madam Yu did with him with impossible expectations:

Why are you still standing there? Waiting for the prey to come and throw itself onto your sword? If, today, you don’t catch the creature hunting Dafan Mountain, don’t come to me ever again!”

(ExR)

3.Jin Ling was never shown affection by Jiang Cheng and never described in softer terms by Jin Ling and is noted in novel to show any goodwill and what "happiness" he expresses is violent:

Jin Ling stood on the side, seeming as if he wanted to say a few things, but was too shocked to do so. Jiang Cheng glowered at him, “I’ll take care of you later. Stay here!”

From the beginning of his memory until now, Jin Ling had never seen such a look on Jiang Cheng’s face before: This uncle of his who led the prominent YunmengJiang Sect ever since a young age had always been cold and dark. When he spoke, he was willing to neither show mercy nor do good. Yet, right now, although he was trying hard to suppress unnecessary facial expressions, his eyes were alarmingly intense.

Although his face had always been clouded, marked with arrogance and satire, it seemed as if every corner of it had come alive. It was difficult to determine whether it was vengeful wrath, fathomless hatred, or raving ecstasy.

(ExR)

4. Jiang Cheng has no positive interest in Fairy other than to use a dog to emotionally distress Wei Wuxian and Jin Ling himself is hesitant about this until he is intimidated by Jiang Cheng:

Jiang Cheng added, “Lend me your dog.”

Jin Ling pulled himself out of the daze. He hesitated for a moment and only whistled after Jiang Cheng shot him two lightning-sharp beams from his eyes. The dog dashed over in just a few leaps. Wei WuXian, body as stiff as an iron board, could only be dragged forward, walking one step at a time.

(ExR)

5: Jin Ling is aware of Jiang Cheng torturing and killing people based on his paranoia and proceeds to help Wei Wuxian escape due to his own dislike of needless killings beginning to show, regardless of his opinion on "Mo Xuanyu":

Jin Ling, “It’s not the first time my uncle did such a thing. He has never let any of them go, even if it was possible that he caught the wrong ones. But, if Zidian couldn’t draw out your spirit, I’m just gonna trust that you’re not.

(ExR)

6. Due to his involvement with letting Wei Wuxian escape Jin Ling is pulled into the case of Yi City when he was traveling alone to Lanling Jin, and to the safety of his other Uncle as he knew Jiang Cheng would be volatile and didn't want to be faced alone with him at any point and relies on Jin Guanyao's reputation of being kjown for conflict management to deter Jiang Cheng's attentions:

Jin Ling followed Jin GuangYao out here. He still didn’t dare meet Jiang Cheng alone. Hiding behind Jin GuangYao’s back, he mumbled, “Uncle.”

Jiang Cheng replied harshly, “So you still know that I’m your uncle!”

Jin Ling quickly tugged at the back hems of Jin GuangYao’s robe. Jin GuangYao seemed as though he had been born to resolve conflicts, “Now, Sect Leader Jiang, A-Ling realized his mistake a long time ago. During the past few days, he’s been so scared you’d punish him that he hasn’t even been eating well. Children just like to make mischief. I know you love him the most. Let’s not bother him about it so much.”

(ExR)

7. Again, Jiang Cheng does not show active care for Jin Ling, who wants confirmation that he is cared for when the threat of corpses is on them during the second siege of the Burial Mounds:

A few sect leaders clutched onto their sons, cautioning them, “When the corpses rush inside all at once, protect yourself and try to get out. Stay alive no matter what! You understand?!”

As Jin Ling heard this, he felt himself cringe, but somewhere deep down he hoped that his uncle would say something similar as well. He waited for a while, but nothing came from Jiang Cheng, so he couldn’t help but glare at him. He glared for too long, and Jiang Cheng finally turned to him.

He seemed a bit less gloomy, but he frowned,

"What’s wrong with your eyes?”

“…” Jin Ling was quite annoyed, “Nothing!”

8. Which then extends to Jin Ling joining the other juniors, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji in fending off corpses, despite Jiang Cheng trying to hand him Zidian, Jin Ling takes the initiative to protect not only himself but the others desperate to survive the attack at the front of the cave:

1.

Jin Ling had never seen so many fierce corpses before, much less at such a close distance. He could feel his scalp tingle, clenching the sword hilt of Suihua. Yet, suddenly, his fist was peeled open, and a cold object was stuffed inside. He looked down in surprise, “Uncle?”

Jiang Cheng propped himself up with Sandu, which had lost its spiritual energy. His figure wavered slightly, "Try losing Zidian and see what happens!”

2.

Lan SiZhui was wielding his blade swiftly when he heard a loud clang from behind him. Somebody blocked an attack that came for his back.

Lan SiZhui exclaimed, “Young Master Jin, why are you here too?”

When Jin Ling saw that all of the people around his age had rushed over, he couldn’t hold himself back either. When Jiang Cheng was unaware, he stuffed Zidian’s ring back into his hand and sprinted toward the crowd, all the way up to the most dangerous area before the mouth of the cave.

The most attentive Jiang Cheng can be said to be is when he leads Jin Ling into their boat cabin, yet what he says is only another veiled insult to a child in retaliation and potentially veiled threats:

Jiang Cheng lowered his chin slightly, “Sect Leader OuYang.”

Having been named, Sect Leader OuYang could feel his eyelids throb the way his heart did. He heard Jiang Cheng icily continue, “If I remember correctly, the one who spoke is your son, isn’t he? He sure has a silver tongue.”

Sect Leader OuYang hurried, “ZiZhen! Come back, come over to Dad!”

OuYang ZiZhen was confused, “Dad, weren’t you the one who told me to get on this boat so that I didn’t annoy you guys?”

Sect Leader OuYang wiped at a few beads of sweat, “Enough! Haven’t you shown off enough times today? Come here right now!” His sect was located at Baling, close to Yunmeng but incomparable in power. Naturally, he didn’t want Jiang Cheng to bear a grudge against his son just because he spoke up a couple of times for Wei WuXian.

Jiang Cheng glared at Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi one last time before he returned to the cabin, arm wrapped around Jin Ling’s shoulders. Sect Leader OuYang sighed in relief.

(ExR)

This later all culminates to Jin Ling yelling at Jiang Cheng for chasing off Wei Wuxian once again and leads Jin Ling to try finding Wei Wuxian to speak with him once more leading to Guanyin Temple's confrontation and Jin Ling in the difficult position of turmoil of hate but not wanting to act upon the violence that has been instilled as righteously just to exhibit because it does not make him feel any better or avenged, and ironically is made to learn the lesson Wei Wuxian, learned from Wen Qing of the family hated of the Jianghu, had first told him when he had saved him from Jiang Cheng's torture:

Wei WuXian put his hands behind his back and walked over, “Young man, there are two cringe worthy phrases in one’s life that must be said, no matter what.”

Jin Ling asked, “Which two?”

Wei WuXian replied, “‘Thank you’, and ‘I’m sorry’.”

(ExR)

[lavender-phoenix-flames]

"People deal with trauma differently"

I read a quote by a psychologist the other day, it was:

"Trauma explains people's actions, it doesn't justify said actions"

I think more people need to hear this, yall sound absurd when you say "his mistreatment of jin ling stems from his sufferings etc" first of all, this isn't a defense at all and he isn't any more traumatized than the other characters on the show, his sufferings doesn't fucking justify him slapping jl to the ground. Also your refusal to admit his behavior as abusive is very telling.

And no one is here to condemn the existence of abusive and complex characters like jiang cheng, we are pointing out his bad behavior and toxic patterns and we don't need his stans going "people hate complex characters everyone needs to be an angel these days" that's not the case at all, trauma doesn't justify his actions and hating him is reasonable.

Infact, we need characters like him to appreciate kind, brave, righteous, selfless and good hearted characters like wen ning, wei wuxian, wen qing and lan wangji, who went through the horribly traumatic situations and didn't turn evil or took on toxic behaviors. You don't know how hard it is to stay kind through all adversity, jc is weak willed, spineless fool and him not taking a stand for innocent wens is his cowardice, false hatred and lack of respect for people who risked so much for him, his clan and his own pathetic existence, his hate of wwx is cuz his unreasonable jealousy and envy.

Jc deserves all the hate he gets, if jc stans can't love him for the loser, pathetic asshole he is then it is not my problem. Stop posting baseless shit to justify him in canon jc tag.

[halenhusky309]

We are not going to do the "MXTX only wrote morally grey characters in her novel" nonsense in 2025, just because you wanted your fave side characters look less horrible by bringing down the main characters to their levels...

You can't force me to accept Wei Wuxian fighting against a bunch of Cultivators to protect Wens Renmants from needless cruel share the same moral stance as Jiang Cheng going along with Cultivation World to masacre Wens Renmants under the name of collective punishment.

[the-worst-jiujiu]

I still laugh about that "JC accurately predicted the cultivation world would turn against WWX" bullshit someone posted.

I'll be pouring my morning coffee and start giggling about it. Wiping my arse after a crap and having a chuckle. Sniggering last thing at night before I go to bed... Then setting my alarm for my 7am wake-up call, just so I can laugh at it for a solid hour before I start my day all over again. I'm joking of course, but fuck me this is ridiculous.

Honestly, it is the most hilarious thing I've ever heard. "Accurately predicted?!" 🤣 Warning someone that shit is going to hit the fan and then literally picking it up and throwing said shit at a fan is not "predicting" anything - it's a fucking warning mate! 🤣

Are people really this dumb?

[wittytrixter]

Sometimes I feel crazy coming in here. Do people not get that Jiang Cheng was literally unwilling to live with the consequences of protecting Wei Wuxian? Like... that's the whole point of his golden core loss. Wei Wuxian is willing to live with the consequences (and thus hands his over, in part because he felt indebted to Jiang Cheng's parents), but they were never supposed to be his to bear.

Anyway, Wen Qing is an absolute delight. Not only was she willing to share Wei Wuxian's burdens before she sacrificed her life to keep him safe, my girl was also very supportive of Wei Wuxian's homoerotic encounter with the love of his life--clocking the entire thing in literally 30 seconds flat. Why?

Because she cared for who Wei Wuxian was and *wanted to be*.

[dephoraowo]

Here are some more:

Jiang Cheng torturing and killing people is just a rumour.

Jiang Cheng never cared about his own reputation.

Jiang Cheng was right during the Ancestral Hall scene, and Wangxian was in the wrong. (+ this.)

Jiang Cheng is female coded.

Jiang Cheng was never abusive to Jin Ling.

Others:

This is more of a complaint about Jiang Cheng’s horrible characterization in fanfics, I'm putting it here because I resonate with what they said.

This is an explanation on why there are two tags for Jiang Cheng (#jiang cheng and #canon jiang cheng).

Jiang Cheng and a List of his Fanon Tropes

I don't know how this happened in the mdzs fandom. But the majority of the fandom somehow screwed up Jiang Cheng's characterization completely. Was this because of the Untamed? I ain't sure. But I am here to help all of you see which ones are fanon and which ones are canon.

List of Fanon Tropes:

Jiang Cheng loves and considers Wei Wuxian as his brother. (+ this, this, this, this.)

Jiang Cheng is a good clan leader. (+ this, this.)

Jiang Cheng is as powerful as Lan Wangji. (+ this.)

Jiang Cheng is a good jiujiu to Jin Ling and has never abused him before. (+ this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this.)

Jiang Cheng has a soft heart.

Jiang Cheng tortured and killed demonic cultivators for 13 years to protect other people.

Jiang Cheng never meant to hurt / kill Wei Wuxian. (+ this.)

Jiang Cheng never mattered to / was not favoured / was ignored by Jiang Fengmian. (+ this.)

Jiang Cheng wasn't allowed consent during the transfer. (+ this, this, this, this, this.)

Jiang Cheng's clan was weak after the war. (+ this.)

Jiang Cheng respected Wei Wuxian as an equal.

Jiang Cheng is good at politics.

Jiang Cheng is good with the ladies. (+ this, this.)

Jiang Cheng is a good clan leader who cares about his people.

Jiang Cheng didn't use Jiang Yanli as a bargaining chip. (+ this, this.)

Jiang Cheng is not homophobic. (+ this, this, this, this, this, this.)

Jiang Cheng never tortured Wei Wuxian with a dog. (+ this.)

Jiang Cheng was right during the Ancestral Hall scene. (+ this, this.)

Jiang Cheng cares about Jiang Yanli over his thirst for revenge.

Jiang Cheng distracted the Wens purely out of love for Wei Wuxian.

Jiang Cheng kept Chenqing because he missed Wei Wuxian. (+ this.)

Jiang Cheng rebuilt Lotus Pier / recruited disciples all on his own / raised Jin Ling all on his own / spends his time helping the people in Yunmeng.

Jiang Cheng isn't responsible for Wei Wuxian's death. (+ this.)

Jiang Cheng would be a good uncle to A-Yuan. (+ this, this.)

Jiang Cheng kept Wei Wuxian's living quarters in Lotus Pier.

Jiang Cheng was thought to be the gong early on when mdzs was first published. (+ this, this.)

Jiang Cheng prioritises his own clan over helping Wei Wuxian save the Wen remnants. (+ this, this, this.)

Jiang Cheng didn't know the Wen remnants were civilians. (+ this.)

Jiang Cheng never wanted Jin Zixuan to die.

Jiang Cheng grew out of the cycle of abuse.

Jiang Cheng matured over the years.

Jiang Cheng wasn't that bad since he managed to survive until the end of the novel. (+ this.)

Jiang Cheng never suspected Wei Wuxian's feelings for Lan Wangji. (+ this, this.)

Jiang Cheng is a hero. (+ this.)

Jiang Cheng's sacrifice for Wei Wuxian was meant to tell readers that Jiang Cheng loved Wei Wuxian after all.

Jiang Cheng often cared for Wei Wuxian very well.

Jiang Cheng declaring Wei Wuxian as enemy of the cultivation world wasn't meant to be emphasized.

Jiang Cheng was a helpless clan leader who always wanted to help Wei Wuxian but was forced to hurt him.

Jiang Cheng would have helped or understood Wei Wuxian if Wei Wuxian stopped keeping secrets from him.

Jiang Cheng wanted to protect Wei Wuxian, but he and his clan were too weak, or they were being threatened. (+ this.)

Jiang Cheng wanted Wen Ning dead because he wanted justice for his family and clan.

Jiang Cheng never tortured and killed people for 13 years.

Jiang Cheng acknowledges his own debts.

Jiang Cheng is a powerful cultivator.

Jiang Cheng stabbing Wei Wuxian in the gut was part of the agreed upon duel.

All of these posts do not belong to me! Please support the actual people who posted these wonderful metas and analyses. If there's anything I missed, please do tell! There's still quite some more I haven't listed down, but I've reached the limit of links for this post. I will post more in a reblog below this one 😊.

[domjiangcheng]

The definitive, color-coded flowchart guide to Jin Ling's many uncles.

[the-wind-sings-quietly]

[randomness-is-my-order]

while i’m on the topic, it is very hilarious and also very insightful that mxtx actually plainly tells us how anyone else except wei wuxian would have fared without their golden cores/spiritual powers by putting thousand-plus cultivators in exactly that situation during the second siege. the way they all absolutely lose their shit, fumble around, lose coherence of thought, see-saw between decisions and become, essentially, helpless and useless is eye-opening. hell, jiang cheng ends up so affected that jin ling is able to manhandle him into the cave. the cultivators from the biggest clans aren’t able to come up with anything to save their asses and it takes shizui to point out the array for them to even consider it as an option. if wei wuxian, lan wangji and the juniors weren’t there, sooooo many disciples would have lost their lives–simply because of how incompetent they collectively became once they lost their spiritual powers. if they made a coordinated effort, they could have still held the corpses off, but it’s just that... they weren’t able to, mentally, get past their sudden lack of powers. they were disoriented.

now, i’m not saying that this isn’t a normal reaction to have. it’s totally understandable how these people were huge messes, especially in such a high stakes situation. it is just that it puts into perspective how AWESOME wei wuxian is to have had his golden core cut out of him, voluntarily, then beaten within a micrometre of his life, then thrown straight into the hell on earth aka the burial mounds and then instead of succumbing instantly, he instead overcame these impossible circumstances and somehow, survived and found alternative powers to keep him going. that is nothing short of mind-boggling, awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping. not one person in that siege-laying populace would be able to accomplish that and it held some of the finest cultivators their world has to offer. because no one, other than wei wuxian, had the internal capabilities to build their strengths up from a source that wasn’t their spiritual powers. without their golden cores, they would be toast faster than a human within one kilometre of the sun’s radius. and i love love love how mxtx hits us with this fact in our faces in exactly the scenes that are all about undoing the falsehoods and allegations that wei wuxian, until then, had been levied with in the larger cultivation world’s perspective.

[elaichichais-blog]

Dropping this here as a reminder

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

@halenhusky309 I cheer each and every time someone says fuck Yunmeng Bros reconciliation. Because it's not about Wei Wuxian having a better life, Jiang Cheng never made his life better or helped to make it a worthwhile friendship. It was all put upon Wei Wuxian to be "the good friend" and he is still made out to be as a part of the problem for Jiang Cheng. Reconciliation isn't for Wei Wuxian to be loved and cherished (he already has that with Lan Wangji his chosen husband, Lan Sizhui who is part of Lan Wangji's family, and Jin Ling, the one who was a part of Jiang Yanli who he actually thought of as a sibling and the one part of Yunmeng Jiang he thinks of fondly).

Reconciliation isn't for Jiang Cheng who has no right to it, but fans find his end sad and think he was short ended. You cannot be short ended when you actively alienate yourself from the one friendship someone tried to put effort in, and friendship is a two way street. Jiang Cheng never wanted to meet compromise and understanding because he feels entitled to be loved while offering nothing but vitriol. He doesn't need to love anyone but he sure expects love and loyalty. Wei Wuxian wanted no part in feeding that because he was tired and Jiang Cheng is too self-centered to think outside of himself and that's why they ended where they did. You cannot have "reconciliation" when your moral worldview is so diametrically opposed and you don't even like each other and what kept you together is when one puts "You owe me" over the individuality of another's morals that are who he is.

[lavender-phoenix-flames]

Imagine calling a man who is blacklisted by women "female coded"

[purpleblch]

[sonik-kun]

Jiang Cheng being described as a "sentimental fool" is perhaps one of the only rumours confirmed to be true about him. The condition Chenqing had been kept in, well cleaned, in working condition and carried on his person is a testament of that.

We see that in the scenes prior that Jiang Cheng cherises his belongings that he values and cares deeply for (he is noted to clean his sword regularly, a valued possession of his, clearly). Chenqing, giving its sentimental value and who it belonged to, was thus also a cherished item of his.

Jiang Cheng really is all bark and no bite. And Wei Wuxian was wrong to assume that he vehemently hated him all these years. His feelings towards Wei Wuxian were complicated but despite all the talk and all the rumours, we can infer from this piece of evidence that he truly didn't hate Wei Wuxian. The condition Chenqing was kept in is proof of that and I believe that was what MXTX was trying to convey when she included this fine detail.

[pleasegivejinlingabreak]

apparently a lot of ppl havent seen this official art so!!!